Not sure how to start fundraising or short of ideas? World Land Trust has 20 top tips to inspire you to get your fundraising started.
Please note: Gift Aid cannot be claimed on school donations.
1. Get active
Choose something challenging, maybe walking 5 miles and swimming 100 lengths; and get sponsored to do it.
2. Go casual
Ask your teacher if your class can have a charity ‘own-clothes’ day and ask everyone to pay £1 to wear his or her own clothes. If you want to give it a twist, wear green or dress as animals.
3. Grow your own
Buy a packet of seeds, plant them and let them grow. Then sell the plants and donate the profit. Get the whole class to join in.
4. Get cultural
Get together with friends and hold a recital for your family and neighbours. You could sing songs, play an instrument, recite poems or tell jokes. Charge an entrance fee and donate the proceeds to World Land Trust.
5. Get eating
Organise an afternoon tea party at your house. Ask your neighbours to bring cakes, biscuits and drinks, and charge people 50p entrance.
6. Go without
Give up something you would really miss, like sweets, TV or your mobile, and get people to sponsor you for each day that you manage to go without.
7. Rainforest gift list
Ask friends, relatives, or even Father Christmas for half an acre of threatened wildlife habitat for a Christmas or birthday present.
8. Watch out for wildlife
See how many different sorts of birds or butterflies you can spot – set a time limit and a target and get people to sponsor you for each different species you record.
9. Be helpful
How many of your neighbours have dogs? Ask them if they would be willing to plant five trees in Ecuador in exchange for your walking their dog for two weeks. No dogs? Try offering to water their garden when they go on holiday.
10. Make a snake
Organise a money snake. Mark out a long wiggly line 30 metres long, and get people to donate their 2p pieces to complete the money snake. When it is finished, you will have £25 – enough to buy a quarter of an acre of forest.
11. Stop talking
Hold a sponsored silence. Ask your parents and neighbours to sponsor you to keep quiet! You could ask them to sponsor you for the whole day or per hour.
12. Get cleaning
Get together with your friends to clean the cars in your neighbourhood for a fee. Or clean the cars in the school car park during lunch hour. Make some ‘Green Clean Car’ stickers to give to the owners!
13. Get baking
Ask your teacher if you can have a bake sale at school during a break. Then get together with your friends and parents to bake lots of cakes and biscuits.
14. Get flying
Have a paper aeroplane competition. Ask if you can use the school hall, and charge a small entrance fee. You can have all sorts of different classes, like furthest distance flown, fly the plane through the hoop and most unusual design.
15. Get selling
Ask your teacher if you could hold a bring-and-buy sale for your class, or even the whole school! Bring in your old toys and books to sell, and donate the profits to saving wildlife.
16. Get spelling
Organise a sponsored spelling bee for your class, using ‘environmental’ words.
17. Get washing
Ask your parents if they would buy half an acre of rainforest on your behalf, in exchange for you doing the washing up for two weeks.
18. Come dancing
Ask your teacher if they can help you organise a school disco, and donate the profit to World Land Trust.
19. Be creative
For those talented artists out there; design a Christmas card or other craft that is easy to make lots of, and sell them to your family and friends.
20. Get fashionable
Ask your parents/friends to donate their old clothes and hold a ‘recycled’ fashion show for your school or neighbourhood. You can charge for admission and refreshments and all the clothes will be for sale, of course.