Gillian's Afternoon Tea and Other Fundraisers

It can be hard asking the same group of family, friends and work colleagues for sponsorship, which is why we think fundraising is the way to go... everybody loves to get something for their money. Bring them all together at a fun fundraising event... they have a good time and you achieve your fundraising goals... it's a win, win situation! Our Fundraising Team here at WTW HQ are more than happy to help you explore alternative fundraising options... there are so many ways of reaching that target.

Here regular Walk the Walker Gillian kindly shares some of her fab ideas and how she tackles the fundraising element of taking on a challenge:

"I live in a small community where another charity dominates the fundraising due to so many people choosing them as their charity of choice. 

So, when I chose to complete my first MoonWalk in 2014 I needed to come up with something different to raise money. My friend Julie, who was doing the Walk with me, had a booking at the local tennis court hall which wasn't going to be used, so we planned an Afternoon Tea fundraiser with proper china cups & saucers, tiered cake plates, table cloths & napkins (pink of course). We were able to borrow these free of charge for the day so no expense was incurred there. Julie and I live at opposite ends of the valley and as the tennis club is in the middle, it was the perfect location. We both enrolled our friends & family to make sandwiches and bake cakes, most of which went on the tables & some we sold on a side table.

We also planned some fundraising 'extras' for the afternoon... a family member gave hand massages in return for a donation and we also had a great raffle with a fantastic array of prizes including a luxury food hamper (which Julie put together herself with her game-keeping links), a florists voucher and a box of sweets.

We asked people to make a donation for the Afternoon Tea rather than asking a set price. Our family and friends brought so much fantastic food that you could eat & drink to your heart's content! This encouraged people to give more generously. From memory, we made approximately £1,200! With us both being local and Julie having had breast cancer our fundraiser really got people's interest. They were also absolutely delighted at the real china cups, saucers & all the trimmings.

In the following years in addition to my Sponsor Form and Online Fundraising Page, I have tried to do one main Fundraising Event each year as I find this is better than constantly asking individuals for sponsorship.

Over the years I've tried a number of things... 

I have had a stall at the local craft fair which had a raffle, a lucky dip for children & 'higher & lower' cards for adults (like Brucey used to do on Play Your Cards Right!) I asked for 50p a shot and if the player got to the 12th card they won £5.

I have tried selling things on local Buy, Sell, Swap Facebook sites with mixed results. For next year's fundraising, I'm doing car boot sales as I continue to declutter my house and garage... we had a beautiful day for our first boot sale and with the help of my parents, I was really happy to come away having cleared £85!

This year Fiona, another friend, and I arranged a 'Bingo Tea' in the local British Legion. We asked our local businesses to make a contribution of either a bingo or raffle prize. These ranged from a bar of soap to a Gin Tour of the local distillery and also included bottles of whisky (we live in the middle of the Whisky Trail) an Afternoon Tea at the local Pagoda and a family photo session. We decorated the room with bunting, table clothes & balloons to create a fun and lively atmosphere. We were given Bingo books by a colleague and had a deal with the British Legion for pens & extra booklets. Once again we enlisted the help of friends & family to make sandwiches & cakes. My Dad was the 'Bingo Caller' & Fiona & I checked cards & gave prizes.

In our local paper they have a 'local hero' section so I put in a piece in at the beginning of the year about my 3 Land Challenge then two weeks before the Bingo Tea my Mum paid for an advert in the paper. We also kept posting it on Facebook as an event. On the night they were queuing out the door and we had to open up the bar area upstairs. The older generation love a bit of Bingo and we made it special by decorating the room. We charged £6 per Bingo book and that included the tea, sandwiches and cakes and we gave all the children juice and crisps during one of the games. We played 10 games in total, we had so many prizes we played 1 line, 2 lines, full house then either children or over 60's consolation prize at the end. Our friends & family gave their continued support and all helped to clear up. We were really delighted to make £1,600 from this fundraising event.

This month we have had a 'pick a number' game consisting of 2 x 80 squares to win a bottle of whisky. Both squares were full within one week with a £2 donation for each of the 80 squares... so £160 each for our fundraising.

A big thing I find helps is to make sure you personally thank everyone that supported so I bought thank you cards for all the businesses that gave us something and for all our helpers.

Other fundraisers in my area have done soup & pudding events, prosecco afternoon teas, prize bingo, coffee mornings... the list goes on.

I hope this helps inspire others with their fundraising ideas, there really are so many alternatives to asking friends, family and colleagues for sponsorship." - Gill

A massive thank you to Gillian for sharing her great fundraising ideas with us and giving us an insight into how she goes about organising her very successful fundraising events. If you would like some help and support with organising a fundraising event or activity of your own, you can get in touch with our friendly Fundraising Team here.