Fundraising Ideas

Whatever your vision, we’re here to help you make it great. Browse these thought starters to get your creativity flowing:

• Organise your own event: Gather the people you love for a cause you care about. It can be a book club, a bake-off, barbecue, comedy or classic morning coffee. Whatever you like to do — this is a chance to do it to benefit survivors of domestic violence.
• Live stream: Whether your into cooking, crafting or even gaming, you can bring your online community together and fundraise for refuge. Take a look at our tips and guidance to help you stream and you can even use our downloadable assets to jazz up your stream.
• Celebrate a big day: Have a birthday or anniversary coming up? Or want to do something meaningful this holiday season? Consider asking loved ones for donations to Refuge instead of presents.
• Take on a personal challenge: You can get sponsored for all sorts of things — giving something up (like chocolate) or taking something on (like dyeing your hair pink)!
• Join one of our challenge events: Whether you’re a fitness junkie or a couch potato, there are events happening regularly that might suit you. See upcoming events here.

Questions? Get in touch.

If you need help or just want to talk through an idea, email our community fundraising team.

Consider nominating Refuge as your Charity of the Year and raise vital awareness and funds through a variety of activities. Our community fundraising team can help with any information you need — just email the team.

What might those activities be, you ask? We have no shortage of ideas…

• Hold a club dinner: You could organise a dinner and donate proceeds from ticket sales. You can go a step further by organising a collection or auction on the night.
• Organise a tournament: From golf days to bridge nights to football matches, we’ve seen clubs have loads of fun while raising money for Refuge. Pro tip: Boost your fundraising total by asking people to enter sweepstakes to predict the winner!
• Fun day: A great way to bring communities and families together for an afternoon or a whole day. You can put on stalls, performances, raffles and games in exchange for a donation to come along.
• Group walks: Get the community together with walks on a particular day and time each week in exchange for a donation. It’s a great opportunity for people in the community to get together, get active and have a chat while raising money for Refuge.
• Community picnic: Flexible and easy to organise, arrange a picnic at your local park and ask everyone to bring a dish. You could even have a competition for the best dish on the day and organise some games like a scavenger hunt

So, you’re a university student who wants to make a difference and have fun with friends? We have just the thing. Lots of students organise fundraisers for Refuge and we love their creativity. Take a look at the ideas below, and drop us an email to chat about how we can support each other.

• RAG society: If your part of a RAG society and would like to support us, we’d love to hear from you! In return for your support, we can offer you a dedicated team to support you with your activities, in person or virtual talks about our work, specialist fundraising workshops, free fundraising materials and resources and even places in some of our challenge events. Please email the team.
• Organise a University challenge: Challenge other universities through an event inspired by the TV quiz show ‘University Challenge’. Or you could compete with other universities through challenges set across a month and ask each university for a donation to compete.
• Do a swap shop: Great for the environment and a great place to get a bargain, organise a swap shop on campus where students can donate and buy clothes in exchange for a donation.
• Open mic night or talent show: Encourage your peers to showcase their talents singing, dancing, playing an instrument or even spoken word or comedy for a good cause. You can even have a raffle and refreshments to raise extra funds.
• Fitness challenge: Get together with your university friends or society and set a challenge to walk, cycle, swim or run a certain distance over a month. Document and share your progress on social media — and ask friends to support you with a donation to help you reach your fundraising goal.
• Bucket collection: Sometimes raising money for domestic abuse survivors is as simple as asking. Choose a busy spot on campus and set up a bucket or booth to collect money from passers-by — you might be surprised how much you can raise.

Your workplace can have a huge impact on helping women and children escape domestic abuse, and you can be the one who inspires them. If you’re a small business, you might consider using Work for Good to donate a percentage of sales on a certain product to Refuge. If you’re more interested in fundraising among colleagues, take a look at the ideas below and drop us an email to chat about how we can support each other.

• Charity of the Year: Many businesses choose us as their charity of the year. This is a great way to raise vital awareness and funds, all while bonding with your work colleagues! Our team has resources to support you with your nomination – just let us know! Email the community fundraising team.
• Honesty box: Everyone loves an office snack! Why not bring in some chocolates and ask your colleagues to donate £1 each time they have a sweet treat?
• Sweepstake: Make friendly bets on who will win a variety of TV competitions — Wimbledon, Grand National, Strictly Come Dancing, Bake Off, the list is endless — and donate the proceeds to Refuge.
• Give a percentage of sales: If you are a product based organisation, why not give Refuge a percentage of your sales from a particular product? For more information, please contact community@refuge.org.uk
• Group fitness challenge: Set a collective goal, like walking the equivalent distance from London to Paris! This is a great way to build team morale, get fit, and fundraise for domestic abuse survivors.
• Donate your pay: Why not have a day where you donate your daily wage to Refuge? Alternatively, you could walk to work and donate your train fare, or bring in a packed lunch and donate your lunch money!

School is an amazing place to fundraise for Refuge, whether you are a teacher, student or parent. Here are some of our top ideas:

• Charity of the Year: We have loads of schools choose us as their charity of the year – could your school be one of them? We would love to help you with your nomination for Refuge! Drop us an email.
• Art exhibition: Ask students to submit a piece of art, and then invite parents to come and see the exhibition. You could sell refreshments to top up that fundraising total!
• Organise a tournament: Have fun and raise funds by charging students and families to take part in a sports day, friendly football match, chess tournament, and contributing ticket sales to Refuge.
• The 25 challenge: One in four women will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime, that is 25% of all women. Why not encourage students to be sponsored to complete a challenge relating to the number 25? This could be a 25-mile walk, 25-hour silence, reading 25 books – the list is endless!
• Friday treat time: You could sell ice cream after school in the playground in the warmer months, and hot chocolate in the winter months, to fundraise for Refuge.