Why fundraise for British Heart Foundation?
Around 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.
If you’re fundraising for us, why not think about using the money to buy a defibrillator for your school or local community? You can find out more about this on our online shop.
How will BHF support my fundraiser?
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- you’ll get support and more materials from our fundraising team
- we’ll help you get started with our online fundraising resources.
Fundraising ideas
Bake sale
Channel your inner Mary Berry by hosting your own bake sale. Whip up some tasty treats - including sweet and savoury items - with the help of family, friends and teachers. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out some of our delicious cake recipes.
When charging for your bake sale, it’s a good idea to set prices (for example, 50p for smaller items and £1 for bigger ones). Or ask people to donate what they think each cake is worth (some might be very generous!).
It’s also important to clearly label the ingredients in your baked goods. This will help anyone with allergies know what they’re buying.
Hold a quiz
Quizzes are a fun, easy way to bring people together and raise money for a good cause. First thing’s first – finding a venue. You could host your quiz at your school, local sports hall or community hall. If you’re hiring an external venue, let the owner(s) know it’s for a charity event. They may well let you hire it for free.
You could charge people a small entry fee to take part in your quiz. Another great way to boost donations is by selling snacks during the event.
Try having a mix of easy and slightly harder quiz questions, so that everyone can feel involved. You could have 4 rounds of 8 to 10 questions, with different themes for each round. In each round, you could have a “bonus points” question, where you test people’s knowledge of BHF and the heart.
For more information on holding a quiz, visit our how to organise a quiz page.
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, simple 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, shotput using mini bean bags, a three-legged race, and archery using a plastic bow and arrow.
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.
No Olympics ceremony is complete without an opening and closing ceremony. Print out flags for each country so people can parade them during your opening ceremony. 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 hoola-hooping class. 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 particularly 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 – for example, 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
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 organise 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.
We're here to help you with your fundraising. If you have a question, call our support team on 0300 330 3322 between Monday to Friday, 9am and 5pm.
Get your free fundraising guide
Our free downloadable fundraising guide is full of tips and ideas to help you organise a successful event. To get it, use our simple form to register your activity.
Get your free guide
We're here to help you with your fundraising. If you have a question, call our support team on 0300 330 3322 between Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Learn free CPR skills at school
We offer free lifesaving CPR skills through our Classroom RevivR tool. The tool is designed for secondary school students and can easily be used by teachers.
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