Be an RHN fundraiser
Holding your own event can be a fun way to spend time with friends, family or colleagues whilst raising important funds to help improve quality of life for our patients and residents. There are lots of different ways to raise money – it doesn’t have to be big or difficult to organise– and, of course, we’re always on hand to help. Here are some ideas to get you started...

Come Dine for the RHN!
Invite your family and friends over for a dinner party, but charge them a small fee for the privilege! Most people won’t object to paying £10-15 for a meal out, so why should dining at your house and eating your beautifully cooked food be any different?! If you charge £12 per head and invite 6 guests you can raise £72 for the RHN!

Make sure you book the event in your friends’ diaries well in advance so that they are all guaranteed to turn up, and encourage them to bring the usual bottle of wine along so that your overheads are reduced. Remember that you can retain the cost of hosting the evening, so see if you can make dinner on a budget!

You don’t have to limit yourself to doing this event once; why not organise three separate evenings of three separate cuisines – one for family, one for old friends, and one for colleagues or friends from a club/society?

Dress Down for the RHN
Simple, yet enjoyable for all: everyone in the office can wear jeans for the day if they donate £1-2. Depending on the size of your organisation this could add up to a sizeable sum of money! If your office is small, however, why not ask your children’s school, or a local one, to host a ‘mufti-day’ in aid of your challenge – it will not only raise money, it will make you very popular too!

A night at the races… In the pub!
It’s easy to organise a race night in aid of charity – just get friends, family and locals to make a night of it in the pub: Charge £1 entry to start, and then encourage everyone to place bets on races from a selection of sealed DVDs (which are easy to get hold of). You can then give a percentage of the takings to the winner and those in 2nd and 3rd place, and allow the losers to enter a losers’ raffle for the end of the night. Simply ask all non-successful gamblers to put their names on the back of their tickets and draw at random a loser-winner when the racing draws to a close.

This can be a really fun event for all, and the planning will be entirely worthwhile when you see your takings and all of your friends having fun. The pub landlord will like you too, for all the business you’ll bring in!

Hold a raffle – it’s a favourite for a reason!
Raffles are a fantastic way of encouraging people to donate to your cause whilst also giving them the chance to get something back. See if you can gather some great prizes (maybe even unwanted Christmas presents!) and ask others to do the same, then make a night of it at your local pub, bar, café or living room! You could charge £1 per ticket or 6 for £5 - start selling tickets in advance and do the draw on a pre-chosen night, which will give you even more time to raise money.

Other possibilities include…

• curry night, pasta night or pizza night
• charity dinner party, ball or disco
• karaoke night
• coffee morning or wine-tasting evening
• charity barbeque or picnic
• themed fancy dress day at work
• concert or show
• talent contest
• quiz, games evening or bingo
• auction
• lottery
• jumble sale or car boot sale
• summer or Christmas fete
• cake sale
• carwash
• football tournament or sports day
• sponsored walk, run or bike ride
• dance competition
• treasure hunt

Let us know about your event and we will be able to support you every step of the way. Contact us on 020 8780 4565 or at events@rhn.org.uk.

How to raise money
Raising money for your challenge or event is easier than you might think, especially with the popularity of online giving…

Create your very own fundraising page with sites such as www.justgiving.com, www.virginmoneygiving.com, www.bmycharity.com and www.everyclick.com in just a few easy steps. Doing this means that your friends and family can donate or sponsor you in just a click! Add as much information to your page as possible, and put up as many photos as you can, to explain to others why you care enough about the RHN to take on your challenge or organise your event.

Of course you can support your online donations with some old fashioned sponsorship forms (which we can provide), and you can leave collection pots or buckets in safe place (like your health club, local pub, office, etc), in the care of someone you trust. Tell as many people as you can about the challenge you are taking on or the event you are organising in order to gain as much support as possible. The more people who know, the greater your total will be!

As ever, if you have any questions at all, our fundraising team will be more than happy to help; just call 020 8780 4565 or email events@rhn.org.uk