Step 1: The activity
Think about what your activity will be. Big or small, whatever you do will make a real difference. Try to think of something that will be fun for everyone to take part in or watch and something that makes it easy to raise money. Here are a few ideas and tips to inspire you.
Sponsorship
- Get yourself sponsored: be it a bike ride, hop ,walk or heads have. It’s one of the best and most fun ways to raise money.
- Go mad and do something crazy! Maybe do a parachute jump. You can do this for us through a company called Skyline. Call us and we’ll get the ball rolling.
- Do a sponsored run for us: you choose how far; 10k ,20k or a marathon!
Events
- Raise funds at an existing event: a school sports day or disco, your village fete or local fun run, or ask your local pub to hold a quiz or karaoke night.
Anything goes
- Go Greek, Italian… whatever: Invite your friends to dinner at £5 a head and after paying for food and drink donate the surplus money.
Step 2: The location
- Consider how much space you’ll need and which place would attract most interest: home, school, church, or will you need to hire a venue?
- Will it be indoors or outdoors? Plan for any weather
Step 3: The date
- Avoid clashes with public holidays, sporting events and other charity days.
- Think about who you’d like to attend and what time of the week/day will suit them best.
Step 4: Guests and publicity
- Is your event for family and friends or is it a work event? If it’s for work you could invite customers, colleagues and suppliers and ask your employer to match the sponsorship you raise.
- Is it a larger event that would benefit from publicity? If so, call us on 01302 796662 for advice.
- Recruit some volunteers to help you plan, publicise and carry out the event.
- Use our poster template to help you publicise your event.
Tip: Think about your audience first then plan your event around them. For example, you may be a member of a squash club – why not organise a tournament?
Step 5: Reaching your goal
It’s a good idea to set a fundraising target. Tell friends and family how much you aim to raise so they can help you achieve it.
If you need gifts for raffle prizes you could approach local businesses or companies for prizes or auction items.
Step 6: Collecting sponsorship is easy
If you’re being sponsored why not set up your own online sponsorship page? It’s really simple, fast and secure. By setting up a Just Giving page, you can circulate it to everyone you know, simply link to our charity Just Giving page
If you need any support with setting up your page, we’re happy to help, please give our Fundraising Team a call on 03000 214870 or 03000 214871.
Step 7: Gift Aid it
Gift Aid is a great way to increase the funds you raise, courtesy of the taxman. Ask all your donors to complete your sponsorship form with their full name and home address.
Then, if they are UK tax payers, ask them to tick the Gift Aid box. This will allow us to claim 25p for every £1 donated by that person at no extra cost to them! Simple, easy and effective.
It’s even easier via Just Giving. Sponsorship forms are available either on our fundraising web page or from the hospice by ringing 03000 214870 or 03000 214871.
Step 8: Online promotion
Online web pages are ideal for fundraising. You can use Facebook or YouTube to help flag up your events and afterwards to give feedback.
Add photographs and short homemade films. You can post links in emails or on your JustGiving sponsorship page.