Fund-raising

Are you doing this on your own or do you have a group of helpers?

Pension Pat what a great thing to do.
I often make little bags (sourced on Internet) of homemade sweets like tablet, macaroon bars, tie with ribbon and put a label on saying what it is raising funds for. They usually sell for a £1 and always sell out.
One year in school, I made £250 for school funds doing this, with the children helping me.
At Christmas we raised a fortune making reindeer food (I know a little early for that) with a little poem attached. However, I don't know if you can get eco friendly glitter, as the other stuff harms the environment. .

I do it mostly on ny own, with help from my husband. There are friends who I can, and do call on, but they are limited by health and other commitments. I like the idea of home made sweets. Packaged prettily. I haven't made tablet fir years but I remember how much it makes. Do you have any recipes I could pinch Pamela please?

I organized a dinner dance once, at a local hotel. It was actually good fun, and we made a fair bit of money, selling tickets, auction, raffle and donations.

Well done pensionpat! Do you have craft skills? Folk in my local community often organise craft workshops, where they can share their skill with a small group of people - usually about six to eight. Charge is around 25 / 35 pounds p.p. for the day, including materials, ingredients etc. They run from 10 until 3 , include coffee & a soup, crusty bread type lunch provided by the host. Could you manage something like that? Depends on the size of your house & where you live of course but can make a decent sum for charity in one day.

Pension Pat, my staples for sweet bags. You can also buy wholesale bags of sweets and put in little bags, with charity name on them. Good luck.

Coconut Truffles

2/3/4 tablespoons of margarine
3/4½/ 6 tablespoons desiccated coconut
2/3/4 tablespoons of cocoa
4/6/8 tablespoons of soft brown sugar
6/9/12 tablespoons of porridge oats
A teaspoon of vanilla extract
2/3/4 milk

Melt marge and sugar gently in microwave, in 20 second bursts. Mix well. Add all the dry ingredients and milk, stir together. Allow to cool slightly and roll into balls.
Put in fridge on an oiled tray to set. Drizzle melted chocolate over them, when firm.

Tablet
2lbs granulated sugar
Knob of butter
Tin condensed milk
1 cup of milk (I usually just fill the empty tin with milk)
Vanilla essence.
Put all the ingredients in a large, heavy based pan and stir over a low heat with a wooden spoon until the sugar dissolves.
Boil without stirring until a soft ball forms when syrup is tested in cold water. ( drop a little mixture from the spoon into cold water)
Remove the mix from the heat (it will be a caramel shade) and beat well until the mixture thickens. (I use a hand held food mixer)
Pour into an oiled Swiss roll tin and leave to set.

Macaroon Bars

I tablespoon of cold mashed potato, (no milk or butter in it, just potato)
Icing Sugar
Toasted desiccated coconut
100 g Dark chocolate

Put the potato, vanilla essence/extract in a mixer/ food / bowl, gradually add icing sugar until you have a stiff past.
Roll into balls, dipped in melted chocolate, use a fork to roll in toasted coconut.
Put on baking parchment and into fridge to set.

That should be "Stiff paste" !

Auctions can raise a fair amount.Ask people to donate unwanted goods,home-crafted items and services.Local traders can be approached to offer items from their stores or a meal for two,etc.You would need a hall or open air space to conduct the auction.Takes a bit of organising but good fun too!

Are you or any chums handy with a sewing machine? I've recently dug mine out again . Youtube has lots of tutorials on how to make quite pretty coin purses, little bags etc out of small scraps of fabric that would take an experienced person minutes.

You can get loads of ideas craft, sweets, baking on Pinterest online. I admire people like you, you focus on the positive not the negative. ?

That tablet recipe seems same as my party piece I call fudge. I have made loads over the years for fundraisers. Making presentable bags takes the time and maybe some extra funds. I have used a large roll of cellophane paper from wholesale florist supplier and made up into bundles with some nice ribbon tied ... a bid fiddly otherwise you can buy cellophane bags online.

With sewing machine and using odd bits of material, I have make 'baggy bags' for storing plastic bags by making a sleeve with elastic around top and bottom and a hanging bit. I once got a donation of odd bits from a curtain maker.

What about an Auction of Promises?

How about approaching a supermarket where they pick three worthy causes. Shoppers can choose which one to support by putting their token they get at the check out into the see through bins usually at the exit to the shop. I believe our local Air Cadets did this and got a good response enabling them to purchase and renew camping gear.

I’m don’t find getting money out of people easy but I did raise more than anyone else on a committee for a children's hospice by getting other local groups to do it.
As this is for local benefit, I’d go and talk to local schools, shops, businesses, groups such as WI, leisure centre etc and ask them if they’d like take on this cause. They may of course have been approached aleady depending who is the person behind it (or is it you?). It is a way of doing things you ate doing it mainly on your own.
I like the idea of selling small things in bags. Keeping the product and price simple makes it easy for more people to donate. How about mini Easter Eggs in bags. In Reading last year, young people were giving away an artificial flower with a message to raise awareness about a MH charity. Buckets for donations were nearby. Good luck.

I approached the local Round Table who donated a rather large sum.

Every year my Doctor's surgery used to sell egg-sized easter eggs with knitted chickens sitting on them for £1. I have found the pattern online on Francis House Children's Hospice; www.francishouse.org.uk/userfiles/file/Chick%20knitting%20pattern%20instructions(1).pdf

Fudge is soft, tablet is hard and crunchy. You need to cook it for longer and beat it till it become so thick you can hardly pour it.

Do you use the Internet much? You could start a crowdfunding page for a specific target. Kickstarter or IndieGogo.

My local knit and natter group used to raise over £2k per annum raffling off around 20 colourful crochet blankets at £1 per ticket. We'd run the raffle in October/November.

A quiz with an entrance fee perhaps, also a raffle in the interval with donated prizes.
Would a local pub or community centre let you have a room free?

100 club?
Rotary, Lions, Probus etc are good sources for local charities.
WI-type calendar? :P

I do a lot of fund-raising, my upcoming one is going to be held in the restaurant area of a local bar.
We have a group of people visiting from the UK and a lot of people from here attending too.
I do a fun quiz, just A4 size charging 5€ per person, also a drinks raffle, you need a friendly bar to do this. Make up vouchers for say `£1, £3 and £5 or equivalent to the prices in the bar. then sell raffle tickets, for £1 each, depending on the numbers sold you then call the raffle handing out the vouchers towards the cost of peoples drinks/meals. You hand out as many vouchers as you wish, I usually fine 6to 10 is fine.
It always raises quite a lot for little outlay.
Also a book table, I did a silent auction once and I do a promise auction with a friend at Church, every 2 years.
Good luck.

Be careful with the edibles, need to have list of ingredients.

Dumdum. Yes. A list in case of allergic reactions. I am overwhelmed with your suggestions and will give them all consideration. Marydoll thank you for recipes and esoecially the tip about beating. That is obviously why mine wasn't as solid as I'd have liked. I would get fed up beating long before 5 mins!