If you are passionate about supporting charitable causes, you may already have taken part in some fundraising events, such as sponsored walks/runs, fairs, coffee mornings and so on. But if you want to do more and put some of your own fundraising ideas into action, where do you start?
Firstly, think about your chosen charity: is it chiefly concerned with children, health, animals? Is it a national charity like the RSPCA or a local organisation like a cats’ rescue centre? As long as your chosen organisation is a registered charity, that is otherwise free from official funding, they are sure to be glad of any support you can offer and shouldn’t have too much red tape for you to untangle before you can start fundraising.
You should contact your chosen charity in the initial stages of thinking about your fundraising ideas, to check whether they have any guidelines or advice to offer, or whether they need any particular forms to be completed. It’s also a good idea to ask for how you can prove that the money you raise will be going to their charity (they might send posters or a letter confirming that you are raising funds for them through your event, which you can display to assure potential donors that their money will go to a legitimate charity).
Then think about who your potential supporters could be: local schools are often a good source of fundraising because if you can offer to give your time in educating the children as to the aims of the charity you are supporting, they can be encouraged to take part in an event to fundraise for it (e.g. a sponsored bounce on a bouncy castle, with supporters offering to pay 1p per bounce, say).
If you have no specialist knowledge of a particular charity, but know that you could raise funds for it through your church, school or place of work, you could see if someone from the charity could come and give a talk before your fundraising ideas to inspire people to donate.
You could organise a large event like a ball with money raised through ticket sales and through an auction of promises (e.g. you could get local organisations to donate services free of charge, for example a local solicitor might offer to prepare a Will for free for the winning bidder in the auction).
Or you could keep things on a smaller scale and organise a coffee morning or movie night with your friends, each of whom could donate a small amount to your charity.
Never be afraid to ask local businesses to lend their support: many are pleased to be associated with charitable events and to be involved in the local community, and will in any event benefit from some free advertising!
Claire Tomzyc, greatly involved in charities and animal lover.
Could you add another link please? fundraising to http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/getfundraising
Cheers!