Heroes Welcome

Run for Heroes is on a mission to bring more young people into charity fundraising by running

Getting more young runners into fundraising

WHILE OUT ON A RUN in March 2020, Olivia Strong (top left) came up with an idea that would capture the public’s imagination: a social media campaign to encourage people to run 5km and donate £5 to the NHS.

‘I messaged a group chat about this idea,’ says the Edinburgh-based 28-yearold. ‘Everyone thought it was a good idea and helped me come up with a name.’ Strong then messaged her friend India Pappalardo-Strachan (top, next to Strong) – a graphic designer – and asked if she could design a logo for the campaign.

Soon after, Run for Heroes was born – and for a while it was difficult to sign in to Instagram without seeing photos of people taking part in their Run, Donate, Nominate challenge. Within a few days, the campaign had reached its first target of £5,000 and by the end of April it had raised £5m for the NHS.

‘What amazed me was that 90 per cent of the money donated came in as £5 donations, which means lots and lots of people went out running,’ says Strong. Their Instagram challenge inspired more than 1.5m people to run during April, May and June of last year.

Becoming a viral campaign on Instagram, however, didn’t just bring online recognition for Run for Heroes; it also helped them reach audiences that are all-too-often disengaged from charities – millennials and Generation Z. ‘We realised we had this engaged following that charities haven’t been able to reach; we felt like we had to do something to keep them running and supporting charities,’ says Strong.

And so, Run for Heroes has launched a campaign called 5K May, to transform the month of May into a celebration of running and supporting charities. This virtual challenge will ask people to complete a 5K in whatever way they can – run, walk, cycle, swim, skate or even skip – during the month, then donate a minimum of £5 to a charity of their choice, and nominate five friends to take part, too.

‘The idea for this campaign came as we were planning the future of Run for Heroes,’ says Strong. ‘We decided that our mission statement was to raise money for health and wellbeing causes while continuing to encourage people to stay healthy and fit.

‘As that was happening, we came up with the idea of owning a month,’ she says. Five had always been a magic number at Run for Heroes [£5, £5m, five friends etc], so it was clear that May, the fifth month of the year, had to be the one.

‘My hope is that [this new campaign] continues to raise money and gives more people a motivation for going out running,’ says Strong

Want to take part in 5K May? Visit runforheroes.org.uk