Breast Cancer Care Events

Latest fundraising ideas

We hope you've been uploading photos onto your team page and finding it inspiring raising money together. Please remember that as a team your total amount raised must still equal £250 per person. So, if there are six of you in your team you will need to raise a minimum of £1,500 altogether. Good luck and keep us updated on any fundraising events that you hold.

Don’t forget your money doesn’t have to be in until August so you still have over 4 months to fundraise! If you’re worried that £250 seems like a lot, just think that’s only £62.50 per month and holding a simple event every four weeks will help you to raise that in no time.

We have a few more spring-time fundraising ideas to keep you going over the next couple of months if you’re seeking inspiration.

• Sports tournament – you could hold a variety of sports games, from a sponsored football match at your local sports centre, to family tournaments in the park with three-legged, egg and spoon and wheelbarrow races
• Spring picnic – pick a sunny day and head to the hills or your local park with fresh lemonade, strawberries and fruit teas. Don’t forget to invite lots of friends and family and charge each guest to join you
• Carwashes - a sparkling fresh way to get the whole community involved
• Dog walking - if you love dogs, offering your services as a walker can be a great way to train and raise money at the same time
• Grass cutting - another way to raise funds, meet your neighbours and increase fitness levels
• Pink Cakes – bake and sell pink cakes at work and at home.
  

Ideas for Easter

• Hold an Easter Egg Hunt at a weekend
  Invite friends, families and work colleagues and charge a small amount per person. Hide chocolate eggs in your garden or home and send everyone off to find them. You could make this into an all day event with lunch included for a larger donation - put up posters and have your sponsor forms to hand
  
• Try your hand at making some Easter Chocolate Nests
  Invite people over to sell your goods or take them into work remembering to have a collection box at the ready
  
• Hold an Easter bunny themed party for your family, friends and colleagues
   It could be a dinner party, children’s party or a cheese and wine party. Sell tickets at anything between £5 and £10 per head depending on what you’re providing on the night
  
• Organise a mass Easter egg and spoon race
  This could be a one-off event where people pay to take part or you could incorporate it into the Easter Egg Hunt or the bunny-themed party
  
• Organise a ‘Dress Down Day’ at work
  Ask everyone to pay £1 (or more) to wear something casual. Make sure you inform your colleagues of the reason for donating the money and you may even get some extra sponsorship
  
• Have a curry night
  Cook a few simple dishes and ask people to pay £5 or £10 for the evening
  
• Ask your local gym or leisure centre if you can hold an aerobic workout for your friends and colleagues
  Find out if one of the instructors can take the class and if for one week the class fees can be donated to Breast Cancer Care and towards your sponsorship total.
  

Ideas for February

• Help promote your Justgiving.com fundraising page by passing round flyers to promote your page. Click here and then personalise it yourself
• Host a DVD evening of romantic films, provide some snacks and ask everyone to make a donation
• Organise a Valentines or Masked Ball. This will take some planning but it is great fun and you will raise well over your minimum target of £250
• Get baking! Sell heart shaped cakes and pink cupcakes for Valentines Day and tell everyone about the Ribbon Walk to keep the sponsorship coming in
• Sell tickets for a speed dating night. Hold it at home or in your local restaurant and play cupid
• Give a talk in your local village hall about the services Breast Cancer Care provides and the Ribbon Walk you are taking part in. Ask for sponsorship and donations at the end
• Write to your local newspapers, radio stations and magazines and see if they would be interested in writing an article about your Ribbon Walk. Notify them of your Justgiving page and hopefully the donations will come pouring in. If you need a sample press release please contact ribbonwalk@breastcancercare.org.uk
• Last but not least, don’t forget to tell all your friends, family and work colleagues about your Ribbon Walk.

Hold your own special events and fundraising activities:

This type of fundraising can prove to be hard work but can also raise you amazing amounts of money. The events are endless, organise something you have an interest in:

• Barbeque - charge £5 a head
• Coffee Mornings asking for donations
• Golf Day charging an entry fee with a raffle at the end
• Quiz night at your local pub asking an entry fee. Put up donation boxes and sell pin badges
• Sports Tournaments –netball /5-a-side football/touch rugby/rounders
• Summer dance
• Treasure hunts – themed for Autumn, Christmas, Easter and Summer
• Cake sale
• Safari supper
• Pink champagne and pudding party for girlfriends
• Pink ladies day at work
• Bacon sandwiches and coffee sale for your local sports club on match days
• Garden party with games and a raffle
• Skittles evening with fish and chips
• Casual Dress day asking your colleagues to pay £1 to come to work. Why not hold a raffle too
• Ladies 'curry and shopping night' in local village hall
  

Your employer

• Ask your company if they have a match-giving scheme. Often companies have a £1 for £1 matching scheme allowing you to double the amount you raise – a great way to smash your target!
• Publicise what you are doing on your company intranet, or include a piece in your work newsletter
• Charge everyone who dresses down £2 and those who don’t receive a £5 penalty fee

Your personal contacts

• Write to long distance friends and family, perhaps contact those people on your Christmas card list?
• Email everyone in your email address book
• Log on to www.friendsreunited.co.uk and tell your old school buddies what you are doing
• Do any of your friends work for an interesting company? Or perhaps they have contacts as long as their arm?

Local companies

• It can be difficult to gain support from companies without having some kind of personal contact. Think about whom you know and whom they work for, or can they introduce you to the MD?
• Put up a poster and sponsorship form in your local doctors surgery
• Local companies may be more likely to provide a raffle prize than money. They may even offer their services e.g. publicity, free printing or access to their intranet/website.

How to publicise your event

Posters
To raise awareness of your challenge or to promote a fundraising event, you may wish to create some publicity. You will find an event promotion poster on the Ribbon Walk website which can be modified to suit your needs. Download it at www.ribbonwalk.org.uk.

Press and PR
Contacting your local press is a great way to get publicity for your challenge and also for the work that Breast Cancer Care does. Appearing in a local paper or on your local radio station can also help you maximize the number of people who support you or attend an event you are organising. To help with this, below we have some tips on how to contact the press and how to put together a press release.

Approaching local newspapers
It’s best to contact the news desk or editorial team, explain what you are doing and ask if you could send them a press release about it. Ask for the name of the journalist who handles such stories and to whom you should address the release. It’s always a good idea to include a photograph of yourself to personalise the release.
You should try to call your contact within a few days to confirm they have received your information and to ask if they are interested in writing about your event. Should you obtain local press coverage, please send us a copy if you can, as we are always interested to see it.

Approaching local radio stations
Local radio stations are a great medium for publicising your challenge or event. Again, give them a call and ask for the news desk, and then send them your press release, asking them to contact you. If you know the name of the program host whose show features this sort of news, address your release to them. Again try to call your contact within a few days to confirm they have received your information and ask if they are interested in covering your event. You may be nervous about appearing on the radio, try not to be, you will find that the station staff will put you at ease.