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Dragon Boating offers unparalleled marketing opportunities for charities looking to make new corporate connections because of the benefits dragon boat racing offers. Here are five reasons to mention when speaking to an existing or prospective new corporate client:
- Corporate team building: As a team building activity, dragon boating is ideal because no previous experience is necessary and because of its suitability for staff of all ages
- Progressive: Dragon Boating is quick to pick up and progressive in nature, requiring individuals to come together and gel as a team in a highly competitive environment
- Improvement opportunities: By competing in qualifying heats, teams are able to analyse each race, compare their results and identify opportunities for improvement
- Head-to-Head races: The Manchester Charity Dragon Boat Challenge is ideal for a corporate client with either departments or branches. The event offers a Head-to-Head race capability where for any organisation able to enter two or more teams, their teams will be seeded so they do not meet until the final qualifying heat. This means heat’s 1 & 2 then become practice races before ‘the BIG one’ in heat three. Even better, in the event we are 3-boat racing and only two teams were entered, your Head-to-Head teams will race in lanes 1 & 2 for best photo opportunities
- More, for Less: Dragon Boating offers corporate team building benefits at charity rates and is ideal for promoting healthy inter-department / branch rivalry
Team Recruitment Strategies TOP
Our experience with dragon boat charity events throughout the UK show there are actually three team recruitment strategies used by charities.
- Under selling
- Selling at cost
- Over selling
Which of the above recruitment strategies you chose to adopt will depend on your target market.
Under Selling
This strategy is ideal for a charity that has a mix of corporate and community supporters. The team entry price is reduced so as to make team entries more attractive to supporters who otherwise may not be able to afford the market rate. In return, the team fund raising target is increased to make up for the price reduction.
With this strategy, you need to ensure in your team entry T&C's there is a commitment to the team fund raising target* so people don't take advantage of the low entry price and leave you out of pocket. Not surprisingly, this strategy can result in many more entries than via the other two routes and is the best route to use for any charity looking for an annual flagship event of their own. There are now a number of events in the UK who have now been able to move to holding their own charity dragon boat challenge because of having the teams needed to make their own event viable.
Selling at cost
This is the way most teams enter events in the UK. Each team pays the advertised team entry fee and then raises money for their team's charity. The suggested fund raising target* of £1,000 per team is very achievable as for a team of 17 people, it works out at less than £60 raised per person.
Over selling
This is a strategy used by charities with large corporate clients.
Example - The 2015 Great Ormond Street Hospital OSCAR event:
In their event was 22 teams and from this event, just over £185,000 was raised!
The annual OSCAR event (The Ocean and Shipping Community Advancing Children's Health and Research) is an innovative fundraising partnership uniting the international shipping community. These companies (whether shipping or insurance) are multi Billion Pound companies for who a team entry price of between £5,000 and £10,000 per team is simply part of their C.S.R. obligations.
From the team entry fee, a deduction is made by the charity for the event's costs and the rest is retained as a donation.
*Fund raising target. As the event organiser, we can only suggest a team fundraising target but have no means to enforce. As a Charity Partner who deals with teams direct, you can write into your T&C's of entry, a fund raising commitment that teams must reach.
As a Charity Partner with this event, you will be given a text to use in your T&C's to ensure those teams entering to support you then honour their fundraising commitment (or if they try to withdraw last minute without paying, their entry price).
Why Partner with the Manchester Charity Dragon Boat Challenge TOP
Charity Dragon Boat Festivals is an established brand that in 2024, will be twenty years old, As a Charity Partner with the Manchester Charity Dragon Boat Challenge, you will be able to enjoy the benefits a major dragon boat event (now the largest dragon boat event ever held in Manchester) at a fraction of the price, time and risk required to organise your own event.
As a Charity Partner, you would be able to adopt the team entry strategy that suits you best and use our help to make this event, your event.
Charity Partner Benefits TOP
- Your charity will have free promotion via the banners we place on the event page
- You will be able to purchase your initial team places in advance at a discounted rate
- Purchasing your team places in advance allows you to concentrate on relationship building in the knowledge that you have availability for the teams that then want to enter
- You will have guaranteed reserved parking in the Water Sports Centre car park for two vehicles
- You will be able to bring and erect your own charity marquee along with your promotional flags & banners in order to maximise the opportunity to promote your charity and make our event, your own.
To see more about the Manchester Charity Dragon Boat Challenge, please visit either
Manchester 2022 or Manchester 2023