Marathon Month FAQs
What, Where, When?
Perennial’s Marathon Month challenges you to complete 26.2 miles in June to raise money for people in the horticulture industry.
You don’t have to run, you can walk, but we encourage you to do whatever is challenging for you as this will inspire more people to sponsor you.
If you are a wheelchair user, you can still complete 26.2 miles in whatever way challenges you.
You can complete the challenge anywhere you like between 1-30 June.
Can I only do Perennial’s Marathon Month in June?
Yes, you will only be able to officially participate in our Marathon Month in June, however if you would like to challenge yourself to run a marathon another month and raise money for Perennial, we won’t stop you!
Do I have to pay a registration fee and how much do I need to raise?
It is free to sign up and we are targeting sponsorship at £180 per person to commemorate our 180th year, but every penny you raise will go towards changing horticulturists lives for the better.
How do I sign up?
We have partnered up with everydayhero to host our first ever virtual marathon and you can set up your fundraising page here. Once you’ve set up your page, if you want to track your progress with the chance of featuring on Perennial’s leaderboard, then make sure you log in with Strava or MapMyFitness.
What is everyday hero and how do I use it?
Everydayhero is an online fundraising platform which you can use to collect your donations. Share your page with friends and family to encourage them to donate to you.
If you need help using your fundraising page, making a donation, or anything else everydayhero related, their dedicated support team can help you out. Email help@everydayhero.co.uk if you need any help, or can’t find what you’re looking for. You can also give them a call on 0845 680 97920.
Alternatively, check out their FAQs for technical queries and lots of tried and tested tips to give your fundraising an extra push.
How will I know when I’ve completed my marathon?
If you’ve been using MapMyFitness or Strava whilst completing your miles we’ll have a running total and will automatically know once you’ve finished. If you’re not using one of these apps, you can manually update your fundraising page with the running total.
What are MapMyFitness and Strava and how do I use them?
MapMyFitness and Strava are training apps which track and record your distance. Everydayhero is partnered with both of them, which means you can choose one of them to track your runs, link your fundraising page to MapMyFitness or Strava and your page will then be updated every time you complete a run. That way your donors can see how you’re getting on. Fundraisers who use this feature raise on average 46% more!
What happens if I only use the fitness app to track some of my miles and forget to use it for some?
We’ll know about any of the miles you complete using your fitness app (as long as it’s linked to your fundraising page). If you forget to use an app for any of the miles, you simply need to manually update your fundraising page. When you’re doing this, don’t manually log any miles that you’ve used a fitness app to track – we’ll already have those logged.
What if I don’t want to use a tracking app? How can I track the miles I’ve completed?
If you don’t want to use a fitness app, you can still let us know how many miles you’ve done through your fundraising page by manually updating it using the simple steps below:
- Once you’ve logged in, just below the ’Post an update’ box, you’ll see ’Fitness’ with a runner. Click on this and it will open up a box.
- Edit the number of miles, your duration, and the time of day you completed your miles by clicking on the links.
- Click ’post’ and then refresh your page - it should now appear in your feed.
How do I log offline donations?
If you receive offline donations please fill in our printable sponsorship form that you can download here and tick the Gift Aid Box to boost your donations by 25%.
How do I pay in my money?
Wherever possible, ask people to donate directly to your fundraising page. That way, the money will come to Perennial automatically.
If you’ve collected cash, you can pay the money in yourself (using a credit or debit card) to your fundraising page.
Or send a cheque (made payable to Perennial) to:
Perennial 115-117 Kingston Road, Leatherhead, KT22 7SU
What is gift aid?
Gift Aid is a Government scheme that adds 25p to every £1 donated, at no cost to the donor.
Charities are able to claim this ’extra money’ from tax that people have already paid. To allow us to claim Gift Aid, the donor has to be a UK taxpayer and have paid sufficient Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax to cover the amount Perennial will reclaim in the tax year. Please make sure you send your Sponsorship form to us so we can claim it.
