Fundraising for charities doesn’t have to be all about organizing races or getting someone to sit in a bath of beans. There are plenty of easy ways to raise money for your chosen charity that everyone can join in with and that can be a lot of fun, too.
Of course, the best type of fundraiser is one where a lot of people join in. But, unless you are at the heart of your community and involved in everything from the parish council to the church, PTA and Scouts, it can be quite difficult to get enough support for your fundraising event. However, if you work in an office or anywhere where you have a few colleagues it can be easy to raise a few pounds for your chosen charity.
The important thing is to appreciate that everyone you work with will have their own views on supporting charities. They might already make regular donations to their favourite charity and may even have feelings against donating to a particular charity. For example, some people do not like to donate to large charities, fearing that their money will all go into some faceless corporate body and not actually do much to help in a way that can be easily seen.
However, in response to this common concern, the RSPCA has come up with its Choices website, which lists projects that you can raise funds for. People can choose to fundraise to support a particular species (from rehoming cats to caring for wild animals), or to pay for veterinary care, or support those projects deemed most in need. You set up a fundraising page setting out your name and details of why you want to support that particular project, and then set about creating your fundraising event.
In an office or other workplace environment there are a few events that you can arrange quite easily. Always get the approval of management and consider arranging the event for lunchtime so as not to encroach on anyone’s work time. You can print off sponsorship forms, posters and leaflets from the RSPCA Choices website, and you can also link your fundraising page to your social network sites for other friends to support you.
Doing something for the entire working day or shift is a good idea. Remember when you were little and you used to do things like a sponsored silence for 24 hours? This is a similar sort of idea, though a silence might not be very conducive to good business if you work in a call centre! You could, though, be sponsored for standing up for your entire shift, or to not say a particular word for the whole shift – you sacrifice a percentage of the sponsorship money every time you say the forbidden word.
Another easy way to raise money at work is to all pay a small amount for wearing jeans to work or to dress up in a particular theme – such as children’s TV characters or famous figures throughout history.
If your boss is up for it, arrange to spend a day in the car park offering charity car washes, either to the public or to your colleagues.
Finally, an office sweepstake is a great way to raise money. Each person pays a set amount (say £1) and gets to choose a time or date, depending on what the sweepstake is about. The person with the time or date closest to the chosen event wins a prize (the prize can be anything, from a selection of chocolate bars to a bottle of wine – see if your boss will cough up!). The event could be the arrival of a colleague’s baby (date, time or weight), a much-anticipated event in the media or even what time an habitually late colleague will arrive on a Monday morning.
