What is fundraising

What is Fundraising:

Fundraising is an activity people do to raise money for a certain cause. This cause could be anything. Whether it be a charity helping those less fortunate, a project you could be working on, maybe you just need some more money, but either way the goal is to ‘raise funds’.

There are many different ways to fundraise. Some may require using skills, some may require an investment of money first. The bottom line is, there is no perfect way to fundraise. No way to guarantee you take money, as methods will fluctuate with circumstances.

For example: arranging an event where you’re booking live bands, and spending money on decoration. It will be a lot more effort and may not reap the same results if you are trying to raise less than £200. Maybe selling your artwork at 50% of the usual cost would be a more appropriate route to take with this goal. On the flip side, if you are trying to make upwards of £1,000 then unfortunately a bake sale just won’t cut it.

The Students’ Union is actually a charity itself. Take a look through this handbook to see what we advise for fundraising, what different methods work, and to see if we can help you at all.

Professional ways of fundraising

Activity

It goes without saying that sport is a big part of many people’s lives. It also is important to know that some of us are terrible at it, that’s why we leave it to the professionals. Many people love to see individuals that aren’t good at sport, competing. Soccar aid is a huge hit every year as people turn up to watch non-athletes attempt to take part in sport. Some fail and some succeed, wither way it’s good watching.

For Comic and Sport relief many celebrities have taken part in: Danceathons, Hiking up mountains, or Swimming the English Channel. It’s always great to see somebody come out of their comfort zone and attempt a sport they don’t usually do in the name of fundraising. Why not try challenging somebody who is good at sport to a match? People may pay to see you succeed, they may bet against you, they may even pay to see you fail, but the most important part of that is that they have paid…

Skills

People have been known to put their skills to the absolute limits in order to gain money. A common thing Choirs do is a 24-hour Singathon. This works on the same idea that people will pay to see you go through a difficult situation. Sometimes pushing your skills to the limits is the way to make people turn their heads. Radio 1 DJ’s Scott Mills and Chris Stark have on more than one occasion done a 24- hour broadcast on the Radio. With enough advertisement you could really generate interest in doing a marathon of a certain task. Just remember to know your limits. Don’t push yourself too hard, you come first.