Fundraising ideas

Hi, Maybe a monthly disco,and movement to music, include family and friends to bring in the money and a raffle. hope this helps good luck

Hi, more thoughts, seasonal parties, a bit late but halloween, valentines day, christmas, easter, olympics theme party for next year etc

To be honest I cant see you being able to charge for things like benefits advice or numeracy and literacy classes, when there are free providers around and people needing this type of advice don't usually have much money. Likewise crafts clubs and gardening clubs - will you really make any profit out of these?

I'd say instead of fiddling around with bit and pieces like this (although they are good services to provide, I think you need to think of them as your providing the service, rather than as a way to make money) you need to find one or two genuinely profitable activities to run. Look into charity trading law.

Examples of projects some of my charity clients have run: refurbishing donated office computers and printers (most offices are happy to get them picked up without having to pay for disposal!) and selling on; cafe; nursery for working parents; second-hand toy shop; hall hire for birthdays/weddings but done at a professional level with lovely facilities and good staffing.

On a personal level my current advice would be to get a Zumba teacher to run a couple of classes a week either in return for hall hire fee or a share of the class fees - they are booming and there is a waiting list at all of the many classes local to me!

Wow, sounds like the trustees rushed to sign the lease before coming up with a marketing strategy to detail in full how you are going to raise the extra £200 a week for it...!! I assume they think that they can just bump up numbers attending and spend per head, even though it sounds like quite a mish-mash and jumble of services and income streams.

As outlined by a previous poster, it looks like some of the funding ideas could perhaps be weak as the services may already be provided locally so things could be a bit competitive, but you'd have performed research and some number crunching on this, ahead of the move?!

Is someone breaking down your potential income raised by charging for meeting room hire, the income from the sublet rooms, potential profit from classes and money raised through the sale of refreshments? There really needs to be some proper calculations and good estimation undertaken. Is anybody doing a formal business plan of any type?

I think the advice given about not spreading yourself too thin is good - would be a shame to run yourself ragged with dozens of potential revenue streams when many could produce low sums and be really time intensive, for example, or have low take up because CAB and the local colleges provide the benefit advice and literacy/numeracy services.

Have you drawn up a timetable of the classes to identify where you have spare capacity so you can identify activities that chime with the timeslots? For example, our local yoga/fitness centre is mobbed in the evenings just after work and is quiet during the weekday and weekends. They have to pull out the stops by offering classes for mothers to be and the over 50s in the day, childrens classes afterschool, for example, plus they run workshops at the weekend. They allow a martial arts club to operate there at the very lowest off peak time (Sunday evening).

Is this branch offering services to those with special needs or is it fully open to the public, not sure I understand who is using it?

Can you canvass other branches or similar community/charity venues to find out what their highest income activities are? No need to reinvent the wheel if other organisations are happy to share their tips with you.

There must be charity fund-raising courses that people can attend to improve their marketing and financial skills - can you persuade the Trustees that it could be a great investment if they professionalise their approach by training up staff in this area, rather than leave it operating on an amateur/happy accident footing?

How big is the meeting room for hire or space for activities? Will they lend themselves to sports groups and fitness classes, like a karate club or similar, that may want long-term hire? That's got to be a stable and predictable source of income and with minimum overheads/time for you as they bring with them their own members and market themselves.

have you done a grantfinder search or trustfinder for extra funding you can apply for