At Zero Hour, one of the biggest mistakes new fundraisers make is to leave too little time to reach their target. Why try and reach a fundraising total in one week when you started out with 2 months? Make sure you really put the effort into your planning at the beginning and you will hit your target every time.

Firstly, sit down and do the maths, look at the target you have been given and work out how much you need to raise each week, each day, each hour to reach your target. This is a great way for you to see exactly what is required and can help you realise that you can easily achieve your goal. If you have to raise £2000 in a month, which can sound really scary, that's £500 a week, £65 a day or even £2.69 an hour, problem solved.

Second on the list is decide on your strengths and use them to decide on the type of fundraising you will do. If you are always planning socials, set up a fundraising event, if you are always on Facebook, do all your fundraising online. The more thought you put into this at the beginning the easier your task will be.

Set up a fundraising calendar and make sure you stick to your schedule. There are different fundraising activities that will reward you with different fundraising totals, so think about this. It is no good having a £1000 target and trying to do 5 charity tin collections knowing that each one will only bring you in £100 a time.

Finally, enjoy the planning process. It may sound like a crazy notion but you will feel a real sense of satisfaction when you see the money increasing and your goal getting closer and closer!