Non-uniform day
Ditch your blazer for a good cause with a non-uniform (mufti) day. Charge people £1 each to take part and encourage them to wear a red item of clothing in support of BHF.
Guess the sweets
It’s a sweet, easy fundraising idea guaranteed to get tummies rumbling and donations pouring in! Ask your friends and family, or classmates, to guess how many sweets are in a jar. Whoever makes the nearest guess wins the jar of sweets.
Do a sports challenge
Fancy bending it like Beckham, or rallying like Raducanu? Sports competitions are a fun, easy way to raise money for a good cause, with a bit of friendly rivalry thrown in!
Choose a sport that’s popular, such as football, basketball, netball and tennis. You could host the competition at your school, in your local park or at your local community centre.
Host your own Olympics
Relive the glory of the Games by holding your very own Olympics day. Think: a mini sports day with lots of Olympic-themed touches.
You could host a mix of activities for different abilities and tastes. For example, a running race, high jump, long jump, discus-throwing using a frisbee, shot put using mini bean bags, a three-legged race, and archery using a plastic bow and arrow.
Top tips:
- embrace the Olympics theme by asking everyone taking part to pick a country from a hat
- for your Olympic torch, you could make a paper cone and fill it with red and orange tissue paper
- print out flags for each country so people can parade them during your opening ceremony, and for your closing ceremony, you can award medals to the lucky winners of each event.
Hold a fun fitness session
For some sporty fun without the competition, why not hold a fun fitness session? Each person taking part can pay a small donation amount. You could hold a yoga session, dance class or hoopla-hooping. For added fun, ask everyone taking part in your class to wear something red.
Sponsored readathon
Set yourself the challenge of reading a set number of books by a certain date. If you’re feeling adventurous, see how many books you can read in 1 weekend. Ask people to sponsor your efforts.
You could have a have a theme for your readathon, such as a series of books by the same author or book titles starting with the letter “B”, “H” or “F”.
Sponsored silence
Ask friends and family to sponsor you to stay silent for the day: 6 hours, 12 hours, or however long you prefer. You could do it by yourself or with friends for some added support.
Talent show
Get your friends and classmates to showcase their skills by hosting your very own talent show! Some fun ideas include dancing, singing, stand-up comedy, poetry readings and magic tricks.
Movie night
Lights, camera, popcorn! Gather your friends, family and classmates together for a fun movie night at home or at school. You could raise money by selling tickets and having snacks at your event, including popcorn, pizza and nachos.
If you’re holding the event at school, ask your teachers if you can use a classroom or sports hall for your film night.
Give something up
Got a sweet tooth you want to kick? Or are you trying to spend less time on your phone? Many of us have a habit or 2 we want to give up or improve on. What better motivation than doing it for a good cause?
Try giving a habit up for a day, week, a few weeks or a month, and ask people to sponsor you for your efforts.
Christmas fundraising ideas for schools
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and a great opportunity to bring friends, family and classmates together to raise money for BHF. Here are some fun ideas for festive fundraising.
Christmas jumper competition
Deck your Christmas jumper with boughs of holly, tinsel and whatever fun, festive decorations you like. Ask each person taking part to donate a small amount. The most creative and quirky jumper wins a prize. The cheesier, the better!
Desk decorating contest
Get your classmates to decorate their desks and charge each group to take part. You could set a theme and give a prize to the best-decorated desk.
Christmas wrapping
Gather your most talented gift wrappers to wrap your friends’, family’s or classmates’ presents for them. You could charge different prices for small, medium-sized and bigger gifts.
Ask people to bring their own wrapping paper, and buy the basics, including sticky tape and scissors.
Christmas fair
Bring people together by holding a Christmas fair selling food and crafts, at your school or in your local community.
Ask friends, family and classmates to help you plan and run the event. You could also hold a raffle and ask your classmates, teachers, or local businesses to donate prizes.
Christmas carol concert
Spread some festive cheer with a Christmas carol concert at school or in your local community. You could raise money by asking people to buy tickets, by having a bucket collection at the event, or both.
During the concert, you could make a speech about BHF and why you’ve decided to raise money for us.
Why fundraise for British Heart Foundation?
At least 50,000 UK school children are living with a heart condition, and we need to fund research to help them live longer, happier lives.
Every year thousands of children and young people, teachers and group leaders hold a fundraiser using one of our fundraising kits. Your school can make a real difference by being one of them.
Your school can also support our mission by:
- buying a defibrillator for your school or local community through our online shop, perhaps using funds raised during your event
- learning free lifesaving CPR skills at school using our free Classroom RevivR tool, which is designed for secondary school students (and can easily be used by teachers).
