Suggested Event Ideas
Auction
Get donations from members, friends and local business. They can be physical things such as a bottle of wine to someone donating an hour's singing lesson or to be their slave for a few hours. Try to get as many unique prizes as possible. Your Student Union could possibly donate some prizes.
Bag Packing
Pack bags at your local supermarket and ask for donations. Contact your supermarket specifying the day you would like to bag pack and the cause you are raising for. You will need a collecting bucket or tin per person. It is good if you all have matching t-shirts. You might like to have leaflets about the charity with you to give out to anyone interested.
Cake Stalls
Book a stall, get members of your society to bake cakes, biscuits and buns, and then set up the stall on campus. Just make sure that one of you has a food hygiene certificate. You will also need a money tin and float.
Donut Sales
Krispy Kreme doughnuts taste really nice and they do great offers for fundraisers. People are always selling them on Leeds University Campus. Book a stall, beg members to help out and raise some cash. You will also need a money tin and float.
Egging
Go around your local town, city or student area, knock on doors and ask, 'How much would you donate, if I allowed you to smash this egg on my head?' It is amazing how much money you can make. You can do this on campus too. You may get eggs smashed on your head though.
Fashion Show
If you have arty people in your society ask them to design different outfits, get a venue, beg people to be models and sell tickets. This kind of event needs lots of good publicity to be successful.
Gig Night
Book a venue, your union or local pubs might give you it for free as long as a certain amount is spent at the bar. Ask local bands or friends bands to play. Most will do it for free, because they want an audience to hear their music. You could offer to give them free drinks. Sell tickets to make money. To increase sales one option is to tell the bands they get a cut of each ticket they sell. You could make the event a battle of the bands and have a prize for the winner.
Hot Chilli Contest
See who can eat the most hot chillies before giving up. Very funny. Charge to enter and/or to watch. Let people bet on who they think will win. Have a good selection of hot chillies!
International Celebration
Celebrate one of the many holidays from around the world and either collect for the event, run a raffle or pass a hat around during the event.
Jewellery Sale
Host a 'MySmallShop Fair Trade Party' and sell pretty fairly-traded jewellery, scarves, and lovely bits and pieces. 20% of all your sales go to the charity.
Karaoke
Rent/borrow a Karaoke machine or use someone's computer. Either get people to pay to sing, pay to attend or make general donations. Works well with a raffle.
Ladies' Day/Evening
Organise an evening of pampering. It is polite to invite men, if you do not mind them being there. Ideas include pedicures, manicures, facemasks, foot spas, hair dyeing and styling.
Murder Mystery Night
Invite your society and friends around for a night of murder mystery. Ask people to donate £10 for the privilege of attending such a fun event. This could be done in conjunction with a raffle or cake sale. There are various games you can buy, for example from here.
Nicola
Contact the AHS (Nicola Jackson secretary 2010-11) who would love to help you with ideas and running your events. secretary@ahsstudents.org.uk.
Outing
Arrange an outing or picnic and charge. You could go to a museum, walk, hike, etc.
Pancake Party
Invite your society and friends to someone's house to eat pancakes. Ask for a donation to attend and enjoy eating and making pancakes.
Top Tip: Pancake recipe
Ratios:
1 egg
Half a mug of flour
Half a mug of milk/water
Instructions: Whisk the egg(s), sieve in the flour, put the water/milk in, and mix. Put oil in a pan and heat (whatever is the max setting), then when the pan is very hot, pour the mixture in. When the mixture has set on top flip the pancake! Wait a few minutes and then your yummy pancake is ready.
Remember you'll need fillings such as sugar, oranges, lemons, syrup, melted chocolate/Nutella, peanut butter, strawberries etc.
Quiz Night
Turn a society event into a quiz night. This can be in a pub or a meeting room. You can either charge to be part of the game or as Leeds Atheist Society regularly does, run it in conjunction with a raffle. You just need questions, paper, pens and a quiz master. Then pass a hat around to collect people's change and sell raffle tickets. This normally collects £60-£100.
Raffle
Write/email local companies in your area asking for prizes. Make sure you tell them what a good cause the money raised will be going to. Good places to try are hairdressers/beauty therapy places, clubs, gig venues, comedy clubs, sports venues, restaurants, milkshake places and comic book shops. Small locally run businesses are more likely to reap rewards than national ones. Student Unions often give out tickets to events, if you ask nicely and tell them about your event. Ask members to donate prizes. Suggestions include wine, cakes and chocolate.
Shaking Buckets
It is actually now illegal to shake buckets, but you can hold a bucket and encourage people to donate change in other ways. This is a great easy way to raise money. Wonder around your union bars, stand outside night clubs, sporting events, supermarkets, basically anywhere there are lots of people. It is fun to do it in fancy dress. Note it is important to ask permission first.
Tea Party
Invite your society and friends around to drink tea. This could be combined with selling cakes and raffle tickets. It is one of the more relaxed ways of raising money, depending on how many people turn up of course.
University Challenge
This is different to a quiz night as the focus is on a few brainiacs rather than everyone being in teams. Get groups to pay to enter the contest or to watch the competition. You will need a quiz master, some hard questions, a venue and a good prize for the winners.
Vegetarian Week
Convince members of your society to not eat meat for a week and get sponsored for it. You can combine this with a vegetarian themed night or ask people to bring vegetarian snacks to that week's social or event.
Washing cars
Get some buckets, sponges and cleaning liquid and get washing cars! Obviously it is nicer to do this in warmer weather.
Xylophone Concert
Host a xylophone concert and get all your xylophone fanatic friends to come.
Yellow Day
All wear sunshine yellow for a day. Face and body paint too if you dare! It will brighten up the day for your friends and raise lots of money too. Just make sure it is obvious you have painted your skin and you do not have jaundice.
Zoo Trip
All go to the zoo to admire God's crazy creations. Cash in on any group discounts/student discounts the zoo might give.