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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, help and UNICEF materials.

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What can I do to fundraise? I need some ideas.
If you'd like some fundraising ideas to get you started you can visit our fundraising ideas page. You'll also see what other people have done to fundraise to get some inspiration. You can request a fundraising pack by contacting us with your name and address:fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk

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As long as no element of your event is illegal 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. All your donations help us to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children. If you're under 18 you'll need to check that the event you're holding doesn't require adult supervision.

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How do I make my event safe?If you're holding a fundraising event, it's 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. If you're holding a large scale event in a public place you may need to get public liability insurance. If you'd like further legal information about holding fundraising events, please visit our health and safety pages.

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How do I pay my money in?
Once your event has finished, you'll need to collect and count all the money.

You'll then need to fill in a sending in your money form. This means that we can record your donation properly and send you a thank you letter. This letter also lets you know that we've received your money safely.

We accept donations in cash, by cheque or BACS. You can either deposit the money in our bank account or write us a cheque.

If you choose to make a bank transfer, the bank should give you a receipt as proof that you paid in the money. If you post a cheque to us, it's always a good idea to get a receipt from the post office, just in case anything gets lost in the post. Please email fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk for details.

If you have a question about your donation, you can contact our Helpdesk by emailing helpdesk@unicef.org.uk or call 0844 801 2414.

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How will I know that the money has reached you?

It may take a few weeks for us to process your money. When it has been processed, we'll 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.

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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 save a life – it's enough to buy a 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 donor is a UK tax payer
  • Record the donor or sponsor’s home address, postcode, donation amount and make sure they tick the Gift Aid box on your sponsor form or web page.

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How can I fundraise online?
UNICEF has its own fundraising website, My Fundraising. You can set up an account and create a page for your event. You can personalise it by adding your own photos and text. You get your own URL for this page and you can send this to your friends and family. Visit our site to find out more.

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Can I donate my money to a specific country or project?
The best way for UNICEF to receive money is through an unrestricted donation. This is 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 our work including health, education and child protection. Giving us unrestricted funds:

  • means that we can distribute the money to support children who are in greatest need and hardest to reach
  • ensures that we can respond instantly when a disaster strikes
  • makes our work more efficient by reducing admin costs, meaning that your money reaches more children.

If you have a question about your donation, please contact our Helpdesk by email at helpdesk@unicef.org.uk or by calling 0844 801 2414.

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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've contacted us and we've agreed, you can use this logo on your publicity material. If you'd 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.

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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 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.

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How can I order fundraising materials?)
If you're 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 to get banners, posters and sponsorship forms.

Please note that we're unable to supply large volumes of materials. Large items such as collecting buckets or tins cost a lot to buy and post. If you do need a large volume of materials for your event, we ask that you make a donation for the items.

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Can I order 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'd 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.

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Can you send me wristbands and badges, etc. to sell at my fundraising event?
We do not stock wristbands or badges. If you'd like to order other fundraising materials you can fill out our form. It costs money to produce these materials and to post them, so 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 we ask for a donation to cover postage and stock costs.

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Can a UNICEF speaker come to my event?
We get a huge number of requests for our staff or ambassadors to attend events. Although we're always delighted to be invited, as we only have a small number of staff in the UK we don't have the capacity to attend fundraising events. We also aim to send as much money as possible to fund our projects, so we do not spend money sending staff to fundraising events.

However, we can provide you with a statement to read aloud at the event, thanking everyone for their hard work, and giving an idea of how the money raised will be used. If you would like one of these statements, please email your request to fundraisinghelp@unicef.org.uk.

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.

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Can I have videos to show at my event?
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.  

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How will the money we've 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. We provide medical care, health supplies and education facilities to children, supporting them in times of poverty and disease.

We receive 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. Click here for more information about our work for children.

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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.

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 by post at UNICEF UK, Kingfisher House, 2 Woodbrook Close, Billericay, CM12 0EQ.

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I am under 18. How can I volunteer for UNICEF?
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! Read more about this event at www.dayforchange.org.uk.
  • Hold a fundraising event. You can anything, from selling cakes to a sponsored bike ride or sponsored silence.
  • Become a youth campaigner. Join our youth campaigners and shout about what matters to you.

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I am over 18. How can I volunteer for UNICEF?
If you'd like to volunteer for UNICEF, fill in our form. Once we've received the form we'll 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'd like to volunteer for UNICEF now, the best way to get involved is to fundraise for us.

  • 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. Sign up for one of our running or trekking events. We have place in 10K races, marathons and half marathons as well as week-long trekking events.

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How can I get an ambassador to come to my event?
UNICEF ambassadors are high profile people who support our work. As such they have many commitments and it's therefore not possible for any ambassador to attend fundraising events.

However, you're 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. 

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Is there a good way to collect money for a sponsored event?
If you're 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 per cent of the money goes directly to UNICEF. You can personalise the page with your own photos and comments. You can then send a link to your page to all your family and friends.

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How else can schools get involved?
Schools can get involved in any area of UNICEF fundraising. You can hold your own event, or join our schools fundraising event Day for Change. Day for Change is a great opportunity for children to learn all about UNICEF and our work. Each year takes a 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'd 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 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.

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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. The simplest way to do this is to contact us on Twitter @UNICEF_UK to tell us what you're doing and we'll let our followers know. We don't promote individual events via our website.

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How can I get a letter of authorisation to fundraise for UNICEF?
A letter of authorisation confirms that 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, for example, a street collection. 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'll be able to send you a letter.

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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. If you'd like to secure raffle or auction prizes you could try approaching local businesses or organisations asking them to donate items.

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