Having recently spent two years fundraising for an expedition to Borneo, here are some observations to help you along the way. Fundraising can be both as a team (sponsored walks, letters to local organisations such as the Rotary Club) or individual (having a table at a craft fayre, a Saturday job, or an event). Team fundraising is great because the team get to know one another and bond, share the effort and everyone has fun along the way. Individual fundraising could be more lucrative but all the hard work falls on you. Either way, fundraising is well worth it.
The biggest fundraising successes were the less obvious ones. Everyone knows about the cake sales and the car boots, but ask yourself what makes you different? Are you a rower or footballer? You could ask the club if you can use the club house to run an event, ideally for free. Does the club house have a bar? The club can run the bar (check legal drinking ages) and they take the profits from that, you then take the profits from your event and both parties have gained something from the event.
Events are good for two reasons: they raise the profile of you and your school and also they raise bigger amounts of money in a short space of time. Think about repeating your event several times: if you set up a bingo in the community hall, why not repeat the event once a month for six months? This means you’re doing less organising as you have the bingo kit already organised, keep all your raffle tickets, mugs, squash to sell, tea bags, tea towels, etc. from one event to another… all in a box ready to go. Remember to keep a note of the costs, so you know what you have made.
Add-ons really bring in the cash. If you host a quiz night/bingo, ask people to donate to the raffle, sell biscuits and squash for the kids and tea and coffee for the adults. You could even ask some of the people who attend to bring a cake which can be cut up to sell. If lots of cakes are donated, you could raffle the cakes off at the event. Other successful add-ons can include inviting the local Usborne Books rep, or even the Avon/Body Shop local rep. Negotiate with them to give you a percentage of their profits, or even just a donation to your fund or a raffle prize for the evening. They make money and so do you.
Staff in school are often overworked and tired….how about you treat them to a nice breakfast? Ask the lead teacher on your trip to send an email out to the staff to place a breakfast order for before school one day. Offer a very simple breakfast: a choice of pastries with tea, coffee or a hot chocolate and then head to the supermarket the night before to buy the correct number of pastries. Deliver the orders round the school, to the teacher at their desk, before registration starts in the morning – they will be really grateful and will gladly pay for this. We also found that if there is no fixed price, people tend to donate more. Remember to take off the costs and work out your profits.
Apart from your events, consider making a Go Fund Me account. This is a high-profile way of asking people for donations, with a safe online payment page. This is convenient because your donors can simply click on a link and donate to your cause. Even more importantly, sign up for Easyfundraising! This is a cash back system where online brands donate a percentage to your fund and then you take the money out of the account at a later date. Ask people to sign up on your behalf and then your weekly online supermarket shop can start to bring in money – small amounts at a time, but over a year or two this can be significant.
There are plenty more fundraising ideas online; have a brainstorm with your friends and family, see what you come up with, then refer to the STC portal, make a plan, get organised and off you go! Have fun!