Best Fundraising Ideas For Kids In The UK

Times have changed drastically in the last two years and fundraising activities and ideas have had to adapt to our current situation. This said, there are some fantastic charity campaigns out there and by thinking outside the box due to Covid, the world has become even more creative with innovative fundraising ideas for kids.

We’ve come up with a list of exciting fundraising ideas for kids from virtual to hybrid to face-to-face events, that will get you interacting with familiar faces again, making new friends, and generating money for a good cause.

So let’s dive in and take a look at our best ideas for kid fundraising and let’s get back to educating, empowering, and connecting children and young people so they feel supported through the tough times and start looking forward to the future.   

Bike-a-Thons

On the subject of moving, why not get outdoors with a group of friends, family members and classmates and start cycling for a good cause? Why not add a list of famous monuments to visit on your bike-a-thon route and get sponsored for visiting each one? Post photos online of you and your landmarks so that your sponsors feel like they’re accompanying you on your journey. Already in a cycling team? How about setting up your own fundraising cycling tournament with our crowdfunding software.

Read-a-thons

Challenge yourself or a group of friends to a certain number of reading sessions and get sponsored for charity. Read-a-thons are also a wonderful way to get the kids reading again! Here are just a few of the great benefits a read–a-thon fundraiser can bring:

• Promote literacy skills and a love of reading books in young readers
• Are a healthy fundraiser – no candy bars or cookie dough involved
• Encourage parents to read with younger children, strengthening the parent-child bond
• Are a low cost, easy to organize fundraising event
• And of course, are a great way to raise money for your school, school library or group!

Check out our step-by-step guide to organising a read-a-thon here.

Sweets Sales

Summer fetes were not possible for everyone last year, but let’s keep the spirit of the fundraising bake sales alive and bag-up homemade goodies to sell. Biscuits, sweets, and fairy cakes always sell well. Don’t let people miss out on your delicious treats and make money for a good cause at the same time! Use our easy-to-use eCommerce store software to sell your products online. If you live in a small community, why not offer a delivery service for your homemade goods for an extra fee and increase your charity proceeds?

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Treasure Hunts

Organise a fundraising treasure or scavenger hunt with maps, clues, and prizes to entertain the kids and raise money for charity. This is a great outdoor activity and an easy way to raise donations, as each family can book a time slot and pay to assist.

Move-a-Thons

Get the kids outside in the fresh air this year and take part in an exciting move-a-thon fundraiser. A move-a-thon is a celebration of movement, where people of all ages and abilities can take part and have fun moving by means of walking, running, dancing, rolling, and playing to raise money for a worthy cause. They can be outdoor events with friends, family, coworkers, and classmates or virtual and hybrid campaigns, where individuals complete their chosen movement at their own convenience, wherever they are. Move-a-thons are great school fundraising ideas as well.

Give Up Something for Charity

How about giving up a bad habit in the name of fundraising? Stop biting your nails, eating chocolate and sweets or watching mind-numbing videos on YouTube. Simply get people to sponsor you on your personalised fundraising page and you’ll raise money for a deserving cause whilst changing your bad habit – it’s a win-win!

Ideas for Virtual Fun

There are so many fun virtual ways for kids to raise money and awareness for charity that we’d never fully experimented with before the days of Covid. So get online and start organising a successful fundraiser with some of our top virtual event ideas. 

Virtual 5K Races

Have you ever considered taking part in a Virtual 5k Race with your kids but never really understood how it worked? Basically, it’s a peer-to-peer event where participants complete five kilometers by either walking, running, skating, hiking, using a treadmill, cycling, or participating in other sporting activities. The beauty of a virtual 5K race is that you can compete at your own pace, wherever and whenever you choose. It also gives you the perfect opportunity to connect with friends, family, colleagues, and classmates online. So simply choose a fun sporting activity and get started raising money and awareness for a good cause. 

Online Raffles and Auctions

Charity raffles and auctions are an excellent means to raise money at fundraising events. Why not send letters to local businesses to see if they will donate prizes or vouchers to encourage more people to get involved? Promote your raffle or auction on social media to get as much outreach for your charity as possible. Use DoJiggy’s easy-to-use software to set up your charity raffle or online auction and get fundraising for free today!

Follow our simple raffle guidelines to ensure that your UK charity raffle is lawful. 

Virtual Auction of Promises

How about teaching kids the importance of giving back to the community while raising money for a good cause? Achieve this by organizing a virtual auction of promises. This type of fundraiser works best for smaller causes with a strong local community support base. So how does it work? Simply ask people to donate their time and/or services and auction them off virtually. A few great examples of auction promises are:

• Dog walking
• Shopping for the elderly or vulnerable
• Offer exercise, baking, or art classes
• DIY, window cleaning, and gardening

Make a real impact in your community by auctioning promises and raising valuable donations at the same time.

Community Clean-Up Challenges

On the subject of making an impact in the community, how about taking part in a Community Clean-up challenge? Make teams with your family, friends, and classmates and get sponsored to pick up as much rubbish as possible on a designated day. The team that collects the most litter wins a prize as an incentive but most importantly your community will be spotlessly clean!

Create #Hashtag Challenges

Many nonprofits use hashtags to boost awareness for their cause and it’s a great way to expand your audience while educating your supporters about the story behind your challenge. Relevant aged kids that have social media accounts can create simple, fun, and inclusive hashtag challenges to get everyone talking about your fundraiser and raise money for your organisation.  Here are a few pro tips on how to set-up your first #fundraisingchallenge:

• Choose the appropriate social platform for your campaign. This should ideally be where the majority of your supporters are active. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest all support hashtags.
• Pick a stand-out name for your hashtag to title your fundraising challenge. It needs to be short, catchy and (if possible) funny in order to attract more followers.
• Use your hashtag in your social media stories so it starts to stick and make sure to add links, photos and videos to engage with your audience. This will give it a personal touch and boost awareness. 
• Ask all your friends and online community to share your hashtag – the outreach can be incredible when re-sharing starts rolling.

TikTok Is Trending

TikTok is huge right now and this is great news for charities on a global scale. Allowing users to create 15-second videos with music and filters and host live-streams, TikTok has become the social media platform of choice for a younger generation. It is an attractive app to many fundraisers due to its simplicity to use. Why not add donation stickers to your TikTok videos to generate more money for your cause?

Gaming For Good

Choose an age-appropriate board game or console game and host a live-stream, where you’re sponsored to play and stream your favourite game on platforms like Twitch or YouTube. Each gamer can add donation buttons to their stream and people can start giving to a good cause. You can play in the comfort of your home, for a certain period of time (say 30 minutes or 1 hour) with a view to the whole event being played for a set number of hours in total. eg 24 hours or 48 hours.

Online Craft Classes

From becoming a master in volcano making, turning an old t-shirt into a snazzy tote bag or painting with fruit and vegetable cut-outs, how about paying for an online craft class and the money is donated to a good cause. Just ask a parent or teacher with a crafting talent to host the class and away you go. 

Virtual Film Clubs

Who doesn’t enjoy a good movie night with a box of popcorn? Why not use social media to generate interest and set up a virtual film club? You can take suggestions on what to watch and when and then members can take turns picking the film. Afterward, you can get together in a virtual meeting and discuss the movie. This could also work with a virtual book club for those of you who prefer printed words over the silver screen. 

Custom Designed Merchandise

Get creative and design and sell your own t-shirts, caps, mugs, or notebooks to generate donations for your nonprofit. Selling bespoke products is a great way to gain publicity for your chosen charity and it provides an opportunity for kids to become young entrepreneurs. You could even run an online competition for designing the best t-shirt and then run a campaign that rewards donations over a certain amount with a t-shirt printed with the winning design. Use our easy-to-use eCommerce store software to sell your products online.

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Challenge Yourself And Make A Lasting Difference

Due to the pandemic, kids in the UK have had a lot of extra time on their hands to get bored, often to the despair of their parents! Instead of sitting in front of the TV or iPad, how about starting a new challenge? Get sponsored by family members and friends and see how far you can take it. 

Let’s take the incredible fundraising efforts of Captain Sir Tom Moore as a perfect example. During the first lockdown, his aim was to walk 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday to raise money in aid of the health service’s charitable wing, NHS Charities Together. By the end of the challenge he had raised a staggering £32.8m (£39.3m including Gift Aid), touched the nation’s hearts, and boosted the morale of the country and even the world with his famously simple line, ‘Tomorrow will be a good day’.

With our Athon websites, you could challenge the kids in your community to:

• Ride a bike 100 laps around your school
• Bake 100 cakes 
• Run, walk, or climb for 100 minutes 
• Practice music for 100 bars 
• Hop 100 laps around your garden 
• Read 100 pages

Conclusions on Fundraising for Kids this Summer

As we’re all aware, traditional fundraising events are not as they once were. Still, there has never been a better time to build a sense of community and a common purpose than right now. So get your thinking caps on and start planning a fundraiser with your friends and classmates, or even a virtual challenge. 

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