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Alternative Gift
Are you getting married or celebrating a special birthday? Instead of collecting an array of unwanted gifts, why not make a difference by asking people to donate to International Alert instead?
Apple Bobbing
Try something old school; charge people to put their faces in cold water in an attempt to win a delicious Granny Smith. Who wouldn't want to take part and pay for that?
Are You Taking the Peace?
Join International Alert at one of our comedy nights where we bring laughter and fundraising together under one roof. For more information head on over to our events page [1] and find out about our next comedy night.
Auction of Promises
Instead of auctioning your unwanted goods, why not auction off your time, labour or unique talents to the highest bidder. Rope in your colleagues; auction off their talents. It’s an auction with a difference!
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Barbeque
Hold a barbeque and charge a small admission fee for neighbours, friends and family to attend. You’ll get to enjoy some good company and food, whilst raising some much needed money for Alert.
Beard Growing
Why not take a tip from one of our fundraisers; Jonathan, who promised to grow his beard in return for donations for Alert and raised over £150! As long as people kept donating…the beard kept growing!
Be Shameless!
Talk about your fundraising efforts and the reasons why, at any given opportunity. Don’t be afraid to get everyone Involved.
Bingo
Get creative and make your own bingo cards and invite your friends around for a few games. Charge them a pound a ticket. If you’re giving out prizes make it small like sweets or promises of eternal friendship...what more could they want?
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Cake Sale
Let the inner master chef loose….get baking and sell your cakes on to your friends, work colleagues or even random strangers.
Clothes Swap Night
Bring your friends together to swap clothes – a night in shopping! No changing room trauma or checkout queues, and best of all an environmentally and purse friendly way to shop. Donate the proceeds of each sale to Alert!
Club Night, Gig, Karaoke Session or Pub Quiz:
Approach a local bar, pub or club to see if they will let you hold an event there or even better see if they already hold events and ask them if the proceeds on one evening can be donated to International Alert. On a Sunday or Monday night they are often looking to bring in more customers and this could be just the ticket.
Cold Turkey
Give up something for charity. Whether it's smoking, drinking, chocolate, overspending, even talking on the phone too much…there are endless possibilities.
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Dance Marathon
Get people to sponsor you for every five minutes of boogying you manage - or for every song you shimmy to.
Dinner Party
Invite your family and friends round for dinner and charge them a small entrance fee. So what are you waiting for? Whip up your favourite dish and showcase your amazing culinary skills.
Dress Down or Up
Non-uniform or dress down day: At school or at work, everyone loves an excuse to be suit or uniform free! Avoid wearing your suit or uniform for the day…and make a donation to Alert to do so! Or choose a theme for everyone to follow and be creative.
Dry Cornflakes/Cream Cracker Eating Contest
Charge a small fee to enter and move back to avoid the spraying of crumbs.
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Easter Egg Hunt
Offer to look after your neighbours/ friends/ relative’s children for an afternoon – in exchange for a donation of course – and plan an Easter egg/ sweet hunt in the garden to keep them amused.
eBay
Register yourself on eBay [2] and auction off your old, unwanted items. Kick back and relax whilst you watch the items go up in price and eventually seeing them sold!
Email
Use to invite and send reminders to friends and to get them to forward it onto their friends. Have a fundraising page? Put the link to it on your email signature then no one has an excuse not to donate!
Ever ready
Keep your eyes open to opportunities and your sponsorship form handy (if it’s appropriate).
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Facebook
Facebook is a great way to reach out to all your friends and let them know about your fundraising efforts. It’s great to keep people updated and to constantly remind them to donate!
Fill Smartie Tubes with Coins
An ingenious way to fundraise. Why not try passing Smartie tubes out to your friends, family and colleagues and ask them to fill them with spare change – ideally with £1 coins! Then collect them back in - you'll be amazed at how much you will raise this way. Also, you could empty the Smarties from their tubes into a jar and run a 'Guess the Number' contest. That’s two simple fundraising ideas for the price of one!
Film Showing
Stage a screening in your own home – maybe you can choose a film theme; horror, crime, comedy, maybe even Johnny Depp? Just charge people an entrance fee.
Fine Box
Implement it at home or at work…..every time someone swears they must donate money as a penalty. Why not try it with lateness, not tidying up etc.
Football Match
Set up a football match between friends, colleagues or even rival companies and ask each team to pay a small fee to enter.
Fundraising Pack
Request [3] our fundraising pack to help you get started!
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Games
Monopoly, chess tournament, team trivial pursuit, scrabble or even buckaroo – each person must pay to enter…..winners get a small prize.
Garden Party
Get making those cucumber sandwiches, dust off the picnic tables and crack open some Pimms. Charge everyone a small entrance fee and to be a little cheeky, organise a collection during the party.
Greek Night
Yasou! Toga’s, olives, cheese, wine and music. Ask people to pay an entrance fee to attend such a great party!
Guess the…
Number of sweets in a jar; the Nobel Peace prize winner– guess about whatever you want for a donation!
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Halloween Party
Get your friends to dress the part and run a fancy dress competition with a small prize for the winner. All guests should pay a small entrance fee to attend.
Head Shaving
Long flowing locks…who needs them really? Shave it all off in return for donations. Remember it will grow back! Or if you aren't feeling brave, get sponsored to shave the head of a hairy (willing) mate.
Highland Games
Tug of war in kilts, tossing the caber in kilts, throwing the hammer in kilts, any game you can think of…in kilts. Charge all entrants a small fee.
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Ice-cream Eating
Get sponsored to eat as much ice cream as possible…make it interesting and see how many flavours you can eat in one day. Get people to donate money and guess the number of flavours you manage to find and eat!
Inca Trail
Try something totally different…tackle the Inca Trail Trek, just like one of our fundraisers Claire who told us it was a ‘4 day 3 night trail’ and ‘it was absolutely amazing’. Not only do you experience something new, you get to make a difference by fundraising for Alert.
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Jewellery Collection
Ask everyone you know to donate their unwanted jewellery. Auction off the best items and sell the remainder at a car boot sale or use as raffle prizes.
Jumble Sale
Dig around under your bed and in your wardrobe for anything you can sell and organise a jumble sale. Try convincing your friends to do the same and ask them to donate a percentage of their profits to International Alert.
JustGiving [4]
Create your own free ‘virtual’ sponsor form. It only takes five minutes. Add a photo, talk about what you’re doing and don’t forget to mention that you’re fundraising for International Alert. Once you’ve created you’re fundraising page….promote it far and wide from your email signature to facebook!
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Karaoke
Rent a karaoke machine and hold an event in your local pub, or front room. Sell tickets, or make it a competition and charge people to enter.
Kiss-a-thon
Sponsored kissing….sound like fun? Whether you go for quantity or duration it is up to you...
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Litter Picking
Here’s your chance to do two great things at the same time! Clean up your local park, beach or kids' playground and I’m sure people would more than willing to pay you for doing it. This is a way to help your local community while raising money for peace.
Luncheon
Invite everyone in your workplace, school or street to a grand lunch (for a small fee, obviously). A great way to get to know everyone and to let everyone know what you are doing and that you are raising much needed funds for peace.
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Marathon Events
Put on a marathon table tennis, aerobics, line dancing or even a badminton session. Those who want to take part pay a small fee. Get the competition started and see who has the most endurance!
Matched Donation
Does your company have match giving scheme? Not sure? Ask them if they would match penny for penny the amount you raise. It doubles your fundraising in seconds!
Memory Meal
Transport yourself back to the 60s, 50s or the 40s. Dress up in era related clothing and try and tackle cooking some of dishes of that decade.
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Never Give Up
Keep plugging to everyone that you are fundraising for International Alert; tell them more about us and what we do. Don’t be afraid to ask for donations.
New Year's Eve Party
Obviously makes sense to hold this on New Year’s Eve but you make this as big and extravagant as you want or small and elegant - in your front room or in a mammoth marquee it doesn’t matter...charge people an entry fee for what will be the best New Year’s party of course!
No Smoking Week
Give up smoking for a great cause, and who knows this might be the start of giving up smoking all together. Get people to sponsor you to do it.
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Organise events within events
Hold a raffle at your party or a silent auction at your luncheon? It’s a great way to top up your fundraising from the night.
Office Collection Day
Place a collection tin on your desk telling people that you’re raising money for International Alert. Loudly remind your colleagues that it's for a good cause.
Odd Job Days
Lawn-mowing, DIY, carrying shopping, walking dogs... offer your services in the neighbourhood - no job too small. Make it fun and do it in a costume…it will get you notice and might give you the chance to talk about why you are fundraising.
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Pancake Day Party
Who doesn’t like pancakes? Hold a Shrove Tuesday party for all your family and friends….charge them for the benefit of trying your endless supply of delicious pancakes. Hold a pancake-tossing competition.
Party
Hold a; 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90’s, movie, international, Halloween or no theme party!
Picnics
Sell tickets in advance; and get creative with the picnic food that you can create from a tight budget!
Plunge for Peace
Experience the thrill of jumping from up to 10,000 feet, all while supporting International Alert. Raise the minimum sponsorship required and the jump won’t cost you a penny! Just like Dominic who told us; ‘the sensation just before the jump….nothing compares. Once the 'chute opens you glide for a while and take in the views. This was also a great way to get talking to people about International Alert: "You're jumping out of a plane, why?!" "Well, there's this great charity I'm fundraising for..." to find out how to get involved visit our events page [5].
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Quiz Night
Organise one yourself, or ask a local pub or bar that already has one planned if they would be willing to donate a percentage of the takings to International Alert.
Quiff Competition
See how high you can get it? How much hair spray and gel will you need? Everyone must pay a small fee to enter.
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RAG’s (Raise and Give)
Still at university? Nominate International Alert as the charity that your university RAG supports and fundraises for. St George’s University and Royal Holloway have kindly chosen Alert as one of the charities they have will be supporting in 2011.
Rowing
Get sponsored to row on a rowing machine. Or why not try the real thing like two of our supporters; Will Gibbs and Tom Samuels. They plan to sail around the UK whilst at the same time raising money for Alert, they hope to raise at least a pound for every mile they sail.
‘It promises to be an exciting and challenging trip but also affords the opportunity of seeing Britain from the sea. International Alert dealt with international issues which both of us could engage with…hopefully our trip can raise awareness amongst our friends as well as raise money.’
Radio Campaign
Get in touch with your local radio station, tell them about your fundraising and they may broadcast a segment about your fundraising efforts…..don’t forget to mention International Alert!
Run for Peace
Alert has charity places in some of the big running events in the UK, get in touch and apply for one of those places. To find out more head on over to our events page [5].
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Street Collections
There are a number of legalities and restrictions. Check with your local council to see if it is possible, and where you can hold collections. Then get in contact with the fundraising team [6] and we can send you an Alert branded tin or bucket!
Strawberry and Cream Tea Party
Hold the party in your garden on a nice summers day and charge for entry.
Sponsored Silence
Do you think your family and friends would be willing to pay good money to shut you up for a day? A sponsored silence is really easy to organise, and would cost you nothing, expect the inability to speak of course.
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Tea for Peace
Why not throw a tea party for your colleagues? Break out the cupcakes and finger sandwiches!
Twister-a-thon
Get sponsored to play an all-day game of Twister with your friends or complete strangers. Why not do it somewhere public (as long as you have permission to do so) - your embarrassment is always worth a few extra pounds.
Twitter
Let all your followers know about what you’re doing and how they can donate. Keep them updated with any new developments and tell them how your fundraising is going.
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Unwanted and Unused Gifts
Ask around….see what people have lying around that they no longer want and use, see if they would be willing to donate them so that you can sell on.
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Vegetarian Evening
Cook your best veggie recipes, invite everyone you want and ask them to pay a small admission fee to get the privilege to taste the great creations you’ll cook up!
Video-a-thon
Screen lots of classic movies back-to-back for 24 hours. Print schedules and hand them out to your friends and family, who will hopefully turn up and pay to watch their favourites. Offer a discounted price to those who can go the distance and watch all the movies in the 24 hour slot.
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Website
Does your work place have a website? An Intranet? Ask them if you could have a bit of space to talk about your fundraising efforts and International Alert.
Wine and Cheese Party
Mulled wine, homemade wine or brought wine with cheese of course. Throw in some games such as; guess the wine’s country/ year etc. Charge admission.
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Xmas fair/panto/party
'Tis the season to make money! Get out the mistletoe for a big Christmas party, or sell home-made gifts at a Christmas fair.
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Young and Old
Organise a big family reunion…invite everyone. Ask for donations, and depending on how competitive your family is they may start to vie with each other over who gives you the most!
Yes Day
The one day where you say yes to everyone's demands (within reason!). Ask people to sponsor you to do so. This could get very interesting.
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Zany Events
Get people to throw a custard pie at you, eat jelly with chopsticks, how many marshmallows can you fit in your mouth, be put in the stocks for a day….the list is endless!
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email the Fundraising Team [6] or call us on +44 (0)20 7627 6800