When participating in a charity event, whether its a fun run, full marathon, cycle, mountain trek or expedition there is often a fundraising goal or minimum pledge. Perhaps this is a personal goal you have set high and wish to exceed, or it’s your fourth charity event of the year and you have exhausted friends and family’s generosity. But! this target figure doesn’t have to be daunting when signing up or getting closer to your challenge. There are always alternative and fun ways you can inspire your friends to help.Here are some simple and entertaining ways to get your fundraising launched or top it up. No matter what you are doing, the more you raise the more supported you feel when you are finally participating in your challenge. Its a wonderful feeling going that extra distance, pushing a little harder, doing it a little faster, when you have raised your target or exceeded.
Here are our top ten fundraising tips………..
1) The obvious is always dressing up! Whether at work or home, this is a great idea and always received well. Ask the charity for some literature of the event or how the funds support the cause. Dress up in something relevant to the cause, get creative! Always have a few great positive straplines to say about what you are doing, then take the local community by storm with a bucket in hand! If you live in a small town or village, the shops, offices and public houses are always happy to help. Make sure you introduce yourself first.
2) Hold a film night. Create your own cinema and hold a film night for family and friends. Sell popcorn and drinks and charge an entry fee. Theme the night around the charity or event, perhaps the Jungle Book, or Chariots of Fire.
3) Cake sales are always a winner in the local community, bake those dream fancies or sticky buns, its outstanding how much a fairy cake or muffin costs these days.
4) Hold an arts and crafts fair, or a simple jumble sale. Perhaps its your own works of art or a few little vintage numbers you don’t wear any more. I recently attended a bring and buy of vintage fashions, this was a really fun night!5) Give it up! Get sponsored to go without something. Give up speaking for a day, computer games for a week, chocolate for a month, or give up magazines for 3 months and donate the money you save.6) Hold a talent contest or Karaoke night, organise a collection or door entry fee.
7) Hold a fun dinner party with a “pay what you think its worth” restaurant theme to it. As you get a little bit into the spirit of the evening, friends become terribly generous! Don’t forget those drinking games!
8) Organise a sporting event, where teams pay to play. Whatever you play well, i’d go with that one! Perhaps its Rugby, Football, rounders or a swim-athon. Just make sure you enjoy it!
9) Organise a fun run themed around the charity you are raising funds for. Again, use the dressing up maneuver, people cant resist breaking out a smile when you “chingle” the bucket.
10) On your fundraising page, offer incentives for your sponsors when they donate at different levels. Offer certificates, website mentions and credits, gifts and sell your time to wash a car or make them dinner. “At your services for the day!” Also ask your charity if they can help with your larger donations, by offering adoptions or certificates.
If all else fails, get knitting, organise a jelly race, or….. learn to yodel and get busking!