A-Z of Fundraising Ideas

Abseiling: descending a sheer face by use of rope, this adrenaline-fuelled activity will test your metal. Be brave and get sponsored for your vertical descent. We organise this challenge from time to time - check out our events and challenges page to see if we've got one coming up.

Afternoon tea: sell tickets to an afternoon event, which are always popular. You could do some extra fundraising at the event by having an auction. 

Arts fair: show off your artistic side and sell your goods at auction to raise funds. You could do this at your local pub, club or gallery. If you have artistic friends, rope them in too. 

Bake sale: get together with friends and set up a bake sale. This could be at work or at a local venue, you can't go wrong with tea and cake. 

BBQ: you’ve gotta love a barbie, mate. Invite friends, family, and neighbours, and ask for a small donation in return for your event. Decorate with bunting and perhaps even have an Aussie theme to get everyone in the mood – even if it's raining. 

Bike ride: take on your own personal cycle challenge (https://www.skylarks.charity/fundraising-events/fundraising-cycle-challenges), either out on the roads or indoors on a cycle machine at work, school or your gym.

Bingo: there's nothing like a bit of bingo. Charge for tickets and ask around locally for donations you can give as prizes. 

Birthday: donate your birthday! Ask your friends and family to donate to Skylarks instead of giving you presents or buying you a pint. Set up your own fundraising page on Enthuse, JustGiving or Facebook and collect donations online. 

Car boot sale: hold a stall at your local car boot sale and sell items that you don't need any more in exchange for cash. 

Challenges: we have lots of challenges scheduled throughout the year, from skydives to marathons. Check out our events and challenges page to see if anything tickles your fancy. 

Collection bucket or tin collections: these can be a quick and easy way to raise money. Get in touch by emailing sona@skylarks.charity  for Skylarks branded buckets or tins. 

Darts tournament: contact your local pub and if they have a darts board, set up a competition and ask individuals or teams to pay an entrance fee. 

Dinner dance: combine great food and great music to raise money. 

Dinner party: ask guests to buy a ticket/give a donation to attend, or ask them to contribute the equivalent they would pay in a restaurant for the meal after they’ve eaten. 

Egg and spoon race: race friends and family in this old school classic. Ask for entry fees and offer a winner's cup, which can be home-made or you can pick one up relatively cheaply online. You could make the race just one part of an afternoon of fun activities.

Eighties evening: a chance to dress up in the worst/best '80s' styles. Why not organise this in a local hall or pub, and sell tickets and hold a raffle during the evening? 

Fashion show: get in touch with your local college and showcase local fashion students' work, or fashion from local boutiques. 

Five-a-side football tournament: a great fundraiser as a match between friends or, for something bigger, why not open it out and advertise for teams to turn it into a tournament. Raise funds by charging a fee for each player. 

Games night: an evening of games and challenges. Add a bit of extra fundraising into the night by giving penalty fines for being late or talking about work. 

Give something up: got any bad habits? Why not donate the money you save from giving up your habit on online fundraising page and get sponsored by friends and family for your hard efforts. 

Golf challenge: get your local golf club involved and hold a charity golf event. 

Hair beading/plaiting: charge a small fee at a fete or fair for braiding hair. 

Halloween: throw a Halloween party and ask for donations for entry. You can even run a scariest dressed competition. 

Head shave: less impressive if you already have a crew cut, but for those of you with long flowing locks this could earn you shed loads of cash. Or if you aren’t feeling brave, get sponsored to shave the head of a (willing) hairy mate. 

Highland games: tug of war in kilts, tossing the caber in kilts and throwing the hammer … in kilts. Charge all entrants a fee and buy some small prizes to award to the winners. 

Hug a pooch: take your dog to work for the day and ask for donations in return for a few minutes of play time and photos. Believe us, it works! Just check with your workplace first that they're happy for a dog to be on the premises for the day.

Indoor rowing: set yourself a personal rowing challenge or have fun tackling the distance as a team with friends, family and colleagues. 

International evening: host a dinner party inspired by your favourite holiday destination and theme your menu, dress code and music for something different. Charge a small entrance fee and get the collecting buckets out. 

It’s a knockout: get some teams together and arrange assault courses, games and quizzes galore. Each team member pays a few pounds to take part – with the winning team being awarded a prize donated by a local company (or pub!). 

Jailbreak: choose a group of 'criminals' to sentence to an overnight stay in your jail be creative in your choice of jail, each person must raise a minimum amount of sponsorship to be released. There's lots of fun to be had, you can nominate your bosses, dress them up in classic black and white jail suits and give them a ball and chain, maybe you can put them in the stocks and throw wet sponges at them.

Joke-a-thon: go around the office, your local pub or club and ask people to pay you 50p if you can make them laugh. Best to be armed with a ready supply of hilarious jokes for this one. 

Jumble sale: dig around under the bed and at the back of wardrobes for anything you can sell and organise a jumble sale. Get your friends in on the act, selling their own unwanted items. 

Karaoke: rent a karaoke machine and hold an event in your local pub, college bar or bedroom. Sell tickets or make it a competition and charge people to enter. Get a local company to donate a prize. 

Keep-fit class: if you have a friendly gym or know an aerobic instructor, set up keep-fit classes and get friends and family to pay a donation to join. 

Kiss-a-thon: sponsored snogging? Sounds like fun. Whether you go for quantity or duration is up to you … 

Knobbly knee contest: charge a quid for people to enter the competition, and get a local company to donate a ‘quality’ prize. You get the fun of being the judge. 

Lawn mowing: drop leaflets through doors, charging a couple of quid for your services. Make sure the leaflet explains what the money is for and people will be more inclined to pay. If you don't own a lawn mower, you could always borrow one.

Leap frog: get sponsored per leap, or per quarter hour. More fun if you’re leaping over strangers, in the local park or on the beach. Tell them what you’re doing; they’ll either laugh and agree or walk very quickly in the opposite direction. Take photos to prove you did it! 

Limbo competition: this could work well down the pub. Charge a quid for entry to the competition, and get the bar to donate a few free drinks for the winner. 

Line dancing: hold a line-dancing party. Find out about all the line-dancing classes and clubs in your area (you’ll be surprised at how many there are) and send out invites; charge a fiver for tickets. Get in the spirit with costumes and decorations. 

Luncheon: whether it's a 'ladies who lunch' formal event or something simpler, like a potluck lunch party on a Friday lunchtime in the office, you'll no doubt have great fun while also raising money for Skylarks. 

Manicure and makeover: host a pamper party and swap skills to give each other makeovers and manicures. 

Marathon: hire a local hall, or see if you can get one free for a good cause. Hold a marathon table tennis, aerobics, line-dancing or badminton session (in shift teams). Get relevant companies, such as local gyms and sports shops, to sponsor you in exchange for publicity in the hall. Get sponsorship from friends and family too. 

Mini marathon: don’t fancy doing a full 26.2 miles? Get sponsored to run five or ten miles around your town, or the equivalent around your garden. The smaller the garden the better – just make sure you change direction occasionally to reduce dizziness! 

Mufti day: have a casual non-uniform day at work or at school. Everyone pays to wear casual or fancy dress for the day. If you're wearing fancy dress, why not have a competition and get everyone to vote on who should wear what? You could be especially inventive with the choice of clothes for the boss. 

Musical evening: get some talented friends together and hold a concert. If you do this in a pub or bar, it will be more low-key than in a hall or theatre, and the audience can drink and mingle during gaps between performances. 

Name the baby/doll/teddy: get a photo of a baby, doll or teddy from the internet. Make a list of 100 names, charge people a quid to choose a name, and pull the names out of a hat to get the winner. Make a hundred quid and give £25 for the correct guess. Or get a doll or teddy donated and give it to the winner. 

Netball tournament: a great fundraiser as a match between friends or for something bigger. Ask everyone to enter teams of colleagues to turn it into a tournament. 

Office party: there's plenty of ways to incorporate fundraising into an office event, whether it's a bake sale, a dress-down day, or a bucket of beans over your manager's head. 

Olympic sports day: get everyone together for a day of fun, sports and raising money. 

Pancake party: ask everyone to bring a donation and pancake topping of their choice, then treat everyone to as many pancakes as they can eat. 

Penalty shoot-out competition: people pay to enter and get your hands on a signed football or some sports goodies for the winner. Get a football team or sports shop to donate the prize. 

Pet show: get a pet shop to donate prizes. Why not make it an alternative pet-show, with prizes for the waggiest dog or pet lookalikes, for example? 

Plastic duck race: buy or hire plastic ducks – you can find suppliers with an internet search. People sponsor a duck, and they’re released at a set point to float down a river. The sponsor of the winning duck gets a prize. 

Pool competition: people put money in a pot to enter; the winner takes half of what’s in the pot, you take the other half! 

Pram push: dress up, push your mate in a pram through the streets of your town, shake a bucket (we can lend branded collection buckets to you) and be prepared to tell a lot of curious bystanders why they should give you money for your fundraising shenanigans. 

Quiff competition: get your Elvis on and hold a rock 'n' roll night with a best quiff competition. 

Quiz night: an easy one to host, whether it's in a pub, church hall or at home. For an evening of relaxed entertainment, ask groups for an entry fee and find your quiz questions online. 

Raffle: ask around locally to drum up some donated prizes and sell off your tickets to friends, family and colleagues alike. 

Rapping contest, show or sponsored event: you could organise this at a youth club or skate park, and get younger members of the family, and their mates, involved. 

Rounders tournaments: charge teams to enter, and award a sport-related prize – or a slap-up post-match picnic with booze – to the winning team. 

Rowing: get sponsored to row on a rowing machine; aim to row the equivalent of crossing the channel, or the length of the River Thames. 

Santa Fun Run: take part in Richmond Park Santa Fund Run in December. Go to our events and challenges page to find out more - and if it's not yet Santa Fun Run time. 

Scavenger hunt: people pay to enter. They each receive a list of items they need to scavenge (a beer mat, a yellow flower, an item of underwear that’s not their own …); give a prize to the person who brings all the items to you first. Everyone loves a bit of healthy competition. 

School sports day: borrow some equipment and put on a day of classic school games like egg and spoon, three-legged race and a sack race, and charge entry to each race. The winners get a certificate or a trophy. 

Skydive: sign up for a skydive, get sponsored to do it and embrace your inner daredevil. We regularly organise a skydive day, so check out our events and challenges page to see if there's one coming up.

Snooker tournament: channel your inner Ronnie O’Sullivan and organise a tournament in which people pay a fee to enter. 

Swear box: encourage others to stop saying naughty words and every time someone in your office swears, they have to pop 10p or £1 in a pot. 

Talent show: get friends, family and colleagues together for a talent show. Raise money through ticket sales to help fund our music and drama themed activities for children with additional needs. 

Tennis tournament: hold your own mini-Wimbledon. People pay to enter, and the winner gets a prize donated by a local business. Sell champagne and strawberries and cream to the spectators. 

Themed dinner party: a Mexican, Indian or Moroccan meal could go down really well. Charge people to attend. 

Tombola: this would work best at a fete or special event. You don’t need an actual tombola to do it – just put the tickets in a box and shake well. Get local businesses and family friends to donate prizes. 

Treasure hunt: as big as you like or as simple as you like, this could be a race in groups across locations or something as simple as a grid map where you sell the squares to give people a chance of choosing the winning coordinates. 

Triathlon: if you are feeling really fit, then why not set up or enter a triathlon – swim, run and cycle. 

Tug-of-war: teams pay to enter, with the hope of winning prizes. Teachers vs students, boys vs girls, different branches of your family (Mum’s family vs Dad’s) or one town or village vs another could be fun. 

Twenty-four hour sponsored event: best undertaken as a group, choose what it is you want to do and do it non-stop, taking turns over a long period of time, be it 12 hours or 24! Perhaps it's a danceathon, netballathon or a rowathon or even a swimathon – whatever it is, get all of the team to collect sponsorship and spread the word. You could even livestream the event for even greater coverage!

Twister-a-thon: get sponsored to play an all-day game of Twister with your mates. People will donate more if you’re doing it in a public place – your embarrassment is always worth a few quid. 

University challenge: take on your local university for the challenge and invite students, friends and family to donate for tickets to the event. Talk to the student union to see if they can help with the organising. 

Variety show: a novel way of raising money and discovering talents you never knew your friends, colleagues and neighbours had. 

Veggie feast: host a vegan or vegetarian dinner party. Serve heart-healthy food and ask guests for a donation in return. 

Who’s that baby?: get old baby photos of your mates or – much better – your bosses or colleagues. Stick them up around your school or office and get people to pay to guess who they are. Needless to say, you’ll need a quality prize for the winner. 

Window cleaning: spend a weekend cleaning windows for your neighbours or local shops. Fundraising tip: ask for donations rather than charging a set fee and you may get more money. 

Wine tasting: hold a wine-tasting evening. Get a supermarket or off-license to donate a few bottles for the tasting, and sell bottles for them at the end (for a small profit). 

Xbox tournament: use your Xbox or any other games console to host a virtual fundraiser, day or night, and split the prize winnings with us! 

Xmas carol singing: bring your friends and family together and go door-to-door to your neighbours bringing Christmas joy, collecting donations as you go. We can lend you a branded collection bucket or two.

Xmas fair: get crafty and host a stand to sell your items at a Xmas fair to raise funds, or host your own event and raise funds by charging a small fee for stallholders. 

Yodelling competition: a singing competition for the seriously brave. If you're looking for something unusual, this is it. 

Yogathon: if you're a self-confessed yoga bunny or yoga teacher, why not undertake a Sun Salutation challenge to raise sponsorship funds, or create your own fundraiser yoga class and ask your students to contribute a small fee for taking part? 

Yo-yo competition: have you got a talent for yo-yoing? How about using your skill and getting yourself sponsored to raise funds, or bring others together to get competitive, asking for a small entry fee to take part? 

Ziplining: whether you're an adrenaline junkie or afraid of heights, get ready to face your fear. There are ziplines across the UK that you can visit. Get friends and family to sponsor you for the challenge. 

Zumbathon: if you're feeling energetic and want a physical challenge that lots of people can take part in, this is a great way to raise sponsorship together. 

If so, we can provide you with a Letter of Authority so that organisations and shops will know you're bona fide. Drop us an email,and let us know what you're doing and we can send you over what you need: fundraising@skylarks.charity

We're here to help you, so if you have any queries relating to fundraising, please do get in touch with us.