Due to coronavirus (COVID-19), and in line with government guidance, we ask you to not plan or host any social events or gatherings as part of your fundraising for Focus Birmingham at the moment. Thank you and stay safe!

You can however support Focus Birmingham by organising something online and / or making a donation. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many of the people we support and their families are now more isolated than ever before, feeling lonely and hopeless. We need your help to reach them and your support is more valuable than ever before.

Help us to support those in need by organising your own virtual fundraiser - whether it’s a home collection, quiz or virtual challenge event.

We are here to help and inspire your fundraising. Check out some of these ideas for how you can fundraise with friends, family and colleagues when we get back to some kind of normal:

 

A

• Afternoon tea - Who doesn't love afternoon tea? You could raise money by charging your guests a small entrance fee or arrange a raffle, asking your guests to donate a gift for the raffle prizes.
• Auction - Get your family and friends round for an evening of auctioning! Either use it as a chance to clear out years of memorabilia from the loft or ask each person to bring something to auction off.

B

• Big night in - Choose a theme, invite a handful of friends or family and ask them to make a small donation on the night. It's cheaper than an evening dining out and the money goes to a great cause.
• Bake or food sale - A bake or food sale is a fun and easy way to raise money for a great cause.

C

• Celebrity game - This is a great one if you work in an office. Everyone puts the name of a famous person into a hat and then each player pays to pick a name. They must then adopt the mannerisms of that person for a day. If they are caught out of character, they must pay a fine. 
• Cycle challenge - Are you a keen cyclist or simply looking for your next challenge? Get on your exercise bike and do a virtual journey for Focus.
• Coffee time - take some fancy coffee into the office and ask for donations for a lovely cuppa!

D

• Darts - Whether you're a keen dart player or you haven't ever touched a dart, this is a great fundraiser for all. You could charge spectators and/or participants an entry fee. You could make it interesting by getting participants to balance on one leg or you could even charge them a fine for every time they miss the board.
• Dinner party - Get your friends and family round for an evening of delicious fundraising. You could choose a theme to make it interesting or get each guest to bring an after-dinner game. By charging a small entry fee you can have an evening of fun while contributing to a great cause. You can even take this on-line and eat together without all the washing up!

E

• Eating competition - There are so many eating challenges to choose from, so pick your food and get started. You can get people to sponsor the event or bet on the winners.

F

• Fancy dress - Everyone loves an excuse to dress up or to be someone different for the day. Get your work colleagues to dress up and pay a fee to take part. You could even set a theme which could be based on a film or era.
• Football match - Putting on a charity football game is a great way to get friends and family together for a good cause. Or if you have a lot of people interested, you could turn it into a tournament. You could charge player fees or charge spectators - or both!

G

• Games night – Get the board games out of the cupboard. Get a group of equally competitive people together for an evening of board games, charge an entry fee and raise money while you play. You can even use the online versions.
• Golf - be it crazy, ghetto or the real deal - a great way to get together and pay per round.

H

• Donate an hour of pay - Ask your friends and family to give up an hour's worth of their salary on payday. 

I

• It's a knockout - Why should children have all the fun at sports day? Find a venue to host your own. Set a registration fee and source a prize from a local business. The more fun the challenges the more participants you'll get. Keep it quirky!

J

• Jewellery making/selling - Are you creative and like making things or know someone who is? Put your skills to the test and hold a handmade jewellery sale, or test out a different craft if jewellery isn't your thing!

K

• Karaoke night - This can be as big or as small as you can organise. You could hire a venue and karaoke machine or just have some friends round and play some classic karaoke songs while singing into a hairbrush! Charge an entry fee and source a prize for an evening of songs and laughter.
• Knitting night - Get your needles ready! You could get people to sponsor you in a knit-a-thon or, if you have previous knitting experience, you could knit something nice and auction it off.

L

• Loose change - Ask friends/family/collegues to dig into their wallets and purses and pop their loose change into a jar. It'll feel like a small donation for each person, but added together it will make a real difference.
• Let’s do lunch - Why not organise a nice lunch for friends or family. Or you could get your colleagues involved at work and ask them to each bring in something for an office picnic. Again, online munching can be fun so long as you’re all together.

M

N

• Non-uniform day - Do you work in a school, know someone who does? Or perhaps your children's school would be willing to support you? If each child paid £2 to ditch school uniform for a day, you could end up with a decent amount of money!

O

• Online Quiz - organise a quiz online (there are loads of templates to download online). Set a donation target.
• Odd jobs - Could you help your neighbours and friends with some of those odd jobs around the home? Helping pick up the shopping, walking the dogs, doing some DIY or just cutting the lawn could bring in some extra cash.

P

• Pancakes - How about a pancake-making competition? You can charge a fee for people to take part or get people to buy the pancakes.

Q

• Quiz night - Hold a quiz at your local pub and charge individuals and teams for entry. Don't just invite people you know, get the locals involved too! Ask the manager to donate a free meal or vouchers as a prize for the winners. 

R

• Raffle - Charge a fee of your choice for tickets and the winners get a prize - what's not to love! This works as a standalone fundraising activity or as part of a bigger event. Speak to local businesses in your area about offering goods to add into your raffle to keep your costs low.

S

• Sweets - Pop an assortment of sweets into a clear container and get people to pay to guess how many sweets are in the jar. The closest guess wins the sweets.

T    

• Trekking - Get trekking with your friends or a local group.

U

• Unfashionable - Swallow your pride and proudly rock your most unfashionable, unflattering outfit for the day. How about clashing prints, sandals with socks, a crazy hat or all of those at the same time? The worse you look, the more you'll raise.

V

• Valentine's Day - You could do anything from a Valentine's themed bake sale, to selling handmade Valentine cards. Or have a 'wear red' day or host a Valentine wine tasting evening.

W

• Wax it - Will you or your friends bare the pain to raise money with a wax off? Get those wax strips ready and maybe something to soothe the pain after, like aloe vera.
• Walk a marathon - Fundraise by getting sponsored to walk the distance of a marathon (26.2 miles) at your own pace over a two week period.

X

• Xbox - Got a games console? Host an evening of gaming with an entry fee. You could even hold mini-competitions throughout the evening with some prizes.

Y

• Yes day - This is set to be a day of fun in the office. Get your colleagues to take it in turns to take on the challenge where they have to say 'yes' to everything in exchange for donations. The possibilities are endless...

Z

• Zumba - Ready to feel the rhythm? Get your friends together for an hour of fun and exercise to raise money for your cause.