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Part Two - Ideas for Fundraisers

Ideas for Fundraisers Guide

Part 2 – Ideas for fundraisers

Now that you know who or what you’re going to raise money for, you now need to decide how you’re going to raise the money. This may have been your first thought and actually sparked your ideas to raise money for a charity or this could be something you’re yet to consider. Take a look at our top tips for brainstorming ideas for fundraisers as well as our top 4 tried & tested methods and our ideas for unique fundraisers.

Whether you’re planning a full event or a simple activity or even just a single stall in the event, it is always best to begin brainstorming your ideas with a team of fellow fundraisers. Start by noting down all your ideas on potential stalls & activities regardless of the limits. Once all your ideas are on the table you can then start eliminating suggestions by budget, time scale and how realistically you’d be able to pull off the event. This may even spark up new ideas of how you could modify ideas to accommodate your budget etc.

Don’t go through the planning stage alone. Not only can it be stressful and time consuming but it’s also not as fun to plan the event solo. Try to get a team, if not a friend to help you plan and bounce ideas off each other, two heads are better than one.

If you already know how your going to raise the money then brainstorming is still an important part of the process. Do you need to find a location, pick a theme or find prizes? Brainstorm ideas for each element of your to do list. This will make sure you’ve thought of every solution and chosen the best way forward.

Spending time planning and organising your fundraiser will help your event to run smoothly and it will also allow you to enjoy and have fun on the day of the event. Spending time now will inevitably save you time in the future.

Finding inspiration for fundraising events is pretty easy online, however finding an idea that will guarantee success is a little more difficult. This is why we have put together, what we consider to be the best, easiest and cheapest tried & tested fundraising ideas. So if you’re really stuck for ideas, you can’t go far wrong with these 4 ideas. We have also included a few unique and creative ways to raise money to spark your imagination and for those who fancy something extravagant!

brainstorm ideas for fundraisers

Tried & Tested Fundraisers

Dress up

It can’t get much easier than getting your colleagues, friends, pupils or community to dress up for charity. Choose a theme or an idea to base the fancy dress around and get people to donate money to dress up at work, to school or to a particular event. This could be seasonal fancy dress such as Halloween or beach party style; it could be formal with a black tie event or something funny like a bad hair day as recently hosted by GOSH. It’s both easy to organise and easy for the supporters to participant, winner all round.

Cake Sale

Who doesn’t like an old-fashioned cake sale! People don’t mind paying for a little treat in return, so whether you’re a dab hand in the kitchen or you purchase some cakes and sell them on, you’re guaranteed to raise a lot of money for your cause. Cake sales don’t always have to mean cake (although they’re usually the best) it could also be a savoury bake sale, a healthy food sale or even a lunchtime buffet. Great food will also persuade people to part with their cash so depending on your budget, location and abilities you can sell any type of cooked or baked goods with a profit for the charity or cause.

Raffle

We may be biased but we believe hosting a raffle is still the best way to fundraise money. With a small outlay you can get a huge return for your charity. The key things to organise are sourcing prizes, getting tickets and selling them in advance of the draw. With our successful raffle guide and our other top tips in our blog, we can guide you through planning a raffle to ensure you maximise donations.

‘A-thons’

Marathon, walk-athon, dance-athon, bike-athon, you name it, you can make it into an endurance fundraising activity. ‘A-thons’ require sponsorships, which is how the participants make their donations. So it can be pretty simple to gather participants and their sponsors to help raise money for your charity.

Unique Fundraisers

House Party

You may not be a college student any more but that doesn’t mean you can’t throw a classic house party. Be inspired by MacMillan’s coffee mornings, but instead add some cocktails, dance tunes and a bit of karaoke. You can charge per entry, ask for donations or even set up a bar and pay per drink. People love to have an excuse for a party and raising money for your charity or cause is the perfect one.

Eating Challenge

Everyone loves a challenge, especially when it involves food. We have taken inspiration from Norfolk butcher, Ali Dent, who organises the annual ‘Four Pound Burger Challenge’ to help raise money for the mental health charity MENCAP. His challenge has increased in popularity since 2012 and it’s the perfect event on it’s own or as a stall in your existing fundraiser event. Eating challenges could include, eating something in a certain time limit, finishing a mountain of food, eating something incredibly spicy, or the classic eating a donut without licking your lips!

Dog Show

We’re not talking about your traditional Crufts show when we suggest a dog show fundraiser, but more of a quirky, ‘everyone welcome’ event. Not only do dogs win over the hearts of the public but, their owners love to show their little pooches off. So create some unique categories such as the waggiest tail, the best dog / owner lookalike or best costume and get as many people as you can to join in. Ultimately, animals are one-way ticket to success with the public, so you could even host a Cat show; anything is possible!

Part 3 of our Guide on running a Successful raffle is planning your raffle. Part 3 shares our top tips for setting a budget, sourcing prizes and purchasing your raffle tickets.

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