Having been asked to write a blog about our Community Fundraising Team, it’s hard to know where to start. Probably the best place is at the beginning – just over three years ago when my daughter Lucy came home and announced that she was giving up her TV career and going to set up a home for abandoned babies in Kampala.
I’d always enjoyed putting on local events to raise funds for sports club etc, so it seemed natural to get a few friends together who I knew were keen supporters of Child’s i Foundation, and form a small committee.
Our first event was ‘Undress for Uganda’ – a clothes-swapping party where everyone brings along good-quality items of clothing to sell, which we soon got other people copying. With a £5 entrance fee (which includes a glass of wine!) and most items on sale at £5, they always prove to be really fun, sociable evenings. At our first, we also had a reflexologist and someone painting nails, also at £5 a pop, and we raised £1,081.
This spurred us on and our committee grew from four to eight. One of our committee is a keen walker and suggested organising a walk around our local Ashdown Forest for friends, families and dogs on a Sunday morning. We have since made this a regular event (Spring and Autumn) and the band of walkers grows every time. We charge every adult £5 and organise it so that it ends near to a local pub for a pre-Sunday lunch drink.
We also hold a spring children’s “nearly-new sale” each year. We hire the local village hall and leaflet-drop locally asking for good-as-new babies’ and children’s clothing and toys. The sale itself is growing in popularity as more people get to hear of it, but the advantage is that we are able to send any remaining good clothing, equipment and toys direct to Malaika Babies’ Home. In fact, nothing goes to waste as any clothing left from Undress for Uganda along with the Children’s nearly-new sale, gets take to a car boot sale by two of our committee members where the majority gets sold.
It’s always a challenge to come up with new ways to raise funds and, in April this year, we held our first Quiz Night. We managed to persuade a colleague, Chris, to take on the job of MC for the evening, found a very reasonable caterer and got our husbands to run the bar and the evening bought in just over £1,000. This will definitely become an annual event.
We sometimes find that people approach us for help in putting on an event, and we’re always pleased to lend a hand. This year, one of our supporters, Brent suggested holding a cricket match, Rotherfield v Child’s i. He was home from Japan for a month and, in a very short time, put the game together, coercing (in some cases) cricketers who had not played for several years. It was a beautiful summer’s day, tea was provided by all the players and a raffle and quiz rounded off the day. Taking into account the short time it took to organise the event, an amazing £450 was raised by two enthusiastic teams of cricketers keen to do it all again next year.
This brings us to the end of the summer when, two years ago, we held our first Golf Day. With two of the committee being keen golfers, we decided to rally our friends, find a course and put together a golf day. It was quite a feat in the end and we were grateful for all the help we could get! However, undaunted, we have just held another Golf Day and can honestly say it was a great success, bringing in just over£2,500. The players are asking for another next year, but bi-annually is enough for us organisers.
All the family have got involved. Tea Tunes and Talent is the brainchild of Jo Farrelley, Lucy’s great aunt. A talented pianist and member of Groombridge Amateur Dramatic Society, Jo wanted to raise some money for Child’s i Foundation and realised that a lot of elderly people prefer to go out in the afternoon rather than have to come home after dark. She spread the word and soon had lots of local support and set out a programme of popular music and sketches along with an interval with delicious cakes and a cup of tea. A sing-song at the end rounds off the event and inevitably a few tears are shed by the audience as they sing along to old favourites. She has now organised 2 of these events and we are hoping that there will be many more to come!
So that just about sums up our year. We have learnt a lot, especially to stick with what we know. Being a local community group, we also have to be careful not to approach the same people all the time, so try to cover different groups and not rely on friends – we want to keep them! However, at the end of the day, the charity sells itself. Its transparency, and the fact that supporters feel they know the children they are helping, makes it so easy to encourage them to donate. Our mantra is to make sure we “Keep the Fun in Fundraising” and think that is what we do.
Thanks to Sharon, Lyn, Janis, Liz, Julie, Delny, Jeannie, Vicki and Gillian for their tremendous support. They have raised an incredible £7,043.33 so far this year which pays for all the home for a whole month.
If you would like to put on your own fundraising event in your local community please do drop me a line hazel@childsifoundation.org
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