SPECIAL EVENT IDEA BANK

AT HOME OR IN THE OFFICE, Fundraising can be easy and inclusive! Here’s the most popular and successful ideas.

FIRST NEED A THEME?

This is completely optional, but many find that it adds excitement and helps your campaign stand out. Other ideas: Here's some popular ones: ▶ Shoot for the stars ▶ Mardi Gras ▶ Give UNITED ▶ Olympics ▶ Choose a focus area: Education, Health, Basic Needs or Financial Stability ▶ Carnival ▶ Sweet Encouragement: candy or baked goods ▶ 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s or 90’s ▶ Made in WA: think WSU Cougar Gold cheese, locally made ▶ The great outdoors wine/beer/spirits, honey, Starbucks or all local coffee joints, ▶Music Mania Country Mercantile, Chukar Cherries, the list goes on! ▶ Chocolate heaven ▶ Health & wellness ▶ Space Odyssey ▶ Be a local superhero! ▶ Be a lifesaver ▶ Teaming up for the community ▶ Get in the Game ▶ Local love/local pride ▶ Las Vegas ▶ Sports: get creative with a virtual tailgate party! ▶ A popular TV show ▶ 'Chip' in for the community: everyone loves snacks! ▶ A classic movie ▶ Holiday theme: Halloween, Christmas, Christmas in ▶ Back to school September, a company anniversary, etc. ▶ Tea Party/Mad Hatter ▶ Your favorite children’s book; focus on education ▶ Make a ‘world’ of difference ▶ Have leftover luau or birthday decor? Let your resources decide your theme! ▶ Hollywood ▶ Won’t you be my neighbor

1 United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties | 509.783.4102 | UWBFCO.ORG VIRTUAL EVENTS

These events work well to establish or maintain a team building aspect with employees working remotely.

Donate to Vote! Your donation gets you one vote for the leadership staff member you want to see do something fun, like jump in the river, a pie in the face, or anything that can be filmed or CAN YOU SHOP photographed for the next staff email. SMALL & LOCAL? Local products and services may bring a higher value, as people Online Auction want to help them recover from Ask leadership, your campaign team, and/or recent closures. That’s a win-win! local businesses for baskets or special items to auction. You can use your own software, or ask New Movie Screening your United Way Partner to provide you with an online auction portal. Check out a free resource like Netflixparty.com, that allows you to watch a movie from your own spaces Raffle for Prizes but still watch, comment, and even Want to skip the auction, but have a few big rewind together. Maybe the largest ticket items? This can be done with paper donor, or winner of another contest gets tickets in a virtual meeting, or with a free to pick the movie/show! online raffle tool.

Online Bingo, Trivia, Spelling Bee, Virtual Walk/Run/Bikeathon Pictionary, etc. Virtual Happy Hour Concert/Comedy Check out the free online versions of your Show/ Open Mic Night favorite games. Team members can donate to join, or play during a scheduled meeting. Virtual Painting/Sewing Class with a Pro Give the Boss a Rival Background Online Talent Contest If the goal is met, the boss has to use their rival sports team logo as their background in Virtual Halloween Costume Contest/ the next virtual meeting! Best Pet Costume

Teach a Skill Live, Online! Who Can Mimic the Boss Best in the Ask your coworkers to teach your team a skill! Next Staff Meeting? Employees can donate a “ticket” to learn gardening tips & tricks, making homemade TED Talk-style Event pasta, wine making 101, home-brewing, sewing or knitting, etc. Bike/Run x Miles for x Dollars Raised

2 United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties | 509.783.4102 | UWBFCO.ORG Bagging It EVENT IDEAS Designate a “Brown Bag Day”. Encourage staff to bring their lunch and listen to an Airplane Toss invited speaker from a United Way funded program or imitative. After the lunch, post Throw paper airplanes through a hula-hoop, a brief summary of the presentation on charge per throw. You may have to show your website, in a print and/or email them how to fold the airplanes, but lessons newsletter. will cost. This is a great event for an engineering department! Coffee or Bakery Cart/Happy Hour Barbecue Bring a coffee and snack cart throughout Make your barbecue successful by the office one day. Advertise it in advance. advertising the items that will be served and Solicit donations of coffee and snacks from sell tickets well in advance. Encourage suppliers or ask the boss or co-workers to management to cook or support a local contribute baked goods. If you do restaurant and have it delivered! purchase items, make sure to sell them at a profit. Suggestions: popcorn, iced tea, ice cream bars, locally made pastries or cold Auction brew coffee with the fixings! Ask employees to donate an item to be auctioned off. Items can include old items from home, a service (e.g., car wash) or handmade item (e.g., baked goods or crafts). Advertise your auction well in advance and combine it with a potluck lunch.

Candy Grams Quick, easy and fun! Sell candy grams to employees for a small fee and deliver them on the last day of your campaign. Try to pick a treat that ties into your campaign, or choose “levels” of candy/cookie options.

Picture Contest Post employees’ baby pictures and sponsor a contest to guess who’s who. Or, post pet pictures and try to match the owner! Have employees purchase chances to guess.

Casual Day Simple & fun! Charge employees $1 -$10 to dress casually on the designated day. They can wear a badge that says “I’m supporting United Way”. Suggestions: Jeans day, pajama day, jersey day.

3 United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties | 509.783.4102 | UWBFCO.ORG Bake Sale Pie Toss Ask employees to bring in baked goods for the event. Package in individual serving sizes Recruit management to help you with this for a mid-day snack, or whole pies and cakes carnival classic. Give employees the to be purchased for a family holiday. opportunity to toss whipped cream pies or Advertise well in advance with posters, flyers damp sponges at willing volunteers for a and e-mails. Don’t forget to recruit volunteers dollar or two. Make sure that targets wear to help with set-up, serving and clean up. garbage bags to protect their clothes.

Cookie Exchange Games (Carnival Style) Similar to a bake sale, ask employees to bring Set up old-fashioned carnival games such as in their favorite cookies. Place all cookies on a ring toss, fish pond and balloon dart-throw. tables and let employees make their own You can purchase inexpensive prizes through combination box. Charge by the container, Oriental Trading. Award prizes to the winners cookie, or pound. of the “games of skill”.

Radio-controlled Car Race Penny Wars Set up a pre-determined course/race map. This event can last the duration of your Use timers to see who can run the course in campaign or year round. Have departments the shortest time. compete to collect the most pennies. For an interesting twist, you can make it so that Pumpkin Carving Contest other types of coins are worth negative points. For example, a nickel would cancel Put together a team of carvers or individuals. out five pennies. This allows people to Set different categories for judging (most “sabotage” other teams while raising more creative, scariest, funniest, etc.). Charge money for United Way. teams/individuals to enter or charge people to vote for their favorite. Midnight Breakfast Chili Lunch or Cook-off If your organization has a third shift, charge employees for a midnight breakfast served Invite your self-proclaimed chili masters to by executives and other day employees. This bring in a batch of their best chili for can also be done with a second shift crew. co-workers to judge based on taste, texture and fire value. To help the luncheon run Farmer’s Market smoothly, sell tickets in advance. Provide rolls and salad. Charge an entrance and tasting Ask employees to bring in extra items from fee. Who will be this year’s Top Chili Chef? their gardens. Allow employees to purchase fresh home-grown produce. Decorating Contest Something-a-Thon Host a decorating contest and charge participants to enter or charge employees to Walk-a-thons, Dance-a-thons, Skip-a-thons vote on a winner. Items to be decorated and other “Marathons” are popular events. could include an office, a piggy bank, a toy Have participants collect pledges for your car, a t-shirt or anything else you can think of! event based on the number of hours danced or miles walked. “Root” for the Community Volunteer Event Sell root beer and ice cream to employees during break or lunch. Set up tables with Organize a group of employees to volunteer information about United Way initatives and for United Way of Benton & Franklin partner providers for an educational piece. Counties, or another local nonprofit through Volunteertricities.org Potluck Lunch International Food Day Ask each staff member to contribute a dish Employees can team together to create tasty for a potluck luncheon. Make a sign up form treats from around the world. Employees ahead of time to ensure a mix of purchase tickets redeemable for food at the salads/starters, main courses, drinks and booths. desserts. Give it a multicultural twist by requesting dishes from all over the world. 50/50 Raffle Charge a small fee to eat. Conduct a cash raffle with 50% of funds raised to winner and 50% to United Way. Scavenger Hunt Hold an office scavenger hunt. Split into Back to High School teams (perhaps by department) and have Employees bring high school pictures of employees search for a few items themselves. Hold a contest to guess the year during the lunch hour. Award a prize to the of the photo and who it is. winners. You can also hold scavenger hunt electronically with questions about United Community Baby Shower Way and the programs we fund Take up a collection for a local shelter, agency, or United Way funded partner. Crazy Olympics Employees compete in crazy “athletic” events for silly prizes. Participants donate to enter. Observers wager bets on their favorite entrants. Examples of events: three-legged race, tricycle race, push an egg (not hard-boiled!) across the finish line with your chin. Mini-golf using beach balls, pool cues, etc. Use your imagination!

Sausage Race Hold a Klement’s Sausage race! Have designated employees wear the costumes and race around parking lot. Employees can bet on winners. Make it extra fun by requiring specific sausages to start behind or ahead of the pack (those under 30 step back three paces, person signing all paychecks step up four paces, etc).

Survivor Create tribes (teams) to compete throughout your campaign for prizes. Hold luxury challenges each day where groups compete mentally or physically for a treat such as soda, candy or raffle tickets. Some suggestions for luxury challenges include the following: United Way quiz, office mini-putt game, trivia game or a scavenger hunt. MORE EVENT IDEAS

Dress-up the Boss – Boss wears a costume voted on by all employees if the campaign goal is reached. Examples: tutu, animal costume, devil costume, etc.

Give It Up - Ask your employees to give up purchasing their daily coffee, soda or snack for a day or week. They can donate the money they would have spent to United Way.

Minute to Win It games - have employees pay to play and the winner or best time wins a prize.

Plant Sale – Ask employees to dig up extra perennials to sell to fellow employees.

Quarter shot glass contest – Fill a large jug with water and put a shot glass at the bottom. Invite co-workers to drop quarters through a slot cut out in the lid. Provide prizes to those who drop their quarters in the shot glass.

Recycled Goods – Turn in recycled paper, cans, bottles, etc. and exchange them for money for the United Way. WHEN CHOOSING EVENTS CONSIDER YOUR EMPLOYEES’ INTERESTS, RECENT AND UPCOMING Team Tees – Design a T-shirt with your company logo joined with the United Way WORK EVENTS, AND THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENT. logo to give to contributing employees who “team up” in the United Way effort. If you Does your team want to go on have competitions between department use socially-distanced outdoor trips? different colors. Do they want to support only local Tourney Time – Hold a broomball, softball, shops and eateries? tee-ball, tennis, kickball or ping-pong tournament. If they’ve been working from home, do Unlock a chest of treasures – Encourage they need a stay-cation at a local hotel co-workers to buy a key for a certain amount. or resort? One key will open a treasure chest of prizes. Your campaign will be most successful Walking Tacos - Sell individual bags of corn when the events, incentives, and chips with divided plastic or foam containers donation goal match your workplace with taco meat, cheese, sour cream, and coworkers best! tomatoes, lettuce, taco sauce etc. Price accordingly. 6 DON’T FORGET THE FUN INCENTIVES!

▶ Traveling trophy for department with highest participation or volunteers ▶ Pass out raffle tickets that can be accumulated and redeemed for gifts ▶ Do the job of the “front line” employees ▶ Have the CEO or senior executives write a personal note of thanks ▶ Match an employee’s donation ▶ Have free refreshments in the cafeteria ▶ Offer free popcorn every Friday ▶ Managers take employees to lunch ▶ Department pizza day ▶ Award a “dinner for two” ▶ Tickets to a sporting event ▶ CEO for the day ▶ Gift certificates ▶ Prime parking places ▶ Movie, concert or lottery tickets ▶ Day or half day off with pay ▶ Gas card ▶ Executives serve lunch to employees ▶ Massage at local spa ▶ Birthday off ▶ Cookie jar filled with cookies weekly ▶ Time off to go to child’s school event ▶ 2 hour lunch break ▶ Company promo items ▶ Office redecorated or cleaned ▶ Two hours paid per month to volunteer locally ▶ Company picnic ▶ Feeling Well Day off with pay ▶ Have an executive volunteer to shave their head or facial hair if the company ▶ Sleep in late day meets its United Way goal ▶ Volunteer to do someone else’s undesirable tasks ▶ Name a rotating award after an outstanding employee If thinking of prizes and awards for ▶ Create a unique, catchy award that is contest winners is difficult or an honor to receive expensive, consider these ideas for ▶ Create a Wall of Fame to display low or no cost incentives to award winners of campaign-related pictures of loyal contributors contests or to recognize ▶ Flee by 3 - leave at 3 p.m. on outstanding efforts. designated days 7 United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties | 509.783.4102 | UWBFCO.ORG