Advertisers

Fundraising for travelling and volunteering

Work as a charity fundraiser

Raise funds for deserving charities and earn money for your gap year at the same time

Find out more >>

YOUR MONEY PLANNER - V1.0

Download our FREE gap year financial planner.
Useful charts and planners to help you budget for your trip!

Find out more >>

Fundraising for travelling and volunteering

Fundraiser of the month: Ruth Roadnight

Name: Ruth Roadnight
Age: 17 - almost 18!
Currently: studying hard finishing off 6th year, working at a care home and fundraising for my gap year!
Amount raised: £1350

Hi there Ruth and congrats on being crowned the gapyear.com Fundraiser of the month for February! How does it feel?! Any Gwyneth Paltrow-like 'thank you' speeches you'd like to deliver?

Sure! Thank you, thank you... I'm just so grateful for this previledge and of course I want world peace!Seriously though, my success with my more recent fundraiser wouldn't have been possible without my friends, their prayer support and God.

So you've been crowned Fundraiser of the month after your stonker of an event which raised you £1350 - what did you get up to and what is it all for?

I plan to join a Christian organisation called Operation Mobilisation for a year. The charity has two ships which they send out to evangelise, train, give aid and sell literature to the nations. I will be working voluntarily on board the Doulos ship for 12 months with an international crew of 350 from over 50 countries. When I am on board the ship will be in South East Asia. I have to raise a whopping £6,000 to fund the trip!

Coming from Scotland, I love a good old ceilidh and I thought it would be a fun idea to organise a ceilidh in order to raise funds for my year out. I charged £10 for tickets, managed to find a local ceilidh band and asked people to donate food. Asking people to bring food unfortunately caused a bit of stress and we had a lot of left overs. However, it was a good plan that meant I only had to pay for a bit of food. The church let me use our hall free as well. We had lots of dancing, some food and more dancing. I had lots of willing volunteers who also helped. I raised £600 before the ceilidh, so now have £1,950 which is almost 1/3rd of the way to my target.

Excuse our ignorance, but what on earth is a ceildh?

Oh dear, better educate the world! A ceilidh is a traditional Scottish dance with lots of dancing and normally stovies to eat. If you're wondering, stovies is lamb with potatoes and gravy. I replaced stovies with a finger buffet at my fundraiser to allow people to donate food.

People dancing

Dances at a ceilidh might include the 'dashing white sargeant', 'strip the willow' and the 'Boston two-step'. Its quite important - especially if only a few people know the dances - to have a caller who walks through the dances with everyone. I managed to get a lady from my Mum's church to call for me for free.

Ceilidhs can also be arranged around a tape or CD, but a live band is always more impressive. Well known bands such as HallyRacket will put you back £500 for the night, so if you're lucky enough to have a local Strathspey and Reel society, please make use of them. They usually ask for a donation to their cause. When they heard what my cause was they refused to accept my donation, which was great of them.

Right now we are a little bit wiser, tell us what gave you the idea to organise a ceildh...

Well quite frankly i just love a good ceilidh, I've been to a few - mainly at weddings - and they are always fu. They get everyone involved and are also great excercise. Even the American contingent that came to mine got the hang of the dances and had fun. Ceilidhs are also great because it doesn't really matter if you don't know what your doing - it's all about having fun! I also thought that more people would be willing to donate and get involved with a bigger fundraising idea.

How much planning did it involved?

Hmm planning...my parents really got on my case because I didn't adequately plan. If you are thinking of doing a ceilidh, make sure you know where its going to be, how many people you have coming, go and meet the band and caller, make up a list of songs to play (thankfully my caller did that), advertise it and decide how much food you'll need.

I managed to pull off the food donation but I didn't know who was bringing and what they were bringing which was a bit of a mistake. It is rather important to find out who plans to bring what so you don't end up with 300 sausage rolls and nothing else!

Find out how and when you can get into the hall and double check how much you are expected to pay for a hall, a band and food, otherwise these costs and can really creep up! Expenses included food (although these were kept low because of donations), the hall was provided for free and the band played for free too - so I was very lucky. I also got a lot of people who couldn't make it or considered themselves too old to dance that gave me a donation, some of which were quite significant.

What kind of promo did you do for the ceilidh - did you manage to get your local press involved?

Unfortunately I did not involve the local press, but if I was to repeat this event again I definately would involve as much local media as possible. I put posters around my church and school and my mum's church, all of which also prompted donations. I also went quickly around my local neighbourhood to sell tickets. The ceilidh could have been a lot bigger if i'd promoted it on a bigger scale.

How did the night itself go - were people supportive when they found out you were raising money for a gap year?

Most of the people that came either knew me or had been told by someone selling tickets what it was all about. Others just came because they knew it was a ceildh! They were all supportive and I recieved three donations for £100! By sponsoring me they are also sponsoring the charity I am going with so I guess they saw it as an excuse to donate. Some of the donators from church also saw it as they are "sending me out" as I am going with a Chrisitan organisation.

On the night I was petrified. My mum had been anything but supportive for weeks before and had told me I should cancel it! I did a fair bit of praying before the event and just asked that it would all fall in to place. On the night everything was set up and I had a volunteer to help me with last minute preparation.

Then people started to arrive and everyone started chatting amoung themselves. Luckily, I had two ladies who claimed they wouldn't dance and therefore kept near the kitchen and rescued sausage rolls while I joined in the dancing with my guests. I had an awesome time dancing with everyone and i really enjoyed it.

I was fairly worried about the reaction of those that had come, but everyone said they really enjoyed it and were really happy to hear about the amount raised. Overall it was an awesome night! Everyone was a great help and I don't think I would have been able to do it without the support I had!

What were the best and worst bits about the event?

The best bit was the fact that I got to dance the whole time, which was great fun. The worst bit was that I had said I would stand up and tell everyone why they were here and what I'd be doing with the money there were helping me to raise. When it came to my talk, I forgot everything and waffled a bit. So if you plan a talk to explain why you are fundraising, it's advisable to have a card of bullet points to hands!

So you've been there and done that now, what pearls of wisdom do you have for anyone else planning a fundraising event for their gap year?

- Do something you know you will enjoy. If you hate dancing with a passion, don't plan a ceilidh. If you know nothing about footie, don't plan a tournament.
- Don't worry if the first thing doesn't work well, keep trying, you will get there in the end. There are so many things you can do, so don't give up! You will learn from your mistakes, so if it all goes
pear-shaped first time, pick yourself up and move on. Learning these types of skills should be part of your gap year experience. Don't see them as a chore, but as an opportunity.
- Plan. It always helps and makes everything make sense. In my case, it also stops your parents making a fuss!
- Find volunteers. I found heaps of willing volunteers, who helped to set up, clear away, cook, provide food and the like. They also helped me to sell the tickets, as there is only so many you can sell alone. There are plenty of jobs to do and if you can find some willing accomplices, its always good.
- Maximise the effect you will have by promoting your event as much as possible. My event lacked proper promotion and it's gutting to know that I could have raised more by putting in a bit more effort by doing things like contacting local papers.

Thanks for that Ruth and congrats on this stonker of a fundraiser! Now go forth and fundraise some more and have a great gap year!

Thanks guys, I'll let you know how I get on in my fundraising diary!

Further info

Click here >> to book a band for your ceilidh
Click here >> for more fundraising diaries
Click here >> for more fundraising ideas
Click here >> for more on Operation Mobilisation

Relevant adverts