Fundraising Information Pack

Fundraising Information Pack

Welcome Welcome to Sow a Seed Trust a charity committed to ensuring children and young people have a purposeful life. Thank you for choosing to support us - whether you re organising an event or taking part in a challenge, we are so grateful for everything you re doing for us. Without fantastic people like you fundraising for us, we couldn t continue the projects we run to provide practical help and encouragement to children so that they can have a good childhood, and to support and mentor young people so that they can have positive adolescence experiences. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to support us, but most of all we want you to have fun and get the most from your fundraising. Inside this pack you ll find a range of ideas and tips and all the information you need to ensure your fundraising is as successful and enjoyable as possible. Once again, thanks for your support, and good luck! Contents 1 Welcome 2 Who we are and what we do 3 How we serve 4 Fundraising Ideas 5 Holding a fundraising event for Sow A Seed? 6 Top Tips To Boost Your Fundraising 7 Working With Your Local Media 8 Press Release Tips 9 Keeping It Legal

Who we are and what we do Who we are Sow A Seed (SAS) is a youth development charitable trust. It has been established to provide practical help and encouragement to children so that they can have a good childhood, and to support and mentor young people so that they can have positive adolescence experiences. What we do SAS makes a positive impact to the lives of targeted children and young people in the UK and abroad, who may be significantly underachieving compared to their peers due to being disadvantaged or vulnerable because of different life experiences, including: Struggling with family bereavement Separation of, and/or, from parents Lack of positive peer and older role models SAS achieves transformational results in the UK through three interdependent programmes that contribute to breaking barriers to achievement, building confidence and self-worth, reducing language and cultural barriers, minimising the risk of isolation, and ensuring individuals are positively integrated into society: Children Intervention Youth Development Family Referral

How we serve SAS work in collaborative partnership with local councils, community groups, networks and organisations, schools and other local service providers to help identify and provide support to children and young people who are doing significantly less well than their peers, those at greatest risk of offending, and have the greatest risk of poor outcomes; including those at risk of becoming a Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) statistic. SAS serve children and young people, and families through: Children Intervention Programme The aim of the programme is to priorities vulnerable individuals and groups so that emerging issues can be addressed in order to prevent problems from developing in the future. Pre-NEETs Project This is an early intervention project that targets children and young people who fall into the criteria for intervention. The aim is to make an early positive impact to minimise, if not totally prevent, the threat and possibility of children becoming a NEET statistic. Project activities include: Early Intervention workshops Art workshops to give children the opportunity to express themselves, be creative and to contribute to society in a positive way. Music workshops for children who may not have the privilege and opportunity to learn how to play musical instruments, giving them the chance to develop new skills. Youth Development Programme Mentoring workshops The sessions are designed to bring individuals out of these conditions of being unskilled, unemployed, as all children and young people deserve to have. Project activities include: Family Referral Programme SAS work alongside different organisations to refer families to different services available in their local borough to meet their needs, including: Marriage counseling Homeless accommondation Financial management Ghana Programme This is a planned future activity of SAS. The charity is fully committed to making a positive impact to the lives of abandoned children in Ghana, Africa by building a residential complex to provide children and young people with: A committed family to provide care and support A security and safe home environment Adequate supply of food, water and clean clothing Equal opportunities, and best possible start to life These children and young people face: Barriers to achieving Low confidence and self-worth Cultural barriers Risk of abandonment, starvation, health and homelessness Skills and personal development Employability Enterprise Training

Fundraising Ideas On Duty Sponsor the boss to go back to the shop floor Employer matched giving Auction of promises Casual clothes day Sweepstakes Cake sale Swear box Feeling Brave Baked bean bath Ironman competition Sponsored leg wax Bungee jump Fire walking Headshave Skydive Showtime Comedy show Fashion show Local band concert Christmas carols Pub quiz Bingo Keep Fit sponsored walk/hike/ run/cycle/swim 5-a-side football tournament golf competition tug of war Zumba-thon At School Sponsored silence Teddy bears picnic Non-uniform day Sponsored walk Treasure hunt Summer fete Talent show Concert Off Duty Street collections Bring & buy sale Coffee morning Car boot sale Car wash Tombola Auction Raffle Bbq Let s Party Disco/barn dance Christmas/valentine s ball Eurovision/bollywood 1940S blitz party Murder mystery Cheese & wine Casino night Fancy dress Bonfire night Halloween Challenge Events You can register with any organised event to help raise sponsorship. If you like getting down and dirty, why not register for Tough Mudder or Rat Race. Fancy running there are hundreds of 5k, 10k, half marathons and marathons that you can register on all around the UK. If cycling is more your thing, organise your own endurance challenge with a group of friends and colleagues. Lands End to John O Groats will test your endurance and team work!

Holding a fundraising event for Sow A Seed? Here s a simple plan to help you think of all the things you need to consider to make your event a real success. When? Choose a date that doesn t clash with public holidays, other local events, popular sporting fixtures or the XFactor final!! Hold your fundraiser at the end of the month people will be more likely to dig deeper when they ve just been paid! Where? 1 2 Make sure your venue is big (or small) enough for your needs. Think about whether you want to use your home, workplace or the local pub, your community centre or a church hall. Some venue owners don t charge a hire fee for charity events so don t forget to ask! Check that people will be able to reach your venue by public transport or that it has adequate parking facilities. How? 3 Spread the planning load by forming a team of helpers. Work out what needs to be done and give each person a specific job to do many hands will make light work! Work out a realistic budget and stick to it! The overall success of your event will depend on how carefully you manage your costs. Remember that local shops and businesses might like to support your event by donating raffle prizes or by printing flyers and invitations so don t be afraid to ask. Who? 4 Invite everyone you know from friends, family, work colleagues, members of your sports club, place of worship or community group. It s a good idea to know in advance so you have an idea of how many people to expect. Advertising PR is a great way to advertise your event, as well as helping to raise the profile of SAS. Press release tips can be found on page 7.

Top Tips To Boost Your Fundraising Online fundraising Online fundraising is a quick, easy and effective way to raise awareness of your event or challenge. Your very own fundraising website allows friends and family to sponsor you online wherever they are in the world and it s a great and easy way for us to claim back Gift Aid automatically. Contact us for more information or visit the HMRC website www.hmrc.gov.uk/ charities/gift-aid.htm. The three providers we recommend are: www.justgiving.com JustGiving also provides a TextGiving service, which means that family and friends have no excuse not to sponsor you! You ll attract more donations as people can sponsor you anytime, anywhere, and it s free to send on all networks. www.virginmoneygiving.com The added benefit of using Virgin Money Giving is that if you decide to fundraise for another charity as well as SAS, you can split your online fundraising between the charities. www.mydonate.com Set up by BT, MyDonate is a no fee, no commission online fundraising service meaning we will receive every penny of the money you raise. All of the above three providers are free to use. Your web page When you create your web page, try to make it as engaging and as personal as possible by adding your own photos and text. We ve found that fundraisers who explain why they are supporting Sow A Seed are the most successful. Encourage people to revisit your page by regularly updating it. Change your picture, post updates on your progress and, if you are taking part in a sporting event, keep a training diary/writing a training blog. Let supporters know how much you ve raised so far. An email update is interesting for those who ve already sponsored you and a gentle nudge for those who haven t! Add a link to your fundraising page in your email signature and on any social networking sites that you use. Keep fundraising after your event. 20% of donations come in after the fundraising event so don t stop once you ve crossed the finish line. Update your page and email your supporters with news of your success. Remind those who haven t yet donated to do so, and ask others to donate again in recognition of your achievement. Get Social Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @SOWASEEDUK Promoting your event or challenge to your friends and family will really help to increase the number of donations you receive, and of course telling the wider community not only raises our profile but also raises awareness about what you are doing. Social networking is a great way to do this.

Working With Your Local Media Key points What are you talking about? It might sound obvious but the first thing to think about is what you want your publicity to achieve. Is it to raise money, sell tickets or raise awareness? Knowing this will help you decide what important points or key messages you want to get across. It will also help you decide when you want to generate publicity. Is it local? Again, this may sound obvious, but regional media cover a specific, geographic area and this means that they want stories from their patch. Does your story have a connection to their patch? If it does, make sure you flag it up early in your press release or telephone call. Who, why, what, when, where and how? Know your facts. Before you call the local reporter or write a press release, make sure you have all the key information at your fingertips. Some practical tips! Do your homework and find out the deadlines for your local newspaper and what day it s published. Local press usually like to have at least a weeks notice as they tend to keep a diary of events. This is particularly important if you want to ask a photographer to attend. If you want to send a press release, use email and always paste your press release into the body of the email. Reporters don t really like attachments and they tend to go into junk mail. Before you call your local newspaper or radio station, it s a really good idea to plan what you want to say. If you want to send pictures, email them in jpeg format and try not to send too many at once.

Press Release Tips Some Golden Rules for writing a press release: Try to tell your story in a nutshell in the first paragraph. Answer all the important questions Who, Why, What, When, Where and How. Keep it short and concise. Try to aim for 25-30 words per paragraph and no longer than two pages. Write in the third person e.g. A group of teachers from XXXX will be cycling from Lands End to John o Groats to raise money for Sow A Seed Trust. Include a quote from someone involved or interested party, e.g. head teacher. Get the details right. Include full names, ages, and areas/local towns people come from. Always include your contact number at the end so the reporter can get in touch. A good picture opportunity will really help your story. If you want to invite a photographer from your local paper to your photocall or event, you could include a photocall notice in your press release.

Keeping It Legal While we greatly appreciate your support, we d like to remind you that Sow A Seed cannot accept liability for any loss, damage or injury as a result of activity you undertake whilst fundraising for us. To help guarantee it all runs smoothly we ve Licences Insurance Collections: anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult when holding a public collection. In order to carry out a collection on the street or in any other public place you must first obtain a licence from your local authority. We would encourage you NOT to take on house to house collections. Raffles and Lotteries: please visit www. gamblingcommission.gov.uk to check whether your raffle requires a licence. Alcohol: if you are planning to sell alcohol at a public event first check that the venue is licensed then, if appropriate, contact your local authority to find out more about obtaining a temporary licence. Entertainment: please contact your local authority to check whether your event requires a Public Entertainment Licence. Health And Safety It s good practice to undertake a risk assessment for health and safety hazards. Check what kind of public liability insurance the owner or operator of your venue has and that it covers the owner s liability risks. Ensure that there is wheelchair access. If appropriate, confirm that first aid provision*, firefighting equipment and emergency evacuation procedures are in place. Make sure you are covered by any relevant insurance for your event. Most public events have their own Public Liaibility Insurance for people taking part. However if you are organising your own event, it is worth seeking advice on getting the right insurance so that you and your guests etc are covered. Currently SAS does not have Public Liability insurance. Banking If you are using paper sponsorship forms, and collecting cash, please bank the money yourself and send a cheque to SOW A SEED with your name and details of your event/ challenge. Sow A Seed s registered postal address is Beulah Crescent, Thornton Heath, CR7 8JL. Sow A Seed Bank Details: Sort Code: 40-18-41 Account Number: 82898381 If you are using online fundraising, all of the money donated online will come straight into the SAS fundraising account. Any questions or enquires about the information above please email us: info@sowaseed.org Recommended providers of first aid for larger events include the British Red Cross, St John s Ambulance and the National Association of Private Ambulance Services. Food And Drink For current food hygiene regulations please visit www.food. gov.uk Sow A Seed Community interest Company number It is good practice to use our organisation number on anything you produce on our behalf: 10284681.