10 Fundraising Ideas Your Office Has To Try

These 10 workplace fundraising ideas will boost office morale and help you raise as much money as possible for your charity.

1. Shocking shirt day

Why not see which of your colleagues can come up with the funniest fashion disasters – and make some money for your good cause along the way? Organise a ‘shocking shirt’ competition in your office and get everyone who enters to pay a donation to charity. Remember, the louder the better!

Get together a small team of judges to help choose the winner. The winner could receive a cut of the final amount raised, or a separate prize altogether.

2. Inter-department sports tournament

Do you think your department could wipe the floor with accounts at five-a-side football or crush human resources at netball? An inter-department sports tournament can decide once and for all who rules the office!

It’s also a good way of getting fit and socialising while you raise lots of money. Even if it’s only a ten-pin bowling tournament, you’ll have fun and raise cash for your charity through the entry fees. Buy a trophy to present to the winner and make it a regular event at your company.

3. Set up an ‘office jargon’ jar

Fed up of hearing too much jargon around the office? Why not use it to your charities advantage and set up an ‘office jargon’ jar? It’s the same principle as a swear jar, but instead of taking money when a colleague uses foul language, they have to give a donation when they use a classic office jargon phrase.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started: ‘Touch base’, ‘No-brainer’, ‘Game changer’, ‘Going forward’, Best practice’, ‘On the same page’, ‘Hit the ground running’, ‘Quick win’, ‘Close of play’...

4. Guess the baby competition

Who’d have thought your dragon of a boss was such a cutie when they were a kid? Ask everyone in your office to bring in a baby photo and then pin them all up for everyone to enjoy. Number the photos and charge an entry fee for people to try and put a name to the young face.

The person who gets the most correct answers wins a prize and everyone gets maximum embarrassment – it’s a win, win!  

5. Matched giving

Matched giving is a simple but highly effective fundraising concept. It’s when a company/organisation agrees to match the total donations raised by employees. If your office is raising money for charity, matched giving is something you should definitely inquire about.

If your company agrees to adopt a matched giving policy, you could quickly double the amount of money that you raise for your charity.

6. Donate an hours pay

Imagine how much money you could potentially raise if you encouraged everyone in your workplace to donate one hour of their pay to charity.

See if your HR/Finance department can help you out with setting up this idea to make it even easier for your colleagues to donate. If this idea worked well in your office, you could look at introducing it on a monthly basis to increase your donations.  

7. Car wash

This idea will work best if your workplace has a car park so that you can access the vehicles quickly and clean as many cars as possible. Make sure you advertise the car wash in the weeks leading up to the event, by sending emails to your colleagues and putting up posters around the office.  

If your colleague wants their car washing, they’ll pay a fee and then enjoy a clean car when they leave the office at the end of the day. Encourage some of your colleagues to volunteer some time throughout the day to help out washing the cars. Singing along to the 1976 disco hit ‘Car Wash’ is optional.

8. Sweepstakes

Big sporting event coming up? Set up a sweepstake in your office. Charge everyone a set fee to enter in the sweepstake, pull names out of a hat and wait for the winner to be announced at the end of the event! Then split the collection 50/50 between the winner and the charity.

This is a simple but effective office fundraising idea and can engage employees and boost morale. Some sporting sweepstake ideas include: The World Cup, The Grand National, Wimbledon, The Open, The Olympic Games…

9. Raffle a day’s annual leave

As workplace fundraising ideas go, this is one of the best. Of course, you’ll have to get your boss to agree to this one but you’ll be surprised how generous your colleagues will be with their donations when an extra day off work is involved.

Once you’ve got your boss’s approval, all you need to do is sell raffle tickets for the chance to win the grand prize. The more tickets your colleagues buy, the more chance they have of winning that day off. Sit back and watch the money roll in.

10. Office talent show

Who knows, maybe Julie in finance has the voice of an angel, or Mike in IT is the next best thing to Dynamo himself. Hosting an office talent show is a great way to find out your colleague's hidden gifts and raise money for charity. The competitors could even get a few hours off work to practice, which could be incentive alone to enter!

Gather the rest of the office as the audience and ensure they make a donation on the door to watch. Once the performers have all finished their acts, get the audience to vote for their favourite by putting a donation in a jar labelled with the competitor's name. Then count up the money at the end and whoever’s jar received the most donations is crowned the winner!

Feeling inspired? Why not view our list of Partner Charities and pick a great cause to support.