We’ve put together a list of hot tips to help you boost your fundraising.

• Make life easier and do all your fundraising online. When you register for the Sunrise Walk you can create your own FREE fundraising webpage complete with secure credit card donation processing facilities. This takes away the manual process of collecting payments to pass onto the Hospice, saving yourself time and hassle!
• Don't leave home without your sponsor form - that way you will always have it to hand and not lose the moment!
• Get your biggest sponsors on side first - it will encourage subsequent supporters to increase their support!
• If possible, ask people to pay you as they pledge their sponsorship. This will save you time and hassle following the event.
• Ask your employer to match whatever you raise - this could automatically double your fundraising!
• Let everyone know what you are doing! Ask your company to put a piece about you in their newsletter or on their website, pin your sponsor form to the staff noticeboard, email colleagues.
• Change your facebook page so that all your contacts are aware of what you are doing and why.
• Email everyone in your address book, tell them what you are doing and include a link to the Sunrise Walk website.
• Don't be afraid to ask! Tell people what you are doing and what it is for and most people will be more than willing to support you.
  Download the Sponsorship Form Sponsorship Form (78kb)

Some other ideas you could try are:

• If you are a regular at a sports club, pub etc. ask them if they would be prepared to have a collection bucket for a few weeks. If you put a poster with it saying what you are doing you will be surprised how generous people are with the loose change in their pockets!  Donation buckets may be available from the Hospice – email Jo at jo.morgan@hospice.co.nz
• You could organise an event like a quiz, charging people for entry, making it clear that the money is going towards your sponsorship efforts.
• If you work in a large organisation, could you hold a raffle or perhaps ‘name the teddy bear’ etc. As long as you sell the tickets and draw on the one day, you don’t need to have a licence.
• If you like to give someone something for their money, why not offer to wash friend’s cars for a price.
• Could you de-clutter the house at the same time as raising money by taking a stall on a car boot sale and donating all the proceeds to your sponsorship fund? Most people will find you one or two things they no longer need, for you to sell. Any items left unsold can be taken to your local hospice shop!
• Give your friend and family a tube of smarties each and ask them to fill it with coins for you. Even if they only put 10c pieces in you will still make a profit
• Do you have a friend who has a really nice garden who might be prepared to hold an ‘open garden’ for you on a nice sunny afternoon? They can charge $2.00 entry then sell cups of tea and coffee. People are always nosey so you‘ll be surprised how many people will turn up as long as it is well advertised! You could hold it in an evening and have a barbeque and a glass of wine instead of tea and coffee!
• Could you have a ‘bad habit box’? If someone is trying to stop biting their nails, or give up smoking etc. Would they have a box and put 50c in each time they run out of willpower and give in to their bad habits.
• Would your work place allow you to have a ‘dress down day’ towards your sponsorship efforts, with everyone who wants to come to work in their casual clothes paying $2 for the privilege
• Can you collect enough coins to cover the office window sill or around the edge of a room – people just donate their small change to complete the challenge. This can go on for weeks, with people just putting all their coins down when they get them. If you are a member of a group or society you could try and do this around your meeting room.
• Guess the number of sweets in the jar. Fill a jar with wrapped sweets and get people to guess the number of sweets in the jar. The person who guesses the closest wins the sweets.
• Could you organise a wine tasting evening for friends? Charge everyone to take part. Up to 12 people can taste from one bottle, and you could perhaps try 6 or 8 different wines. Can people guess which is the cheapest and most expensive? You would have a silly prize for the winner. If you have some drivers they could do a lemonade or coke tasting…! It’s surprisingly hard to tell which is which when they are not in the bottle or can.
• If it’s your birthday whilst you are fundraising, why not forgo your cards, and ask people to donate the cost of the card and the postage instead.
• Make sure you have read the information about Hospice South Auckland, so when people ask you questions about the charity, you can give them proper information – they are more likely to be generous once they know how important our work is.
• Don’t be afraid to ask people… it can be hard, but remember all the money raised really will make a difference to our patients and their families.
• Encourage your girlfriends to work with you!!!

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