I want to fundraise how can I get involved?
You can absolutely anything to fundraise for UNICEF! Read our fundraising pages for some ideas to get you started and hear our supporter stories for some inspiration. UNICEF staff are on hand to support your fundraising every step of the way, providing advice and help and UNICEF materials.
What can I do to fundraise? I need some ideas
If you would like some fundraising ideas to get you started, you can visit our Fundraising Ideas page. This will give you some ideas and also show you what other people have done to fundraise to get some inspiration! You can also request a fundraising pack by contacting us with your name and address at fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk
How do I make my event safe?
If you are holding a fundraising event, it is good practice to complete a risk assessment form. This will help you identify and deal with any risks to people taking part in your event. Also please be aware that if you are holding a large scale event in a public place you may need to get public liability insurance for your event. If you would like further legal information about holding fundraising events, please visit our Health and Safety pages.
How do I pay my money in?
Once your event has finished you will need to collect and count all the money.
You will then need to fill in a sending in your money form. The information on this form means that we can properly record your donation and send you a thank you letter. When you receive your letter this is your receipt to show that we have got your money safely.
UNICEF accepts donations in cash, by cheque or BACS. You can either deposit the money in our bank account or write us cheque.
You can take the cash to any bank and give them the following account details:
Account Name: The UK Committee for UNICEF – Donations Account
Bank Name: HSBC Plc
Bank Address: PO Box 4BQ, 133 Regent Street, London W1B 4HX
Account Number: 91566814
Sort Code: 40-06-02
If you choose to pay in the cash directly to our bank account the bank should give you a receipt as proof that you paid in the money. If you post a cheque to us, it is always a good idea to get a receipt from the post office, just in case anything gets lost in the post.
If you have a question about your donation you can contact our Helpdesk by email helpdesk@unicef.org.uk or by phone 0844 801 2414
How do I know that your money has reached you?
Once your donation has reached us, it could take a few weeks for us to process it. When it has been processed, we will send you a thank you letter. This letter acts as a receipt of your donation.
If you have a question about your donation you can contact our Helpdesk by email helpdesk@unicef.org.uk or by phone 0844 801 2414
How do I claim gift aid?
As a registered charity, UNICEF is allowed to claim back an extra 25p on every £1 donated to us in gift aid. Even 25p can be life saving – being enough to buy a life saving vaccine for one child.
To be able to claim gift aid we have to get the details of the person who made the donation to your event or sponsored you. This means we need to:
- Check the sponsor or donator is a UK tax payer
- Record the donator or sponsor’s home address, postcode, donation amount and make sure they tick the Gift Aid box on your sponsor form or web page.
How can I fundraise online?
UNICEF has its own fundraising website My Fundraising. My Fundraising is our online giving site. If you go to our website and set up an account you can create a page for your event. You can personalise this page in the same way as a Twitter or Facebook page, by adding your own photos and texts. You get your own URL for this page and you can send this to your friends and family. Visit our siteto find out more.
Can I donate my money to a specific country or project?
The best way type of donation that UNICEF receives an unrestricted donation. Unrestricted funds are when a donor gives their money without a restriction on the country or project that the money must go to. Unrestricted income is used for all aspects of UNICEF’s work including health, education and child protection and is absolutely vital for the delivery of UNICEF’s global mission for children. Unrestricted funds:
- Mean that UNICEF can distribute the money to support the children that are greatest in need and hardest to reach.
- Ensures that UNICEF can respond instantly when a disaster strikes, allowing UNICEF to get help to children who need it the most. This unrestricted income both enables UNICEF to operate, over the long term, in virtually every country in the world.
- Makes UNICEF’s work more efficient by reducing admin costs, making your money reach more children.
- If you have a question about your donation you can contact our Helpdesk by email helpdesk@unicef.org.uk or by phone 0844 801 2414
How can I get your logo?
We have version of the UNICEF that can be used exclusively by our fundraisers. This is the UNICEF in aid of logo. Once you have contacted us and we have agreed. You can use this logo on your publicity material. If you would like this logo please contact fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk . Fundraisers are not permitted to use the general UNICEF logo in any form or on any publicity materials.
Can our football team put your logo on our football kit?
Unfortunately you are not allowed to put our logo on your football kit. This is because the UNICEF logo can only be used by legitimate corporate UNICEF partners and not by people fundraising on our behalf. Our corporate partners donate a substantial amount of money to feature our logo on their products and for that reason we can’t allow fundraisers to use our logo on their shirts.
How can I order fundraising materials?
If you are holding an event or getting sponsored, you might like to order some materials to help brand your event.
You can fill in our materials order form and order materials such as banners, posters and sponsorship forms.
Please note that we are unable to supply large volumes of materials. Large items such as collecting buckets or tins cost a lot to buy and post and therefore we ask that if you need a large volume of materials for your event to please make a donation for the items.
Can I order some t-shirts?
T-shirts and breathable sports vests are available. We provide one shirt per fundraising event, for additional shirts we ask that fundraisers make a donation of £3 per shirt. if you would like to order t-shirts please send an email to fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk and include your name, address, number of t-shirts you would like and the sizes; S,M,L or XL.
Can you send me wristbands and badges etc to sell on my fundraising event?
We do not stock wristbands or badges. But if you would like to order other fundraising materials you can fill out our form. Please note that because it costs UNICEF money to produce these materials and to post them, we ask our fundraisers to order a modest number. If you would like large quantities of any material we can send these out to you but would ask for a donation to cover postage and stock costs.
Can a UNICEF speaker come to my event?
We get a huge volume of people asking for our staff or ambassadors to attend their event. Although we are always delighted to be invited, we are unable to attend fundraising events.
UNICEF has a small number of staff in the UK, each covering a large area. Therefore our staff have limited time and resources and we do not have the capacity to attend fundraising events. In addition to this, UNICEF aims to be able to send as much money as possible to fund our projects, so we do not spend money sending staff to fundraising events.
Instead of attending the event, we are able to provide you with a statement to read aloud at the event from UNICEF, thanking everyone for their hard work, and an idea of how the money raised will be used. If you would like one of these statements to you, please email your request to fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk
You may also be interested to hear that UNICEF UK has a YouTube channel, with lots of videos showing different areas of our work. You can show any of these videos at your event, just to go UNICEF UK YouTube
Can I have any videos to show at my event?
UNICEF has its own channel on YouTube. You are welcome to show any of these videos in school. Video is a great way of highlighting and promoting UNICEF’s work. We are unable to sent hard copies of these videos through the post. Just visit UNICEF UK YouTube
How will the money we have raised be used?
UNICEF works for children always and everywhere. We save lives and help the world’s most vulnerable children survive and thrive.
We support children and their families in the most dangerous and remote areas of the world. UNICEF provides medical care, health supplies and education facilities to children supporting them in times of poverty and disease.
UNICEF receives no funding from the UN budget and we rely entirely on donations from people like you to help us continue our work.
The money you raise will help us to carry on with our life changing work. It doesn’t matter how much you raise £10 or £100 every single penny helps us to help children. £300. Click here for more information about our work for hcildren.
How do I find out more about UNICEF?
You can find out more about UNICEF online at our website. Visit our YouTube account and you will be able to see videos of UNICEF’s work.
If you would like more information about fundraising you can visit the fundraising area of our website.
Who should I contact if I need more information about UNICEF?
If you cannot find the information you need on our website or require information via post, please contact our helpdesk. You can email your request to helpdesk@unicef.org.uk or contact them by phone on 0844 801 2414 or post UNICEF UK, Kingfisher House, 2 Woodbrook Close, Billericay, CM12 0EQ.
I am under 18 how can I volunteer?
If you are under 18, you can’t volunteer at UNICEF offices, cheer at events or join a local fundraising group.
However, there are lots of things that you can do:
- Form a fundraising group at your school, college or Youth Group. You could get some friends together and with the help of your parents or teachers hold fundraising events to raise money for UNICEF.
- Do Day for Change. Encourage your school to take part in our big annual schools fundraising event Day for Change. We ask schools to make a change to their day and donate money to make this change; this could be changing what you wear and having a non uniform day, changing what you eat and having a cake sale or swapping places with someone at your school and being a teacher for the day! More information about this event can be found www.dayforchange.org.uk
- Hold a fundraising event. You could hold your own fundraising event – you can anything! From selling cakes to getting sponsored to do a challenge such as a bike ride or sponsored silence.
- Become a Youth Campaigner. Join our youth campaigners and shout about what matters to you.
I am over 18, how can I volunteer for UNICEF?
If you would like to volunteer for UNICEF you can fill in our form. Once we have received the form we will add you to our volunteer database and email you when opportunities arise for you to get involved. These opportunities are usually things like cheering at our running events or filling goody bags for us.
If you would like to volunteer for UNICEF now, the best way to get involved is to fundraise for us.
- Form a fundraising group at your school, college or Youth Group. You could get some friends together and with the help of your parents or teachers hold fundraising events to raise money for UNICEF.
- Do Day for Change. Encourage your school to take part in our big annual schools fundraising event Day for Change. We ask schools to make a change to their day and donate money to make this change; this could be changing what you wear and having a non uniform day, changing what you eat and having a cake sale or swapping places with someone at your school and being a teacher for the day!
- Take part in Jar of Grace. Our Jar of Grace asks churches and their congregations to drop coins in a jar every time they say grace. Once the jar is full, they count up the coins and send the donation to UNICEF.
- Set yourself a challenge. Get a place in one of our running or trekking events. We have place in 10,000m races, marathons and half marathons and our week long trekking events. You can read all about each event online.
How can I get an ambassador to come to my event?
UNICEF ambassadors are high profile people who support our work. As high profile people our ambassadors have huge demands on their time and many commitments. Therefore it is not possible for any ambassador to attend fundraising events.
You are more than welcome to use our UNICEF UK YouTube channel to find videos of our ambassadors in the field and use these at your event.
Is there a good way to collect money for a sponsored event?
If you are doing a sponsored event such as a walk, the best way to get people to donate money is to set up a My Fundraising page. My Fundraising is UNICEF’s online giving page and 100% of the money gets given directly to UNICEF. You can brand the page like you would your Facebook or Twitter page with your own photos and comments. You can then send a link to your page to all your family and friends.
Can I do anything to fundraise?
As long as no element of your event is illegal in any way or a danger to yourself or others, you can do absolutely anything you like to fundraise for UNICEF. People have done some truly weird and wonderful things so the wackier the better! Any idea is a good one, big or small. All your donations help us to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children. If you are under 18 you will also need to check that the event you are holding does not require adult supervision.
How else can schools get involved?
Schools can get involved in any area of UNICEF fundraising. You can hold your own event, or joining our schools fundraising event Day for Change. Day for Change is a great opportunity for children to learn all our UNICEF and our work. Each year is different theme and country. If your pupils would like to get involved themselves, they can hold their own fundraising event by using our Youth Fundraising web pages. Or, if they would like to get involved with campaigning, they can visit our Youth Site, TAGD. As a school you can contact our education team about becoming part of our Rights Respecting Schools Programme. This is a programme that puts the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the heart of a school’s planning, policies, practice and ethos. Read more about it on our website
Can UNICEF promote my event?
UNICEF can offer advice about how to publicise your fundraising event. You can download our template press release so that you can give details about your event to your local media to drum up publicity. In addition to this, if you send us details, we may be able to put your event on our social networking sites to promote your events to our followers. We get lots of requests from fundraisers to do this and I am afraid we cant accommodate them all so we don’t promote any. The website is a space that is reserved for information about UNICEF’s work and the ways that you can get involved with us and we do not promote individual events.
How can I get a letter of authorisation to fundraise for UNICEF?
A letter of authorisation outlines that you or your event is an official UNICEF fundraising event and that we know about it. You may need a letter like this if you plan to do a street collection for example. To get one of these letters you need to send an email to fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk and tell us your name, address and what you are doing to fundraise. Once we have your details we will be able to send out the letters to you.
Can you help me with raffle/auction prizes?
UNICEF UK does not hold any raffle or auction prizes. We have a high demand from fundraisers for this, but it would cost us a lot of money to supply everyone with prizes and therefore we don’t hold any. If you would like to secure raffle or auction prizes you can approach your local business or organisations asking them to donate items.
