Up and down the country, people are counting down to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and a four-day weekend. Whether you love the monarchy, or you’re just partial to a few days off work, it’s a great opportunity for a spot of fundraising.
Here are some quintessentially British things that you could do to raise money for your favourite charity.
Host afternoon tea
Originating in the early 1840s, afternoon tea is a time-honoured British tradition. So why not dust off your finest china, invite your friends over and indulge?
It’s all about light snacks and finger food so serving the perfect spread doesn’t mean hours in the kitchen. Channel your inner Delia Smith and bake a Victoria sponge, rustle up some cucumber and mint sandwiches and serve a well-brewed, proper pot of tea. As you sit down with your friends for a gossip, ask them to make a donation to your favourite charity in exchange for their afternoon treat. Set up a JustTextGiving code and they’ll be able to donate right there and then
Organise a British-themed pub quiz
Getting to show off your general knowledge over a nice cold pint makes pub quizzes ever popular in the UK.
Get in touch with the pubs in your local area and see if they’d be interested in letting you host a British-themed pub quiz. Then pop up some posters, let people know when it’s happening and ask them for a donation as entry. Hopefully the pub will let you offer a bottle of wine or a free drink as a prize and all of the money raised can go to your charity.
When it comes to questions, stick to the traditional rounds and just give them a British theme. You could have questions on British history, film, music, sporting triumphs and of course, a round on the British monarchy.
Bake some scones
Who doesn’t love an extra couple of days at the weekend? The only drawback is the post-holiday blues that circulate the office when it’s all over.
One way to brighten up a back-to-work morning is a sweet treat for elevenses. Involve your colleagues by offering up Devonshire cream tea. All you’ll need is some homemade scones, a pot of clotted cream and a jar of strawberry jam. Then pop the kettle on and ask your colleagues to text a donation in return. They won’t be able to resist!
Have a street party
With an estimated 10 million people attending street parties during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, you can expect a lot of bunting and trestle tables decorating the UK over the bank holiday.
Street parties are a great way to meet your neighbours and involve the community in your Diamond Jubilee celebrations, but they require a lot of planning. For starters, you’d need to get permission from your local council to close the road.
An easy alternative is to organise a ‘street meet’. A street party but on a smaller scale, a street meet could involve gathering in a park, on your driveway, or if there’s one close-by, you could congregate in a cul-de-sac. Just make sure you’re somewhere safe and traffic free and ask your neighbours to join you in exchange for a small donation. There are lots of great ideas and tips for arranging a street meet on the Streets Alive website.
Get competitive with your favourite sport
There’s a lot of debate when it comes to naming Britain’s national sport.. Football, cricket, tennis, they all guarantee plenty of occupied sofas during major tournaments. But there’s also rugby, snooker, darts… in fact, the only thing not up for debate is how much us Brits love our sport.
So how about celebrating the long weekend with a charity match of your favourite game?
Or with 2012 such a huge year for sport, you could organise a mini-athletics tournament that rivals any sports day you had at school. Find out which of your friends is the Usain Bolt of the egg-and-spoon race, partner up for the three-legged race and dig out some old pillow cases for the sack race. Everyone makes a donation to take part and all of the ‘gold medalists’ get the money-can’t-buy prize of pride.
Do you have plans for any fundraising over the Jubilee weekend? Or do you have a quintessentially British idea for fundraising? We’d love to hear it. Leave a comment on our Facebook wall, send us a tweet or leave a comment on the blog below.
Tags: Bank Holiday, diamond jubilee, Fundraising, summer, the queen