Virtual Balloon Race

How does a Virtual Balloon Race work?

Set your start & finish dates. Most races run for 7 days but allow 3 to 4 weeks to sell balloons – so set your start date in the future to give yourself time to build sales. When the race starts balloons move a random distance every 30 minutes until your finish date. When the race is over the balloons stop moving and your final leaderboard is displayed.

Accept card payments with a simple tick and start fundraising today (on a test sample of 100 races we sent an average BACS payment of £272.40 per race after 12% card fee).

If you have your own online system to take payments you can upload bulk balloons with a CSV.

Your race package includes unlimited virtual balloons, sell the balloons for £4 each (or any price you set). Most races offer a £30 Amazon voucher as 1st prize – Amazon vouchers are easy to email to the winner(s).

Personalise your race page with information about your school/charity and add your logo or crest.

Balloons fly over a selection of available backgrounds or you can upload your own. Why not upload a photo of the school playground or create a journey with images or Paris, London and New York. You can change the background as often as you like even when the race is live.

Add the live leaderboard widget to your school website to offer uptodate information on your race.

Virtual Duck Race also available.

Sustainable environmentally friendly fundraising – no real balloons are used.

See the demo race at balloonrace.com & the admin area that controls your race.

To get a feel for how the admin area looks download the below PDF:

6 New snails added to The Balloon Race

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— david (@saker.uk) 16 November 2024 at 22:42

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Balloon Race. Winners look out for an email!
A HUGE thankyou to everyone who bought a balloon, we raised a whopping £1240 pounds! pic.twitter.com/VuTQ7vQuQS

— GreyhoundRescueWales (@WelshGreyhounds) February 26, 2024

Hi David

Thank you so much for the information.  Our balloons started on Thursday so have 4 days to go.  The kids and adults are really enjoying this PTA event.

We were totally blown away by the support from the families in the school and this event has raised over £1200.  We decided not to have a buy now button and asked the children to bring their money into school.  Slightly more work for us but your instructions and the spreadsheet made it very simple to upload the details.  We also gave each class in the school a free balloon so there will be a class prize for the first one to cross the line as well as prizes for the top 5 winners.

Thank you again and we hope to run this event again soon

Regards

Kelly

Towerview Primary PTA

Kelly again 12 months later:

Brilliant David, thank you so much.

This is our second time doing  the balloon race and it definitely won’t be the last. It’s a fantastic way to raise money for our school. This event has made us over £1000 pounds. The set up was very simple and your guidance has been great.

Thank you again. Roll on Monday when the fun will begin.

Regards 

Kelly

Hi David

Our balloon race was a huge success and we raised a little over £200 after costs, selling almost £250 balloons.

Was a great event!

Thanks so much for your help and support! See you next year!

From Su Bond

Castleton PTA

Hi David,

Thank you for this.

Everyone who took part seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. 

Icing on the cake when the headteacher came dead last 🤣

Sophie Powell, Barrett and Axe PTFA

I would highly recommend people to run a virtual balloon race as a fundraiser.  Its  very affordable, easy to manage, profitable, it doesn’t cause environmental damage and its lots of FUN!

Mark Trapmore – Churchwarden St Nicholas’ Church Berden and chair of Berden PCC

For extra help, download these PDF’s:

If you’re a school here’s a great example letter to help sell more balloons.

FREE entry by post button is a legal requirement – this changes the software from a lottery to a Free Draw. The free entry button is compulsory on all races. Entries via the free postal option will need a cut off date that’s 2 days later than the paid entry to allow for postal delivery. See full information on running a Free Draw.

When advertising your balloon race you must state that free entry is available and it must be clear and easy to find. When you receive your free postal entries you can simply add them in the admin area. All free entries have the same chance of winning as paid entrants.