Anyone Done Any Charity Fundraising Before?

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Crystaleyed
Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
in Chit-Chat
Hello,
I am a huge supporter of human rights and I really want to do some fundraising at school for Amnesty International, a charity I have loved and supported for a long time. I was wondering if anyone else has done any fundraising at work or school because I have never attempted to organise a fundraising event on my own.
Also has anyone got any simple, cheap {because dad refuses to 'donate' money for me to get things together for any fundraising event} but successful ways to fund raise ?
The bun sale has been done to death at school and we tried to organise a water fight in the summer and it ended in complete chaos. SO any suggestions would be great thanks :)

Replies

  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    Quiz sheets (sometimes called fireside quizzes) are really easy to do - make a set of quiz type questions - you can theme them to your cause if you like- print up, photocopy onto coloured paper( avoids other people copying) charge £1 or $1 a go- first correct answer sheet opened after the closing date wins £20
  • perfectingpatti
    perfectingpatti Posts: 1,037 Member
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    I've got lots of experience. The easiest is to hold a raffle. Get some companies, restaurants, local stores to donate items or gift cards to the raffle. Good luck!
  • vanillarama
    vanillarama Posts: 101 Member
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    Well, a good way to combine fitness and charity would be to do a charity walk! My husband is doing a half-marathon for Alzheimer's Research UK at the end of the month, and he's using the justgiving.com website - it has worked really well for him.

    Good luck!!!
  • Crystaleyed
    Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
    Options
    Quiz sheets (sometimes called fireside quizzes) are really easy to do - make a set of quiz type questions - you can theme them to your cause if you like- print up, photocopy onto coloured paper( avoids other people copying) charge £1 or $1 a go- first correct answer sheet opened after the closing date wins £20

    I was actually thinking about this because I work in the school library which does quizzes all the time. Obviously I can't give money because we have to have licences for that and stuff that I don't really want to get in to, but I can find a few prizes :).
    Thanks x
  • Crystaleyed
    Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
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    I've got lots of experience. The easiest is to hold a raffle. Get some companies, restaurants, local stores to donate items or gift cards to the raffle. Good luck!

    I actually hadn't thought about this, thanks :)
  • Crystaleyed
    Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
    Options
    Well, a good way to combine fitness and charity would be to do a charity walk! My husband is doing a half-marathon for Alzheimer's Research UK at the end of the month, and he's using the justgiving.com website - it has worked really well for him.

    Good luck!!!

    Thanks :)
    I did look at justgiving not long ago but the fact you have to pay for the page put me off a little I must admit :( but I hadn't thought about doing this actually, I walk a lot so I figured that doing a sponsored walk may not be a good idea, but I will look into it, if it get's a little money then it's worth it :D Thanks you x
  • justjenn1977
    justjenn1977 Posts: 437 Member
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    Hello,
    I am a huge supporter of human rights and I really want to do some fundraising at school for Amnesty International, a charity I have loved and supported for a long time. I was wondering if anyone else has done any fundraising at work or school because I have never attempted to organise a fundraising event on my own.
    Also has anyone got any simple, cheap {because dad refuses to 'donate' money for me to get things together for any fundraising event} but successful ways to fund raise ?
    The bun sale has been done to death at school and we tried to organise a water fight in the summer and it ended in complete chaos. SO any suggestions would be great thanks :)


    most of the things I have done fundraising for is local events... I was with the student government in college and we did many events...

    raffles are great...(especially of unusual items... we raffled stuff from gander mountain once... we live in a rural area (read "redneck") and gander mountain stuff did great!) we did a carnival one time... bake sales... we organized an event one time for the youth at church where they went and did chores/handiman work for donations...

    the CRITICAL thing in fundraising is what I call the "begging" letter... most places (kroger, walmart, larger grocery stores etc) will give you a 5-10$ gift card just for going in with one... it must be concise and to the point... it also must show how the people you are asking money from will be personally impacted by giving you money (read "what they have to gain" because everyone likes to look good)

    if you need some help I could send you some letters I have written in the past... :)
  • vanillarama
    vanillarama Posts: 101 Member
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    That's odd, we didn't pay for the page at all- I think it is the charity that does that...
  • Crystaleyed
    Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
    Options
    Hello,
    I am a huge supporter of human rights and I really want to do some fundraising at school for Amnesty International, a charity I have loved and supported for a long time. I was wondering if anyone else has done any fundraising at work or school because I have never attempted to organise a fundraising event on my own.
    Also has anyone got any simple, cheap {because dad refuses to 'donate' money for me to get things together for any fundraising event} but successful ways to fund raise ?
    The bun sale has been done to death at school and we tried to organise a water fight in the summer and it ended in complete chaos. SO any suggestions would be great thanks :)


    most of the things I have done fundraising for is local events... I was with the student government in college and we did many events...

    raffles are great...(especially of unusual items... we raffled stuff from gander mountain once... we live in a rural area (read "redneck") and gander mountain stuff did great!) we did a carnival one time... bake sales... we organized an event one time for the youth at church where they went and did chores/handiman work for donations...

    the CRITICAL thing in fundraising is what I call the "begging" letter... most places (kroger, walmart, larger grocery stores etc) will give you a 5-10$ gift card just for going in with one... it must be concise and to the point... it also must show how the people you are asking money from will be personally impacted by giving you money (read "what they have to gain" because everyone likes to look good)

    if you need some help I could send you some letters I have written in the past... :)

    I like the chores idea. I was thinking if I could get a few sixth form to do it we could get teachers to bid on a student helper for a lesson or two, but my dad said it was limiting the audience, so I wasn't sure if it would work, I might reconsider it now tho' :) I didn't think about getting prizes off companies, I thought I would just end up getting them myself, that would be amazing, to take the strain off my tight budget if we could do that, thanks :)
  • Crystaleyed
    Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
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    That's odd, we didn't pay for the page at all- I think it is the charity that does that...

    I don't know, but I looked and it said you had to pay to have a just giving page, my cousin did it and she said she had to pay ... I think it was £5 but I'm not certain to get on to it.
  • justjenn1977
    justjenn1977 Posts: 437 Member
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    I like the chores idea. I was thinking if I could get a few sixth form to do it we could get teachers to bid on a student helper for a lesson or two, but my dad said it was limiting the audience, so I wasn't sure if it would work, I might reconsider it now tho' :) I didn't think about getting prizes off companies, I thought I would just end up getting them myself, that would be amazing, to take the strain off my tight budget if we could do that, thanks :)


    don't worry about limiting your audience... your audience is what it is... if you are in a school you have to think of things that people in a school would want...

    go to a local teacher supply store (a mom and pop one if you have it locally) tell them what you want to do... or staples... or a local mom and pop diner and ask them to donate a dinner for two... anything... or you could get 10 friends together to each buy something on a theme (for 2 or 3 $ or from dollar tree) and make a basket to raffle... or if you have school dances you can do the prison thing where you pay 2$ to put someone in prison for 5 min... and they pay1$ to get out... or I am a tutor... so I always donate tutoring time when people are raffling... like 4 hours free tutoring... get your nerds in your school together... or your jocks can do training time... or your band people can do instrument lessons... or your theater/english people can do creative writing help... the possibilities are nearly endless once you think about it!
  • TakeMeDrunkImHome
    TakeMeDrunkImHome Posts: 6 Member
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    I did a charity football match not so long ago through work for homestart...all I did was get two teams of sixteen together and asked them a for £5 to play and then had people who watched donate anything they could via a bucket....we then back to a local pub and had a BBQ most of which the profits went to charity as well all in all we raised over a £1000 and everyone enjoyed it.. The company I work for matched what I raised :-)
  • Crystaleyed
    Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
    Options
    I did a charity football match not so long ago through work for homestart...all I did was get two teams of sixteen together and asked them a for £5 to play and then had people who watched donate anything they could via a bucket....we then back to a local pub and had a BBQ most of which the profits went to charity as well all in all we raised over a £1000 and everyone enjoyed it.. The company I work for matched what I raised :-)

    This is a really good idea, the only problem is we had sports day a few days ago so I think the interest has died a little since then, but it's an idea I will keep in mind and I'm really big on the arts so it may be possible to organise something similar to that but like an arts showcase, if school haven't already been organising one. Thanks :)
  • Crystaleyed
    Crystaleyed Posts: 229 Member
    Options

    I like the chores idea. I was thinking if I could get a few sixth form to do it we could get teachers to bid on a student helper for a lesson or two, but my dad said it was limiting the audience, so I wasn't sure if it would work, I might reconsider it now tho' :) I didn't think about getting prizes off companies, I thought I would just end up getting them myself, that would be amazing, to take the strain off my tight budget if we could do that, thanks :)


    don't worry about limiting your audience... your audience is what it is... if you are in a school you have to think of things that people in a school would want...

    go to a local teacher supply store (a mom and pop one if you have it locally) tell them what you want to do... or staples... or a local mom and pop diner and ask them to donate a dinner for two... anything... or you could get 10 friends together to each buy something on a theme (for 2 or 3 $ or from dollar tree) and make a basket to raffle... or if you have school dances you can do the prison thing where you pay 2$ to put someone in prison for 5 min... and they pay1$ to get out... or I am a tutor... so I always donate tutoring time when people are raffling... like 4 hours free tutoring... get your nerds in your school together... or your jocks can do training time... or your band people can do instrument lessons... or your theater/english people can do creative writing help... the possibilities are nearly endless once you think about it!

    I have never done the prison thing and I'm not sure how it works at all ... simply because we never did it.
    I think that the tutoring thing is a brilliant idea but I'm not sure if it will work at our school, no one seems to care about grades and those who do don't need help.
    But thanks x

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