If you, or a group of you, are planning to swim the length of the English Channel in your local swimming pool use the ideas below to get friends and family to sponsor you.  Together you will be raising money for a great cause and helping to bring an end to spiritual poverty around the world.

1. Set a fundraising goal of say £200 or more and put together a small plan to determine how to reach your goal.
   
2. Have a brainstorming session with your or family friends asking them for suggestions on what you can do to raise the money. 
   
3. Challenge friends from your church or home group to join you in swimming the length of the English Channel in your local pool. If you do this you might want to review the fundraising goal and increase it based on the numbers of people involved.
   
4. Begin to promote the swimming challenge by sending emails to your friends and family asking them to sponsor you. Click here to download a sample email and sponsorship forms.
   
5. Ask family and friends directly to sponsor you – ask them for specific donations of £10 or ask them to donate 5 pence towards each length you complete.
   
6. Make sure that your first pledges and donations from family and friends are reasonable in size. Hopefully this way other people will follow their example.
   
7. Ask your home group to come up with some ideas for small events and enrol their help for making these events happen.
   
8. Update your facebook status and other social networking profiles you might have to let friends and colleagues know about the challenge and invite their support.
   
9. Post photos of your training, share with friends what you are learning from the swimming training.
   
10. Organise a few fun events, parties, barbeques, cake and jam sales, car washes, quiz nights, etc. Sell tickets for these events or ask those attending them to make donations towards your sponsored challenge. 
    
11. Ask family members to collect sponsorship on your behalf. Give them a simple sponsorship form them can pass on to their friends too. 
    
12. Make sure to use a Gift Aid form - when being sponsored, get all your friends and family to tick YES to Gift Aid so an extra 28p per pound can be donated from the Government. Click here to download a Gift Aid form. Remember that for Gift Aid to be claimed full address details are needed.