“EVENTS IN A BOX”

BOOKLET

EVENTS IN A BOX BOOKLET- acts as an excellent complement to your United Way Campaign. They create excitement and awareness, and can set the stage for your employee canvass. Be sure that any major fundraising activities are positioned after the employee canvass so that individuals do not feel that the money they are spending on various events replaces their payroll, cheque, or cash donations.

MAKE THESE EVENTS SPECIAL- by promoting your event using flyers, newsletters, email, voice-mail etc. Make sure that everyone in your organization knows all of the details of the event. Try to involve senior management (and Union Executives). Everyone loves to see the CEO or union President flipping pancakes, barbequing hot dogs, batting baseballs, or shining shoes! It’s also fun to get together on an informal basis.

TASTY WAYS TO FUNDRAISE

Barbeques: Fire up the grill at lunch time and put on some purchased, subsidized, or donated hot dogs, hamburgers, and vegetarian options. Charge a fee for each food item; you can even make the items into a meal for a set price (possibly including chips and a drink). To save on resources, have the staff place their order and collect donations ahead of time.

Potlucks: Tired of the same old boring lunches? Have staff members volunteer to each contribute one of their favourite dishes or prepare one of their award winning recipes. Charge an admission fee to access the potluck and fix a great meal for a great cause.

Pancake Breakfasts: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day- there is no reason why it cannot be the most delicious too! Volunteers can make from scratch or purchase the pancake mix and extras themselves at a low cost. Set up a serving station and charge a flat rate for the pancakes.

Pizza Lunches: No need to pack a lunch! Pick up some purchased, subsidized, or donated pizza and sell the slices individually or create a deal for the purchase of multiple slices. To save on resources, you can always have the staff place their order and collect funds ahead of time.

Bake Swaps/Sales: Put on your aprons, dust off your cookbooks and off to the kitchen you go. Each person participating bakes 3 dozen goodies and takes home 2 dozen. The remaining dozen is used to make up trays for employees to purchase. If you are baking, your only cost is whatever your goodies cost to make.

Chili Cook-Offs: Spicy, mild, hot, or sweet all employees are encouraged to compete. Employees can participate by making their best chilli as an individual or part of a team. They are served at lunch for $5.00 a cup (and the volunteers purchase buns to go with). Pick a panel of judges who then award a winner. The winner, aside from bragging rights, could receive a small trophy or a gift card (at your discretion).

Ways to Play for the United Way

“Mystery Clue” Contest: For those who wish to participate; have a clue a day for your campaign, trivial pursuit/crossword style/ United Way information/ all about Thunder Bay- whatever you like. Replies come in via email- award points for each right answer- easy way to ‘flex your brain’ and easily involve everyone.

Pop Luck: Take aim and get prepared to win because with “Pop luck” everyone’s a winner! All you have to do is pop a balloon to win a prize. Have employees, suppliers, and clients donate whatever they can. Display the prizes in a central or designated location. Charge employees to pop balloons with prize tickets in them and then distribute the prizes accordingly.

Poker Darts Tournament: Take aim and whoever has the best hand wins. Attach a deck of cards to a board and by throwing the darts at the board compete to make the best poker hand. Record participant’s hands and to increase the competitive spirit you can have incentive prizes or even a 'scoreboard'. Participation costs are always minimal and there's usually a way to improve your score by buying one more dart, ball, etc. at a premium.

Bingo: Add an element of fun to the work week with an old time favourite. Sell bingo cards for $3 each or 2 for $5. The Bingo cards can be re-usable or printed directly offline. Call a combination of numbers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and additional numbers on Friday if there is not a winner by Thursday. 1/2 of the money goes to the winner, and 1/2 goes to your United Way fund.

Draws, Raffles, & Auctions

Early Bird Draw: As the saying goes the “early bird gets the worm.” Solicit prizes or donations and enter the names of employees who return their United Way contribution forms early into a raffle.

Silent Auction: Get everybody involved by having them contribute anything they can- baked goods, crafts, services such as golf/tennis/music lessons or dinner etc. All participants will be assigned a number for placing their bids. Each item(s) up for bid will have a bidding sheet on

the table in front of it; * the bid will be the amount wishing to pay for that item. In case of any errors, go down the list to the next highest bidder (and so on). Encourage the teams to put together a basket to submit and the team’s basket that raises the most money is then rewarded with a “coffee break” and goodies. The only thing paid out of pocket is the coffee break as well as cello wrap and ribbon.

50/50 Draw: At the beginning of the year determine what staff members want to be part of the draw and every pay day following debit their accts for $5.00 and at the end of the year hold a draw with all participants names in a hat and draw a winner who takes home half of the proceeds and donate the other half to United Way of Thunder Bay.

Gift Basket Raffle: Check your re-gift cupboards. If you have any (new) items in your home that you would like to donate, put them together into baskets and make good use of them. If you would like to get crafty and knit, crotchet, quilt, sew, etc., also make sure they are included too. Ask people to donate new or gently used items and make 12-15 themed gift baskets for the penny auction type function. As an added idea you can make it holiday themed before or run it before each long weekend.

Parking Spot Raffle: Running a little late? Lunch time errands to run again? There’s nothing worse than losing out on a great parking spot. Each donation will get your name entered into a draw to win the Boss’ (or designated) parking spot throughout the year. Win the parking spot for a day, week, or on an occasion.

Office Activities

Team Challenges: Time to test your competitive spirit and bond with fellow co-workers. Put together a team and challenge other departments/workplaces to baseball, tug of war, trivial pursuit, basketball, obstacle courses etc. Charge a small entry fee, solicit prizes for the winning team, and have fun!

Mini Golf Tournament: Cancel that tee time and get creative. Set up a mini golf course throughout your offices. Each department can create its own “hole” using common items around the office. Charge “green fees” with additional donations going toward ‘do over’s’ or subtracting strokes from the player’s final score.

Dress Down Days/Weeks: Always a big hit with the staff! Allow employees to wear jeans or dress casually at work – for a day- or entire week for a small contribution. Don’t forget to contact your Loaned Executive???(not sure who this individual would be) for stickers that say “I Dress This Way for United Way” and distribute to participating employees.

Executive Costume Contest: Employees vote, with their dollars, for the executive they’d most like to see in a costume (e.g., pink bunny). The “winning” executive parades around the

building or makes an appearance at a United Way team function to announce the total amount of money raised through the contest.

Executive Car Wash: You do a great job at work now it’s time for the boss’s performance review. Gain some positive publicity and have vehicles washed by executives/management team for a $10.00 donation.

Office Themed Lunch: Feel free to send out invites to the neighbouring businesses to place their orders too! Lunch ideas could consist of: tacos, pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, sausages/smokies, chili, soup, beef on a bun etc. All items could come with a side such as; corn on the cob, bag of chips, salads (pasta, caesar, coleslaw), chocolate bars etc. and a drink. Lunch ideas can be paired with a theme to get a deal: $1 off if you dress in a Hawaiian shirt, $1 off if you wear and Ugly Christmas sweater etc.

Creative Ways to Fundriase Sports Day: At the end of January, usually around Superbowl Sunday host an Annual Sports day celebration. Employees are allowed to wear a jersey of their choice by making a donation. Set up Nintendo Wii bowling and teams of 4 play throughout the morning with their scores recorded. At noon have hot dogs, chips and beverage available and have the final game where the 2 teams with the top scores play each other so we can crowned the. If you like pre-sell the

hot dogs, chips, beverage so that you have an idea of how many are needed and they are just cooked in crock pots, wrapped in foil and stored in coolers to keep warm.

Guessing Games: Test your skills and help raise some bills. Fill a clear jar with candy and have employees pay for a chance to guess the number of pieces in the jar. The most accurate guess wins the candy or another prize while all proceeds raised are donated.

Candygrams: These can be done on any occasion! Dollar Stores sells small cardstock baskets and the Bulk Food stores have a large variety of candy. You can sell the baskets for $2.00 each and deliver them during the day to recipients. Employees can purchase and send a personalized message with their “candy-gram” or a generic message; it can have the name of the sender, or remain anonymous

Go for Gold: Host a mini Olympics, inter-departmental pentathlon etc. A donation will be your “entry fee”. Schedule an event every lunch hour i.e. Airplane throwing contest, waste-paper basketball, phone book tossing, office furniture obstacle course… put together a team and challenge other departments. Get creative, dress up, have fun, and celebrate the spirit of competition.

Spare Change Jars: Place empty jars near vending machines or gathering places. Ask employees to deposit spare change throughout the year for United Way. This can be a competition between departments to see who collect the most change in a time frame.

White Elephant Sale:This is a unique way to spruce up the workplace décor. Employees donate odd items for the sale. Co-workers should have the opportunity to buy items and stipulate in whose workspace these items should be displayed. Set a time frame for which objects must stay in that location.

Massage Therapist: What a great way to make it through the work day! A therapist, preferably one who will donate time, visits the workplace and employees sign up for time slots. Employees pay for a massage, the therapist possibly expands their client base, with proceeds benefiting United Way.

Guess the Baby Picture: Employees bring their baby pictures to work and post the photos a few days prior to the event. Contestants pay to enter the contest and pay to match employees to their baby pictures. The employee with the highest number of correct matches wins a prize.

FestiveBeach Bash: That beach on your screen saver is closer than you think! Decorate the cafeteria or break room with beach balls, etc. Serve hot dogs and fruit kabobs. Tell everyone to wear

their favorite “beach wear” and then vote on the best one. Award prizes for the best outfits or most creative potluck dish.

Turkey Draw: Gobble up this opportunity to win big! Host a turkey draw where employees can purchase tickets ($2.00) each for their chance to win a turkey. Cover the cost of the turkey with the money raised from ticket sales and graciously donate the remaining proceeds to the United Way.

Father’s Day: Try either a casting contest using plastic fishing rods or create your own fish pond with plastic fish with magnets attached and put in a small kiddie pool. Charge for each try and the winners will receive gift certificates that are popular at this time of year– Canadian tire, D & R Sporting Goods, LCBO, Beer Store, Golf, etc.)

Egg Hunt: This is not only a fun event for everyone, it is an ‘eggcellent’ way to raise funds! Purchase some plastic eggs, fill them with candy or other goodies- if prizes are involved you can place a prize ticket in the eggs as well. Hide them around the workplace or even outside the workplace and involved the staff and staff’s children. Charge a small entry fee to participate in the egg hunt and watch the smiles you have created as the eggs are being found.

Halloween Costume Contest:There is nothing that says getting into the ‘spirit’ of Halloween like a costume contest! Make categories of scariest, funniest, most creative etc. costumes. and charge a small fee to vote for your favourites. The winner’s of the categories can receive a small prize and all proceeds from the votes can be donated.

Hawaiian Theme: Tired of the Winter blues, why not warm up in Hawaii? Each person turning in a pledge card gets a plastic lei. At campaign’s end, hold a Hawaiian potluck where employees wear their leis and dress Hawaiian. Have a limbo contest, use a palm tree thermometer, it’s an easy way to become involved and show off your creative ideas.

Mardi Gras: Everyone loves a party, so why not model your campaign after the biggest party in the world – Mardi Gras. Hold a parade, float contest or sell bead-o-grams (beads with thoughtful messages attached.) Host a Cajun potluck this is another easy way to become involved and show off your creative ideas.