Monthly fundraising ideas
Every month we give you three fundraising ideas to get you inspired to support our work. There's something for everyone – from quick and easy bite-sized ideas to bigger, more ambitious challenges.
Welcome to May! As this month sees International Family Day being celebrated on 15 May, this month’s fundraising ideas will be dedicated to celebrating family.
Government statistics from 2012 show that there are around 18.2 million families in the UK, of which 12.2 million consisted of a married couple with our without children, whilst 1.8 million children live in a household where parents are unmarried and cohabit. What do all these numbers mean? In essence, they tell us what we’ve always known - that there is no such thing as a “model “or “perfect” family. Families come in different shapes and sizes and we think this is something to be celebrated.
We know the impact that lack of stability in a family can have on the lives of children and young people, but we believe that diversity amongst families doesn’t necessarily have to mean adversity. Our Family Life Project explored children and young people’s experiences of family life, providing us with findings which inform the way we work and enable us to better support families to make their lives better. See how we worked with Natasha and Chris to help them when their families were having problems.
1. Family Games Night
Monopoly. Scrabble. Connect 4. Twister. These are all fun games which family members of all ages can enjoy and provide a great way of getting the family to spend time together without having to spend too much money - you don’t even have to leave the house. To make your games night into a fun money-spinner, invite your friends and their families to join in and pay to enter each game.
2. Family Sports Day
With the weather slowly improving, why not take advantage of the sunshine and get outdoors for a family sports day? Invite your friends and their families (not forgetting your own) along for a traditional sports day filled with egg and spoon races, wheelbarrow races, sack races, three-legged races and whatever else you can think of. To turn this fun day into a great fundraiser, you can ask each family to pay to participate in races, charge for snacks, or hold a BBQ during the day and charge for meals – the possibilities are endless. The great thing about this fundraiser is that you can do it in a local public park which means finding the space to do this should be quite easy. So what are you waiting for?
As an alternative, why not get involved in one of our family friendly sporting challenges, or even host your own?
3. Family Variety Night
The season for talent shows is upon us as we see the return of programmes such as The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent on our television screens. Why not take some inspiration from them and host your own variety night where parents, grandparents, children, aunts, uncles and even talented hamsters, cats and guinea pigs have the opportunity to showcase their talents? It can be as big or as small an event as you like – you could host it in your living room, a back garden, or a local community centre or music hall. To raise money, charge performers a fee to enter and spectators a fee to watch. You could also hold a raffle or an auction where people bid for a performer to provide their talent on another occasion. We would love to see what you come up with, so get in touch with your videos and pictures and show is your family’s got talent!
For fundraising advice and fundraising materials such as posters, sponsorship forms and bunting, please contact us on 0300 303 700 or send an email to supportercare@childrenssociety.org.uk.
We'd love to see pictures or videos of your fundraising activities, so please share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or Pinterest.
Don’t fancy any of these challenges? Why not check out our top fundraising ideas or suggest your own?