Looking for fun, exciting ways to support Wellington Children’s Hospital? Here are some great ideas.
- Auction of promises – persuade your friends and colleagues to donate their skills, expertise and services for auction. Lessons in sport, music, dancing or languages; home-baked cakes and meals; ironing and other household chores. Try persuading local restaurants, theatres and leisure centres to offer meals, tickets and other goodies.
- Balloon Race
- BBQ – sausage sizzles held outside work are great for team building and those hungry tummies!4.
- Beard Shaving – show your face and have your friends show you the money!
- Book Sale – read them all? Sell them all!
- Car Boot Sale
- Stocktake – ask if your friends and family can do the annual stocktake at a local business in return for a donation to the Children’s Hospital.
- Fun Fair
- Gala Evening
- Garden Party
- Head Shave
- Jumble Sale
- Lawn Mowing – tidy up the neighbourhood, for a donation.
- Lottery
- Quizzes – who’s the know-it-all in your office?!
- Raffles
- Baby Walk/Toddle: Organise a sponsored walk or toddle for parents and babies. This can be combined with best dressed baby competition, toddler fancy dress or toddlers and teddies picnic.
- Sports Day
- Talent Contest – Who has the X-Factor in your school? Let the audience decide.
- Tennis Comp – you could even charge for lessons before the event.
- Talent Competition
- Theme Event
- Toy Fair
- Tacky Tie Day
- Triathlon
- Mufti day – people will pay top dollar not to have to wear their usual work clothes or uniform. They’ll probably pay even more if they can wear the top of their favourite sports team or some kind of fancy dress. Did someone say cowboys and Indians in the office?
- Give something up – Chocolate, shaving, talking, driving, Facebook – and ask friends and family to sponsor you to do so.
- A day to remember – how about a fancy dress party or celebration lunch for Valentine’s day, St Patricks day or something different like Elvis Presley Memorial Day fancy dress party or National Cheese on Toast Day?
- Clothes Swap – ask friends and family to donate used clothes and have your own sale day with you friends
- Jailbreak – preferably dressed as prisoners, sponsored teams set off from a real jail and are dropped off at a mystery location without money or a mobile phone. They must then blag their way back whilst getting the public to hand over some cash. Legally, of course.
- Fancy dress party – fairies and gnomes, animals and birds, heroes and heroines, country and western. Fancy dress is a long-standing favourite and ideas for themes, and the fun you can have when dressed up are endless.
- Take a baked bean bath – get sponsored to take the plunge in a bath full of beans. Onlookers and supporters can also pay $1 to top up the bath with a can of beans over your head.
- Halloween party – get your teeth into organising a spooky event
- Summer sizzler – fire up the Barbie, invite family and friends, get some burgers, buns, sausages and sauces. Grab a few beers and soft drinks and ask for a tasty donation for the gorgeous grub.
- Stags and hens – boys will be boys and girls just wanna have fun, so what better way to indulge those sexual stereotypes than holding a hen or stag night for Macmillan. Nuns’ outfits are optional.
- A bloody great fundraiser – stick a swear box in an office or social club to raise some money.
- Fun run – make it an event for families and put on a party afterwards and you’re well on your way to a great day out for everyone.
- Pamper party – host an evening of indulgence for you and your friends. Slap on the facemasks, get the nails painted and enjoy a foot spa.
- Office Olympics – try your hand at speed typing, synchronised chair swivelling or fast letter franking. There are many events you can compete in to become an office Olympics champion.
- A recipe for success – gather together all of your family’s and friends’ mouth watering recipes and create your own cookbook.
- Sponsored silence – shhh! The less said about this the better. A great idea for a group of noisy kids or adults. Parents, teachers or work colleagues are sure to pay good money to see how long they can keep silent. Silence is golden, especially when it raises money.
- Treasure hunt – shiver me timbers! You can’t go wrong with a treasure hunt. All you need to do is devise some cunning clues on how people can get their hands on some booty and away you go.
- What a difference a day makes – donate a day’s wage and encourage others to follow your shining example. Ask your employer to match your donation.
- Dunk and donate – hold a coffee morning to raise money.
- Swing into action – hold a golf competition. Or if playing golf isn’t your bag, you can always raise money by being a caddy, cleaning balls or finding them when they fail to hit the fairway.
- Tug of war – old vs young. Women vs men. Marmite lovers vs Marmite haters. Whatever the division, a game of tug of war will decide who is best.
- Guess the weight of…colleagues’ newborn babies, the huge cake that is the first prize in the ‘Guess the weight’ competition, anything and everything you can think of that will fit on a set of scales.
- Karaoke night – Robbie, Tina, Freddie or Jacko? The choice is yours.
- Easter egg hunt – you know the drill. Hide some chocolate and charge friends, family or colleagues to hunt for it. And why wait ‘til Easter? You could hunt for chocolate at any time of the year.
- Sponsored walk – put a new spin on an old favourite by getting people to walk backwards, in fancy dress, or get them to follow a route that takes in the weird and wonderful of your local area.
- Bonfire and BBQ night – charge friends and family to attend your bonfire and BBQ.
- Ransom and release – all you need are some willing VIPs (very important prisoners) and somewhere to hold them captive. Then it’s up to the VIPs to get their friends, family and colleagues to stump up the cash so they can be released.
- Spelling bee – all you need is a dictionary.
- Card games evening – bridge, rummy, poker or even snap.
- Guess how many…..can go in a…..sweets in a jar is a classic but how about footballs in a car, baked beans in a bucket, pound coins in a sack, the list could go on.
- Having a ball – you shall go to the ball; especially if you organise it yourself. Get out your glad rags. Dust off your top hat and tails. Pumpkins and glass slippers optional.
- Gift of life – if it’s your birthday coming up, suggest to your family and friends that instead of giving you presents they make a donation for the children’s hospital. This can also work for weddings, or any special occasions that involve gift giving.
- Wacky races – ducks, snails, sheep, toy cars or even babies.
- Don’t go to the pub – invite everyone over to your house instead. What about the beer money? Donate it!
- Pupils vs teachers – hold a quiz morning where pupils pit their wits against teachers. Or how about a school idol competition or pupils versus teachers football match?
- Retail therapy – sacrifice three luxury items from your weekly household shop and donate the money you save. Encourage friends and colleagues to do the same.
- Blooming marvellous – hold a plant or flower sale.
- A smooth move – a sponsored waxing will put the proverbial hairs on your chest whilst literally taking them off. It’ll also bring tears to your eyes and possibly a few expletives to your lips, but its all character building stuff and will turn you into a real smoothie.
- Give change, change lives – ask your friends and colleagues to empty their pockets every evening for a week. Their small change can make a big difference.
- Eyes down – with bingo, you’re bound to get a full house.
- Pooch pampering – set up your own doggy grooming parlour.
- Battle of the biceps – put brute force to the test and pit your strength and skill in an arm competition.
- Host a luncheon
- Do the iPod shuffle – organise a party and get people to pay for the privilege of playing their tunes from their iPod.
- Photo competition – say cheese and ask kids and adults to show off their photography skills. Themes for your competition could be ‘the view from my window’, ‘my family’ or anything else that will get people snapping away.
- Up for the challenge – ask your friends to set you a fundraising challenge.
- Dance marathon – it’s a case of bop till you drop with this one. Well, not literally, but expect to swing your hips and tap your toes until the early hours.
- Don’t take the lift – Get sponsored per step you walk for a week.
- Cheese and wine evening.
- Job swap – sponsor your manager to work in reception. Or how about auctioning off the boss’ job for a day?
- Car wash – a car wash is bound to clean-up.
- Get crafty – organise a local craft fair selling and demonstrating handmade goods.
- Rag day – get a group of colleagues together, don some fancy dress and make a collections around your office. It’s a lot easier asking fro money when dressed as a clown and encourages donations, especially when armed with a custard pie.
- Come dine with me – create your own version of the popular TV show. You and a few friends all host a dinner party. At the end of each evening you all rate the food and the host’s performance. Make a donation to take part and make sure the winner receives a prize for being ‘the hostess with the mostest’.
- Bag it up – simply ask your local supermarket if you can bag customers’ shopping ad ask for a donation for your service.
- Go the distance – get a school or club to cover a distance using 50c coins. It could be a mile or it could be the length of a school hall or playing field.
- Time is money – get a group of friends or colleagues to pose for a calendar, with profits from sales going to Macmillan.
- Car treasure hunt – put some va-va-voom into the weekend by getting teams to take to their cars and hunt for a series of clues. But who will get to the treasure first and be king of the road?
- What a corker – unleash the wine critic within by holding a wine tasting with a group of discerning friends. You could draft in a local wine expert to help train your taste buds. Ask for a cheeky little donation for the wine tasters.
- Happy holiday – make your boss the most popular person in the office by getting them to donate a day’s holiday as a raffle prize.
- Face painting – are you a tiger or a pussycat? Bring out the animal in you.
- Virtual challenge – get sponsored to swim the equivelant of the Cook Strait or Lake Taupo in your local pool or cycle America’s route 66 without leaving your own gym. All you have to do is work out how far they are and then cover that distance. And remember, you don’t have to do it all in one go.
- Go the distance – ask friends and families to sponsor you to ride, walk or run the length of your town, or even the country.
- Indoor games evening – go traditional with some pub games – dominoes, pool or darts tournament.
- Shiny happy people – offer your colleagues a quick shoe-shine in your work’s reception.
- Toast the nation – sample the food, drink and music of another country for an evening.
- Supersize my snack – make your own giant chocolate bar or packet of crisps.
- Bad taste day – Get everyone to come to work or go out in their worst tie, bad hair or most garish clothes. And those that refuse pay a fine.
- Speed dating – play cupid by organising a matchmaking event. As well as being a great way to match up your pals, it’s a sure fire way to raise oodles of cash.
- Add a Dollar – ask customers if they would like to ‘add a dollar’ on to the purchases for the kids.
- Cross Dressing party – have the boys come dressed as girls and the girls dressed as boys! Entry to the party will only cost them a donation.
- Put on a gig – either perform yourself or have a friend’s band play. Charge people to come and see them.
- Team sports collection – ask if you can collect for the children’s hospital at your local sports ground on their busy day. Saturday morning soccer can be a real winner!
- Bake Sale – keeping it traditional. Challenge your colleagues to bake delicious cakes, biscuits and sweets then sell them off in time for afternoon tea!
- Give as You Earn – talk to your employer about Payroll Giving. They can arrange for your regular donation to go straight to the charity at the same time that your taxes go out.
- Have a HOSPI Party – Ask people to sponsor you to dress up as a lion, and hold a party to judge the best Lion costume.
- Become a Regular Giver! For as little as $10 a month you can support an area within the hospital that has special sigificance to you – be it the Cancer Centre, Heart & Lung Unit, Wellington Children’s Hospital or the Area of Greatest Need. Visit our Regular Giving Page for more info.
Fundraising – Top Ten Tips
You know you want to support the Wellington Children’s Hospital, but not sure how – here are some ideas to make your event tip top!
- Decide what you want to do
- Allow plenty of time for your event
- Set a date
- Decide who will help with your event
- Run your ideas by an parent or teacher
- Get your publicity material from the Wellington Hospitals and Health Foundation
- Think about possible problems that may crop up e.g. bad weather
- Always have two people to count the money
- Contact local press, radio and TV stations
- Send your photos, money and story to Wellington Hospitals Foundation and we will be able to include some of your photos in our newsletter.