If your company has a charity of the year or you’re raising funds for a variety of causes over the next 12 months, workplace fundraising is always important. It enables your staff to come together, collaborate and bond outside of their day to day working lives. And it also increases awareness of your corporate values and commitments amongst your team. Not to mention, you’ll be doing your bit to raise money for some fantastic causes too.
Whether you’re planning your fundraising strategy for the year or the next few months, we’ve got 20 great fundraising ideas for the workplace. Choose one or select a few to get your staff having fun and raising plenty of cash along the way.
Office Fundraising Ideas
Here are 20 great office fundraising ideas to get you thinking:
1. Bake Sale
Get your staff baking some sweet treats for the rest of the office to enjoy. Simply charge a small fee (£1 or so) for the pleasure of enjoying some cake and you’ll raise plenty of funds in no time. You can make it a regular monthly thing and have a different theme each time.
2. Casual Friday
Allow your employees to ditch their normal clothes for a casual dress-down Friday for a small donation. You can also fine people if they forget. You can do this on a regular basis – maybe once a month.
3. Office Olympics
This is always a fun idea to get your staff bonding and having fun, and raising some money too. You can charge people to enter the competition as well as those watching. Games can include the cereal box challenge, a planking competition, table football, table tennis, paper javelin, and more.
4. Charity Run/Walk
A sponsored run or walk will see employees raising their own funds for the challenge, as well as paying an entrance fee to join. Try and make a real event out of it by encouraging your non-competitors to come down and support the runners/walkers. You can sell cakes and drinks on the sidelines too in order to raise a little more cash and maximise your fundraising efforts.
5. Silent Auction
Try and source some great prizes from your suppliers or clients and lean on any other business relationships you have. Then, simply ask your staff to bid silently for the great prizes on offer. The prizes will go to the top bidders, and you’ll raise plenty of funds in the process. Hold the auction over a couple of days at the start of the week and announce the prizes at the end of the week on a Friday.
6. Lunch and Learn
Do you work with some great suppliers that are at the top of their game? Have some good business connections with high-profile people in the industry? A lunch and learn will see you invite these people into your business to run a session with your staff at lunchtime, with lunch provided. Your team can attend if they make a small donation. This is a great ongoing fundraising idea if you have plenty of contacts who will be happy to run the sessions.
7. Talent Show
Got people in your team that love to sing? Or perhaps they have other weird and wonderful talents? It’s time to get them to showcase these unique gifts at your talent show. You can charge a fee for participants to enter and ask everyone who attends to pay an entrance fee too. You can also go all out and ask your suppliers for sponsorship that could cover the venue hire as well as boosting your fundraising coffers.
8. Coffee
All you need to do is set up a small coffee bar in the office and ask people to pay for a delicious cup of joe.
9. Departmental Challenge
If you’ve already selected a chosen charity for the month or year, you can set a challenge to see which department can raise the most cash in a certain time. Leave it up to them to decide how they go about it. They could go with any of the ideas we’ve given, like coffee mornings or setting up a sponsored walk or run a silent auction. But it all comes down to which department raises the most cash. The business can also commit to matching all donations made to encourage people to get involved.
10. Sponsored Silence
Now’s your chance to create a blissfully quiet office for the day with the challenge of a sponsored silence. People will have to get creative when it comes time for meetings and communication, but that’s all part of the challenge. Simply charge a small fee for everyone across your business to take part. And don’t forget the fines for breaking the rules!
11. Raffle
Source prizes from your suppliers, clients and board. Then simply sell tickets for the prizes to be raffled off. It’s a simple fundraising idea but will be successful if you can source some great prizes.
12. Guess the Number
Simply fill a jar with sweets or coins and charge employees to guess the amount. They can win the jar itself or some other prizes you’ve sourced.
13. Quiz Night
Host a quiz night or a lunchtime quiz and charge a donation for each team that enters. You can download plenty of quizzes online, but it’s always fun to make up your own – especially if you can theme it around your workplace and the work you do. Again, if you really want to make a big event of it, you can ask clients or suppliers to sponsor the evening and donate prizes.
14. Dress-Up Day
Choose a fun theme for a Friday and encourage your employees to dress up. Halloween is the perfect opportunity, but you can also do a Christmas-themed dress up day, summer dress up days, Wimbledon-themed dress up days, and more. It’s up to you how creative you get, but the more fun the theme, the more likely people will be to get involved.
15. Office Swap
Allow employees to swap roles with their colleagues for the day for a small donation. Not only will you raise funds, but you’ll also enable team members to learn about their colleagues’ jobs and roles which can enhance collaboration across your business.
16. Book Swap
You can hold a charity book swap as a one-off or make it a regular monthly event. Simply encourage your staff to bring in used and pre-loved books to be sold on behalf of your chosen charity.
17. Give it Up
Have employees that love a coffee in the morning? Or maybe they always fail to use their lunchtime and spend it at their desks instead?
Well, now they’ll be giving up their habits all in the name of charity. You can set aside a day where everyone gives up coffee for example or let individual people choose the habit they want to stop on the day. Either way, they’ll make a small donation for the pleasure of breaking their habits and routine for a full working day. But can they survive with no coffee?
18. Skill Workshop
Not only will this idea help you raise money, but it will also encourage knowledge sharing across your business. If you have employees that are particularly talented in certain areas, get them to run lunchtime sessions focusing on these skills. Simply ask the attendees for a small donation. You can make this a one-off or a regular thing.
19. International Food Day
Host a potluck at lunchtime and ask employees to bring dishes from different worldwide cuisines for a culinary extravaganza. Then simply charge attendees for the pleasure of sampling the delicious food.
20. Karaoke Night
Who doesn’t have a favourite karaoke song? And who amongst your staff has a hidden talent for singing?
It’s time to find out with an office karaoke night. You can hold it at your office and include food and drink to maximise your fundraising, or you can book a local karaoke bar and ask for sponsorship from across your network of connections.
Creating your Workplace Fundraising Strategy
Now it’s time to get thinking about which of the above ideas could work for your office. What will get your staff excited about raising funds? Do they love to bake? Is a karaoke night their thing? Or what about a sponsored run? Start planning now and use these ideas to create a fundraising strategy that will create a buzz in your workplace.
And to help boost your funds for your chosen charity, you can sign up to a business account with easyfundraising and donate to charity with your business purchases – your staff can do it too with a personal easyfundraising account. Discover more about easyfundraising and how it can supplement your workplace fundraising ideas.