STAR Fundraising Guide - Student Action for Refugees

STAR Fundraising Guide
Why STAR needs you!
Public hostility in the UK towards refugees and asylum seekers has fuelled heavyhanded,
unjust and punitive policies that are damaging the lives of people seeking
refugee protection. As a member of STAR, we know you care about helping refugees
and asylum seekers and can’t accept the impact this has on people’s lives. STAR is a
member led network of 5,000 student activists, supported by a tiny office of just 3.5
staff. We cost a fraction of our sister charities like Refugee Council and work hard to
fundraise from charitable trusts, but these trusts expect our student members to show
their commitment to the charity by fundraising too. Without your support we cannot
continue.
So why STAR?
The STAR network is all about making positive change for refugees in the UK. For
your work with STAR to have the greatest possible impact, it needs to be about dealing
with the causes of the situation, and not just the symptoms. We can achieve this
through widespread attitudinal change at national level and by reforming unfair
government policies so that people no longer have to suffer the arbitrary effects of an
unjust UK asylum system. You have the potential to have this impact, both at the grass
roots level in your local STAR group, and as a member of a national movement.
STAR is well respected for this national impact, this March the Still Human Still coalition
of 50 agencies including Amnesty and the Red Cross were able to persuade
ministers not to cut asylum support rates. This was because ministers knew there was
opposition to the cuts: 1700 of you had shown this when you campaigned nationally
during STAR Action Week in February. It was STAR’s ability to gather thousands of
signatures, gain press coverage and persuade MPs to speak up in their town centres
in support of the Action Week that showed opposition to the cuts and propelled the
policy staff from our partner agencies into ministerial meetings with real power. STARs
collective action had an impact at the very top, in a way that your work as individuals,
with individuals, could not.
Keeping STAR independent
Financing a charity isn’t glamorous, but we need money to make the change we want
to see for refugees and asylum seekers. Money we raise goes to running the small
office and activities which are dedicated to making the UK a just and welcoming place
for refugees. With your support, we can maintain and expand our impact. Your
fundraising enables STAR to:
engage with and influence policy makers to change national policy on refugees
challenge one-sided media hostility against refugees with proactive campaigns
provide accurate information on refugee and asylum issues and raise awareness
work with other refugee organisations, combining our grassroots support with the
technical expertise and high level contacts of other agencies to have a greater
impact
run and co-ordinate STAR campaigns
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co-ordinate the STAR network, train STAR members and empower them to run
their groups
STAR runs with the support charitable trusts, who give us £130,000 annually, but we
need at least £200,000 this year which we are working hard to find. Continuous
dependence on these trusts is not an option, they cannot give us all the money we
need and expect you to fundraise part of the amount. We need to show them that
STAR members value STAR and want to keep it going as much as they do. As STAR
members you need to own the network, so that we can continue our grass roots
activism.
STAR key facts
Refugees are people fleeing war, torture and oppression. Most come from
countries experiencing serious human rights violations, such as Iran and
Zimbabwe
The UK is home to less than 3% of the world’s refugees. 19,894 people
sought asylum the UK in 2011
Asylum seekers in the UK are not allowed to work and receive £36 a week
to live on
STAR is the national network of 36 student groups across the UK
STAR receives no government funding. The network relies on grants and
student fundraising
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How to fundraise
- Organising events…………………………………………………………3-4
- Personal and group Challenges………………………………….………...4
- Collaborations and joint events…………………………………….…….4-5
- Advertising your event……………………………………………….……5-6
- Paying in the money……………………………………………..…………..6
- Fundraising ideas…………………………………………………..……..7-12
- Organiser’s ticklist…………………………………………………….…….13
Events
When organising a fundraising event:
Plan carefully and work backwards! Mark your event on a calendar and work
backwards adding deadlines for when each task has to be completed. Make sure
everybody in your group puts these deadlines in their diaries to ensure that nothing
is left to the last minute and you do not start too early. Read the advice on
‘Planning Projects’ and on ‘Events Organisation’ in the STAR Guide and follow the
steps.
Create a budget. This should help you ensure that the event will raise money and
that you don’t commit to large costs you can’t afford. It may only need to be small,
but put down all the costs and realistic estimates of how much you’ll raise. Try to
avoid paying large amounts of money in advance unless you can guarantee that
you will make the money back. A good way to do this is securing money in advance
through ticket sales. Check that the time and effort you’re putting in will be
rewarded by the amount of money raised (i.e. don’t spend 2 months organising an
event that will only raise £20!).
Try to get as much as possible for free. This could be anything from the venue
to raffle prizes and refreshments. As a student group you can offer local
businesses a chance to advertise themselves to the student community. You could
even offer to put a little “sponsored by…” note in your advertising!
Plan how you are going to sell tickets. How you sell your tickets is important as
the tickets need to be accessible to everyone and promote your event in a positive
light. If you’re holding a comedy night, why not get a comedian to tell jokes on
campus as a free preview while you’re selling tickets? Alternatively you could add a
cake sale to the ticket sales to attract people over. Selling your own tickets works
well for smaller events, however for larger events it can be very time consuming
and complicated. Instead you could ask your student union to set up an online
payment page, which you could direct people to via Facebook and posters.
Be careful with money. Money needs to be kept safe and dealt with transparently.
If you’re collecting cash then arrange a place to store it until it can be deposited and
ensure that others can see where the money has come from and where it’s being
held. Try to have two people present when money is being counted or transferred.
Include this in your event planning.
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Make sure to use your existing contacts. The people around you might have
incredible fundraising potential that you haven’t noticed before. Do you know any
stand-up comedians or bands? Pub or club owners/staff? Can you get a venue,
performers or raffle prizes for free? Use these contacts, people are often much
more willing to help than you think they are! Don’t forget to look at ex-members as
well as current ones. If your group has been going a few years it is possible that
former STARs now have a lot to offer and may be very willing to help. Check old
mailing lists and your Student Union committee lists.
Get your Sabbatical Officers involved. This is bound to make more people
interested in your event, especially if the Union helps with the advertising. If you are
doing a sponsored wax ask the President or a Vice president of your Student Union
to get involved. Due to their position they should be happy to help and by getting
them involved in the fun they may also become more supportive of your group in
future.
Personal and Group Challenges
Personal or group challenges are a great way to fundraise for STAR whilst doing
something amazing. There are many ways to do this – marathons, half marathons,
relay marathons, cycling challenges and others besides! You can take part in an
existing event, or organise your own university challenges, such as a sponsored walk,
run or cycle.
In 2012, Frankie raised £1,800 for STAR by running the London marathon. That’s a
whopping 26.2 miles and a new computer system for STAR!
Through sponsorship these challenges are a great way to raise money for and
promote STAR. By advertising them at your university they can also be a great way of
recruiting new members. You would be surprised at the number of people up for a
challenge at your university!
STAR can advise you about how to enter a challenge event and support you with your
fundraising. If you think this could be for you and would like some advice about what
the possibilities are, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Collaborations and joint events
Hosting a fundraising event with another club or society at your university can lead to
greater success, less pressure and more fun, because:
The number and diversity of students you reach will increase
There is a greater chance of higher attendance as you have more members,
more friends and more ticket sellers at your disposal
The other club or society may have resources that you can use
There will be more people to delegate tasks to
You may get some new members
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Collaborations often work well with other charities and cause-based groups; however
do not overlook what a sports team could bring to your fundraising event. They often
have more members, are willing to get stuck in and in most cases they will be happy
for all the money to go to STAR.
Events could include:
Sponsored sports matches with a twist (Rugby teams play netball matches,
football teams play blind folded, students vs. lecturers)
A children’s sports day (Think egg and spoon race, three legged race and sack
race! By making this competitive between sports teams you may get a higher
turnout)
A supermarket trolley race (Each team decorates a supermarket trolley or
equivalent)
You could also plan events with fashion, music and other societies.
Advertising your event
Advertising is crucial for running campaigns, volunteering projects and fundraising, but
it needs to be approached differently for each.
If you are holding a fundraising event you want to reach as many people as possible to
maximise the amount of money you raise and to educate a greater number of people
in refugee rights and STAR. To do this it is important that you do not overwhelm
people with too much information. Make it clear that the event is being organised by
STAR and that for more information about STAR they can come to the event, go on
STAR’s website or attend a meeting.
Posters
Think of a tag line and keep text to a minimum. E.g. STAR Oxford gave a band
night the tag line ‘Hear for the Human’ for a band night co-organized with Amnesty.
Direct people to a Facebook page or email for more information.
What is the best thing about your event? Have you got a great venue? A great
band? Or a great theme? Make sure that this stands out on your posters.
Get good coverage with your posters, there is no point spending time making them
if nobody sees them. Give each member of your group a section of the university to
be responsible for, preferably where they study or live, and it is their job to make
sure posters are up.
Remember to get your poster Student Union approved.
Secret and alternative advertising
This can be more effective, cheaper and exciting then standard leafleting! At all
universities there is a lot going on and therefore a lot of posters to compete with. For
your posters to have maximum impact people need to be noticing them as soon as
they are up. Here are just some of the ways you can do this:
Distribute a logo, symbol or picture associated with your event with no other
information on it a week before you start your main advertising campaign. When
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people see the real poster with the same image they should be intrigued to read it
and find out what the first flyers were all about.
Stick gold stars on all the coffee cups or pound coins in your student union. Then
make a poster saying ‘What’s with the GOLD STARS…” underneath giving
information about your group or an event. Hopefully people who were intrigued by
the gold stars before they new what they were associated with will be interested
when they find out.
Stickers. Stickers can also be a novel and cheap way of advertising, especially if
you print your own. Get an army of volunteers to go around campus sticking
stickers on everyone so that you have a moving and talking advertisement. Be
aware that people will soon take the stickers off and so this would be effective as a
last minute promotion.
Word of mouth. Whatever you do word of mouth is always important. People are
more likely to go to something if a friend has recommended it. Make sure
everybody in your group talks to their friends, housemates and classmates about
the event. If you have a friend in a sports team or society ask them to do a ‘shout
out’ at their next training or social.
Facebook. As soon as a Facebook event is made it needs to look popular. Try
making the event in a meeting so that everybody can click attending and add
friends then and there. You can also ask people to make the event their profile
picture and status the day before ticket sales.
Paying in the money
It’s very easy to pay in money to STAR – just donate the money online through Just
Giving (http://www.justgiving.com/Studentafr/ or http://www.justgiving.com/STAR-
Fundraising-Week) as a one-off donation.
Alternatively, call STAR National on 0207 697 4130 or email us at staradmin@starnetwork.org.uk
to discuss other methods of payment.
IMPORTANT!
It is illegal to fundraise under one charity’s name and then give the money to
another charity!
This is because people who give money to charity do so in good faith and need to be
certain that it’s going to the cause of their choice.
So, be careful – if you raise money under STAR’s name, you must give the money to
STAR.
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Fundraising Ideas
Stall sales
Raffles
Bucket collections
Pub nights
Comedy nights
Quizzes
Club/band night
Text donations
Movie & theatre nights
STAR themed treasure hunt
Sponsorship
Extra ideas
Stall sales
Stalls are very easy to plan, just make sure that you get permission and make a
realistic estimate of costs – e.g. don’t spend three weeks baking cakes for a hundred
pounds. If you don’t have permission to ‘sell’ things, you can suggest a ‘minimum
donation’, for example 50p for cakes.
Be imaginative, proactive and try to get noticed! Approach people, or
make it very easy for them to approach you. Do check at your university
whether you’re allowed to walk around cafeterias and common rooms selling
your cake, rather than just standing behind your stall.
Do sell something else as well, for example badges are very easy and quite
cheap to get made. Or sell t-shirts. Or hugs. Remember that this doesn’t have to
be a major thing, for example just making certificates or badges that say
something like ‘I support local refugees’, and giving them away as part of a cake
deal, for example, could be successful.
Raffle
Raffles are easy to combine with other fundraising or awareness-raising events.
Be proactive with selling your raffle tickets, and make it easy for people to buy
several (e.g. one for a pound, three for two pounds).
Just a couple of things that you need to know when setting up a raffle:
There needs to be a prize, and winning it needs to be dependent on
chance. Prizes cannot total more than £500, even if they’re donated.
The raffle has to be held at a fundraising event, where the draw also has
to take place.
The law also states that no more than £100 can be deducted from sales for
costs (e.g. buying the tickets, putting up posters), and that the value of
tickets on sale has to be under £20,000 and the proceeds from all raffles in
one year less than £250,000, but this is unlikely to affect your raffle.
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Bucket collections
Bucket collections are a fast and easy way to raise money and awareness. If you can
get a group together, accompanying a collection with carol singing or busking can be
an excellent way to draw attention to your fundraiser! Groups have been able to raise
hundreds of pounds in a few hours using this method.
There are a few regulations you need to be aware of before holding a bucket
collection.
You will need permission from the council before holding your collection, so plan
ahead – applications can take over a month to process. If you’re holding the
collection on private property, you will need the owner’s or manager’s
authorisation.
Collection tins or buckets must be sealed, and you should have STAR’s charity
number (1079042) displayed as well as STAR’s name and logo
For more information, check http://www.raisingfunding.co.uk/street-collecting-what-arerules.html
Happy collecting!
Pub nights
It should be easier for you to get a venue for free than with club nights, and you might
even get the landlady/landlord to put on a special promotion (that you can then
advertise), or to donate some of their profits to you.
You do need to advertise relentlessly, and don’t forget to take advantage of all of your
contacts! There are a couple of things to think about:
Combine your event with a pub quiz, a raffle, an open mike night, or
collect voluntary donations. Make it fun and don’t be restricted by ideas of
what people usually do in a pub.
Instead of selling tickets, include other ways of fundraising in your pub
night. People are much less likely to pay to go to a pub, so do think about
creative ways to raise money. Offer quality entertainment, and make people
feel comfortable, rather than pushing for money by charging for entry.
The quirkier the better! Include something that isn’t normally associated
with the setting. Here are a few examples:
‘STARs in their eyes’ karaoke. You can charge people a (voluntary) fee
to sing, or just have it as something to liven up the night.
Set up a big screen and a games console, and charge people a
pound a go.
Get people to vote on any existing competition. Think big sports
events, the Eurovision Song Contest, or anything you can show on a big
screen and people can vote. Or combine this with your raffle, and sell
countries to people. Then the people with the winning country win the
prize.
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Comedy nights
This is a great event to put on at any university! You should be able to find amateur
stand up comedians at your university. Additionally you could get in contact with local
comedy clubs; most will be happy to give their comedians more work.
Do not worry to much about how good the comedians are, even if a few of them are
not funny that is part of the experience at amateur comedy nights and people will laugh
anyway. If you don’t think you have enough comedians to fill a night advertise the
second half of the event as an open mike night and get the audience up on stage!
Give the comedians short sets. You have to make sure that the comedians are really
good if you are giving them more than 15 minutes.
Club/band night
Club nights can potentially raise a lot of money and with a little bit of planning can be a
great way of raising awareness of your STAR group at your university. Think carefully
about the location and the timing: you don’t want your event to clash with any major
exams, essay deadlines or other big club nights.
Although weekends seem like the more obvious option, getting a venue for free will be
a lot easier on a weeknight. It might be a good idea for advance tickets to be cheaper,
as this way you’re more likely to at least break even before the event itself.
How to maximise profits:
Remember what you’re up against. Make your event cheaper than other
club nights, but not too cheap, as you don’t want your night to seem like
it’s not worth going to.
Get a band or a DJ to play for free. If you find it hard to get anyone to
perform for free, offer something: they can sell their CDs at the event, that
they will get their name on all advertising etc. Just try not to offer money!
Get a venue for free. If you don’t happen to know anyone in the club
business, you could phone up some local clubs and ask what they can
offer. There are several ways this could work out:
Get the venue for no cost at all. This would mean all money made
from ticket sales would be yours.
Offer a proportion of ticket sales as a payment. This means you
won’t spend more than you manage to raise, but be careful, as you
don’t want half of your hard-earned money to go to a club owner.
You get the venue for free, but there’s a minimum spending
requirement at the bar. This means you keep all the money you
make from ticket sales. Be VERY careful with these deals, as if your
guests don’t spend enough money, you will most likely be
presented with a rental fee.
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Advertise! Then advertise some more. Then finish off with a bit of advertising…
Nothing is more important than advertising when putting together a club/band night, as
you’re usually aiming for a lot of people attending, and it usually takes more money
and effort from people to show up.
Therefore, advertising for a club night or gig should:
Be appropriate for the type of event. This means that leaflets’
quality should match up to other club leaflets you see around, as
that’s what you’re competing with!
Target a wide range of people. For a successful club night, you
need to get much more people to turn up than
Be energetic and enthusiastic. This means that you don’t just put
up a few posters and wait for people to call you. Make leaflets and
leave them everywhere, set up a Facebook group, and be relentless –
there’s a lot of competition!
Be VERY proactive with ticket sales! There’s so much going on at universities, that
unless you remind people constantly, they won’t remember to show up to your event.
Set up a stall in a busy location at uni a couple of times during the last couple of weeks
before your event. Sell tickets outside your university, especially on the day of the
event, sell them to your friends, or even better, get your friends to sell them to their
friends. Just make it extremely easy for people to buy a ticket!
Text donations
Get your family and friends to donate to STAR in seconds by texting STAR 17 and the
amount you want to donate to 70070!
Movie / Quiz / Theatre night
There are a lot of things you can do to turn your awareness-raising event into a
fundraiser. For example, sell cakes or other refreshments, badges or t-shirts, or tickets
to another event.
If there’s an existing popular quiz night at your university, you could try and negotiate
getting them to donate profits to your society one week, especially if it’s Refugee
Week.
STAR themed Treasure Hunt
Create a treasure hunt of objects to collect, tasks to complete and treasure to find in
your local town!
Participants get in teams of 3-4. You decide whether they have to pay to enter, get
sponsored or collect money on route. Give students an incentive to get involved by
providing a prize for the team that completes the list the quickest, gets the best photo
and raises the most money.
Create a list of around 20 tasks that participants have to do and objects they have
to collect in your local town, with photos being uploaded to your Facebook page as
evidence of them being completed! The list has to be top secret until just before the
start!
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Add a time limit to the hunt but allow the best part of a day so teams get a chance
to complete the list and have fun whilst they are doing it.
Try and make a pub or your SU the finish line and end with a party.
After the event ask people to send you the pictures for your Facebook page,
website and fresher’s fair next year.
Example:
You must collect:
1. One pack of ‘magic stars’
2. Take a picture of the STAR logo in a phone box
3. A 1p coin from 1991
4. A picture of twins
5. One Star Fruit
6. A picture of the whole team with a bus driver
7. A picture of team outside Sherlock Homes House. 221B Baker Street, London
NW1 6XE, London NW1 6XE (Famous landmark in your town)
8. A picture of the whole team drinking one red drink with individual straws.
9. Picture of the biggest Star you can find
10. Paint one team member blue
11. Blag a free lunch! (It is for charity and lots of local restaurants would appreciate
the advertising)
12. A receipt for 38p
13. A shot glass
14. Get 20 people to sign a petition (You could use a campaign from the STAR
website)
15. A Bagel form Brick lane (Change for outside of London)
16. An s club 7 CD, extra point for a tape.
17. A picture of the queen (A stamp or a coin)
18. 10 people to put some coins in a collection tin
19. A bag of leaves (A tea bag would do)
Sponsored anything!
Slightly crazy sponsored events are a great way to get generous donations and get
some publicity. If it’s low cost then it’s usually a guaranteed fundraising success.
Think outside the box. The more common options, like runs and cycle rides
are good, but do think about doing something slightly crazier and quirkier as
well. Here are a few examples:
Sleep outs. A good way to get publicity for refugee issues is to organise
a sponsored sleep out. These are particularly good for getting a lot of
people involved.
Shaving/Waxing. All kinds of crazy things are likely to attract a lot of
attention, think waxing your legs for guys and shaving your head for girls.
Be creative.
Silence.
Get a lot of people to participate. Instead of just the committee members
taking part in the sponsored action, try and get as many people as possible
involved. Even better if you can get a lecturer or a tutor to participate. If
everyone agrees to a minimum sponsorship amount of £20, you can raise
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quite a lot of money with very little time and effort required from the
organisers. You can get people to sign up when you have a stall, or just ask
around: if 10 people in your STAR group all get two more people to
participate you’ve got 30 people and have raised 600 pounds!
Remind people to get as many sponsors as possible. Anyone should be
able to get at least £20 worth of sponsorship money, and it isn’t too hard to
get a lot more.
Get some publicity. Advertise the sponsored event, and if you can get a lot
of people to turn up, you can then include other things in the event (e.g. a
bucket collection, a raffle, or a cake sale, depending on the setting). This
way you can also continue to collect sponsorship money right until the action
takes place. People might not be that interested in watching someone run a
half-marathon, but they might want to see 10 guys wax their legs…
Other ideas!
Here are some suggestions, and if you come up with something brilliant, please let the
National office know!
Sumo wrestling and bouncy castles. Getting a sumo wrestling mat or a
bouncy castle, for example, to your university is not actually that difficult, and
has the potential to raise quite a nice sum of money. You do probably have
to get a permit from your university, and do think about the location carefully.
Advertising is VERY important for this type of event, as the initial investment
is quite large, so you have to make sure you actually raise some money.
Companies that do bouncy castles, wrestling mats, movable climbing walls,
and a variety of other things are easily found online.
Organise a competition at university grounds. This could be football,
pool, or any other sport, or you could go for one of the quirkier options. For
example, an egg and spoon race, a sack race, or a water fight could be a lot
of fun, but do remember to ask for a permit from your university, advertise
the event very well, and keep the costs to a minimum – this way, even if you
only charge one pound to participate, you’ll make some money.
Heads or Tails? This can be a fun activity to hold at an event. Everyone
pays a pound to play, then you toss a coin and those who lose the toss sit
down. The last person left standing wins a prize.
Organise an auction. You can include an auction in another event, such as
a pub night, or set it up as an event on its own. The items auctioned could be
donated goods, experiences of all kinds (be creative, this could be dinner
dates on Valentine’s Day, tours of local attractions if you happen to know
someone working at one, private gigs if your musician/comedian friends are
willing to perform at someone’s house, or donated tickets to gigs, for
example), or even pieces of art, if you happen to know any locally famous
artists.
Second-hand clothes sales and markets. You need to get people to
donate unwanted goods first. Alternatively, you could organise a clothes
swap where everyone brings clothes they no longer want and pays £5 to
take away whatever they like. Again, advertise your event very well.
International pot luck. Organise an evening where your group members
each bring a dish and some friends, and charge guests £5 for a delicious
buffet! This is an easy and sociable variation on dinner fundraisers.
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Fab fundraising tips!
Tip 1: Always remember the key 4 objectives:
Raise much needed funds
Promote STAR
Raise awareness of refugee issues
Recruit new members to your STAR group!
Tip 2: Be ambitious but realistic! Fundraising events come in all shapes and sizes
and creativity is good but every penny counts!
Tip 3: Plan, plan, plan: Make a time line leading up to your event and delegate tasks,
update each other regularly on progress
Tip 4: Spread the word: start building the momentum! Try posters, flyering, social
media, speaking at lectures or other societies’ events…
Tip 5: Partner up: get other societies involved, and think beyond the usual suspects!
Last year STARs teamed up with students from Amnesty, Christian Aid, the Red
Cross, and many, many more…including a varsity rugby club!
Tip 6: Have fun and raise cash: Remember to enjoy your event, the more you do the
more others will. Have methods of donating easily at hand and promote the Just
Giving site /www.justgiving.com/Studentafr or www.justgiving.com/STAR-Fundraising-
Week
Tip 7: Tell us what you are doing: Remember we are all in this together so let’s
share all our successes!! Creative cupcakes – send us a picture, raised £100 - tell us
all about it, planning a fundraising party – we’ll help spread the word!
Tip 8: Remember to send in the money! All your hard work won’t help anyone
unless you organise this final stage! Simply donate on www.justgiving.com/Studentafr
or www.justgiving.com/STAR-Fundraising-Week, or call the National office on 0207
697 4130 to discuss alternative methods of payment.
How did it all go?
We want to keep you all up to date with fundraising activities across the network and
share great ideas. Send us your plans, photos and updates on twitter, facebook, email
and text. Call us on 020 76974130 or email staradmin@star-network.org.uk if you
want to talk through any of your plans with STAR National. Keep checking the STAR
website www.star-network.org.uk for new updates and follow us
on Facebook and Twitter.
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