To start off the new year we thought we would share with you the top five fundraising activities of 2013 to help inspire you with your fundraising efforts! We know that the idea of fundraising can be very daunting, but hopefully these top five activities will help give you some ideas!
Edge Hill students running a cake sale in 2013
1. Cake Sales – whether you’re a keen baker or a person that avoids the kitchen like the plague, cake sales are a great way to raise money. One of our Student Leaders last year raised £150 from making use of Krispy Creme’s Raise Dough campaign that lets charities or volunteers buy their donuts half price and sell them on at full price. He sold of donuts in only a couple of hours – it’s a great start to anyone’s fundraising activities!
2. Bag packing – this is a great activity to do over a weekend when the supermarkets are very busy, or even better on the run up to a big shopping event (Christmas, Easter, bank holidays). Contact a supermarket and arrange a date that you can hold your event, get a group of friends together and get packing! We have had loads of our volunteers raise money from bag packing, Lisha from Edge Hill university raised in excess of £300 for her target by doing a bag pack at her local Asda. We have also seen volunteers raise in excess of £700 from one bag packing event! It can take a while to arrange a date so get contacting supermarkets soon! Check out our blog article for hints and tips here.
3. Trusts & Foundations – this is another activity that should be done sooner rather than later. Trusts and foundations are grant giving bodies who give out money to charities, groups or people who are doing worthwhile activities (what they consider as worthwhile will be defined in their aims). If you put aside one afternoon to research different bodies, write letters and emails and get them sent off you may just find yourself with a cheque for £250 on your doorstep only a few months later! We have had volunteers receive donations from £40 – £740 (just in one cheque), so it is worth putting the time aside to do this! Most volunteers receive cheques in the region of £200, if you write a couple of successful letters this soon mounts up! For more information check out this handy guide.
Time to get muddy and get sponsored!
4. Sponsored events – this is a great time to sign yourself up to a sponsored event and combine it with your new years resolution! Was your resolution to get fit? Was your resolution to give up something? Turn this into a fundraising activity and sign up for an event or give up something you truly love! We have had volunteers who have signed up to marathons, half marathons, crazy assault courses, swimming challenges, cycling challenges – you name it our volunteers have done it! So get your thinking cap on and check out some of our ideas here. If you can get your friends involved and ask them to help you fundraise you may just be on to a winner! Make sure whatever event you sign up to is a challenge, as you’re more likely to get sponsorship. If you’re known for not doing any exercise then get yourself signed up to a 5km, if you’re known to run all the time then sign yourself up to something like a triathlon! We have seen some volunteers raise nearly their whole target by participating in a personal challenge so get thinking!
5. Arranging your own event – this could be anything from a gig to a talent show to a quiz night. There are loads of different options out there and in 2013 we saw a whole host of different events, from Sophie who ran an event in her local community to Kirsty who held a talent show and raised over £500 in one evening! We also had several volunteers who set up gig nights as well. Arranging your own event is a great way to raise money, not only can you tailor it to something you enjoy but you can add in lots of different fundraising activities to help you reach your target, whether that be a raffle, face painting or cake sale! So think about what you’re passionate about and see if you can arrange an event in your local community or at your university to help you raise funds!
Hopefully this post will have given you some inspiration to enter the new year with a positive attitude to fundraising! It can seem like a scary task, but fundraising can be fun! Make sure you let us know how you get on so we can continue to provide the rest of our volunteers with hints, advice and tips to help them reach their target!
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