The A-Z of Fundraising Ideas

Home
Support Us
The A-Z of Fundraising Ideas

We couldn’t do everything we do without the help of our supporters. That support can come in the form of ever necessary and vital fundraising or practical support and volunteering. However you choose to help us; we’ll love you for it! The following A-Z gives a range of ideas and ways in which you can support us; including some ideas that will cost you nothing more than a few minutes of your time

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Abseil for us: Did you know you can abseil from The Orbit in Queen Elizabeth II Park (the site of the 2012 Olympics). Why not book to do it and ask your friends, family and colleagues to sponsor you; you can set up your own fundraising page on our website.

Adopt an Animal: Adopting one of our animals for yourself or as a gift for someone else provides us with funds to help feed and care for our animals.

Advertising: You can help to promote the farm and increase our numbers of supporters by advertising us and what we do; this could be as simple as liking and sharing our social media posts or taking and displaying a poster or flyers about the farm, our activities, and events in your workplace. Contact us for more information.

Afternoon Tea: Agree a venue (it could just be someone’s house or maybe in your workplace). You can either buy in all the ingredients or why not ask people to make and donate the various components? Everyone pays to sit down and enjoy the afternoon tea with the money being donated to the farm. To make it even more fun, why not pick a theme so everyon e can dress up; e.g. 1940’s, Mad Hatters and so on.

Amazon Smile: It’s exactly the same as Amazon except that you can nominate Vauxhall City Farm (displayed on Amazon Smile as Vauxhall (City) Farm Ltd) as your chosen charity and we will receive a donation when you purchase, at no extra cost to you!

If you keep forgetting to go to Amazon Smile instead of Amazon, you can install Smilematic – a free Chrome Extension – which will automatically take you to Amazon Smile, whenever you try and go to Amazon. No effort, no cost!

Amazon Wish Lists: We have two wish lists on Amazon one for things we’d like for our animals, staff, volunteers and the farm in general. Every item purchased by people like you from our wish lists saves us money that can be used where it’s most needed.

Auction: Get everyone you know to donate an item they no longer want or need then get together with friends, your sports team or your colleagues and auction them off, with the money raised being donated to the farm.

Auction of Promises: Get together with friends, your sports team or colleagues and offer a ‘promise’ of a service you could provide (e.g. babysitting, pet sitting, dog walking, gardening, decorating, baking a cake etc). Then get everyone together to Auction the promises to the highest bidder with the money raised being donated to the farm.

B

Baby ID Parade: Definitely one for the workplace. Get as many colleagues involved as possible. Everyone brings in a picture of themselves as a baby and pays a donation to enter. All the photos are then displayed with everyone trying to guess who’s who. If enough people enter you may want to make it into a competition with the person who correctly identifies the most baby colleagues winning a prize (if you raise a minimum of £50 the farm will donate a Meet & Greet Voucher as a prize).

Big Breakfast: If you’ve got the space and love cooking a good old English Breakfast why not open up for a morning to all your friends, family & colleagues; charge them enough to cover your costs + a bit extra and donate the profits to the farm.

Birthday Parties: Host your child’s birthday party at the farm. We offer a great all-inclusive package that means you can just relax and enjoy the fun. Profit from the parties helps support our education programmes for children.

Bales: Just like everyone else; our animals love a comfy bed. You can help by giving £10 for straw and shavings.

C

Café: Come and enjoy coffee and cake or a full meal at our on-site Café; The Old Dairy. All profits generated by the café support our work with unemployed and disabled young people; helping them to fulfil their potential and have brighter futures – what a great cup of coffee!

Celebrations: If you’re celebrating something special why not arrange to have a celebration event at the farm; we have a lovely function room available adjoining our Old Dairy Café overlooking our terrace and duck pond and can provide catering and refreshments – let us know what you’re looking for and we can prepare a package just for you.

Charity of the Year: Could we be your business’ Charity of the Year – take a look at our Corporate Support pages to find out more about this and other ideas of how you/your employer could support the farm.

Children’s Birthday Parties: Host your child’s birthday party at the farm. We offer a great all-inclusive package that means you can just relax and enjoy the fun. Profit from the parties helps support our education programmes for children.

Coffee Mornings: Are a firm favourite; just gather some friends together for a great morning of coffee, cake and chat – ask for a minimum donation for the farm; we can even lend you a VCF Collection Pot for the donations! Contact us to get a collection pot.

Collection Pots: Host one of our collection pots in your place of work (or even at home!) and encourage people to pop their spare change in it. Contact us to get a collection pot.

Come Dine With Me: You’ve seen it on TV, now do it yourself for charity! Get colleagues, friends and family involved and arrange them in groups of four with each person paying an entry fee and have your own Come Dine With Me competition!

Corporate Challenges: If you’re looking for a great way to support the farm as a team, a corporate challenge day could be perfect; you can find full information about corporate challenges and how we can build a day that’s just right for you!

Corporate Events: Looking for a place to hold a team meeting, product launch or team building day; we have two great meeting rooms available to hire with additions like refreshments, catering and equipment hire available. We can even provide activities and entertainment (meet the animals, butter making and other workshops). Contact us to discuss your needs and how we can help.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Another one for businesses; these days it is really important and valuable for businesses to display their CSR credentials and supporting a local charity like ours is a great way to do it. Take a look at out Corporate Supporter Opportunities to get some great ideas of ways to get involved with the farm and enhance your CSR practice.

D

Donate Direct: You can make a direct donation via our website, either as a single donation or giving a set amount each month; direct donations are extremely important and valuable to us and help us keep the farm open and able to support 10,000 children and young people to benefit from our education and support programmes each year

Donation Pots: Host one of our collection pots in your place of work (or even at home!) and encourage people to pop their spare change in it. Contact us to get a collection pot.

E

Entry Donations: Please encourage everyone you know to visit and enjoy the farm but please remind them to donate in one of the collection points around the farm. We want to be accessible for all so deliberately don’t charge a fixed entry fee but we do rely on visitors leaving a donation, however large or small. The current average donation is less than 20p per visitor but if everyone who visited donated even £1 on average this would generate in the region of £40,000 extra per year for the farm.

Events & Activities: We have many events and activities throughout the year at the farm, from nature craft sessions to pond dipping to workshops where you can learn to make butter or make your own Christmas Wreath to our regular monthly live music nights. These can cost as little as £1 to enter for child-based activities and higher for adult activities (but still amazing value). Your support of these events and activities helps generate profit to support our work.

Exercise Bike Challenge: Everyone pays to enter and the person that covers the most ground in a set time wins a share of the pot (or an agreed prize/trophy) with the remainder of money raised being donated to the farm

F

Facebook: Please find us on Facebook! Follow us, like and share our posts. All of this costs nothing except a little of your time but it really helps us raise awareness of the farm and get new supporters.

Farmer for a Day: Love animals? Know someone else who loves animals? If you’re looking for a gift for someone special or just want to treat yourself, purchase a Farmer for a Day Gift Voucher. Vouchers are exchanged for a day working alongside our team, learning about and caring for the animals, you’ll get lunch in our Café; a photoshoot with your favourite animal and a small gift as a memento of your day with us.

Flip Flop for the Farm: Everyone has to wear flip flops for the day – those that do pay a fee of £2 and those that don’t pay a fine of £5.

Foreign Coins: You know when you come back from holidays and you’ve got a selection of Rupiah? And you decide to keep them for the next time you go to Indonesia, 20 years from now? Yeah, we’ve all been there! Rather than stashing your foreign change for years and year and years, you can now bring any foreign currency to the farm and swap it for feed for the animals! How cool is that?

Friends of the Farm: Become a Friend of the Farm by donating a minimum of £100. In return we’ll acknowledge you as a ‘Friend of the Farm’ via a plaque displayed on site.

Fundraising: There are lots of ways you can help us with fundraising; this A-Z gives lots of ideas but specifically we’d love to hear from you if you’d like to become a dedicated fundraising volunteer. In that role you’d be making a direct contribution to making sure that the farm remains sustainable and be involved in everything from helping to run events to manning our info table at the entrance and all or anything in between, the main thing you need to know is that we won’t ask you to do anything you don’t want to!

G

Gift Aid: Your donation could be worth up to an extra 25% to us (at no extra cost to you) if you Gift Aid it. Most of our online giving platforms will give you the option to add gift aid or ask us for a declaration form (don’t worry, it’s quick and simple to complete!).

Gifts in Kind: This is pretty much as it sounds; instead of giving money you can donate something instead, this could be by buying something direct from our Amazon Wish Lists, or it could be by taking a look at the things on the lists and buying and donating them from somewhere else. Some people prefer to call us and see if there is anything particular we need that fits with their budget. Sometimes companies will contact us to see if we want any of their unwanted items (building materials, office supplies and so on). It can even be a donation of time from someone with particular, useful skills. Whatever form Gifts in Kind take, they’re great for us because it means the money we might otherwise have spent on them can be re-directed to another area of need.

Gift Shop: We have our own small shop on site which contains a range of farm themed gifts and goodies for all ages. Many items cost less than £1 so it’s a great source of party bag and stocking fillers. There are also some lovely items that would make perfect gifts, many from independent suppliers and crafts people. All profits from the shop help to fund our support programmes for children and disadvantaged people so next time you’re looking for something a bit different come and see us!

Give as you live: If you love online shopping then register with Give as you live and select Vauxhall City Farm as your chosen charity. Every time you purchase from a Give as you live affiliated website (and there are thousands to choose from) a donation is made to the farm at no extra cost to you!

Give as you earn: Also known as payroll giving. Basically, each month a set amount that you designate will be deducted from your salary and passed on to the farm. It’s also a great way for a business to ‘adopt’ the farm and have lot of employees provide direct support. Find out more about the scheme run by the Charities Aid Foundation.

Golf Day: Organise a golf day with or without a dinner afterwards, add in a guest speaker if you can, throw in a few prizes and perhaps a raffle. Whatever the day looks like simply charge people more than the golf club charges you (many golf clubs will give a discount for charity events) and donate the profits to the farm.

Go Raise: If you love online shopping then register with Go Raise and select Vauxhall City Farm as your chosen charity. Every time you purchase from a Go Raise affiliated website (and there are thousands to choose from) Go Raise will make a donation to the farm at no extra cost to you!

H

Hire our animals: Our animals love meeting people! Check out the various off site options we offer, such as Mobile farms or Photoshoots & Filming.

Horses at VCF: Did you know we offer riding lessons for individuals? Profit from these lessons helps to subsidise the cost of provision of lessons for disabled children. So, if you’ve ever wanted to learn to ride, here’s your chance and as well as enjoying yourself you’ll know that you’re also helping us to help others!

I

Instagram: We have three instagram pages for The Farm, for our Riding Team and for Music at the Farm. Please follow and like our instagram posts; this helps build our supporter base.

Incubation: We run incubation projects in schools; this gives children (and adults) the opportunity to find out more about animals, learn how chicks develop within the egg and ultimately see eggs hatching. It’s a great way of developing and love and understanding and the part they play in our everyday lives. The fees we charge for this service help support the care and welfare of our chickens back at the farm. If you know a school or even a business that might enjoy seeing eggs hatch into chicks first hand please put them in touch with us.

J

Jeans Day: Everyone donates a fixed amount (say £2) to wear their jeans to work and a fine of say £5 if they don’t!

K

Karaoke Competition: Pay to enter; have a judging panel or audience voting system to identify the winners (choose a range of categories so everyone has a chance; e.g. best voice, most out of tune, best performance, worst dancing etc).

Keep up to date: Sign up to our newsletter (see footer) so we can keep you up to date with what’s happening here at the farm and events that you might like to get involved in – and just to reassure you we never share personal data with anyone else!

L

Legacy Giving: Leaving us a gift in your Will help us to be more sustainable, keep the farm running and help us to continue to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children, young people and adults with additional needs. If you’re one of the two thirds of UK adults that don’t have a Will, we can help. We’ve partnered with Make a Will Online, so you can make your will for free (we cover the costs unless you choose to donate towards them). You don’t have to leave us a gift in your will to take advantage of the free Will writing service, but we’d love it if you did. Find out more.

M

Manpower: We are always in need of helping hands in all departments of the farm! You can volunteer as an individual or with your work team!

Manure: Where there are animals, there is also a lot of sh…owstopping shenanigans! And also manure. There’s a lot of that, too. Luckily, horse manure is a fantastic fertiliser and you can pick it up, ready and bagged from the farm, for a small donation! Your roses will flourish and you’ve helped a charity. Win – Win!

Marathon (London, or otherwise): It’s a classic for a reason! Every year thousands of peoplerun marathons for charity, raising billions of pounds. In 2019 Sean Ellis raised over £25k by running the London Marathon, which was matched pound for pound by his employer, the Berkeley Foundation. You and your company could be next!

N

Newsletter: Sign up to our newsletter (in the footer of the website) so we can keep you up to date with what’s happening here at the farm and events that you might like to get involved in – and just to reassure you we never share personal data with anyone else!

O

Office Sweepstake: you can run a sweepstake for just about anything; from sporting events to what colour hat the queen wears to Ascot. Simply put all the options in a hat, everyone pays to be involved; keep part of the money as a prize for the winner and donate the rest to the farm. A quick, simple and fun way to raise money.

One off donations: We are always happy to receive one-off donations and donating couldn’t be easier, you can do so in person at the farm, online or from anywhere via text. You can add gift aid simply by following the instructions you’ll receive via text!

To donate £1, text TVCF001 to 70201
To donate £3, text TVCF001 to 70331
To donate £5, text TVCF001 to 70970
To donate £10, text TVCF001 to 70191

Fundraising, payments and donations will be processed and administered by the National Funding Scheme (Charity No: 1149800), operating as DONATE. Texts will be charged at your standard network rate. For Terms & Conditions, see www.easydonate.org

P

Payroll giving: Also known as Give as You Earn. Basically, each month a set amount that you designate will be deducted from your salary and passed on to the farm. It’s also a great way for a business to ‘adopt’ the farm and have lot of employees provide direct support. Find out more about the scheme run by the Charities Aid Foundation.

Q

Quiz Nights: Run a quiz night with teams paying to enter, buy prizes for the winners and a funny/consolation prize for the lowest scoring team. Donate the remaining money to the farm. You can increase your fundraising by selling drinks, popcorn or cookies during the night!

R

Raffle: Get people to donate a few prizes then sell raffle tickets in the workplace to raise money for the farm.

Regular giving: You can set up a regular monthly donation via our website; even a donation of a few pounds a month will add up and make a real difference to us!

Ride with us: We have our own riding school right here in the heart of London. We offer a limited number of riding lessons for the public and the fees paid for these help us to subsidise our lessons for disabled children.

Room Hire: We have two rooms available for hire at the farm so if you’re looking for a different venue for your team meeting, product launch or an event then get in touch. The profit from room hire bookings directly supports the work of the farm.

S

Silent Auction: Gather together some items to auction (ask people to donate things) and then either display them somewhere for a set period of time or photograph them and share them online. People can put forward their best bid and others can then bid higher if they choose. At the end of the designated time the person with the highest bid for each item wins. Money raised can then be donated to the farm.

Sponsored events and activities: Get sponsored by friends and family to do something: it could be anything from a sponsored silence to running a marathon. You can set up your own fundraising page right here on our site and your donors can help you raise up to 25% more by adding gift aid.

Sponsorship: We have a number of sponsorship opportunities available at the farm; these are mainly aimed at corporate sponsors but are also sometimes taken up by individuals and philanthropists; you can find out more about the types of sponsorship opportunities available on our Corporate Support page.

Social Media: Please find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram then follow us and like and share our posts. Doing this costs nothing except a little of your time but it really helps us raise awareness of the farm and get new supporters.

Swap Shop: Everyone brings in unwanted items (in good condition!) and these can be swapped (or taken) in return for an agreed price or donation.

Swear Jar: Host one of our collection pots in your place of work (or even at home!) and fine people, every time they use rude words, until everyone is trained to say Fiddlesticks & Sugarlumps! Contact us to get a collection pot.

T

Text Donate: You can donate by text! It’s so easy! You can add gift aid simply by following the instructions you’ll receive via text!

To donate £1, text TVCF001 to 70201
To donate £3, text TVCF001 to 70331
To donate £5, text TVCF001 to 70970
To donate £10, text TVCF001 to 70191

Theme Days: Choose a theme for the day e.g. Green day and everyone has to wear something green – those that do pay a fee of £2 and those that don’t pay a fine of £5.

Twitter: We have two twitter accounts: Vauxhall City Farm and Music at the Farm for our monthly music nights. We’d love you to follow us and help spread the word by liking and retweeting our tweets

U

Unwanted Gift Sale (or Swap): A great one for just after Christmas; everyone brings in their unwanted gifts and people can buy them for a suggested donation. Or you can run it as a ‘Swap Shop’ with everyone paying a set donation for every item they obtain as a result of a swap.

V

Volunteering: The gift of your time is a great way of supporting us! You can volunteer as an individual or with your work team! Our volunteers get involved in a variety of ways including: staffing our gift shop and café; organising and running fundraising events for us; helping our riding team look after the horses and supporting them during lessons for our disabled riders, taking care of our growing spaces, supporting our education team to deliver school visit sessions, doing odd jobs and DIY around the farm and, of course, helping to look after our animals. Not convinced yet? Find out why becoming a volunteer with us is a great idea!

W

Wedding: If you’re looking for a different venue to host a wedding reception we’re here to help. Our Old Dairy Café and adjoining light and airy room overlooking the terrace and duck pond could be just the place. We can host up to 100 guests and cater for all your needs. Contact us to find out more.

Wedding List: Can’t think of things you need your guests to buy you? Maybe consider asking them to donate to a charity in your name instead: last year our wedding gift list donations helped feed our animals.

Wills: Leaving us a gift in your Will help us to be more sustainable, keep the farm running and help us to continue to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children, young people and adults with additional needs. If you’re one of the two thirds of UK adults that don’t have a Will, we can help. We’ve partnered with Make a Will Online, so you can make your will for free (we cover the costs unless you choose to donate towards them). You don’t have to leave us a gift in your will to take advantage of the free Will writing service, but we’d love it if you did. Find out more.

Womanpower: We are always in need of helping hands in all departments of the farm! You can volunteer as an individual or with your work team!

X

X-Box Game-athon: Run an X-Box league or tournament with a set entry fee. Subtract a winning price from the entry money, and donate the rest to the farm!

X-Factor talent competition: Do you have what it takes? Charge and entry fee and host a talent evening for friends, family and colleagues. This is particularly good fun around the holidays, when everyone is getting together to make merry!

Y

Yo-Yo Challenge: Find a group of friends and colleagues and charge an entry fee to competitors! Who can keep the Yo-Yo going the longest? You can stage it as a knock out challenge. Have individuals compete against each other, until only one Yo-Yo is left going up and down! Or maybe you want to find out who can perform the best tricks. Get 3 people to score Yo-Yo tricks 1-10 and see who comes out on top! Subtract a winning price from the entry money, and donate the rest to the farm!

You make the difference: Anything you can do to support the farm makes a difference to us, the farm, our animals and the young people we support on a daily basis and for that every member of the team here at VCF thanks you!

Young Farmers: If you have a child aged 8-15 then send them along to Urban Roots, our Saturday ‘Young Farmers’ club. Although this doesn’t actually generate any additional income for the farm, we hope it develops a life-long love of animals in those that take part and that is really important to us!

Z

Zany Clothes Day: Pay £2 to wear something weird and wonderful to work; pay a fine of £5 if you don’t!

Zebra Racing: Ok, this isn’t a serious one as we don’t have Zebras but if you do, that’s great! If you don’t, then thank you for sticking with the list to the end and hopefully something further up will have caught your eye.

Share this page

Your support makes a difference!

Every donation made will help us to reach more people with our services…