Ways of Fundraising
You can go about it in a variety of ways: organise an event and charge people to attend, do something challenging and get people to sponsor you, make stuff to sell, or do something a little different. Whatever you do, tell your local newspaper about it to gain publicity and help raise more money!
A-Z of Fundraising Ideas
· A
Aerobic-a-thon
Break out the leotard and the fitness DVD and get physical. Get sponsored for every five minutes of aerobics you can manage.
Art Exhibition
Dab hand with a paintbrush? Even if you're not, give it a go and pass it off as modern art! Encourage local artists to donate some of their work.
Auction of Promises
Visit local businesses and ask them to donate their services for you to auction off. Or rope in your friends, who could promise to wash cars, mow lawns or do housework for the highest bidder.
Arm Wrestling
Charge your mates or the local rugby/footie/any testosterone driven team to arm wrestle one another. Probably best tried at your local pub. You could even fashion a snazzy badge/medal type thing for the winner.
Abseil
Get a group of people to abseil down a local building. You are likely to get press coverage for this type of event too.
Arts or crafts stall
Try making greetings cards, pot pouri or jewellery to sell.
· B
Badminton tournament
Grab those shuttlecocks and hit the courts. Get sponsored for every ten minutes of rallying you can manage.
BBQ
Held in your garden. Ask guests to pay an entrance fee, then provide them with food and drink for free.
Barn dance
Find a real barn if possible and hire a good band. Recruit a caller who knows all the dances and can instruct those with two left feet. Charge for admission and refreshments. Make sure you sell enough tickets before the night, not just on the door.
Beard Shaving
Grab a few hairy people and shave them. Not just for fun get people to sponsor them to go through with it. You can shave heads, beards, backs or legs the possibilities are great.
Bingo
Make your own bingo cards and invite your mates around for a few games. Charge them a pound a ticket. Prizes should be something small like sweets or promises of eternal friendship.
Bring and Buy Sale
We bet you've got loads of junk in your attics and under your bed. Why not raise some money (and keep your mum happy) by organising a Bring and Buy sale? You could even charge other people to set up their own stalls.
Book sales
Get all your friends and relatives to clear out their book shelves and donate the books to you to sell.
Bridge evening
The entrance fee could include a light supper or nibbles and a glass of wine.
· C
Cake Sale
Invite your neighbours round or do this at work. Bake a few cakes and sell each slice for a £1.
Caption Competition
You need a group of at least 25 people. Get a photo of your club chairman or work CEO doing something unusual and then get everyone to submit a caption for £1. Winner gets 50% of the proceeds and the rest is donated to charity!
Carol Singing Concert
Entice people along with the promise of mince pies and mulled wine!
Coffee Morning
Always a good fundraiser and a great way to catch up with friends and family.
Concerts
Ticket selling and publicity are vital. Many bands, orchestras and choirs are often on the lookout for opportunities to perform for good causes and in good venues, on an expenses-only basis. You just need to ask!
· D
Dance marathon
Get people to sponsor you for every five minutes of boogying you manage or for every song you shimmy to.
Disco
Find a venue and ask a local DJ to donate his service for free. You could even theme it salsa, 70s night, or ballroom dancing - invite your friends and have yourselves a ball! Remember, if you are not on licensed premises and are selling alcohol, you will need a drinks licence.
Dog walk
Get some exercise and raise money at the same time. Offer your services as the neighbour dog walker and charge per dog per walk.
Dinner dance
This one will take some organising, but could raise lots of money. Charge for tickets, hold a raffle and auction (ask local businesses to donate prizes).
Darts match
Charge an entry fee, have a raffle and refreshments. Make it fun ladies versus men, left handed throws only etc.
· E
Easter Egg Hunt
Charge parents to take their kids off their hands for an afternoon and plan an Easter egg/sweet hunt in the garden to keep them amused.
Exhibition
Get local arts and crafts groups (wood turners, jewellery or nick nack makers, painters etc) to hold an exhibition of their work. Ask for an admission fee and ask exhibitors to pay a fee for their pitch.
eBay
Register yourself on Ebay or another auction site and auction off your old, unwanted items. You're likely to raise more money than you would from a car boot sale and have fun watching the items go up in price at the same time!
· F
Fancy dress days
Pay to wear fancy dress or dress down to work or school and fine those that don't make the effort. Non-uniform days at school are always popular. In the office have crazy tie, bad hat or yellow and blue only days. April Fool’s Day is ideal for this.
Fetes
Local celebrities will help draw in crowds. But there's lots of work, planning and costs involved so be careful!
Football match
Organise a fun footie match. Try and encourage local celebrities to play. Hold a collection at half time. You could ask your local team to play a match in aid of your charity. Organise a raffle at half time and get prizes donated by local businesses.
Fun Runs
There are always lots of fun runs taking place. Ask your friends/family to sponsor you. Using a JustGiving page makes collecting sponsorship money so much easier. Or you could organise your own! That way, you decide the venue and distance! Try to get a local personality to compete or start the event off.
£5 into £50
Give friends or volunteer fundraisers a sum of money (£5) and a time limit (three months) to increase this by devising a money-generating activity. Ideas include: planting vegetable seeds and selling produce; baking and selling cakes; backing the Derby winner; investing. Award prizes for the most ingenious idea.
50:50 Club
Get everyone to donate £1 a month (by standing order if possible). Each month holds a draw when someone wins half the total raised. No licence is required you just need to ensure at least half the money goes back into prize money.
Fashion Show
Depending on how ambitious you are, this could raise a significant amount for your charity. Either grab a couple of mates and stage a show in your house. They could model clothes that you no longer want or need, which could then be auctioned off at the end of the day. Alternatively, inform local clothes shops about your fundraiser and ask them to donate clothes for the show. This is also great publicity for them. Get hold of a hall and advertise the event well in advance give out flyers in your town centre and post them through letter boxes.
Fill Smartie tubes with coins
Pass smartie tubes out to your friends and family and ask them to fill them with spare change preferably £1 coins! Then collect them back in you'll be amazed at how much you will raise this way and there is very little effort involved. Also, you could empty the smarties from their tubes into a jar and run a 'Guess the number' contest.
· G
Garden Party
Held in your garden (or in the grounds of a local venue) with stalls, games, refreshments and raffles.
Golf Open Days
Ask a local golf club to sponsor the event for you, invite club members and local businessmen for the tournament. Organise a raffle and auction in the evening as well.
Greek Night
Lots of Greek food, wine and dancing in your local village hall. Charge an entrance fee and hold a raffle.
Guess the Weight
Find something suitably heavy anything from a jar full of sweets to your Grandma and ask friends and family to guess its weight. Charge to enter and donate the sweets/cake to the winner.
Give Up a Vice
Whether it be smoking, biting your nails or your daily choccie bar get sponsored to give it up for a set period or ask people to sponsor you per day.
· H
Halloween Party
Hold a fancy dress party at your house or in a local bar. Ask for an entrance fee. Organise a DJ, spooky decorations and nibbles.
Head and Tails Auction
This is good to do at a dinner evening. Get everyone to stand up and pass a bucket around collecting people's change (although encourage £5 notes). Everyone decides whether they're heads or tails by putting a hand on their head or their bottom. Flip a coin on stage and announce the results. Those who get it wrong sit down. Continue until only one person is left. Winner gets a prize.
Hat Sale
Ask everyone to donate their old hats and then come and buy a new one.
Head Shaving
Less impressive if you already have a crew cut, but for those of you with long flowing locks this could raise lots of cash. Or if you aren't feeling brave, get sponsored to shave the head of a hairy (willing) mate.
· I
International Evenings
Hold themed evening events to let people know more about different countries. Cook themed meals, have themed table decorations and wear appropriate clothing. Once everyone is digging into your delicious food, take the opportunity to tell them about the work of your charity then get the donations bucket out. To cover costs, it's probably best to charge a small entrance fee.
Ice-cream Eating
Either get sponsored to make lifelong friends with Ben and Jerry or buy huge tubs of ice cream and sell them by the scoop as cornets on a hot day.
· J
Jewellery Sale
Ask the public and your friends and relatives to donate unwanted jewellery. Auction off the best items and sell the remainder at a car boot sale or use as raffle prizes. Package and display attractively to boost prices and sales.
Jumble sale
Dig around under the bed and at the back of wardrobes for anything you can sell and organise a jumble sale. Get your friends to get in on the act selling their own unwanted items perhaps they could donate a percentage of their profits to your charity?
Jazz Night
A good idea if you're a jazz singer. Perhaps a better one if you're not. Raise money and have a giggle at the same time by belting out some classic jazz tunes like 'Summertime'. Pass around the donations bucket to your spellbound audience and watch the money roll in.
Jog-athon
Get sponsored for every mile you complete. If it's raining outside and you're a bit of a wimp you could even do it on a treadmill. Might be something to get sponsored for at your local gym.
· K
Karaoke Night
Ask your local pub to hold a fundraising Karaoke night for your charity. Sell tickets, or make it a competition and charge people to enter. Get a local company to donate a prize. Don't forget your ear plugs!!
Knit
Put your needles together and knit garments to be sold at fetes and Xmas bazaars.
Knobbly knee contest
Works especially well at the seaside in summer or at work! Charge a quid for people to enter the competition, and ask a local company to donate a 'quality' prize. You get the fun of being the judge.
· L
Line-dancing
Hold a line-dancing party. Find out about all the line-dancing classes and clubs in your area (you'll be surprised at how many there are) and send out invites; charge for tickets. Get in the spirit with costumes and decorations.
Line of Coins
Start a line of coins in your garden, local park, school or college grounds. Publicise what you're raising money for and get passers-by to add their loose change to the line. Try to make it reach from one end to the other.
Lawn Mowing
Borrow a lawn-mower and drop leaflets through doors, charging a couple of quid for your services. Make sure the leaflet explains what the money is for, and people will be more inclined to pay.
Luncheon
Invite everyone in your workplace, school or street to a grand lunch (for a small fee, obviously). Make posh sarnies and nibbles. This could work especially well in an office, where people will appreciate an unusual break in the middle of the day.
Local Races and Marathons
Take advantage of any local races that are established in your area. Book a place and ask friends for sponsorship. Use a JustGiving page to make collecting sponsor money easier.
Lotteries
These could work particularly well in large offices. Make it a monthly event perhaps on pay day. It's important that you adhere to the government's regulations.
Loud Tie Day
Ask your company to sponsor it to match fund the monies raised.
· M
Music and Mulled Wine Evening
Organise a recital at your local stately home or in someone's summer garden.
Marathon events
Hire a local hall, or see if you can get one free. Hold a marathon table tennis, aerobics, line dancing or badminton session (in shift teams). Get relevant companies to sponsor you in exchange for publicity in the hall (local gyms, sports shops etc). Get sponsorship from friends and family too.