Opportunities for charities

How charities can engage with the TCS London Marathon

In January 2021 we announced a series of new initiatives giving charities the opportunity to engage with the TCS London Marathon – the world's biggest one-day annual fundraising event.

These initiatives include our new Charity Bond scheme, the Charity Advertising Partnership Programme and the existing Charity Ballot – and you can find out more about each of them below.

Charity Bond scheme

In 2019, we started our first detailed review of our Golden Bond, Silver Bond, Charity Ballot and one-year Charity Bond schemes. The results of this review mean that, in future, approximately 2,500 charities will engage directly with the TCS London Marathon every year – up from 1,500.

Our review followed an extensive consultation with charities to get their views on how we could improve the service we offer. More than 80 per cent of charities that responded to a survey agreed or strongly agreed that the allocation of bonds should be reviewed – so that's what we did! The changes to the Charity Bond scheme are explained below.

- From the 2026 London Marathon onwards, charities that currently hold Golden Bonds will retain 80 per cent of those places (four out of the five places in each Golden Bond) and the Golden Bonds will be held for four years rather than the current five.
- From 2026, any charity that does not currently hold a Golden Bond will be able to apply for four-year charity places in a new ballot.
- From 2026, there will be no One Year Charity Bonds, as these will also be reduced to 80 per cent of current levels and become Golden Bonds (on a four-year term).
- The current Silver Bond scheme (one place every five years) will end in 2025. Charities will be able to apply for the new two-year charity places, so long as they do not hold a Silver Bond place for 2024 or 2025.
- There will be a further review of the system at the end of 2029, with any changes then implemented from 2034.

If you'd like to find out more about the new Charity Bond scheme, you can register your interest now by completing the form below.

Charity Advertising Partnership Programme

Our Charity Advertising Partnership Programme is in-house, which makes it simpler and better than ever before and gives us the opportunity to tailor it even more closely to the needs of our charity partners.

Our TCS London Marathon website is a hugely powerful marketing tool featuring a range of advertising options and support for participants, including marathon-specific training advice, as well as exclusive opportunities for our charity partners to recruit those with ballot places. We also offer a number of guaranteed charity places to maximise fundraising at the event, build awareness and create a wider pool of supporters.

We will share more details about the Charity Advertising Partnership Programme for the 2023 TCS London Marathon in due course.

Charity Ballot

The Charity Ballot is a unique opportunity for UK-registered charities to secure places the TCS London Marathon. Please note that the Charity Ballot will not take place for the 2024 event.

See the details

Find out more

If you'd like to register your interest in charity opportunities for the TCS London Marathon, please fill out this form and we'll be in touch with relevant information.