There are endless exciting ways to raise vital funds for us. Pick one that suits you, and adapt it to your needs:

Bring-a-book coffee morning
Invite friends and neighbours over for coffee and home-made cakes. Charge a small entrance fee and ask everybody to bring good used paperbacks that friends can buy for 75p each.

Neighbourhood Barbeque
Ask your neighbours round for a barbeque. Ask them to bring a bottle and the meat of their choice. You provide the salads and bread. A small entry fee should cover costs, with some left over for us.

Cheese and wine tasting
Get your friends and workmates together for a mouth-watering evening. Try to have around 20 people, and charge them £5 or £10 each. For that, you can provide a fine selection of wines and cheeses with crackers, French sticks, fruit or celery – whatever you fancy.

Ready, steady, cook!
Make your favourite dishes or cakes to sell to friends. Jams, plates and preserves go down well, too. Or how about fairy cakes, with yellow icing on top?

Course by course
Have a fantastic five-course dinner party. Five couples provide a course each and make a donation.

Quizzes
A sure winner – everyone loves the chance to show off his or her knowledge! Make it a fun event and offer drinks or light refreshments. Charge an entrance fee and award prizes. Here are some ideas:

• Trivial Pursuits quiz – a great favourite. Invite teams to play on a knockout basis
• Local knowledge – quiz your friends and neighbours on your local area
• Soaps – does anyone remember who shot JR? Soap questions old and new
• All our yesterdays – 70s, 80s, 90s. Who won Wimbledon? Who ran the country?
• Pop quiz – hugely popular with music fans of all ages.

Karaoke night
Guaranteed hilarity with your friends. Ask a local pub if they’ll give you a free room. If they don’t have a karaoke machine, see if you can get a good deal from an independent supplier. Charge singers £1 to take part.

Theme Parties
A chance to really use your imagination. Charge a small amount to cover costs and allow for a donation.

• 60s, 70s or 80s party – pull on your flares or shoulder pads and turn up the Abba
• Star sign supper – ask your friends to come dressed as their star sign. Great for matchmaking!
• Christmas party – organising the firm’s bash? Ask people to pay an extra 50p on top of the fixed price. You could run a raffle on the night, too
• Down under – throw another shrimp on the BBQ and break out the tinnies!
• Little Italy party – Mafia, molls, pasta and Chianti – a great combination

Pub games lunch
Book a room in a pub and charge your friends admission. Invent your own competitions with darts, cards, pool or backgammon. Have fun!

Weekend lunch for friends
Do you love cooking? Lay on a gorgeous weekend lunch or buffet for your friends and charge them for entry – they’ll be happy to scoff your lovely food and make a donation to a good cause at the same time.

Sponsored dog sit or walk
This fun event can be arranged through your local dog training club, or with a group of enthusiastic dog owners. Get sponsorship for how many minutes your dog can sit still. Results have ranged from eight seconds to eight minutes. Or walk your friends’ dogs for a small fee.

Wardrobe clearance
Take those 'I'll never wear that but it’s too good to throw' clothes to a Nearly New shop. De-clutter for a good cause!

Give it up
Sponsor members of the family to give up their worse habits for the week – to benefit us and the family! And each time they forget, they have to pay a fine.

Get rid of it!
Get together with some friends and sell unwanted clothes, books, trinkets and junk through a garage sale or jumble sale in your garden. Or how about a car boot sale? Check your local paper for weekend venues.

Auction of promises
Ask friends and neighbours to donate an evening’s baby-sitting, an afternoon’s ironing, a day’s gardening, or whatever else you can think of. Ask local hairdressers, cafes and shops to take part too. Then take the highest bids.

Wacky races
Challenge two other families to a race to see who can be first to raise £100 for us.

Neighbourhood carwash
Plenty of willing little helpers? Set up a neighbourhood carwash scheme with proceeds going to us.

Teddy bears’ picnic
For a small charge, invite neighbouring children and teddies round for a picnic. Give a prize for the best dressed teddy.

Tombola
Check your local telephone directory for your nearest party supplies company and ask for a catalogue of inexpensive toys and tombola tickets.

Children’s nearly new stall
Mums are always looking for good quality children’s clothes at a bargain price. Get together with other mums and set up a stall.

Patchwork quilts
If you and your friends are passionate about patchwork, why not get together and make a quilt? Then raffle it off for us.

Dried flowers and potpourri
Create some lovely arrangements for people to buy as gifts.

Quick repairs
Good at mending and got some time on your hands? Offer your services for small donations to us.

Sponsored knit-in
How many squares can you and your friends knit in two hours? Make a blanket together and raffle it.

Autumn prize vegetable show
Could you organise a vegetable show, including a competition for the most delicious vegetable dish?

Sponsored head, beard or body shave
Get rid of that shock of hair, not to mention that goatee! Applies to moustaches too. Or how about a sponsored chest wax? Dare we suggest the Full Monty?

Supermarket collections or bag packing
Ask permission from your local supermarket to collect there for a day. You can bag pack for customers at the check out for a small fee. You’ll be surprised how much money can be made in one afternoon.

Coin painting
Draw a picture on the ground outside with coloured chalk. Ask permission from your local council if it’s on public property. Encourage passers-by to place coins on it to build up the picture.

Blanket collection
Ask permission in your local stadium to run around the perimeter of the playing field, catching money thrown into a blanket by the crowd!

On your bike
Keen cyclist? Got some friends who could join you on a sponsored bike ride? Make it an interesting route, with lots of refreshments on the way.

Blindfold ten-pin bowling
Some people actually play better this way! Participants pay to enter and the winner gets a prize.

Sponsored walk
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt? OK, well how about a three-legged walk in fancy dress?

Aerobic antics
Do you go to a really good aerobics class? Why not ask your instructor if they’d consider organising an aerobics marathon?

Golf swindle
Now you’ve got an excuse to cheat on the golf course! Set up a ‘swindle’ with your fellow players. All this involves is the payment of a fee by any player to buy shots to add to their handicap. A shot could cost between £1 and £3. Alternatively, try setting up a sponsored Stableford – and a cash prize could then be offered to the winner.

Angling swindle
Similar to the golf swindle. If anyone is lagging behind on their catch they could substitute cash – a pound for a pound, perhaps?

Run for fun
Like to run, but not too far? Why not get together with some friends for a fun run?

In the swim
Organise a sponsored swim with your friends at your local pool.

Marathon man (or woman)
Are you one of those incredibly fit people who runs marathons – perhaps even the London Marathon? What an achievement! And an even greater one if you’re being sponsored. Call us for sponsorship forms.

Squash badminton and tennis ladders
This is the ideal way to play against lots of different people at lunchtime or after work. Choose which sport is best, depending on local facilities and likely number of players. Enrol about ten players, with the money going to us.

Pull a name out of the hat to obtain the initial starting position on the ladder (i.e. first out of the hat is at the top, last is at the bottom). A player can challenge anyone up to three places above him or her on the ladder, and all those challenged must play the challenger. If the challenger wins, the players swap places on the ladder, i.e. the challenger moves up the ladder to the place of the loser, and the loser goes down to the challenger’s previous position. Allow six to eight weeks for the competition, giving trophies and/or prizes to the players at the top and bottom of the ladder.

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