Help Please, I Need Ideas

SkintBrideToBe

My mum and her friend are trying to start fundraising for a friends of theirs 9 year old son.
He has a terminal illness and is Elvis Mad!! So they are trying to raise the cash to take him to Graceland this year.

They have a sponsered walk arranged so far, but does anyone have more ideas to good fundraising ideas???

Any ideas would be much appreciated xxxx

gingin_2

Whatever they do, try and get the local newspaper involved. I am sure lots of local companies might want to chip in, especially if there is a follow up article once the total has been raised.

Lots of good luck to them and the little lad is in my thoughts.

Edited to add - how about dressing as Elvis on the sponsored walk

sassygirl_2

You could write to lots of local companies, explaing the circumstances etc etc and ask for a donation towards an auction. The put it in your local paper and hold an auction night

Sunshine12

Raffle/Auction

How many sweets in the jar

Ask various companies for donations (as someone else said) and get them to allow staff to have a dress down day if they pay for the priviledge.

Not sure if you can perhaps put something on facebook asking for online donations? Not sure how it works...

You might get lots of ideas on here

http://www.ideasfundraising.co.uk/

Daft_Pegasus

Why not speak the the boy's school? Presumably they know about his illness and may be happy to have a non-uniform day where each pupil pays 50p/£1 to raise funds for him.

Not quite sure how well this would work but what about an Elvis themed karoke night? If nothing else I'm sure the boy would enjoy hearing loads of Elvis songs being sung.

It's also probably worth speaking to the hospital/ward where he's being treated - the staff there will almost certainly help out and turn up to events.

Does he have a favourite football team or a local one? I'd write to them asking for help either advertising the event (he might be able to get onto the pitch at half time and advertise an event you've organised) or they may donate items which you can ebay to raise funds.

If you organise an event write a simple standard letter asking for help then walk around local businesses (restaurants, hairdressers, supermarket's, etc) and hand deliver them but try to speak to the person in charge in each place - don't just post them through the letterbox as they'll probably end up in the bin.

Daft_Pegasus

Also ensure that everyone connected with it puts details in their facebook/twitter pages and set up an account on one of the donation sites. Put details for the donation sites on facebook/twitter.

If you're a memeber of any forums such as this one email the people in charge and see if they'll allow you to post the details here. Also they may advertise it in their regular emails.

Mme.Hibou

They could always get in touch with The Make A Wish Foundation (UK) http://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/

gingin_2

Lydia82 wrote: »

They could always get in touch with The Make A Wish Foundation (UK) http://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/

Make A Wish is great, but if there are people willing and able to raise the money themselves, then surely it's better to do it independently and leave Make A Wish to children who haven't got strong support, like this little boy. Plus, it must be quite rewarding for SkintBride's mum to be doing it herself.

brians_daughter

we have been in a simular situ about 3 years ago. This is what we did

1. contact local paper, make them aware of the little guy, his condition and what you are trying to do- invite them down

2. Contact his school, expalin, ask if you can do a fundraising day ie all the kids who want to bring in a toy and £1 and can buy another lids toy for £1 - the money goes in the fund for the little guy

3. Anyone have a 'local' pub? we had BBQs, race nights, raffles, auctions.

4. Local football/rugby club and radio station. Ask local club if they coudl provide signed shirts/balls etc to raffle/auction off at your pub event - explain you will be inviting local press.

4. print leaflets go into local town/village saying what you are doing and why, ask for donations. we got vouchers, cash donations,shop items, even local car dealer/hire company gave a prize of a BMW convertable and insurance for the weekend as a prize.

5. Get out into town and advertise your event - post flyers and hand out flyers. If you speak to a local printers they may do it cheap/free. I know in my local town they did. Obviously it had their name plastered all over them saying 'provided free of charge by x'

6. Any celebs from your town? We have several minor celebs that originate from my town we wrote to their agents and asked for support, Out of 7 letters we got 1 guest appearance at one of our events.

7. Workplaces of mum/dad/aunts/uncles/granny etc did a bit of a fundraiser ie come in jeans and donate, and 'donate your lunch money' basically granny made loads of sandwiches and cakes and everyone at work instead of spending £5 at starbucks they gave to granny in exchange for sandwiches and cakes - she actually raised over £1000 by doing this once a week for a month

8. We also went door to door selling raffle tickets (in immediate area, ie the housing estate they lived) and sold tickets for £1 a strip, everyone wrote house number and postcode on back of ticket or a telephone number and we rang/called round if they won and didnt attend event

We did loads more as well, but these were the easiest/raised most money.

Bank holiday weekends are approaching so try and organise events at these times!!

Also, worth approaching a local travel agent and expalin the situ and what you are looking to do. We managed to get the flights for the parents and lo really cheap as the travel agent sponsored him, and as a result got publicity in local paper and now gets all our holiday bookings - regardless of if someone can do it a bit cheaper.

If you need any help/advice just ask

We raised £175,000 in total. It was to pay for treatment that was only available in the US.

ETA we had to register a charity as we did so much and needed to raise so much but for a holiday trip i doubt you would need to do. Also, legally speaking you need licences do do certian things but if you are only doing 'one offs' you may not need permission. ie we have a kind of small field near my house, its council land and we had a BBQ on there to raise money and bouncey castles etc - we should've applied for permission legally speaking but a quick word with someone who knows someone we didnt end up needing one due to the cause and it being a one off

JoJoB

I second the make a wish foundation, a friend of mine with a terminally ill child has just been given a holiday to Disney from them. She is very pro-active with fundraising and has lots of support but most of the money raised goes on health needs and equipment (specially adapapted cars, wheelchairs, re-doing garden for access etc) so I don't agree that the make-a-wish foundation should just be for those who find the fundraising difficult. If you have a terminally ill or disabled child life in general becomes very expensive.

It would help if you could get someone to donate their time and expertise to building a website about the child and what you are trying to do, and have a paypal account link on it so people can donate that way. Spread the website link through social networking sites like Facebook.

SkintBrideToBe

All your suggestions have been brilliant, and i appreciate you all taking the time to reply. Ill let u all know how we get on, think we need around £4000 so fingers crossed.