great ideas

Ideas and support for

holding your own event

n d r a i s i n g p a c k
F u

www.mariecurie.org.uk/greatideas
Thank you for choosing
to raise funds for
Marie Curie Cancer Care
You’ll find lots of ideas throughout the pack plus hints and tips to make the
most of your event. I hope you’ll find lots of inspiration and perhaps combine
some ideas, throw in some of your own and don’t be afraid to create your own
truly unique event.

Your support ensures that we can continue to provide free nursing care to
patients with cancer and other terminal illnesses in their own homes and in
our hospices.

Thank you again for helping me and my colleagues to make a real difference
to more people in your local area. We simply couldn’t do it without you.
Quite often, patients
Dawn Dyne, Marie Curie Nurse don’t know how to talk to their
families, and their families don’t
always know how to raise issues
with them. A lot of what I do is
listening and building bridges
between family members – and it’s
lovely when you succeed.

Contents
How your event will make a difference 3
Where to start 4
Fundraising ideas 5 –11
In your community 8 Don’t forget
ut your
At work 9 to tell us all abo
photos. We
event and send
At school 10
to se e a ll th e amazing things
love r
to help fund ou
Special interest groups 11 that people do ail:
work. Please em
Promoting your event 12 ariecurie.org.uk
greatideas@m
Maximising your income 13
Safety and legals 14

2
 i l l y o u r e v e n t
How w
e a d i f f e r e n c e ?
m a k
Every £20 will fund a Marie Curie
Nurse for one hour to care for a
terminally ill patient in their own
home.
£160 will pay for a whole shift
for a Marie Curie Nurse to be there to
support a patient and their carer for a
whole day or night.
We need to raise almost £12,000
every hour of every day to fund
our work.
Only a quarter of all terminally
ill cancer patients in the UK currently
die at home. Our Marie Curie Nurses
care for half of them - but we want
to reach more.

Jill, was in her late 40s when she was diagnosed with breast
cancer. Within a month of diagnosis, she also found out that her
daughter was expecting twins. It was so important to Jill to spend time
at home with her daughter. And when the babies arrived, they were with
her every day. She was even able to hold them, help change their nappies
and even bath them. To be able to be at home, with Marie Curie Nurses
looking after her, meant everything to Jill. I remember her saying to me,
‘You’ve given me life that I never thought I would experience.
Dawn Dyne, Marie Curie Nurse

3
 e t o s t a r t
60sWher  There are more than 2,000
Marie Curie Nurses working

 across the UK.

16th60s
Theme / activity
Choose your type of event. Can you
Fundraising

Find as many ways as you can to Dinner dance
60s
Curie Cancer Care?

 
hold an existing event in aid of Marie

make money around your event
(see page 13).
or ball

Leanne Taylor raised £450 from



Venue16th  Budget
her Diamond Charity Ball in aid
of Marie Curie Cancer Care, in
Torquay.

Find the
th
ideal place to suit the Know your budget. Set a realistic
16
activity.
Œ�����
income target making sure your costs
are covered. It was my Nan’s
�ı���� wish to spend her last

Date
st
1 60s
Promotion
 days in her own home.
I never knew that
this type of care was
If there isn’t a particular occasion Use every channel available to let


available before now,


choose the ideal date and time for people know about your event and
and couldn’t believe
people to attend. Make sure there’s reach the right people (see page 12).
 it when I found out it

nothing happening already that might
clash.
 was free! The help we
th

 16 received made my Nan’s
last wish possible, and so
Œ����� I wanted to organise an

Guests Safety event to say thank you,


��ı����
Consider who your event is suited Find out if any rules or regulations and to help raise some
Œ�����
60s
to, who to invite and if you have a apply and if you need to do a risk
more valuable funds for
maximum or minimum number. assessment (see page 14).
��ı���� the charity.



Planning


Sponsor / donation
Ensure there is enough time before
theverything. Don’t See if you can get a venue, facilities
16
 the
event to achieve
be afraid to ask for help.
or prizes donated.

Œ�����
���ı����
4 Vicky, Leanne and Su at the ball



Af u nd ra is er
for all sea so ns
nt
Easter egg htiution Summer faireque or picnic
egg painting compe garden party, ba
rb

Bonfire anndight ty
Christmas ps graotrto
fireworks Carol concert, Sa
nta’

rty
Hallowe’en pa
5
For the latest seasonal ideas see www.mariecurie.org.uk/greatideas
Ge t a c t i v e
Get a team together and challenge your fitness or
fulfil your own adrenaline dreams. Sweat it out
however you choose in aid of Marie Curie Nurses.
Sky dive

Five-a-side Sponsored Netball

football walk tournament

Gym
challenge

Cycle
Go cart rally David Culshaw enjoyed seeing
spring unfold as he cycled Land’s
Brother and sister Fiona and Iain End to John O’Groats in aid of
Brown held a fundraising go- Marie Curie Nurses. Having now
karting event at the Cambuslang completed the route twice, both
track that they own and raised north and south bound, he has
£2,600 for Marie Curie Cancer Care. raised over £5,000.
6
 h e l a t e s t c r a z e
Join t
66 Yoga-thon
Bingo Games console
contest
ss
Military fitne
challenge
TV replicas
Swishing party Don’t sit at home wishing you
could be on your favourite
Invite all your friends to bring show - create your own
items of clothing to swap with version:
others. It’s a great way to recycle
The X Factor
good condition clothes and update
your wardrobe without spending Come Dine With Me
any money. The Apprentice
Strictly Come
It’s easy to arrange. Have one with Dancing
friends or on a larger scale open
to the public. Browsing time is Britain’s Got Talent
ideal for drinks and mingling, Who Wants to
then start shopping. Add be a Millionaire?
donations to any top
Create a competition,
designer items. If guests are
get your own local
fighting over something –
sponsor, bag some
auction it.
irresistible donated
prizes and become a
fundraising superstar.

We’ve got
Without the support
of the Marie Curie Nurses we
talent
would not have coped. They
made life easier. 7
 r a i s i n g f o r c e s
Join fu n d
u r c o m m u n i t y
...in y o
Combine a fun day out with a fundraiser. In your
local park or in your back garden, do something
you’ll all enjoy doing to provide more Marie Curie
nursing care in your area.
Comedy
Golf day night

Poker / bridge
night
Barn dance

Community
fair
Our nurses are also there for
families and carers - providing
practical and emotional support.

Car wash
8
.. . a t w o r k
Introduce some fun to your day at work, hold a
department challenge or organise a worthwhile
way to spend an evening after hours. Set yourself
Bake off
Five-a-side
a new target raising funds to help Marie Curie
Nurses care for more people in your area.
football

t
Karaoke nigh
al
Grand Nation
sweepstake

Leg wax

ate day
Talk like a pire, talk the lingo Find out if your
te costum
Dress up in pira . company can take part
a treasure hunt
for the day, hold in a Matched Giving
scheme to double
your total

Our department took part

in the Dragon Boat Race. It was great
fun and at the same time we raised
over £1,000 for a good cause.
hallenge
Department c Liga Dzene, AXA, Bristol
9
... a t s c h o o l
Go to the top of the class by getting your
school involved and raise as much as you can.
Build a fundraiser into your latest project or
do something extra curricular; and don’t forget
everyone can take part, including the teachers. Cake sale
Sports Day

Spelling Bee

Non-uniform Talented music

students at
day Benton Park
Secondary School,
Leeds raised
over £700 at a
charity concert
performing a
variety of songs
from Robbie
Concert Williams to Jimi
Make a day Hendrix.
e
of it and includ
ising
as many fundra
can.
activities as you

ng
Daffodil painti
The Pilgrims School, Winchester chose
to fundraise by dressing in yellow
and green, baking daffodil cakes and
making daffodil bookmarks.
10
...with s pe cial
interes t g ro up s
ical
Stage a theatr
performance
Get together at your usual time and
do what you love doing in aid of Marie
Curie Cancer Care; or make it a little
unusual and try something totally new.

Make gifts or
cards to sell

Durham University
Society of Change
Ringers raised
£3,600 after
completing a Hold a
“quarter peal” music gig
ringing each bell
1,272 times at
Durham Cathedral Marie Curie Nursing is
and Brancepeth always free of charge to
Church. Bell ringing patients and carers.

Line dancing

11
 t e y o u r e v e n t
Pr o m o
To make the most of your event, make www.mariecurie.org.uk/greatideas
sure you promote it well. We’ve put
together some useful tools that you
might want to use to help at
www.mariecurie.org.uk/greatideas

• Logo
Any materials you produce should
make it clear who the event
organiser is. To help, we’ve designed
a special fundraising logo available
to download.

• Posters
Create your own posters from the
template – make them noticeable
and think about the best places to
put them to be seen by people you
would like at your event.

• Invitations
Use the template to email or post
your invitations. Search for relevant websites where
you may be able to advertise
• Press release your event for free such as local
If you’d like to invite people from community “what’s on” sites or
your wider community, write a local sports societies.
press release and contact local
newspapers and radio stations. If a company can sponsor your
Let everyone know. event ask if they can help to
Visit promote it too.
• Sponsor forms draise.org/
Email us at: www.how2fun
e you can
greatideas@mariecurie.org.uk mariecurie wher
or call 0845 601 3107 to request n lo ad m o re u seful templates
do w
ecial
a form. carrying our sp
o.
fundraising log

Neal Best organised a

Please make it clear that you group of over 80 family
are raising funds in aid of Marie and friends to cycle from
Curie Cancer Care and that you Edinburgh to Portadown
are not an actual representative in memory of his brother,
of the charity. Andrew who sadly died in
December 2008. Together
they gained an amazing
amount of support and
12 have raised over £30,000.
 e y o u r i n c o m e
M axim i s
Maximise
your supporters
• Ask everyone you know to come
along and to help spread the word.
• Email all your contacts and let them
know what you’re doing.
• Add a caption to your email
signature. Invite anyone to attend,
donate or help out on the day.
• Send a Facebook message and add
Marie Curie Cancer Care to your
profile.
• Twitter it.
• Upload a clip to You Tube, send
it to everyone you know with your
invitation and ask them to pass
it on.
Minimise
your outgoings
• Ask for a free local venue and see
if they can help decorate it for the
event too.
• Try not to buy any equipment, food
or drink. Acquire, borrow or get
items donated. (check if you need
licensing, see page 14).
• Ask local entertainers or bands to
perform free of charge.
• Ask local companies to donate
prizes to auction or raffle. You can
always give them a mention in
return.
Maximise your
fundraising activities
• Charge for tickets / entry - don’t
overprice but don’t undersell your
event either.
• If the venue are making sales on
the night ask if they can donate a
percentage.
• Hold a themed quiz, tombola or
lucky dip at your event.
• Organise themed games and
activities for donated prizes – add a
bit of competition.

Make it easy for everyone to donate,

even if they can’t come along on the
day. Set up an online donation page
add a photo and a reason to support
you.
www.justgiving.com/mariecurie
Please encourage your
sponsors who are tax payers
to gift aid their donations
Gift Aid is a government
scheme which allows us to
claim an extra 28p for every
£1 sponsored. And the good
news is, the money comes
from the government and not
your sponsors – we are simply
reclaiming the tax already paid
on donations.

Please send in your donations as soon as It’s quick and simple and all the
possible after your event details are on our sponsor forms
(see page 12) and any online
- Complete the banking form sent with this pack or download donation pages to complete at
a copy from www.mariecurie.org.uk/greatideas the time of sponsoring.

- Post it to: Blooming Great Ideas, Marie Curie Cancer Care,

PO Box 23897, 14 Links Place, Edinburgh, EH6 9AB

- If you’d like us to send you another banking form email

greatideas@mariecurie.org.uk or call 0845 601 3107.
13
 d l e g a l s
Safety an
Please take care at your event
and note that it is your own
responsibility to make sure your
event is safe and complies with any
relevant authorities.

A few essentials to consider:

First Aid
Ensure you have adequate cover
available for the scale of your event. If
you’re not sure, check with your local
council.

Food Licences
Contact your local council for food Check with your local authority
hygiene regulations at events, or see whether or not you need to obtain
www.food.gov.uk any special licences eg. public
entertainment, collection or alcohol
licences.
More tips
and advice

Alcohol
Check if the venue is licensed or
Managed by the
Fundraising, this
more informatio
Institute of
site can give yo
n for your ev
u lots
en t.
contact your local council to find raise.org/
out more about getting a temporary Raffles and Lotteries www.how2fund
mariecurie
licence. Check the latest information and
advice at
www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk

Collections
It is illegal to carry out house to
house or public street collections Risk Assessment
without a licence. Contact your local Identify any hazards and evaluate any
fundraiser if you would like to join a risks at your event that you’ll need to

Marie Curie Cancer Care organised consider.
collection.

Whilst we appreciate your support, Marie Curie Cancer Care cannot accept liability for any
 fundraising activity or event you undertake in our aid. If you need insurance please make sure
14
���
you have this arranged prior to your event taking place.
 Th a n k y o u
Thank you for raising funds for
Marie Curie Cancer Care. We hope
your event was a success and
everyone had a great time.

We’d love to hear about how it

went so please email us with your
story and any photos to:
greatideas@mariecurie.org.uk
By sending your photos you are consenting for
their use in future promotional materials.

Please now collect all of your

donations and use the banking
form enclosed to pay in the
money as soon as possible (see
page 13) to start helping people
with terminal illnesses today.

u
Other ways yo
arie
can support M
r i e C a n c e r C a re
Cu
on Leave a gift in
Make a donati your Will
Volunteer Support a hop
Marie Curie S
Get involved
in the Great al Shop online
Daffodil Appe

For more information and lots of other ways to support visit 15

www.mariecurie.org.uk
 Time to give?
Volunteer with Marie Curie Cancer Care and help
make a real difference to the lives of people with
cancer and other terminal illnesses.

Call: 0800 716 146

Visit: www.mariecurie.org.uk/volunteering

Walk in your local park, discover

a new destination, run a marathon or Rise
to the challenge
abseil down a famous landmark.
Charity reg no. 207994 (England & Wales), SCO38731 (Scotland) M428 a

www.mariecurie.org.uk/challenge

Rise advert_2.indd 1 24/11/09 16:51:54