Virtual fundraising ideas

The unprecedented situation with coronavirus is affecting all of our lives. For families whose children have cancer or a serious illness, day-to-day life is already challenging, with many normal activities suspended. The current worry of coronavirus with increased restrictions, family distancing and enforced isolation is an enormous strain.

We are adapting our services to ensure we continue to offer support, but we are also facing a significant loss of income due to cancelled fundraising events and activities. This could have a devastating impact on the charity at a time when the children and families we support need us more than ever.

That's why we’ve put together a range of great fundraising ideas that you can do from the comfort of your own home. You’ll not only have something fun to focus on, you’ll be helping us be able to continue supporting children with cancer and life-challenging conditions.                     

1. Take on the 2.6 Challenge

The #TwoPointSixChallenge was a huge success, but if you didn't get a chance to take part on the 'official day' in April, no worries. The beauty of a virtual event is you can get involved whenever suits you! 

Run 2.6 miles around your garden, walk up and down your stairs 26 times, flip 26 pancakes? You don't need to be an elite athlete to take part... this is your challenge, your way. 

To get involved, simply:

1. Think up an activity based around the numbers 2 and 6 
2. Sign up to join the challenge via JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving
3. Share your fundraising page with everyone you know and ask them to support your personal challenge.
4. Complete your challenge on a day of your choosing and help us inspire others by sharing pictures or videos of your efforts on social media.#momentumcharity

2. Be a Hair-Raising Hero 

Anyone can be a ‘Hair-Raising Hero’. From brave bosses, to daring dads and daughters. You can dare to dye with a wild hair colour, chop those locks daringly short, or go the whole hog and shave it all off!

To get involved, simply:

1. Set a date for your ‘Hair-Raiser’ - allow 2 to 4 weeks before the big day
2. Set a target - think what you’re saving on hairdressers in lockdown and consider what your head of hair is worth to you!
3. Set up your online fundraising page - remember to write a short personal message as to why you are doing this and the sacrifice you are making to help others
4. Spread the word - share the link to your fundraising page with us, your friends and family and watch the donations roll in!

 3. Go ‘Miles for Momentum’

This month, why not walk, jog or run ‘Miles for Momentum’. By putting your daily exercise allowance to good use, you’ll have even more motivation to get active and will be doing something incredible for the families we support.

To take part:

• Decide whether you want to hike, run or cycle and choose a target number of miles to cover.
• Set up your online fundraising page to describe what you’re doing and why - then share with everyone you know! It only takes a few minutes to set up and is the quickest and simplest way to raise funds from your Miles for Momentum Challenge.
• Share pics of your progress on social media and tag us in by using #MilesForMomentumCharity.
• We’ll support you every step of the way and when your challenge is complete, we’ll send you a huge thank you and personalised certificate to celebrate your achievements.

 4. Donate

We appreciate that not everyone can afford to at the moment, but if you can, could you donate what you might be saving by staying at home? For example, a day’s commute, a week’s worth of takeaway coffees, or your payday meal out? Every little really does help, and right now we need your support more than ever to keep our services running.

 

Donate 

 

5. Go shopping (online!)

Did you know, you can raise funds while you shop online and it won’t cost you a penny more? Here’s how:

Amazon Smile – It's the same products, same prices, same service - just start your shopping at smile.amazon.com, choose us as your charity and Amazon will do the rest.

Give as you Live – sign up at Giveasyoulive.com and access one of 4,400 retailers through their website. We’ll receive a % of your spend as a donation, at no cost to you or us.

EasyFundraising – simply sign up at Easyfundraising.co.uk and select us as your chosen cause and we’ll receive a donation from every purchase you make from over 3,200 online retailers.

 6. Have a clear out

While you’re stuck at home, what better time to have a bit of a clear out. We’ve linked up with three great organisations to help you raise funds while sorting out the clutter, and you don’t have to leave the house!  

Ziffit – Go to Ziffit.com for a free online valuation of your old books, CDs and DVDs, package your unwanted items for Ziffit to collect and they’ll donate the proceeds to us through Virgin Money Giving.

Vintage Giving - Sign up for a donation pack at vintagegiving.com, parcel up any unwanted vintage items (e.g. clothes, toys, jewellery etc) and Vintage Giving will pick them up from your doorstep and sell them on our behalf.

Ebay -  If you’re selling unwanted items on Ebay you can simply select us as your charity of choice when you list your items and Ebay will send us the proceeds of everything you sell.

 7. Get (virtual) quizzing

We need budding quizmasters to get quizzing. Don’t let lockdown stop you from enjoying a night of trivia with friends and family. These simple steps will get you set up for a virtual quiz night, all the fun from the comfort of your living room:

• Decide which platform you want to host your quiz on (Skype or Zoom are good)
• Set a date and time for your virtual quiz and invite your friends and family to join online
• Decide on a prize to give to your winners – perhaps an online shopping voucher, small cash prize, or even a home cooked meal to be cashed in at a later date!
• Come up with your quiz questions – if you’re stuck for inspiration you can use this ready-made quiz or simply google ‘downloadable quiz questions’ for a whole host of options!
• Ask your quiz goers to donate a small amount to Momentum Children’s Charity in return for taking part. We suggest setting up a fundraising page to collect the donations.

Thank you for your support. If there's anything we can help with, please don't hesitate to get in touch at fundraising@moment-um.org