Corporate Team

Corporate teams are a great way to get involved, see your colleagues out of the office and be seen to support a great cause. Your team will be representing their company, why not ask for their support?

Ask your organisation for their support

Talk to HR or your employer and organise an appointment to present the opportunity for your organisation to support the company team and their hardworking employees. They can support you in a number of ways:

Payment of the employees entry fees for the event (we can organise a bulk team payment)
Payment of company branded merchandise
Matched funding or a company donation towards the teams fundraising
A sponsored team site for you and the team at the finish

Be professional! If you make a business proposal to justify their involvement then they can't say no!

Benefits to the organisation

There are many benefits to the organisation in sponsoring the company team in the Gong Ride. The main benefit is to show that they value and appreciate their employees and support them out of the office also.

If that does not work then remind them of other benefits:

Company recognition

Company logo on the merchandise (as big and bold as they like - if they pay).
Company name will appear on the team webpage - 'representing'
Company logo can be uploaded on the team web page, you now have room to add a whole gallery of photos!
If they match fund we will mention this in our marketing email (sent to 10,000 riders).
The more you fundraise the higher you are on the fundraising leaderboard - the top 5 teams will appear on every team page on the website for the duration of the event.
We will come out and publicly thank them for their involvement with certificates, trophies etc.

Staff involvement

Staff involved in the event on the day (the team members)
Many teams have a company support crew at the finish (in the company sponsored marquee)
Staff involved in the design of the jersey (competition)
Put a note on the Intranet / newsletter with the team fundraising goal and ask staff to support the company team (letting them know the company will match the donation would be fantastic!)
Staff involvement in running a fundraising event (or simply their attendance) in the lead up to the event.
Ask all staff to get involved in the event by adding the team name and web page link to their auto signature and make it an organisational goal to raise a certain amount.

In the past we have seen tremendous support coming from different departments, floors, groups etc for corporate teams. They have run simple events (mufti days, raffles etc) to the more painful ones by volunteering their legs for a 'wax-off' ($5 donation).

Clients and suppliers

Ask your clients and suppliers to join you for the day and use the event as a 'get to know you' exercise out of the office. You will be surprised how many of them cycle or how many are willing to support your team by making a donation as you support people with MS.

One team last year auctioned space on their jersey to their suppliers and their company logos, Gareth Davidson from the Cyclopaths (Sanofi-Aventis) wrote:

"We auctioned off 'advertising space' to our company's suppliers in return for a fundraising donation. We held a silent auction and asked for bids starting from $100, with the best & biggest spots of prime lycra advertising space going to the highest bids. We even said that for the right donation we would knock off our company logo and replace it with the sponsor with the biggest donation!

From about 8 suppliers we had 6 respondents, and have raised $1,850 with bids ranging from $100 to $1,000, but every cent counts.

It's a really simple way of raising money, and everyone wins. Most companies will find that their suppliers - i.e. the companies that they spend money with - will be quite happy to partner with them, make a donation, and get some advertising at the same time.

So there's my idea. From one email to our suppliers, and then a bit of work to coordinate getting their logos on our jerseys I've raised almost $2,000 without trying."