Fundraising ideas?

[Florencenotflo]

Someone I know runs a local charity which is at risk of closing due to lack of funds. They do their own small scale fundraising (sponsored walks, quiz nights, coffee mornings) but it really isn't enough now.

I've said I'll try and look into other areas of fundraising. But I've never done this before, where do I start!

I was thinking of emailing local businesses but in all seriousness are they likely to even reply to the email? It's not like we can even offer them advertising (like I know sports teams do) because it's just not that type of set up. We are literally just asking for money! There has been a piece in the local paper recently about their impending closure, so I suppose a follow up in the paper (mentioning who has helped) might appeal to some. But I don't think it'll be enough.

Has anyone got any tips???

I guess it all depends on how much you need to make and what your time scale is? And how many people you have to help ! Good fundraisers for us have been things like black tie casino type nights/fashion shows but these took a lot of organising and effort small fundraisers have been similar to your suggestions quiz nights/bingo/sponsored "things" are there children involved ? Supermarket bag packing was always a good one for us bringing in a fair few hundred pounds a go...

Do they qualify for any grants?

Lotto money?

Waitrose/Tesco/Asda token schemes

Local grants - have a google and go for the smaller more local ones, more likely to get something.

Plan a "wear stripes/spots" day and get local business and schools to sign up?

Check the local co op, ours do a scheme connected to people co op cards and they sign your organisation up for a year. I do t know the ins and outs but our local army cadets got 1200 last year.

What sector is the charity in and how much does she need to remain open?

My place of work does fundraising and we do things from craft days for children to psychic nights and everything in between including making products to sell.

You could write to churches. Our church tithes it's income to charities each year & we always donate to at least one local charity. While 10% of one church income may not be huge, if you had several churches (and maybe some bigger ones) you could have quite a sum without needing to expend a huge amount of effort.

@Millipedewithherfeetup it's a disabled riding centre, it's around £100 a day to stay open, there is about 3-5 months money left but there are fundraising events already planned which would stretch them to a year.

I think a big event is a bit beyond us to be honest. We are all volunteers, all work and have children etc. Some volunteers have physical or learning disabilities so we usually try and make events ones they can all take part in too.

@MothertotheLordsofmisrule I will look now. I know they got a lotto grant about 10 years ago. But that's a great idea! Thank you.

I will definitely look into the supermarket suggestions.

@ICanWearMyBoobsUpOrDown this is how oblivious I am, I have no idea what sector we are in! It's a disabled riding centre. No profit is made, all money raised gets ploughed back into horse feed, straw, hay, fencing, repairs, insurance etc. General running costs seem to be creeping up year on year.

@chrisrobin I know the local village church does donate to them, but it is a tiny little village. I could try some churches in the surrounding area though, so thank you for the suggestion!

What about things like facepainting, glitter tattoos etc at supermarkets or shopping centres? Tombola stalls often raise a few hundred and you could also do that. Set up a gofundme page and advertise the hell out of that. Have an open day and get some local business people to pay to have stalls there and charge people to come in and meet the horses. Email all of the businesses in a 50 mile radius and ask them to do some fundraising for you, even if 10 businesses agree it's more than worth it.

Loving those ideas @ICanWearMyBoobsUpOrDown thank you!

You could do a big raffle? You need a licence from the council and then you get some tickets printed and ask for prizes to be donated. If the donations are small you can parcel them up into bigger hampers to make decent prizes. Advertise the prizes and charge £1 a ticket. Allow a couple of months for people to sell tickets then do a draw. You can make a couple of thousand pounds from this.

Does the charity have a Facebook page ? There are a few animal charities local to me who have Facebook pages which they mainly use to advertise animals for rehoming . Every now and again they will ask for donations and post their PayPal or their amazon wish list ( for food and supplies) .
Street collections in the local town could be a good option . Perhaps take one of the ponies with you ? Not sure how this would work insurance wise or if you’d have to inform the local council .
Sponsor a pony?

Does the centre have a Facebook page?

Supermarket bag packs are a good money earner . I’ve done one before for a premature baby charity and our school PTA is doing one at the end of Nov .
Write to all the local supermarkets now and you might get lucky . Aim for Halloween or before Christmas and around payday too .

Yes they have a Facebook page.

A raffle is a super idea . Items like prints from local artists or photographers . A voucher for a restaurant , hairdresser, beautician, butchers , bakery etc .
Contact the local cinemas and soft play centres who will offer you family vouchers . We always get lots for our school Christmas Fayre . Do you have any large employers in the area? lots of bigger companies will have a charity of the year .

Horsey people have money! So you need to tap them up. Is there a local race horse trainer/race course/equestrian supplies business etc near you?

Put a shout-out on FB and ask for shares that you’re looking for an experienced fundraiser who will give a few hours to share ideas/do grant applications.

Big companies do ‘matched funding’ which can be an asset..,

What about animal sponsorship. Could locals and businesses sponsor a horse.

Then could get quarterly feedback on what that horse had been up to and how many people they'd given rides too, any rosette etc at competitions.

If you can get people to sign up to regular direct debit payments, even for small amounts, that can be better than a hard won one off amount.

Maybe even local schools could get involved.

Then that's where you can offer advertising for businesses helping you out, you can offer to tag them on the page. Post in all the local groups asking for fundraising ideas too and explain that they are on the verge of shutting and you'll get lots of offers of help.

I was going to say match funding. Doubles the amount you raise. Some big companies do it - it's a nice way to give back and I think there are tax advantages. Do you have any big employers locally?
Bag packing can be quite a good fundraiser.
Amazon have a certain search page that charitable causes benefit from to. You get an amount back from any spend a person makes.

What about holding a fun show at the centre? If having a tonne of people turn up with horseboxes isn't doable then how about a FB based photo competition where people pay to enter- pony fancy dress, cutest pony, veteran etc.

A friend of mine did a charity pet photo competition on FB and made a fair bit. Winners just got rosettes posted to them.

Ask every local fete, school fete, community fair day, etc if you can bring a pony or two for rides and charge accordingly. Our local disabled riding charity had a mechanical horse at a kids fun day we went to in Feb half term / £2 a go. Raised loads! Iirc, that mechanical horse was part of their kit to acclimate kids not yet sure about the real animals and was grant-funded to purchase it, so the fundraising use was secondary but obviously very useful.

Most WI meetings support local charities, so perhaps a letter to all the local groups to ask for support? If any of your own members could do a talk about your goup's history, aims etc to give at WI meetings, that would raise your local profile a bit.

Are you anywhere near a County Showground or Agricultural Showground? Maybe approach them about having an information stall? That will be a plan for next year though, as the shows are planned a long time ahead.

Car boot sales can raise a couple of hundred, especially if you had two or three helpers on the day. Are there any local to you?

Have a look at www.fundingcentral.org.uk/access.aspx?uri=guidedsearch.aspx - if your organisation has an income of below £100K pa then the subscription is free, above that there's an annual fee; you can then search their database. Sport England also have a fund though I'm not sure if they'll cover horse-riding though I know they have in the past - www.sportengland.org/funding/.

I know that some organisations like Maximus, www.maximusuk.co.uk/impact, have given grants to riding organisations for the disabled in the past; have a search for "grants" and keywords like "disabled", "riding", "sport", children, community, disadvantaged etc to see what's out there. It's likely to involve lengthy forms and might not be a quick process, though and the availability of funding varies from year to year. Are you able to say what part of the country you're in? (PM me if you'd rather.) :)

And given the activity area, what about looking at forums on things like Horse and Hound or The Lady getting in touch with your local glossy magazine, you know, Devon Life or whatever, or your local newspaper, to see if someone would be interested in writing up a "human interest" type feature? As someone said up thread, many of those in the horsing community overall have a reasonable disposable income, and lots of them are also quite caring sorts of people who enjoy sharing their love of horses.

There's also crowd-funding to maybe think about? Justgiving, Indiegogo etc. You'd need to look at the exact rules to see if your charity would fit in as each one is slightly different.