Whether you are involved in the corporate social responsibility for your company and want to have a charity partner to work with, or if you just want to encourage your office to fundraise for a local charity and would like some fundraising ideas for work, we’ve got you covered. We’ve come up with 10 great ideas to get your colleagues raising money for charities in Birmingham like us!
Share the love for colleagues and charities in Birmingham
Use a national holiday as an excuse to give some love to each other and a local charity. Buy in bulk some roses on Valentine’s Day, some candy canes at Christmas or some sweets to keep spirits up when stuck in the office in summer time. Colleagues can buy them for a donation and send them to friends around the office via office elves.
Try a sponsored silly commute
Encourage colleagues to find a silly way to commute to work and get their friends and family to sponsor them for charities in Birmingham. You could have colleagues coming on bouncy hoppers, scooters, tricycles, rollerblades, stilts, canoes, narrowboats, mobility scooters…
Swear word jar with a twist
Everyone has heard of a swear word jar, but what about a buzzword jar? Pick a word that is used all the time in your workplace (maybe “law”, if you’re a law firm, or “price” if you’re a shop, or “prescription” if you’re a pharmacist) and designate an area that is used by staff where you’re not allowed to say that word for a day or week. If you trip up you have to support local charities by putting some money in the jar!
It’s time for…The Great Office Bake Off!
It’s an oldie but a goldie for fundraising ideas for work! Everyone loves a bake sale, so get those whisks out and your icing at the ready – but no soggy bottoms please! Why not get inventive by setting a theme or some challenges, for example…every entry must have on it somewhere, an image of a bra and at least a splash of pink? We’ve found some great articles about the best cake sale bakes and other tips from around the web to get the inspiration flowing so you can support charities in Birmingham:
BBC Good Food: How do I make great cakes for a cake stall?
JustGiving: Top tips for hosting a charity bake sale
Betty Crocker: How to throw a bake sale
Set up an office bookshop for your charity partner
This one is a lovely ongoing project. Just keep a spare desk or shelf in your office for people to put donated books, CDs, DVDs and video games, then just stick up a price list and an honesty box and donate all of the money raised to your charity partner.
Local charities social night
Find out what your colleagues are interested in and hold a charity night to make some money for local charities. This could be a one-off or you could make it into a regular thing! You could hold a movie night, a quiz night, play board games or video games, have a make-your-own pizza (or cocktails?!) night and charge an entry fee donation…the options are endless!
Skills auction social
One of our fundraising ideas for work that’s a little different…a skills auction! Find out your colleagues hidden talents and get others to bid for a class on that subject. Does your boss do glass-blowing in her free time? Does the intern really love poker? Is the office upstairs secretly full of black-belt Karate students or salsa dancers? This is the perfect chance to get to know your colleagues a little bit better, learn a new skill and give to local charities!
Get competitive!
Why not team up with another department or company and host some friendly intra-office competition? Stay in and host a games night, or go out and try some fun activities and ask participants to chip in an extra few pounds onto their ticket price with the proceeds going to your charity partner. Here are some great activities you could try in and around Birmingham:
Laser Quest, Birmingham
Adventure Island Mini Golf, Star City
Team Sport Go Karting, Oldbury
Ghetto Golf, Digbeth
Hollywood Bowl Ten Pin Bowling, Five Ways
Sporty sweepstakes
There are always plenty of sporting (or non-sporting – hello Eurovision!) events going on, so why not have a charity sweepstakes? Everyone purchases a country or two from a random draw for a small donation and whoever has the winning team takes home half the winnings, with the other half going to your charity partner! Win-win!
Corporate Social Responsibility (Prison) Officer?
How about a encouraging little bit more competition by holding a Jailbreak? Lock up some colleagues (with their consent!) in the office with only their phone and a JustGiving page each for your chosen charity partner. The “prisoners” are given a target fundraising amount and using only their phones (phone-a-friend or social media too, you set the rules!) they must raise that target amount before they’re released. As the one in charge of corporate social responsibility, we give you permission to be the one holding the key!
Those were our 10 top fundraising tips for work. Feeling inspired? See our Get Involved page to find out how else you and your workplace can raise money for Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer.
