In your final years in school or college, the looming job applications, UCAS applications and personal statements become more and more important. It’s often suggested that fundraising and volunteering is a great way to boost your CV…and we completely agree! But it’s not all about your DofE Volunteering hours, you’ll have an amazing time too. To show you just how much you can gain from organizing a single fundraising event for us, we’ve created a step-by-step plan for creating a fundraising event that shows you all the things you’ll learn. And you might gain some inspiration for school fundraising ideas too.
Step 1: Think of some initial school fundraising ideas
First of all you’ll have to decide what kind of fundraiser you want to do. Do you want to go it alone or get a team together? Do you want to run it with a club, your class or include the whole school? Maybe you could get a DofE Volunteering club set up specifically for this event? Do you want to open it up to the local community? Think about the time and resources you have available to you before you commit.
Skills you’ll gain: planning, using your initiative, organization
Step 2: Get creative
You’ll need to get your team together and decide exactly what fundraiser you want to run. What activities will be involved? Do you want to go down the route of tried and tested school fundraising ideas like cake sales and raffles? Or do you want to try something different like a “What What You Dare” day or Sponsored Silly Sports Day? Keeping it as fun as possible will keep you motivated.
Skills you’ll gain: team-work, creativity, leadership
Step 3: Plan the fundraiser
In your team you’ll need to create a schedule of when your final fundraising event will happen and a list of jobs that need to be done before then. Do any rooms need to be booked? What needs to be bought? What is your budget? Does everyone have a job? Do you need members of school staff, parents, DofE volunteering assessors or other Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer volunteers to help you? Make sure everyone knows what they’re doing and when the deadlines are.
Skills you’ll gain: budgeting, time management, communication with people of all ages
Step 4: Make sure everyone knows
To ensure all your hard work and planning doesn’t go to waste, you’ll need to be certain that people will turn up to your event. Try advertising on social media pages, local newsletters, posters and doing shout-outs in assemblies. This is a great time to find your inner-artist!
Skills you’ll gain: communication, public relations, how to use glitter effectively
Step 5: Host an amazing event
After finalizing everything (and probably after ironing out more than a few creases in your initial plan!) you can get chance to enjoy the event that you’ve created. And in good Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer fashion, this must be done in head-to-toe pink!
Skills: problem solving, professionalism, confidence, handling money, community action, how to pull off head-to-toe pink
That was our short Five Step Guide to show you how fundraising for Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer at school can help you learn some new skills, boost your CV and help you to tick off those DofE Volunteering hours. And we hope it’s given you some school fundraising ideas inspiration too! If you want to find out more about how to fundraise for us, head over to our Get Involved page.
