What is Swimathon?
Swimathon is a four-week crowdfunding campaign, and a fantastic community event. The swimmers choose which cause they want to promote, thus they become the “ambassadors” of their selected project. In their fundraising effort they set their own goal for the distance and time that they want to swim. The first Swimathon was organised by the Ferencváros Community Foundation (Ferencvárosi Közösségi Alapítvány, FKA) in 2016. You can follow the crowdfunding campaign preceding the event on this page.
“The success of the previous two events has unequivocally proven that Swimathon offers an enormous opportunity in two respects: it promotes swimming as a healthy sport activity and helps fundraising for good causes.” A Board Member of the Swimathon Foundation
Swimathon campaigns have been organised by Community Foundations in England since 1986, where there they have managed to draw attention to a great variety of issues and raise a lot of funds. These events in England are considered to be of national importance and supporters and public figures are happy and proud to participate. Princess Diana was an enthusiastic supporter of the programme. Swimathon campaigns are not unknown in the neighbouring countries either: many cities in Romania have successfully organised such events in the past years. It was in Cluj, during a study visit at the Cluj Community Foundation in 2014, that FKA’s board members had the chance to see how it works and they immediately fell in love with it. If you would like to understand what Swimathon is about, check out a video of the 2017 event.