As soon as a charity offers you a place, we will ask you to download and return a Pledge Form. This tells you precisely what you are signing up to in terms of fundraising and most charities will ask you for a modest registration fee (usually around £50). See FAQs for more info.
Once you sign the pledge form, you have made a commitment to run for your chosen charity and must not accept a place from any other charity.
If you applied for a place through the Virgin London Marathon Ballot and are successful (results published in late September), you will not be held to the pledged amount, but you will still be a valued part of the Marathon team and expected to raise funds for the charity as an Own Place runner.
Please do not take this pledge lightly. The charity continues to own the place right up to the starting gun and is absolutely dependent on the income from each of the places it offers. So if you are struggling to raise the required minimum through sponsorship in the lead-up to the race, we will advise you not to proceed on this occasion, but to hold it over until the following year to give you a longer run at the fundraising target.
This system works in your favour too: if you get ill or injured and have to withdraw from the Marathon, your charity will normally offer you the place again the following year - as long as you have taken the necessary steps to obtain sponsorship.