fundraising

Fundraising ideas

Organising a fundraiser can be great fun! You can make it as simple or involved as you like - from a Healthy Snack Food Drive, to a Trivia Night, to a big party with a door charge inviting everyone you know. Fundraisers can be an effective way to raise money and give a little something back to those supporting you.

The Trailwalker Team can supply "Proudly Supporting Oxfam Australia" or "We're Raising Funds for Oxfam Australia" logos and the official "Oxfam TRAILWALKER" logo to participating teams. These can be added to your team's own promotional material and event invitations for a professional look. Contact us if you would like to receive these by email.

Let people involved know exactly what you are doing, how much of a challenge it is, and why you are supporting Oxfam. They will feel more involved in what you are doing and who you are raising money for. Be creative, exploit your talents (or those of others) and use your skills.

A few ideas

Wine Drive Most people love their wine – raising money through selling wine can be easy (just don’t forget to pass the wine on). Contact us to find out more about selling Wine as a fundraiser.

Healthy Snack Food Drive A great way to fundraise. Works the same as a chocolate drive except all the snacks are healthy ones. Great for workplaces. Contact us to find out more about Healthy Snack Food Fundraising.

Swear Box Set up a swear box in your work, pub or at home, fine $1-2 for every $%*! uttered. You can adapt this idea to fining people for other things, like $2 for anyone who's late to a meeting at work.

Shave Your Hair Off Samantha from Amicus Avengers (AMP), last year’s Second Highest Fundraising Team, was sponsored $1200 for shaving her hair off

Dress Up for Trailwalker Two other team members from Amicus Avengers (AMP) were paid $1200 each to dress up as Batman and Cat Woman at the Start of the event. They looked fantastic!

Casual Day Talk your employer into letting you run casual days at work. If you have an office of 200 people and everyone pays $2 to wear casual clothes, you can make $400 with little effort.

Guessing Competition An oldie but a goodie. Fill a jar with lollies, coins, rubber bands or thumb tacks and charge per guess.

Bake Off Bake up some goodies and sell them at your workplace or social club.

Party Time! Invite everyone you know! Raise money through a door charge, raffles, entertainment or party games. Put on a top night and have yourself a good time while you fundraise.

Trash & Treasure You'll be surprised by how much unwanted items your team may have when all four of you throw it together. A garage sale or market stall could prove rather profitable.

Cookbooks Ask for 'donations' of tried and trusted recipes of old family favourites. Collate and print them to sell - you could even do it electronically to save on costs. Alternatively, ask participants to make a donation when they provide a recipe and give them a copy of the cookbook once you've organised all the contributions.

Cooking DVD Works the same as a cookbook but its all on film. You can be the Iron Chef or Gordon Ramsay.

Hosts With The Most Hold a dinner for friends and play waiters for the night. Show off your cooking skills.

Auction Put yourself under the hammer! Secure gifts through local sports stars, artists, performers to auction off. Put yourself or your friends up for auction.

Grow It Buy a packet of seeds, plant them and let them grow. Then sell the big plants for a bigger profit.

You've Got It, Flaunt It! Put on a talent quest or concert and sell tickets. Are any of your friends in a band? Can they act up a storm? Can they tell a joke or two? Ask them if they would lend their time.

Movie Night Organise a group of friends to see a movie and fundraise through charging a premium on the tickets! Choose a good movie that everyone will enjoy. Check out the photo above of Team Cash who raised $1004 from their movie night.

Trivia Night Still the most popular type of fundraising event. Have lots of fun with your friends and raise anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000. Get some great prizes donated and hold an auction and a raffle on the night to help raise more money. Make up your own trivia questions – have some fun!

Other Ideas karaoke competition, pub crawl, golf day, band night, mini golf, go-cart racing, lawn bowls, treasure hunt, greeting cards, raffle.

Looking for more ideas?

Be inspired by some of the fundraising techniques used by our past participants.

1. "Our team leader prepared a newsletter each week, 2-3 page colour pdf, with photos from training, how we were going, fundraising totals, details of our upcoming fundraising events and a link to donate to our team. We always got plenty of donations each week after we sent it. We sent 15 in total, one a week during training to let everyone see how much work we were putting in, and then a final newsletter once we had completed the event, we received lots of positive feedback"
2. "Gala event - had 4 bands play and asked for a $10 donation"
3. "I hosted a party. I received complimentary tickets through work and auctioned these off. Raised $400 in one night"
4. "Trivia Night proved effective, lots of friends turned up to sponsor and support good cause"
5. "A stall in our kids' school courtyard at pick-up time"
6. "Group emails with information about where the money would be spent, and news on how our team was preparing for the event"
7. "Golf Day, raffles, work lotto, letters to local businesses & associates"
8. "Had a movie night, a band night, and a few sausage sizzles"
9. "We held a poker night, Christmas party and fundraising BBQ at work"
10. "Walking around the office with the receipt booklet just before Christmas - as people love giving money to charity around this time of year"
11. "Stickers placed on colleague’s computer screens."
12. "Email to everyone at work with online link to the salary sacrifice scheme"
13. "Selling cakes. A work morning tea. A swear jar."
14. "Included a story in our weekly company mail-out to clients"
15. "Sent letters to businesses requesting donations or sponsorship"
16. "Group email to colleagues with information on Trailwalker and Oxfam's work"
17. "Sweepstakes on how long it would take us"
18. "Cocktail party with requests for donations"
19. "Group email to friends outlining the challenge and effort required"
20. "We made up a flyer and sent it to all friends, family, colleagues"
21. "Sports tipping"