Are you trying to get some fundraising ideas? Need help?
See below for links and tips to help you and your group fundraise for the Christmas Box project.

Notice to all fundraising teams

All funds must be raised and in by Monday 23 November. See below options of depositing funds raised for the Christmas Box project.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Direct Banking:

The Life Centre Trust Auckland
ASB Mt Eden
12 3048 0390996 00
Ref: Christmas Box + Your Name

Cheque:

Please make cheques payable to:
The Life Centre Trust Auckland

Post to:
PO Box 108138
Symonds Street
Auckland 1150
New Zealand

Please indicate whether you would like a receipt.

Fundraising Website Links:

http://www.better-fundraising-ideas.com/index.html
http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/default.asp
http://www.houseoffundraising.co.nz/index.htm

Fundraising Tips:

TradeMe Sales

Gather up the items around the home that you don’t use any more and sell them on trade me.

Garage Sales

Similarly with Trade Me sales, gather all the items from family and friends that you can sell at a garage sale, put signs up and down the street to advertise your garage sale and maybe even a small advert in the local paper to attract more people.

Car Wash

Offer to wash family, friends and neighbours cars for a small fee. Ask your company if you could do a car wash in the company car park.

Working Bees

Gather some friends together for working bees around your neighbourhood. Mow neighbours lawns for a set fee.

Charity Dinner

Requires a budget upfront. Organise a dinner and sell tickets to friends and colleagues with the profits going to Christmas Box.

Raffle

Can be combined with another event, or tickets sold over period of a few weeks. Gather some suitable prizes (try to get local business to donate) and sell tickets. The bigger the prize the more tickets you will sell. Make sure to get the buyer's name and phone number on each ticket stub in case they leave before the raffle is drawn.

Charity Haircut

If you normally have long hair (women and men!) get sponsored to have it cut short. If you are brave enough, get people to sponsor you extra to have your head shaved.

Market Stall

If you have a local market, boot sale, farmers market etc, and willing volunteers, hire an occasional stall and sell donated or homemade items from it. This gets more money from good quality donated goods.

Karaoke Night

Sell tickets for an evening of creative singing at a karaoke bart or private venue; you could get people to donate money to stop their friends from singing or invite local companies/pubs to send teams (for an entry fee).

Quiz or Trivia Evening

Charge an entry fee for individuals or teams to take part; questions could be on a set theme, like animals, music, movies, geography, or general knowledge. For children, hold a junior trivia challenge about popular TV, music etc. The winning team gets a prize.

Sponsored Walk

Set a route of known distance around local streets or in a nearby park and get sponsored for the whole distance or per kilometre and lap walked.

Cookery

Use your culinary skills to bake cakes (especially decorated ones), cookies and candies and to make jams and preserves. These can be sold at any suitable event e.g. fundraising fairs, open days, coffee mornings or to friends and colleagues.

Gumboot Throwing Competition

Suitable for sideshow at fair or sports day, but make sure people throw AWAY from the other events! Charge entrants to see how far they can throw a gumboot. At the end of the day, give a prize to the winner. This can also be run as a tournament.

Zany/Bad Taste Fancy Dress

Hold a fancy dress or bad taste clothing competition to see who can come up with the silliest or worst costume, preferably with their faces made up or painted. Charge a registration fee. This could be part of a larger event with people arriving in costume, it could be themed e.g. school uniform, not-so-super-heroes (make up your own names e.g. Washing-Up Man, Blunderwoman)

Cookbooks or Calenders

Make your own, compile a list of your favourite recipes, bind them into a booklet, make a nice front cover and sell the cookbooks.
Create your own calendar with your favourite photos or children’s art.
Only print as many as you need and print more on request.

Add extra revenue by selling advertising

You can also sell advertising or sponsorships to raise even more funds, for example a full page, half a page or the back page.
These ads can tie in nicely because people tend to look at calendars every day, so it's a good value for the advertisers. Plus, if the ads are offering valuable discounts on goods and services, you can use them to help convince people to buy the calendar.

Sales tips

Be creative in your sales approach. Don't just have a stack of calendars laying on a table and hope somebody buys one. Kick off your sales campaign with a big launch party, live music, food and beverages, etc.

Charge admission and offer silent auction items. Offer door prizes and do a raffle drawing. Draw a bigger crowd by doing a press release featuring the most newsworthy story angle behind your calendar.

Offer local businesses a cut of each calendar they sell for you. Most advertisers will help promote the calendars and can refer you to friends or acquaintances that own or manage other locations where sales can be made. You can also setup sales tables outside high-traffic retail location such as supermarkets. Just be sure to get permission first and use big signs to explain your fundraiser well ahead of time to those approaching from the parking lot.

Car Wash

Car wash fundraisers are a proven money-maker in virtually every community. All you need are willing volunteers, a high-traffic location with good visibility, and some attention-getting signs. You can put a car wash fundraiser together on short notice, but they work best with a little planning. Here's how to get started...

Getting Ready To Wash Cars

Line up a location with good main road frontage
Ensure it has suitable water access
Assemble supplies list – hoses, buckets, wash towels, dry towels, squeegees
Assign each volunteer an item from the supplies list
Make 8-10 poster board signs in high-contrast colors
Arrange your volunteers in 2-hour shifts
Get advance publicity, if possible

Car Washing Tips

Organize your group into teams - Promotion, Sales, Wash, Dry
Promotion team attracts new clients with signs
Sales team explains offer (use flyer for quick info) and up-sells clients with extra features or secondary offer
Wash team soaps, scrubs, and rinses each car
Dry team gets water residue off, vacuums, does tires, etc.
Use at least two lines and wash two or more cars at once
Wash cars for six to eight hours (Saturday 9:00 to 3:00 preferred)
Your fundraiser’s success will depend on the weather. If you can wash 12 cars an hour (one every 10 minutes in each line), you can easily raise $600- $1000 in one day.

Remember to put together a quick flyer that includes the reason why you’re raising funds and clearly states the price. You can even offer some extra services for an additional charge such as providing high-gloss tire treatment or vacuuming interiors.

Car Wash Fundraiser - Success Tips

1. Location, location, location!
2. Sell car wash fundraiser tickets in advance
3. Use a flyer that clearly explaining why you're raising funds
4. List all prices concisely in large, bold type
5. Up-sell to include additional services
6. Partner with another group if your head count is low
7. Increase revenue with an extra offering such as a 2-for-1 pizza savings card or selling boxes of doughnuts.

Free car wash

Alternatively, you can advertise a free car wash and just ask for donations for your cause. Often, this can raise more cash than stating a specific price, because people will see a group of volunteers working hard and having a good time, and may actually donate more money than you would have charged.

Final Advice

Make sure to keep the event fun for all your participants and your customers. Play upbeat music, provide soft drinks and snacks to keep the energy level up. Keep safety in mind when trying to attract customers. Be sure to get volunteers to hold and wave signs toward passing traffic, not just volunteers to wash cars. If you have time, increase your turnout by getting your car wash fundraiser some advance publicity coverage in the local newspaper, or by posting roadside signs a day or two ahead of time.