An A to Z of fund-raising ideas

A
 
Aerobics Marathon: Organise a mass aerobics session at a local school, church hall or community centre. Participants could be sponsored and/or be charged to enter. Advice from a trained aerobics instructor is advisable if you can't find an instructor to lead the session for a nominal fee.
Alternative Transport: Get sponsored to find different ways to get to and from school/work each day for a week. You could be sponsored for the number of days you succeed or for the number of different methods you find e.g. walking backwards, cycling, skateboarding, roller skating etc.
Art Exhibition and Sale: Ask local artists or galleries to donate pictures (originals or numbered prints) or to donate a percentage of the proceeds of their own art sale.

Afternoon Tea Party 

Auction of promises

Apple Dunking

Archery

Arm Wrestling

B

Bed push from pub to pub

Bring & Buy Sales

Baby Walk/Toddle: Organise a sponsored walk or toddle for parents and babies. This can be combined with best dressed baby competition, toddler fancy dress or toddlers and teddies picnic.
Bake Sale: Not just cakes - include preserves, guess-the-weight-of-the-cake competition, cake tombola and refreshments.
Beard Trim: If you have a beard or moustache, get friends and colleagues to sponsor you to have it shaved off.
Bike Ride: Work out a safe scenic route and arrange a sponsored bike ride.
Blind Auction: Auction an item by inviting bidders to write down their pledges. Highest pledge wins. This is best held over a period of time e.g. a week to attract more offers. Why not ask managers at your workplace to donate their time to clean cars or do shopping?
Book Fair: Collect unwanted books from friends and supporters then hold a book sale. You could tie this in with the T Day theme and run a sale exclusively of children’s books.

C

Car Washing: Offer to wash friends cars for a small fee. Ask your organisation if you can  do a car wash in the car park.
Car Boot Sale
Cheese and Wine Evening.
Chocoholic Challenge: Give up chocolate for a set period of time (e.g. a month) and get friends and colleagues to sponsor you for every day you go without.
Coffee Morning: Invite friends to a cakes and coffee morning. 
Coin Collection: Have a collecting box in your own office or place of work.
Coin Tower: Hold a collection of coins and see what height you can reach. It's best to stack them in piles of several inches tall and total up the heights of each pile.
Coin Trail: Hold a collection of coins and record the distance the coin trail covers. This could be an annual event with attempts to break your own records.

Computer games marathon

Cream cracker marathon. Challenge people to eat as many dry cream crackers in 3 minutes as they can.
Cycling: Get sponsored to cycle to work on T Day.

D

Dance-athon: Organize an all day event (e.g. disco) where participants are sponsored for every hour they stay on the dance floor.
Darts Tournament: Charge an entry fee for a knock out tournament; encourage local pubs or clubs to organize teams.
Dog Walk: Organize an interesting route for dogs and their owners to walk around, with all participants sponsored.
Drawing Competition: Get children to draw or paint a picture on a set theme (e.g. T shirts), and get parents to pay an entry fee for each one submitted; the pictures can be judged.
Doughnut Eating (no licking of lips!)

Duck Race

E

Eating baked beans with a cocktail stick. The winner is the first person to finish their plate (charge an entrance fee and provide a prize). 

Egg and spoon race

Egg Drop. A T Day variation on the traditional egg and spoon race. Teams of two pay to play catch with an egg. taking one step back after every successful catch; the team to move the furthest distance apart without dropping the egg wins a prize. If you don't want to waste eggs, use a similarly weighted and sized ball and make sure each competing pair has a judge watching them.

F

Face Painting: Requires face paints and an artistic nature. Charge parents for painting children’s faces as clowns, animals, or other characters.
Fast: Go without food for a day while others sponsor you to do so.
Food Marathon: choose your favourite food, then get sponsorship to eat as much of it as you can in a set period of time. T Day accept no responsibility for what this does to your diet!
Football Match: Organise a friendly soccer match or tournament with companies, local villages, schools. Ask the teams to get sponsored per goal.
Fill Smartie Tubes with coins.

Fine Box. This can be a swear box or a variation on the theme with a ban on certain words or jargon. 

G

Game shows based on TV quizzes

Give up a vice

Go-Kart Racing: Arrange an event at a go-karting track. Ask people to make a donation on top of the entry fee, and get sponsorship per lap.
Guess the Number/Weight: put a quantity of items (e.g. sweets, screws, biscuits) in a jar, and ask people to pay to guess how many there are, or how heavy the jar is. The winner gets a prize, or the contents of the jar. Guessing the weight of a cake is one option.

H

Haircut: If you normally have long hair (women and men!) get sponsored to have it cut short. 

I

International food-dinner party. Host a themed dinner party at your house for friends. 
Ice Cream Eating: Get sponsored to eat as many different flavours in as short a time as possible.
Indoor Car Boot Sale
Instrument: If you are musical, get sponsored for playing an instrument for as long as you can or for every instrument you can play a tune on. Try to get extra sponsorship for novelty instruments e.g. producing a recognizable tune on comb and paper, playing a metal watering can like a trumpet etc.

J

Joke-a-thon – not for  the faint hearted!

Jigsaw Marathon 

Jewellery Making/Selling 

Jelly Races – work on the same principle as an egg and spoon race, but much more entertaining for spectators!

Juggling Marathon: Charge people to see how long they can keep three balls in the air; give a prize to the winner.


K

Kite flying 

Keep Fit 

Knitathon 

Karaoke Night: Sell tickets for an evening of awful singing at a pub or private venue; you could get people to donate money to stop their friends from singing or invite local companies/pubs to send teams (for an entry fee).


L

Limbo Dancing: Organise a competition for participants to see how low they can go; charge an entry fee. 
Lorry Pulling: Requires loan of truck from a haulage company. May have safety issues so check with local authorities. Ask teams to get sponsored per foot that they can pull an empty lorry on a level car park.

Leap Frog

Line-Dancing marathon

Lawn Mowing in return for a donation

M

Mystery auction - where everyone attending brings a pre-wrapped gift for auction
(usually with a specified minimum-level gift value of say £10)

Mastermind – why not organise your own version at your workplace or school

Marbles and Flowerpot Challenge: Put a clay flowerpot upside down on a tray. You need a supply of marbles which will fit through the drainage hole in the flowerpot. Charge an entry fee for each person to try to put as many marbles as possible through the drainage hole using only a spoon (not allowed to use the free hand) in one minute. The one who puts the most marbles through the hole wins a prize. It is harder than it sounds!
Matchbox Challenge: Ask children to collect as many different items as possible that will all fit into a matchbox; sponsorship can be raised per item collected.

Marshmallow Eating marathon.

Murder Mystery Dinner. Invite a group of friends and request donations for T Day.

N

Name the Doll/Teddy: Ask people to guess the name of a teddy bear; the winner gets a prize.
No smoking day – sponsored.

Noodle sucking contest.

O

Open Garden – If you have a garden that you are proud of, why not open your garden to the public and charge an admission price.

P

Pancake Races: Shrove Tuesday is the traditional day for this, but you hold a race at any time of year. You require some frying pans, some pancakes and competitors/teams who can be charged an entry fee. Hold the race in several heats, noting the team's times and keeping a league table. Teams can pay another fee to have another go and get a better time. This could be held as a relay race or even over some obstacles.
Plastic Duck Race: Will require permission of local authorities and river authority. You will need a net to catch the plastic ducks after the finishing line (to prevent pollution). Requires budget to buy plastic ducks, but they can be reused annually. Paint numbers on the side of each duck (waterproof pen). Entrants buy numbered ducks which are then dropped into a nearby river or brook; the first to cross the finishing line wins a prize for its owner.
Pooh Sticks: Have Pooh sticks races using small sticks (collect ones which have already fallen off of bushes/trees) under a bridge. Have it as a knockout competition, each heat is the best-of-three tries. Charge an entry fee.
Portrait/Caricature Painting: If you know an artist, get them to agree to draw or paint members of the public at a fundraising fair.

Pub Quiz.

Pool Competition.

Q

Quizzes – We have a new quiz for 2006, written specifically for  t-day that can be easily used on the day as fun way of raising some more money. Please ask us for a copy.
R

Rounders tournament

Readathon

Rowing machine marathon

S


Scalextric Grand Prix

Services & Goods Auction/Raffle: Get local businesses or individuals to donate a service e.g. a free haircut, free photographic session, free window cleaning session etc or some goods e.g. a bottle of wine, bath goodies. These services can be raffled or auctioned at a special evening.
Slim: Get sponsored per pound that you lose (or gain if you're underweight) over a certain period.
Slow Bicycle Race: Charge an entry fee and award a prize for people to see how slowly they can complete a very short course. Really good entrants an practically make a bike stand still. Hold this is a series of heats.
Snooker/Pool Tournament: Charge an entry fee for a knock out tournament (each heat is best-of-three matches), perhaps with a final for which you might charge admission. Or get pubs and clubs to send teams or individuals who are sponsored per ball potted; sponsorship money is donated. Between matches or outside of the snooker/pool room, serve refreshments. For a one-day event, have a league table and everyone plays everybody else (will need several tables e.g. hire of a social club's pool room).
Sponsored Silence: Almost anything can be sponsored, but this is particularly challenging for children or chatterbox adults. Go a set time (e.g. a morning [children] or day [adults]) without talking.
Sponsored Walk: Set a route of known distance around local streets or in a nearby park and get sponsored for the whole distance or per mile/kilometer/lap walked.
Stocks: Get some "willing" volunteers to face members of the public, who pay for wet sponges (safer than custard pies) to throw at the stocks. If you can get a popular authority figure (local policeman, school headmaster etc) to be in the stocks, so much the better.

T

Three-legged Race: Get sponsorship for a three legged hobble to work or organise a sponsored three legged race. 
Tiddly-winks Tournament: Charge a small entry fee for people or teams to see how many winks (counters) they can get into a glass or circle, with a prize going to one with the highest score at the end of the event. Alternatively, hold it as a knockout competition (best-of-three matches) or league table.
Tombola/Instant Win Raffle: A popular fundraiser at fairs and other events, including coffee mornings/garden parties. Use a set of two-part cloakroom tickets. One part (folded up) put in a bucket. The corresponding part (the reclaim part) of every ticket which ends in 0 or 5 is stuck to a small prize on the stall. It could be themed e.g. plant tombola, teddy tombola, pet-care item tombola. If possible, ask stores to donate small prizes. Sell tickets for a fixed price each. 
Tub of Icky Stuff: Find a willing, or hapless, volunteer to sit in an old bath outdoors (a child's wading pool is best - it is easily cleaned) full of icky stuff. They should be wearing swimming costume/trunks or shorts and t-shirt. Get sponsorship for the number of minutes or hours they stay in it. Suitable icky stuff: cold custard, cold porridge, baked beans (a store may be able to provide damaged cans of these at reduced price), used dishwashing water with old teabags and vegetable peelings floating in it.
Tug of War: Organise a tug-of-war knockout tournament (each heat is best-of-three) or one-day league table contest between teams from local businesses, pubs or clubs (or school sixth-formers), charging an entry fee and giving a prize to the winners.

Trolley push.

Twister-athon.

U

Unicycle racing (okay a bit obscure), but you try and think of a fund-raising idea beginning with “u”.

V

Videoathon

W

Wages donation – pledge an hour (or more) of your salary on the 14th May to T Day.

Welly throwing.

Window cleaning – in return for a donation to T Day.

Wine tasting – social evening or a test your knowledge (blind tasting)

Worst holiday snapshots / videos competition

X

Y

Yo Yo Challenge

Z