Fundraising Ideas

Alphabet Game

Have fun and create an easy competition, for children and adults, using alphabet cards. Charge a competition entry fee and give each participant 10 cards. Choose winners who put together the longest word with the cards they have been dealt.

Beautiful Butterfly Tattoos

Use beautiful, temporary tattoos for children (or those who are young at heart) to draw families in to your event and charge £1 per tattoo.

Clowns and all kinds of costumes for your fancy dress event.

Hold a fun-filled Your Town’s got Fancy fancy dress party, charge a realistic fee, find a friendly caterer and musician/s, and invite the local Mayor/local well known person to be judge and jury of the best, worst, and funniest fancy dress.

Dog’s got Talent Show

So many people simply love dogs. Invite all your local dog owners to participate in a competition for the most talented, the least talented, the most beautiful, and the ugliest pooches. Ask the local Mums and Grannies to provide the food and drink, offer quirky doggie type prizes such as a Squeaky Meerkat or two, or a talking babble ball or two.

E is for the Ubiquitous Egg!

Not just the egg and spoon race, but for eggs-cellent pancake recipes for a great pancake sale, or use pancake mixes, if you prefer the easy way! Or eggs-traordinary cake recipes for a delicious cake sale or use cake mixes, if you prefer the easy way, at your fete, or charity bazaar.

Flowers

Never forget to say thank you to those wonderful volunteers who help you tirelessly. A beautiful bunch of flowers is always a wonderful treat.

Gift vouchers

These make lovely prizes at all events, giving the receiver the opportunity to choose something that he or she will really like. Choose from really inexpensive to high cost vouchers for that truly memorable prize. For the more expensive vouchers, ask a local business to sponsor the prize, and make sure you put their business name on any material promoting your event.

Health products and Services Fayre

Invite your local massage therapists, aromatherapists, reflexologists and complimentary health practitioners to promote their services and products at your event, charge them an entry fee and ask them to donate a minimum of £5 per customer signed up and a percentage of all products sold through your day. Make sure your tea-room serves a variety of calming organic teas and tasty treats that day.

Ink ‘n’ art hour

Easy for schools to do! Choose charming or even quirky colouring books for boys and girls. Ask each child to select their favourite picture, and charge a small fee per picture created or coloured. Do this once a week, for several weeks, and create or buy a Fundraising Thermometer showing the children week by week how much their efforts are raising for their favourite charity.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Put together small teams to compete against each other to complete puzzles, each with the same number of puzzle pieces. Make it more interesting by having two or three rounds. Charge a fee to participate and sell delicious home mades scones, jam and cream in between rounds.

Kings and Queens

Use Giant Size Playing Cards at your event. Raise funds using card tricks and games. Not sure how to use the cards? Read all about it in The Jumbo Book of Card Tricks and Games by Bob Longe.

Lion King kids party

Hold this event in your church hall. Ask the children to dress up as one of the animals in the Lion King story and show this enchanting movie. Hand out animal goodie bags at the end of it. Ask Mums and Dads to attend, and offer them a glass of wine or fruit punch. Charge an entry fee, and offer children’s prizes in a raffle, as well as prizes for the parents – a great afternoon out for the family!

Medieval Stocks

Purchase this quirky crowd pleaser to keep your boss in check. Ask supporters to sponsor each minute he or she survives in the stocks. A fun way to raise funds at your charity’s event.

Not to be overlooked...

There is something special about a hamper and always a sure winner as a prize for raffles or auctions, particularly if you find a local business or community sponsor to pay the costs.

Organise...

a fun sports tournament Play the most popular sports in your local community and ask all the local sports clubs and schools to participate in a match of their favourite game, with friends and family sponsoring players. Invite stall holders to sell hand made crafts, used books and household items, tasty food and treats, and donate all the proceeds or a percentage of the proceeds to your favourite charity.

Pesky Pirates

Use pirate tattoos for the swashbuckling child (or adult!) at your event, and raise £1 per tattoo, plus give prizes for the children who look like great pirates!

Quirky Wrapster

Everyone uses earphones at one time or another, and when they get all tangled, it is often a real irritation! These quirky gadgets help to keep your earphone tangle free. Pay for (or find a sponsor for) two or three of these useful, inexpensive gadgets and use them as raffle prizes for your event.

Race Nights are

Race Nights are always a really popular fundraising event! If you have never done one before, you will find all the guidance you need in the Race Night DVD. Ask people to dress elegantly, and offer donated prizes and a finger buffet with wines.

Speed Scrabble

Put together teams to pit their wits against each other in games of scrabble with a difference. Team members have to race against other teams to put together as many acceptable scrabble words as possible in the shortest possible time. Scoring doesn’t count but speed of thought does! Raise extra funds by serving snacks and wine (for a donation) in between rounds.

Truly lazy day

Invite a group of your friends around to your house, show the most popular dvd (or 2), offer beer and wine, and a finger buffet for a (good sized) donation to your favourite charity. What better way to spend a lazy Sunday! 

USB Cup Warmer

Whoever thought of these was brilliant – and they are very inexpensive! Here’s a quick way to raise funds at work, for no effort at all! Buy 2 or 3 USB cup warmers, get someone at work to bake or buy a cake or two. Each month, hold a Cake and Coffee meeting, sell slices of cake, and get colleagues to bid for these quirky gadgets! Fun, good social time with colleagues, and an easy and quick way to raise funds for your favourite charity!

Vouchers

Vouchers and certificates are always a really good way of rewarding your volunteers. Vouchers can be exchanged for gifts, experiences, or dinner out, depending on how much or how little you wish to pay for them. Vouchers are also really useful for raffles and auctions – giving the receiver the opportunity to choose their own reward.

Wine Tasting evening

Wine tastings are always popular! Purchase a variety of wines and provide delicious cheeses for guests to nibble. Charge an entrance fee and also offer a wine punch, for a donation, to help the wine go further! A great way to raise funds! Include a competition where guests can guess which country the wines are from, for a small fee.

X-citing Time Management Games

Become a wealthy hotel mogul or farm your way around the world. A fun filled way to raise funds at work. Get your boss to pay for (or invite a local business to sponsor) new computer games each month, and once a week/once a month, have a get together with your colleagues (and the sponsor of the games!) after work. Pay a fee per game played, and donate the funds to your favourite charity. Give the winner a sponsored bottle of wine!

Yellow Submarine evening

Hold a karaoke party, charge a fee, serve fish and chips on newspaper, and offer fruit juice, beer and wine (for a donation per drink). Participants will enjoy singing/warbling/croaking the Yellow Submarine and other famous Beatles songs. Bring it up to date, and sing all the recent popular hit songs

Zebra party

Hold a zany, zebra-themed party – everything in black and white, but clearly zebra linked! Put zebra posters all over the wall, ask all the guests to dress in black and white, with zebra stripes somewhere on their outfit; use black and white disposable tablecloths and paint white or black stripes on them(respectively!).