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Community fundraising at Christmas: a starter guide for small teams

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:56:01 +0100

This one’s for the small teams: the volunteer-run club, a small village hall team, the community group with a cause it cares about and not much spare time. If you’ve never fundraised at Christmas before, running on a modest budget, with no marketing team and no six-figure ambitions, this is your starting point.

Half the public say they always or usually give to charity at Christmas, against a third the rest of the year (CAF)
UK donations are expected to hit around £2.8 billion across November and December
On Crowdfunder, December alone typically brings in 9 to 10% of the year’s giving, and November and December together make up close to a fifth, well above what you’d expect from an even monthly split
Over £10 million in match funding is available right now for causes that know how to ask

You’re in good company too. In 2025 alone, Christmas campaigns run over the festive season raised £12 million on Crowdfunder.

If you want the fuller picture, including a padded FAQ, a proper fundraising calendar and the data on exactly when donations peak, start with Festive fundraising 101 (link live once published) instead. This guide sticks to the practical basics: what to do, in what order, with real examples from teams no bigger than yours.

Why December works in your favour

Several things line up at once in December that don’t happen the rest of the year:

People are already in a giving mindset, from Christmas jumper days to office collections and secret Santa swaps.
Natural deadlines create urgency without you having to invent one, from Giving Tuesday to the new year.
Community spirit runs high, so people are more willing to share your campaign with friends and family than they might be in a quiet month like February.
The biggest charities in the country are running their own Christmas appeals right now, which keeps the whole idea of giving front of mind for everyone, including your supporters.

One thing that surprises most first-timers: the giving window is earlier than you’d expect. A large share of December donations to Christmas campaigns land by 17 December, and giving tends to fall away in the final week before Christmas itself, a pattern also borne out by UK-wide sector data showing the second week of December, not the days right before Christmas, as consistently the strongest for online giving (Enthuse). So plan around Giving Tuesday (1 December 2026) and the first half of December, launch in November, and push hardest in those first two to three weeks rather than holding out for a last-minute Christmas Eve rush.

The three levers, and which one to pull

Most first-time fundraisers only know about one route in. There are actually three, and the strongest Christmas campaigns tend to use more than one at once.

A crowdfunding page. The classic route: tell your story, set a target, and ask your community to back you directly. Best if you have a clear project or need in mind, such as new kit for your sports club, warm coats for a food bank, or a general Christmas appeal for your cause. Roe Green and Beesley Green Community Association did exactly this, raising £12,302 towards its Christmas and festival lights, match funded by Salford City Council, a good example of a local authority backing a small volunteer committee’s own Christmas tradition rather than a big national partner fund. Start a crowdfunding page whenever you’re ready.

A prize draw. A brilliant option if you have (or can source) a prize people genuinely want. Entrants donate for a chance to win, which tends to widen your audience well beyond the people who’d usually give to you. Prize draws have become one of the most popular festive routes on Crowdfunder, and they scale from a village hall to a national appeal. Sheriff Hutton Bridge Cricket Club raised £2,166 from a simple “12 days of Xmas” draw, right at the modest end most causes reading this should expect. At the other end, the Hope Blamire Christmas charity draw in the South West has raised over £130,000 in three of its last four years, and still cleared £116,000 in its quietest one. Prize draws also have their own legal rules to follow, so see how to run a prize draw for the setup and the compliance basics before you launch.

Match funding. If you’re a registered charity, CIC, school, sports club or community group, you may be eligible to have donations matched, sometimes pound for pound, by one of Crowdfunder’s funding partners. This is the single biggest difference-maker for a small campaign: on Crowdfunder, since 2021 the median match-funded Christmas campaign has raised £5,736, against a median of just £615 for those without any match funding, and match-funded festive campaigns are roughly twice as likely to hit their target. Barn Croft School in London is proof this works for schools and PTAs too, raising £52,402 with match funding support from the M&S Energy Fund. Sport England, for example, has also turned an initial £6 million pot into £18.9 million raised for grassroots clubs by matching what communities raised themselves (read the full story). Check what match funding is available before you launch, since some funds want you to apply early or before you go live. Already got a local business or supporter willing to back you? You don’t have to wait on one of our partner funds either. You can add your own match fund direct to your page, so a supporter’s pledge doubles every donation from the moment you launch, exactly what happened for Bridport Round Table below.

Many of the most successful Christmas campaigns combine all three: a crowdfunding page as the foundation, a prize draw to bring in new supporters, and match funding to double (or more) the impact of every pound raised.

What could a team like yours raise?

Real examples are useful, but a team of two and an established committee with a few years behind them aren’t chasing the same numbers, and it’s easy to read a big headline figure and assume it doesn’t apply to you. The tool below is meant to benchmark against teams your actual size, then ask how much time you’ve got and whether you’ve already got any funds set aside, and tell you which lever to look at next, with a real example of a team like yours who used it.

If a prize draw and partner match funding both look tempting, worth flagging now rather than after you’ve committed to one: they can’t run on the same project on Crowdfunder, since match funds are only available to standard crowdfunding pages. Run them as two separate campaigns if you want both.

A simple six-week countdown

You don’t need months of planning to make Christmas work for you. A rough shape that suits most first-timers, front-loaded towards the part of December when giving actually peaks:

Weeks one and two, mid to late November: decide your ask, set a realistic target, and check whether you’re eligible for match funding (including whether you could add your own) before you commit to anything public.
Week three, the last week of November: write your story, gather photos, and set up your crowdfunding page or prize draw.
Week four, early December, including Giving Tuesday (1 December 2026): launch, and tell people directly. Don’t just post once and wait for it to travel on its own.
Week five, the second week of December: keep the momentum going with updates, thank-yous and reminders. This is genuinely worth prioritising: it’s reliably the strongest single week for online giving all month, so put your best asks here rather than saving them up.
Week six, the run-up to Christmas Eve: keep things ticking over and thank every supporter as they come in, but don’t count on a big last-minute rush to save a slow campaign. By this point most of the year’s festive giving has already happened.

Whatever your timeline, aim to be live and actively promoting across the first half of December, since that’s when festive giving peaks. If you’re starting later than six weeks out, don’t panic: a well-run two or three-week prize draw can still do brilliantly over Christmas.

Common first-timer mistakes

Starting too close to Christmas. Give yourself at least four weeks; six is better, and remember most festive giving lands in the first half of December, so late starters miss the peak.
Not asking directly. A page rarely finds its own audience. Message people, don’t just share and hope.
Skipping the story. People fund people and causes, not spreadsheets. Say why this matters, plainly and honestly.
Setting a target nobody believes in. Too high feels unreachable, too low undersells your cause. Base it on what you actually need.
Forgetting to say thank you. Every donor should hear back from you, even a short message, and it’s the single biggest driver of repeat support.
Leaving match funding to the last minute. Some funding partners need you to apply before launch, so check eligibility (and whether you could add your own match fund) in week one, not week five.

Success story: a school PTA that made Christmas a tradition

Uplands Community Primary School PTA in Stroud ran a “12 Days of Christmas” prize draw, raising £910 from 58 supporters with 20 prizes donated by local businesses and one entry for every £2 pledged, and it’s become a recurring festive fixture for the school. It’s a good example of how a simple, well-sourced prize draw idea, run over a fixed festive window with a bit of local goodwill, can turn into a fun, shareable campaign that a whole school community gets behind, no big budget or big-name prizes required.

Success story: a modest, repeatable win

Not every campaign needs to raise six figures to matter. Bridport Round Table’s Christmas Joy Campaign raised £8,178 in 2024, match funded by Crowdfunder UK and local brewery Palmers, to provide Christmas hampers to people facing the cost-of-living crisis in Bridport and Beaminster. Palmers’ contribution is a good real-world example of adding your own match fund: a local business already on side, formalised as a live match on the page itself rather than an application to a national partner fund. It’s run entirely by volunteers, aims for a realistic target, and has returned every Christmas since 2020. That’s exactly the kind of first campaign most causes reading this guide should aim for: modest, honest, and easy to run again next Christmas.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be a registered charity to fundraise at Christmas on Crowdfunder? No. Schools, sports clubs, CICs, community groups and individuals can all set up a page. Match funding eligibility varies by fund, so check the funds page for what applies to you.

Can I run a prize draw and a crowdfunding page at the same time? Yes, and many causes do. A prize draw is a great way to bring in new supporters who then go on to back your main campaign directly.

Do I need a big budget or professional photos to make this work? No. Honest, simple photos and a clear, plainly told story consistently outperform slick production on a community campaign. Both of the case studies above were run by volunteers on a shoestring.

For the full FAQ, including fees, timings and how early to apply for match funding, see Festive fundraising 101 (link live once published).

Where to go next

New to Christmas fundraising? Start with Festive fundraising 101 (link live once published) for the full calendar, FAQs and timing data.
Running a small charity or CIC? Christmas fundraising ideas for charities, CICs and nonprofits (link live once published)
Christmas fundraising ideas for sports clubs (link live once published)
Christmas fundraising ideas for schools and PTAs (link live once published)
Christmas fundraising ideas for faith groups and churches (link live once published)
Christmas fundraising ideas for arts organisations (link live once published)
Christmas fundraising ideas for food banks and warm spaces (link live once published)

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

Christmas fundraising ideas for charities, CICs and nonprofits

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:29:30 +0100

Running a CIC, a small nonprofit, or a community enterprise is a hands-on job, often with just a handful of staff, or none at all, yet you’re competing for the same Christmas donations as national charities with a comms team, a legacy donor list and a six-figure target. Most advice out there is built for them, not you.

This guide is built differently: distinct ways to actually raise money this Christmas, several of them leaning on something you already trade or offer rather than starting a fundraising ask from nothing. For the basics of fundraising at Christmas, including how crowdfunding pages, prize draws and match funding work, start with Festive fundraising 101 (link live once published) first. If you’re new to Crowdfunder as a CIC specifically, read our blog on how CICs can use Crowdfunder.

Why Christmas works differently for a CIC

A registered charity mostly has one lever: asking people to donate. A CIC or community enterprise usually has two, since many of you already sell something, whether that’s produce, workshops, memberships or a shop. Christmas is a natural moment to lean on both at once.

Alongside a straightforward crowdfunding page, think about what you already trade that could become a Christmas offer: gift vouchers for your services, a festive version of what you sell, or a “buy one, gift one” scheme where a customer’s purchase also funds a place or product for someone who couldn’t otherwise afford it.

If you’re already selling something, rewards should usually be your main lever rather than an afterthought, offer what you make or do as reward tiers on your page rather than defaulting to a plain donation ask, the way Cook for Good did with a straight cookbook pre-sale.

Save a prize draw for when you’ve got one or two genuinely standout items, it works best with a small number of brilliant prizes rather than a long list of small ones, as Well Grounded Jobs CIC did with a single coffee machine.

Real examples: CICs and small organisations using rewards

Salads for Good (Cook for Good)

Cook for Good is a food-focused social enterprise in Islington running a surplus food pantry, a wellbeing cafe and free cooking classes to tackle food insecurity on a social housing estate. Their entire reward structure was built around pre-selling their second cookbook, “Salads for Good,” 52 recipes and stories from the community, including donated recipes from Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Claudia Winkleman. Every pledge is essentially a pre-order, and every profit from the book funds a training programme to help 80 local people move into paid work. It’s a clean example of turning something you’re already making into the reward itself, rather than inventing a separate perk, and it’s match funded by the BA Communities Fund on top.

The Woodshop of Recycled Delights CIC

A London CIC teaching carpentry skills and rescuing waste timber for community garden projects, raised £25,933, match funded by Aviva Community and the Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund. Their page has a section titled “Delicious Rewards,” offering handmade items made from the reclaimed wood they work with back to supporters who pledge. I couldn’t pull the exact tiers and prices from the page text (they sit in a separate rewards widget rather than the main description), but the model itself is worth noting: the reward is literally the thing the CIC already makes, at effectively no extra production cost.

Save Northamptonshire Cheese

A business example: a private cheesemaking business, Hamm Tun Fine Foods, offers another useful rewards model. Raised during a COVID-era survival campaign, with a clear, simple reward ladder: £20 for a branded tote bag, £30 for a Northamptonshire cheese box, £50 and above for a t-shirt. Worth including anyway because it’s a genuinely clean, easy-to-copy tiered structure; low, mid, and top reward, each priced to feel proportionate to what you get.

Real examples: CICs and small organisations using a prize draw

The Patchwork House Women’s Centre CIC

A small women’s centre in Torquay running prize draws repeatedly as an ongoing income stream, not a one-off. At least nine separate draws between 2022 and 2025, ranging from £2,788 to £13,726 each, an Advent calendar and Dyson bundle draw, a December draw, a “Hello Spring” draw, a store-launch draw, a birthday draw, and a Christmas draw. Genuinely the clearest real-world proof that a small CIC can build a repeatable model around prize draws rather than treating it as a once-a-year event.

Well Grounded Jobs CIC

Raised £12,281 offering a customised La Marzocco Linea Mini coffee machine as the prize, in support of their mission to help end unemployment in the UK. Worth noting because the prize ties directly to what the CIC actually does, they run barista training, so the reward reinforces the cause rather than being generic.

Wyld Service CIC

Raised £12,460 with a “Right to Roam” prize draw, twelve nature-inspired prize bundles, to fund campaigning for expanded access to nature in England. A good example of a values-led, campaigning CIC using a prize draw rather than a straight donation ask.

Ideas that suit a small team

Most CICs and small nonprofits don’t have spare volunteers for an elaborate event. These ideas are built for that reality:

Turn existing stock into gifts. If you already sell something, from produce to handmade goods to workshop places, package it as a Christmas gift option rather than creating something new from scratch.
A simple crowdfunding page with a clear, single ask. One honest target beats several vague ones. Say exactly what the money covers, whether that’s rent, a piece of equipment or a specific project.
A membership or subscription as a gift. If you offer any kind of ongoing membership, make it giftable for Christmas, since it brings in supporters who commit for months, not just December.
A small, low-admin prize draw. One good prize from a local business supporter, run for two or three weeks, needs far less organising than a full event and still brings in new people. See our prize draws page for the basics.

Layering match funding on top

CICs and small nonprofits are genuinely well catered for by Crowdfunder’s funding partners, including Aviva Community, and regional funds such as Cornwall Council’s Climate and Nature Fund. Check what match funding is available before you launch, since a modest campaign with the right match can end up raising several times your original target.

What Crowdfunder’s own data says

Friday is the best day to launch. Christmas campaigns launched on a Friday hit target 48% of the time, against 35% for a Thursday launch, worth bearing in mind if you can pick your own date rather than defaulting to whenever your board or steering group next meets.
Giving Tuesday is worth a dedicated push. This year it falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026, and brings around 28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical Tuesday. Read more about Giving Tuesday.
Message people directly. Over half of Christmas pledges come through direct or private shares, WhatsApp, email, texts, rather than a public post. A message to your customer list or membership base will likely outperform a single social post.

Case study: turning trading income into a permanent home

Second Hand Sundays CIC in Torpoint raised £5,171, match funded by Cornwall Council’s Climate and Nature Fund, to secure a permanent shop selling second-hand clothes sustainably, with proceeds supporting local causes. It’s a strong example of exactly the trading-plus-donations model available to a CIC that a straightforward charity appeal doesn’t have.

Case study: a small team that kept coming back

Spiral Freerun CIC in Bedford raised £30,736 towards its own parkour gym, match funded by Power to Change and Sport England, and has returned to Crowdfunder more than once since to keep the community space open through difficult periods. It shows that a small team can build a genuine, repeatable relationship with its supporters over several campaigns, not just one big push.

Frequently asked questions

Can a CIC apply for match funding in the same way as a registered charity? Yes. Eligibility depends on the individual fund rather than your legal structure, so check the funds page for what’s currently open to CICs and social enterprises.

We don’t have any spare volunteers this December. Is Christmas fundraising still worth it? Yes, if you keep it simple. A single crowdfunding page with a clear ask, or a small prize draw with one good prize, needs very little ongoing admin once it’s live, just a small amount of time each week to promote it. Get prepped now, check your page is polished in early November and then go live. Refer to our Festive 101 page for more key dates.

Should we ask for donations or offer rewards instead? Both! A trading offer (gift vouchers, festive stock, a giftable membership) reaches customers who wouldn’t otherwise give, while a donation ask, especially alongside a prize draw or rewards, reaches supporters who believe in your mission directly and helps you cut through the noise of Christmas giving. Backers don’t have to choose a reward; they can also decide to simply donate as they would on any other project without rewards.

Is there a minimum size to be taken seriously by match funders? No. Several of the examples above raised well under £10,000 and still secured match funding, so it’s always worth checking eligibility rather than assuming you’re too small.

Where to go next

Back to basics: Festive fundraising 101
Running a food bank or warm space? Christmas fundraising ideas for food banks and warm spaces
Start a crowdfunding page
Check your match funding options
Explore the charity fundraising hub

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

Christmas fundraising ideas for sports clubs

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:27:03 +0100

Most fundraising advice for sports clubs is written for any time of year. Our 25 tried-and-tested fundraising ideas for sports clubs is a great list, but it doesn’t focus on Christmas. That’s a gap, because the run-up to Christmas has its own mechanics: a short window before the season pauses, specific events often already on your calendar (a Santa Dash, a Christmas tournament, the clubhouse party), and, if you’re applying for match funding, a fund that wants to see you raise a defined share yourselves before they’ll top up the rest.

This guide is for that specific moment. If you want the fuller, any-time-of-year list, start with the 25 ideas guide instead, or Festive fundraising 101 for the basics of Christmas campaigns generally. Here, we’re covering three things: working out what you need to raise yourselves before a match fund covers the rest, turning a one-off event into a proper campaign, and five real ways clubs like yours are doing both right now.

Five real ways sports clubs are fundraising this Christmas

1. Run a Christmas prize draw

A prize draw with donated prizes turns a fixed ask into something people want to enter, not just give to. Dorking Rugby Football Club’s “Pad the Paddock” Christmas prize draw raised £5,890 from 241 supporters, with every prize donated by members and local businesses, a genuinely modest, replicable example rather than a six-figure outlier. Keep the draw to around two weeks. Christmas prize draws that run for two weeks hit their target 44% of the time on Crowdfunder, against 31% for draws left open for four.

2. Turn a sponsored event into a page, not just a bucket collection

If you’ve already got a Santa Dash, a sponsored swim or a sponsored walk on the calendar, put a crowdfunding page behind it rather than relying on cash and a bucket on the day. Seaford Town FC’s sponsored walk raised £12,190 this way, pledges arriving before, during and after the event itself rather than all on the day.

3. Launch a facilities appeal before the season restarts

December is a good moment to ask for what the club actually needs physically, a pitch, a clubhouse, new kit, and pair it with match funding. Pontefract RUFC’s clubhouse modernisation started with a £10,000 target and grew to £83,439 once Sport England match funding was added, a good sense of what’s possible with the right fund behind a straightforward ask.

4. Get the whole club moving with a collective challenge

Rather than one person taking on a sponsored effort, split it across the club, everyone contributing steps, kilometres or laps towards one shared total. Willingdon Athletic ran a club-wide “2000km in 60 hours” challenge and raised £8,147 this way, with no single person carrying the ask alone.

5. Sell shirt sponsorship as a festive offer

If your kit or advertising space needs a sponsor, Christmas is a natural moment to ask, businesses are often more receptive to a visible, community-minded spend before the new year. Newport County AFC ran a campaign, “SAVE OUR SHIRT CTD”, and raised £42,145 this way, letting the crowd choose or fund the sponsor rather than relying on one big cheque.

Turning a Santa Dash or Christmas tournament into more than a collection

A Santa Dash, a five-a-side tournament or a festive quiz is usually treated as a single day: people turn up, pay on the door, and that’s the total. Put a page behind it instead and it can keep raising for weeks either side of the event itself. A simple run of it: open entries and share the page two to three weeks out, remind people the week of, collect pledges on the day itself via a page link or QR code rather than cash alone, then thank everyone and share the final total afterwards, don’t let the page go quiet the moment the event ends.

What Crowdfunder’s own data says

A few things worth knowing before you pick a date or a format:

Friday is the best day to launch. Christmas campaigns launched on a Friday hit target 48% of the time, against 35% for a Thursday launch, worth bearing in mind when you’re picking a date for your event or your page.
Short prize draws outperform long ones. A two-week Christmas prize draw hits target 44% of the time, a four-week draw only 31%.
Giving Tuesday is worth a dedicated push. This year it falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026, and brings around 28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical Tuesday. If it lands before your event, plan a specific ask for that day.
Message people directly. Over half of Christmas pledges come through direct or private shares, WhatsApp, email, texts, rather than a public post. A message to the club WhatsApp or the parents’ group will likely outperform a matchday announcement alone.

Layering match funding without breaking the rules

Sports clubs currently have up to £15,000 available in match funding from partners including Sport England and Sport Wales, worth checking current sports match funding before you set a target. Ammanford AFC’s ground improvement raised £43,001 with Sport Wales match funding, a useful example if your club is outside England.

One rule worth knowing before you plan two things at once: a prize draw and partner match funding can’t run on the same Crowdfunder project. If you want to run a Christmas prize draw and separately go for match funding on a bigger project, those need to be two different pages.

Sport England partner match funding

Most sports funding partners work on a pledge system, not a simple top-up. Sport England’s Movement Fund, for example, will pledge up to £15,000 towards your target, but it starts as a provisional pledge, added to your page once you’ve reached 25% of your target from at least 25 different supporters. The point of showing it early is to build excitement and demonstrate the impact that extra funding will have, encouraging others to back you and help close the gap. But it stays provisional: you still need to hit 100% of your target before your campaign closes, or the pledge is removed from your page and you don’t receive the funds. So the real task isn’t finding 25% from somewhere, it’s building genuine early momentum from your own community, since that both unlocks the provisional pledge and gives you a real shot at closing the whole target while it’s live.

Check your eligibility.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to raise a set percentage ourselves before a partner pledge kicks in?
Often yes, but it’s not a guaranteed top-up. Sport England’s Movement Fund, for instance, adds a provisional pledge to your page once you reach 25% of your target from at least 25 different supporters, meant to build excitement and show backers the impact their support will unlock. You still need to hit 100% of your target before the campaign closes, or the pledge is removed and you don’t receive the funds. Always check the specific fund’s terms before you commit to a target.

Can we run a Christmas prize draw and still apply for match funding? Not on the same project. See the match funding section above, you’ll need two separate pages if you want to do both.

We’re a small club with no marketing budget, is a Christmas campaign still worth it? Yes. Several of the real examples above raised well under £10,000 with a small volunteer effort. Scale matters less than having a clear, specific ask.

Does the Santa Dash or tournament itself need to be online? No. Keep the event in person, just link it to a crowdfunding page so pledges can come in via a shared link or QR code before, during and after the day itself.

Is there a minimum club size to be taken seriously by match funders? No. Several of the examples above are small, volunteer-run clubs, not big institutions.

Where to go next

Back to Festive fundraising 101 for the full six-week planner
For fundraising ideas for any time of year, see our full 25 tried-and-tested fundraising ideas for sports clubs
Start a crowdfunding page · Check sports match funding · Explore prize draws for charities

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

Christmas fundraising ideas for schools and PTAs

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:23:58 +0100

Your Christmas fair works; the stalls, the cakes, the tombola bring in real money, and none of that needs to change. But a fair is one day. A properly run crowdfunding campaign, with a page, a clear target and the right funding behind it, can run alongside it and raise several times more.

This guide isn’t a replacement for your Christmas fair planning. It’s about the funding side most PTAs never look into: working out your own timeline around your actual last day of term, understanding the different ways a school project can be funded, and seeing what other schools have raised doing exactly this. For the basics of a Christmas campaign generally, start with Festive fundraising 101.

Working backwards from your last day of term

Rather than guessing when to launch, work backwards from your actual end-of-term date. That tells you exactly when to open your page, when to push reminders, and whether Giving Tuesday (this year, Tuesday 1 December 2026) falls inside your window at all, some schools break up before it, some after.

Five real ways schools and PTAs are fundraising this Christmas

1. Run a Christmas market or prize draw

A market-style event or a prize draw with donated prizes raises more than a stall alone, especially once you put a page behind it so people who can’t attend in person can still take part. One primary school’s Global Markets Christmas Fundraiser raised £21,817 this way. On a smaller scale, a “12 Days of Christmas” prize draw with 20 prizes donated by local businesses and one entry per £2 pledged raised £910 from 58 supporters at Uplands Community Primary School, proof this works at any size. Keep a prize draw to around two weeks if you run one, Christmas prize draws that stay open two weeks hit target 44% of the time on Crowdfunder, against 31% for draws left open for four.

2. Fix or upgrade the outdoor space

Playgrounds are one of the most common asks schools bring to Crowdfunder. A PSA rebuilding its early-years outdoor play area raised £16,431 in Replace Chestnuts Primary School EYFS Playground, a specific, photographable project that’s easy for parents to picture and back.

3. Cut a running cost, not just fund a project

Christmas is a good moment to ask for something that saves money every winter after this one, not just a one-off. A Friends group funding solar panels to cut the school’s energy bill raised £15,530 in St Margaret’s Collier Street School Solar Project, the kind of ask that’s easy to justify to parents when heating bills are on everyone’s mind.

4. Use a templated sponsored event

If your PTA doesn’t have capacity to plan something from scratch, a templated sponsored event, like Sports for Champions, gives you a ready-made structure. The Layer de la Haye Primary School Fundraiser raised £5,736 this way, a modest, entirely achievable total for a PTA short on time.

5. Support families in your own school community

Not every Christmas campaign has to be about buildings or equipment. A parents’ association raised £21,164 to fund cost-of-living support packages for families in Brookland Junior School Family Support Packages, a genuinely timely idea if you know families in your school community are struggling this winter.

The four ways a school project can be funded

Before you launch, it’s worth knowing there’s more than one way to fund a school project, and combining them the wrong way can cost you an option later.

A straightforward crowdfunding page. Set a clear target and ask directly, as Cottenham Community Sports Facilities did in raising £15,589 for shared school and community sports facilities.
A prize draw. Sell tickets to the whole school community, not just people who attend the fair in person, see the examples above.
Partner match funding. External funders, Sport England, Aviva and local council community funds among them, will sometimes double or boost what a school raises for the right kind of project, typically sports facilities, playgrounds or community-use spaces. Check eligibility with the specific fund before you commit to a target.
A school’s own match fund. Some PTAs, or a single generous parent, commit to match public donations pound for pound up to a set limit, a strong incentive that costs the PTA nothing until people actually give.

One rule worth knowing before you plan two of these together: a prize draw and partner match funding can’t run on the same Crowdfunder project. If your PTA wants to run a Christmas raffle and separately go for match funding on a bigger project, those need to be two different campaigns.

What Crowdfunder’s own data says

Friday is the best day to launch. Christmas campaigns launched on a Friday hit target 48% of the time, against 35% for a Thursday launch, worth considering if you can pick your own date rather than defaulting to whenever the newsletter goes out.
Short prize draws outperform long ones. A two-week Christmas prize draw hits target 44% of the time, a four-week draw only 31%.
Giving Tuesday is worth a dedicated push. This year it falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026, and brings around 28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical Tuesday. If it lands before your last day of term, plan a specific ask for that day.
Message people directly. Over half of Christmas pledges come through direct or private shares. A message in the class WhatsApp or the school newsletter will do more than a single noticeboard poster ever will.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to be a registered charity to fundraise as a PTA? No. Most PTAs are unincorporated associations or charities registered with the Charity Commission, either way you can fundraise, and most match funders accept both. Always check the individual fund’s eligibility criteria first.

Can we run our Christmas fair prize draw and also apply for match funding? Not on the same project. See the funding levers section above, you’ll need two separate campaigns if you want to do both.

What if we’ve never done anything beyond the fair before? Start small. Several of the real examples above are modest, straightforward campaigns, not big institutional projects.

Do we need a Gambling Commission licence to run a Christmas raffle? Not if you run your prize draw on Crowdfunder. Check current guidance before you launch, prize draws for charities covers the basics.

Is there a minimum target size worth bothering with match funding for? No. Several of the examples above raised well under £10,000 and it’s still worth checking your eligibility regardless of scale.

Where to go next

Back to Festive fundraising 101 for the full six-week planner
Running a Christmas production this year? See Christmas fundraising ideas for arts organisations
Strong sports facilities to fund? See Christmas fundraising ideas for sports clubs
Start a crowdfunding page · Check match funding · Explore prize draws for charities

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

Christmas fundraising ideas for arts organisations

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:19:59 +0100

Most Christmas fundraising advice for arts organisations assumes a gala, a silent auction, an events team and a marketing budget. Most UK arts organisations have none of those, a fringe theatre, a solo painter with a show going up, a filmmaker premiering a documentary, a choir, a small dance company, a photographer, or a venue with a handful of staff and a lot of volunteers. This guide is written for that reader instead, whether you’re a company, a collective, or a single artist working under your own name.

For the basics of a Christmas campaign generally, start with Festive fundraising 101. This guide covers something more specific: using the run you’re already doing, a panto, a carol concert, a solo exhibition, a screening tour, as the fundraising vehicle itself, rather than bolting on a separate gala you don’t have the resources for.

Why your run is your natural fundraising asset

Most Christmas fundraising advice treats fundraising as a bolt-on event, a gala night, a raffle evening, something extra on top of the thing you’re actually putting on. But you already have something better than a one-off event: a run of performances, an exhibition, or a screening tour, with a built-in audience, night after night, day after day, or city after city. Spreading the ask across that run beats a single closing-night appeal, because you get several chances to ask rather than one. That’s just as true if your “run” is a fortnight of a painting exhibition on a gallery wall or a short film doing the rounds of a few screenings as it is for a week of panto performances.

Reward ideas, if you’re taking pledges as well as ticket or sale money

If you’re asking for pledges on top of ticket or sale income, you already have things worth offering that cost nothing extra to produce, because you’re a creative and making things is what you do. A painter or illustrator can offer a print, a small original piece or a commission slot. A filmmaker can offer a signed poster, a credits mention, or an invite to a private cast-and-crew screening. A photographer can offer a print from the show. A theatre or choir can offer a programme mention or a meet-the-cast moment. These suit creatives particularly well, precisely because they’re inherently giftable, sit close to what you already make, and don’t need a separate budget behind them.

Real ways artists and arts organisations are fundraising

A note before these: none of the examples below are confirmed as Christmas or festive-season campaigns specifically, they demonstrate the underlying models, which work exactly the same whatever time of year your run falls in. Adapt the framing to however festive your own run is.

1. Fund a specific production run

Bold Girls, Centre Stage Theatre Co., a professional touring theatre company in Belfast, raised £3,642 from 69 supporters crowdfunding the costs of a Rona Munro revival. A genuinely small, professional-but-not-institutional company funding one specific run, proof this works at a modest scale.

2. Rally a community around an am-dram production

Woodhouse Community Theatre Project raised £16,850, a community theatre group funding its own production, the volunteer-run equivalent of the Bold Girls model above.

3. Turn your own artwork into the reward

Two painters, same idea: Hope Blamire’s “Sunset painting” prize draw raised £25,885 offering one of her own original oil paintings as the prize, and Amelia Jayne Art’s “Among the Daisies” raised £9,030 the same way. Neither needed a separate reward budget, the artwork they’d have made anyway was the entire offer.

4. Fund a documentary through to completion

Six Inches of Soil, a feature documentary about regenerative farming in Britain, raised £37,609 for post-production, match funded by Aviva Community and the Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund. A useful template if your project is a film rather than a live performance, and proof documentary makers can access the same match funding as everyone else in this guide.

5. Pre-sell a photography or art book

Valleys photography book raised £13,258, a single photographer crowdfunding the print run for a self-published collection of their own work in the South Wales Valleys. If what you make is naturally collectible, printing it is often the whole campaign.

6. Fund a one-off exhibition of your own work

Exhibition of David Hoffman’s East End photography raised £10,952 to stage a show of one photographer’s archive at the Museum of the Home. A good model if the ask is one specific show rather than an ongoing space or programme.

7. Fund a choir or musical society’s next performance

Help Barnsley Children Perform at the ’22 EdFringe raised £17,989, a children’s choir and theatre group funding a trip to perform, a good template if your choir or musical society is fundraising around a specific concert or trip rather than general running costs.

8. Secure a youth theatre’s future

Secure the Future of Light UP raised £15,293 to keep a youth theatre running, a strong option if your Christmas production doubles as an appeal for the organisation’s survival, not just the one show.

9. Fund or renovate a studio space

Dance Studio Renovation raised £17,659 renovating a local dance studio, and it’s the same model whether the space in question is a dance floor, a painter’s studio or a small gallery, useful if your ask is about the space itself rather than a single production.

Layering match funding on top

Arts organisations, and individual artists and filmmakers working under their own name, are explicitly catered for by several Crowdfunder partner funds, worth checkin what’s currently open before you launch. You can also bring your own match fund.

One rule worth knowing before you plan two things at once: a prize draw and partner match funding can’t run on the same Crowdfunder project. If you’re running a raffle at the panto, or offering one of your own paintings as a prize, and separately going for match funding on a bigger project, those need to be two separate campaigns.

What Crowdfunder’s own data says

Friday launches hit target 48% of the time, the best day of the week, worth bearing in mind if you can choose your opening night, private view or premiere.
Giving Tuesday (Tuesday 1 December 2026) brings around 28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical Tuesday, worth a dedicated push if it falls mid-run.
Over half of Christmas pledges come from direct or private shares, WhatsApp, email, text, rather than public posts. Message your cast, crew, mailing list or collector base directly rather than relying on a programme mention or gallery card alone.

Frequently asked questions

We’re a volunteer-run company with no events budget. Is this still worth doing? Yes. The whole point of the production-run approach is that it uses a run you’re already doing, no separate event needed.

I’m a solo artist or filmmaker, not an organisation, is this guide still for me? Yes. Everything above works the same whether you’re crowdfunding under a company name or your own, the Bold Girls, Hope Blamire and Valleys photography book examples above are all one person or a very small team.

Should we sell tickets or ask for donations? Both work alongside each other. Ticket, entry or sale price covers the show or the print run, the ask on top funds what that price alone doesn’t.

Can we run a raffle at the venue and also get match funding? Not on the same project. See the match funding section above.

What if our run is very short, two or three nights, or one exhibition weekend? The plan scales for however many nights or days you have, a shorter run just means a tighter version of the same plan.

Do we need a registered charity to crowdfund? No. Companies, CICs, unregistered groups and individual artists can all fundraise, though match funding eligibility varies by fund.

Where to go next

Back to Festive fundraising 101 for the full six-week planner
Youth theatre or am-dram crossover? See Christmas fundraising ideas for schools and PTAs
Questions about company structure? See Christmas fundraising ideas for charities, CICs and nonprofits
Start a crowdfunding page · Check match funding · Explore prize draws for charities

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

Christmas fundraising ideas for food banks and warm spaces

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:14:40 +0100

Figures accurate as of Autumn 2026.

Last winter, food banks across the Trussell network distributed 740,000 emergency food parcels between December and February alone, a 40% rise on pre-pandemic levels, including 266,000 for children (Trussell). Over 68,000 families visited a food bank for the first time last winter. Behind every one of those numbers is a local food bank, pantry or warm space trying to stretch its budget that little bit further.

If that’s you, this guide is for your Christmas campaign specifically. For the basics of fundraising at Christmas, including how crowdfunding pages, prize draws and match funding work together, start with Festive fundraising 101.

Why cash matters as much as food this Christmas

Food and toy donations are always welcome, but cash gives the organisation something a donated tin can’t: flexibility. A cash donation lets you buy exactly what’s running low, cover the heating and hall hire that keeps a warm space open, or pay for the volunteer training and DBS checks that donated food never touches. Set up a crowdfunding page alongside your usual collection points, and be upfront that cash goes just as far as a full trolley, sometimes further.

Turn a reverse advent calendar into a crowdfunding page

The reverse advent calendar, where you add one item a day instead of opening one, is already a Christmas favourite for food banks. The trouble is, it only works for people who can get to a drop-off point with a bag of tins.

Run it as a crowdfunding page instead, and anyone can take part from their phone. A few ways to structure it:

A daily suggested amount, mirroring the physical version (day one, a tin of soup; day two, a jar of coffee), so people can donate the cash equivalent in one go or spread across December.
A visible countdown or tracker on your page, updated as the month goes on, so supporters can see the collective total build.
A shareable graphic for each day, so the calendar spreads on its own through social media and school or workplace WhatsApp groups.

Ideas for workplaces and communities

Office reverse advent calendars, run as a friendly competition between teams or departments.
A sponsored carol sing or bucket collection on the high street, with a QR code on the bucket linking straight to your page for anyone who’d rather donate by card.
“Adopt a hamper” or “adopt a family of four”, where a supporter, workplace or local business sponsors a specific hamper or household rather than giving to a general pot.
A “keep the lights on” appeal for warm spaces, naming the actual running costs (heating, hall hire, volunteer expenses) rather than asking generally, since people give more readily to a specific, honest ask.
A Christmas jumper day or bake sale, with the proceeds paid straight into your crowdfunding page rather than a collection tin, so it counts towards match funding too.

What’s already worked: real food bank campaigns on Crowdfunder

Most advice on food bank fundraising is written in the abstract. Here’s what’s actually happened on Crowdfunder, across a genuine range of targets and tactics, so you can see what’s realistic for a cause your size.

Campaign	Raised	The tactic
Storehouse Project’s Christmas Hamper Appeal	£2,772	A small, single-purpose ask: a hamper of food and gifts for every family referred to them, no match funder needed.
Fare Divide CIC’s community fridge	£6,467	Kept a van and community fridge running through winter, proof “Christmas fundraising” can mean January too.
Rose Cottage Community Warm Space and Food Hub	£9,668	Combined a food hub and a warm space into one appeal, exactly the two-in-one pitch this guide is about.
Pendle Food for All’s Christmas hampers	£16,696	Fundraised specifically for its own 100 existing Food Club members.
Bournemouth Foodbank’s Make Christmas Count Appeal	£26,053	A straightforward, general Christmas appeal (full spotlight below).
North Ayrshire Food Bank	£35,861	A community-wide fundraising event rather than a pure online appeal, backed by two match funders.
The Welcome Centre, Huddersfield	£68,446	The largest here, and a repeat campaign: this food bank has returned to Crowdfunder more than once, pairing food support with its debt advice service each time.

A few patterns worth copying: nobody here needed a six-figure target to make a genuine difference, several combined two needs into one ask (food plus warmth, food plus debt advice) rather than running separate appeals, and more than one of these causes has come back a second or third year with a fresh reason to ask, not just a repeat of the same page.

What Crowdfunder’s own data says

Friday is the best day to launch. Christmas campaigns launched on a Friday hit target 48% of the time, against 35% for a Thursday launch, worth bearing in mind if you can pick your own date rather than defaulting to whenever a collection point happens to open.
Giving Tuesday is worth a dedicated push. This year it falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026, and brings around 28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical Tuesday, a good moment to push your reverse advent calendar or “keep the lights on” appeal specifically.
Message people directly. Over half of Christmas pledges come through direct or private shares, WhatsApp, email, texts, rather than a public post. A message to volunteers, referral partners and your existing supporter base will likely outperform a single social post or collection-point poster.

Layering match funding on top

Food banks, pantries and warm spaces are exactly the kind of cause several of Crowdfunder’s current and past funding partners want to support over winter, including Aviva Community and The Co-operative Group. Matching, sometimes pound for pound, can turn a good local appeal into a genuinely significant one, as several of the campaigns above show. Check what match funding is available before you launch, since some funds prefer you to apply early. Already got a local business willing to back you directly? You don’t need to wait on a partner fund’s decision: you can add your own match fund straight to your page, so every donation is matched from the moment you go live.

Still not convinced match funding is worth it? The average donation on match funded projects is £80 compared to £35 on a project without match funding. Because backers know it’ll be matched, they’re willing to pledge more so that it can be multiplied by match funding.

Success story: doubling a food bank’s Christmas appeal

Bournemouth Foodbank’s Make Christmas Count appeal raised £26,053, with donations matched by Aviva Community, to provide vital financial support for local households facing hardship this Christmas. It’s a clear example of turning everyday generosity into something bigger, simply by pairing a specific, honest ask with the right funding partner.

Success story: keeping a community fridge running through winter

Not every winter campaign is about a single Christmas Day. Fare Divide CIC’s community fridge appeal in Littlehampton raised £6,467, match funded by The Co-operative Group, to keep its van, volunteers and fridges running so surplus food could keep reaching people right through the season. A good reminder that “Christmas fundraising” can just as easily mean keeping something vital going through January as it does a one-off appeal.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to be a registered charity to fundraise for a food bank or warm space? No. CICs, informal community groups and volunteer-run projects can all set up a page. If you’re structured as a CIC or small nonprofit, our Christmas fundraising ideas for charities, CICs and nonprofits (link live once published) guide has more detail on what suits you.

Can we combine a reverse advent calendar with match funding? Yes, and it’s one of the strongest combinations available this Christmas: a familiar, easy-to-share idea plus a partner doubling the impact of every pound.

We’re small. Can we still get match funded? Often, yes. The smallest campaign in the breakdown above raised under £3,000 and several others raised under £10,000, all with a match funder or a straightforward ask alone, so it’s always worth checking eligibility before you assume you’re too small. See live match funds.

Can we run a Christmas campaign every year without it feeling repetitive? Yes. Several of the causes above have come back more than once, each time with a specific, fresh reason to ask (a new service, a milestone year, an existing membership base) rather than reusing the same appeal, and match funders responded each time. This also means you build your crowd and might become part of their festive giving tradition.

How do we ask for cash without seeming ungrateful for food donations? Be specific and honest: explain what cash lets you do that a tin can’t, such as covering heating costs or buying exactly what’s low that week. Most supporters appreciate the clarity, and you can still welcome physical donations alongside it.

Where to go next

Back to basics: Festive fundraising 101
Running a small charity or CIC? Christmas fundraising ideas for charities, CICs and nonprofits
Start a crowdfunding page
Check your match funding options, or add your own match fund
Visit the Knowledge Hub for more general fundraising guidance

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

Eight Christmas fundraising ideas for faith groups and churches

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:08:46 +0100

Congregations are often raising funds for others, but they also need to raise funds for themselves: a roof repair, a heating bill, a warm space for the community, a Christmas meal for people who’d otherwise spend the day alone.

This applies beyond Christian churches too. A mosque running a community meal, a synagogue running a Hanukkah event, a gurdwara or temple with a building and a congregation around it, all face the same practical questions when it comes to funding a project or an event. For the basics of a Christmas campaign generally, start with Festive fundraising 101. This guide covers two things instead: working out a realistic ask for your own congregation, and finding funding partners beyond it.

Working out a realistic target for your congregation

Rather than picking a total that feels arbitrary, it’s worth working from what’s realistic to ask of the people who actually attend or support you regularly. Most faith-group projects on Crowdfunder are genuinely modest, the median across 281 verified UK places-of-worship projects is £3,380, so there’s no need to feel like a campaign only counts if it hits a six-figure target. A target built from your congregation’s real size holds up better than a round number picked because it sounds achievable.

Five real ways faith groups are fundraising this Christmas

1. Fund your own warm space or heating costs

Winter is when this ask lands best, and it works better as a specific running-cost appeal than a vague one. Baildon Methodist Church’s “Wesley’s Warm Space” raised £10,780 and hit its target doing exactly this, a straightforward heating and running-cost appeal to keep its warm space open through winter.

2. Turn part of your building into a community hub or cafe

A cafe or shared community space is one of the more common asks on Crowdfunder for a reason, it gives people a concrete, ongoing reason to back you rather than a one-off collection. Pause Community Cafe in Harpenden raised £36,947 to create a community cafe and hub, with the Aviva Community Fund’s employee giving scheme doubling donations twice over.

3. Fund a facilities project, whatever your faith

This isn’t only a Christian-church ask. Community Gym at SGGSJ Gurdwara Telford raised £31,653 to fit out a new community gym, a Sikh gurdwara, triggering a £15,000 Sport England pledge and then raising further for stretch items, a good example of a non-Christian place of worship running the same kind of facilities campaign a church would, with the same access to match funding.

4. Race against a deadline to save your building

Sometimes the ask is urgent rather than aspirational. Souad Mhani’s fundraiser for SLMCC Mosque in Harrow raised £10,510 to repay an interest-free Qardh Hasan loan the mosque had taken out, a genuinely values-led example of a congregant fundraising directly to protect their place of worship against a real deadline.

5. Restore something specific to your building

A named, physical thing to fund, rather than a general appeal, gives people something concrete to back. St James’ Church, Bramley’s bell restoration fund raised £8,845 selling sponsor-a-bell and chime-a-bell tiers, topped with a tower climb, to fund rehanging work on bells cast in 1638, a modest, replicable idea if your building has something similarly specific worth naming.

Who could you partner with beyond your own congregation

Your congregation isn’t the only source of support. Local councils, businesses and national funders often have their own pots for exactly the kind of building or community project a faith group runs, and match funding can come from partners like these as well as from Crowdfunder’s own funds.

Two real examples worth knowing: Making St Martin’s Hall complex Net Zero in Liskeard raised £51,300 refurbishing its grade II listed church centre, stacking two Cornwall Council climate and community funds on top of Aviva Community Fund match funding, a straightforward example of council and business funding landing on the same project. And Fitzherbert Community Hub in Brighton raised £120,100 equipping a rebuilt church hall as an eco community hub shared by three projects, backed by both the M&S Energy Fund and Sport England, a good example of a bigger ambition becoming realistic once more than one partner is involved.

What Crowdfunder’s own data says

A few things worth knowing before you pick a date or a format:

Friday is the best day to launch. Christmas campaigns launched on a Friday hit target 48% of the time, against 35% for a Thursday launch, worth bearing in mind if you can pick your own date rather than defaulting to whenever the next planning meeting falls.
Giving Tuesday is worth a dedicated push. This year it falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026, and brings around 28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical Tuesday. If it lands within your campaign, plan a specific ask for that day.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day see a distinct pledge pattern. Worth planning a specific message around, rather than assuming the campaign quietly ends once December starts.
Message people directly. Over half of Christmas pledges come from direct or private shares. A message to your congregation’s WhatsApp groups or email list will do more than a notice in the pew sheet, or its equivalent, alone.

Layering match funding without breaking the rules

The Aviva Community Fund and the M&S Energy Fund show up repeatedly behind real faith-group heating, net zero and hall projects specifically, alongside Sport England and Sport Wales for sports and fitness facilities, so it’s worth checking current match funding before you set a target rather than assuming nothing applies to a place of worship. One rule worth knowing before you plan two things at once: a prize draw and partner match funding can’t run on the same Crowdfunder project. If your congregation wants to run a Christmas raffle and separately go for match funding on a bigger project, those need to be two different pages.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to be a registered charity to fundraise as a faith group? No. Many congregations aren’t separately registered charities and can still fundraise and access match funding, eligibility depends on the individual fund rather than your legal structure.

Is this only for Christian churches? No. Crowdfunder’s own faith-group data spans five faiths, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Sikh congregations, and the same approach works for mosques, synagogues, temples, gurdwaras and any other faith community with a building and a congregation.

Can we run a Christmas raffle and still apply for match funding? Not on the same project. See the match funding section above, you’ll need two separate pages if you want to do both.

We’re a small congregation with no fundraising experience, is this still worth it? Yes. The median faith-group project on Crowdfunder raises £3,380, most are modest, straightforward campaigns rather than the big headline figures, so there’s no need for six-figure ambitions for it to be worth doing.

What if we want to run a warm space but don’t have council or business contacts? Start with the collaboration examples above for inspiration, and check the match funding page, several funders actively want to hear from community and faith groups running exactly this kind of project.

Where to go next

Back to Festive fundraising 101 for the full six-week planner
Running a shared community project? See Christmas fundraising ideas for food banks and warm spaces
Need help with structure or setup? See Christmas fundraising ideas for charities, CICs and nonprofits
Start a crowdfunding page . Check match funding · Explore prize draws for charities

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

6 ways to give differently this Christmas

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:05:48 +0100

None of these ideas need a big budget. They just need a small shift in how you already spend at Christmas. And if you know someone who’s still got half their Christmas list to sort, or who’s genuinely impossible to buy for, this is worth forwarding to them too.

Give together instead of gifting

If you’ve got a friend or family member who’s genuinely hard to buy for (or who always says they don’t need anything), suggest backing a cause together instead. Pick a project you both care about, split the pledge, and you’ve got a gift that actually means something, with no wrapping paper required.

Shop the rewards, not the shops

Plenty of the businesses and makers crowdfunding right now offer genuinely lovely things in return for backing them, and buying one is real Christmas shopping, not a donation with extra steps. Stannergill Whisky, a craft distillery reviving a historic mill in Caithness, is a good example: back the project and you can walk away with a genuine, giftable bottle, while helping bring a piece of Highland history back to life. It’s a nice alternative to another year of ordering from the same handful of giant retailers.

Build your Christmas list from rewards

Struggling to answer “what do you actually want for Christmas?” Have a browse of live projects, pick your top five rewards, and send the list to whoever’s asking. It works just as well as any shop wishlist, and everyone on it is backing something real.

[EMBED PLACEHOLDER: gift and reward picker, answer a couple of quick questions about who you’re buying for, get matched reward ideas from live projects]

The daily saver challenge

Set aside £2 or £5 a day from 1 to 25 December (£50 to £125 by Christmas Day, without ever noticing a big hit to your account), then either donate the running total each day or save it up and pledge it as one lump sum on Christmas Eve. It works especially well as a reverse advent calendar, and it’s an easy one to do as a family or with a group of friends, each choosing a different cause to support.

Give in someone’s honour

Backing a project in someone’s name, and saying so in the comments, is a genuinely lovely way to mark Christmas for a friend, a parent, or someone you’ve lost. It costs nothing extra and takes seconds, but it’s the kind of gesture people remember.

Gift a prize draw entry

Prize draws make a brilliant Christmas gift idea, with one small rule to know upfront: for compliance reasons, an entry always has to be made under your own name and details, so you can’t literally enter “as” someone else. What you can do is enter with them in mind and let them know, or dedicate the entry to them in the comments.

WWF’s Mountain Gorilla Experience prize draw is a good example of why this works so well: the prize is a trip for two. Enter it thinking of a friend who’d love it, tell them you’ve entered, and let them know they’re coming with you if you win. It costs a few pounds, supports a cause, and turns a prize draw into a genuine “thought that counts” gift.

Frequently asked questions

Can I enter a prize draw using someone else’s name so they get the prize? No, entries need to be made under your own name and contact details so the organiser can verify and contact the winner, but you can absolutely dedicate an entry to someone or promise to share the prize with them.

Is backing a project instead of buying a gift actually tax-deductible or does it count as a proper present? It’s not about tax, it’s about the gesture. A backed project supports something real, and you can tell the recipient exactly what their “gift” achieved, which most shop-bought presents can’t offer.

What if the person I want to gift to isn’t into charity as such? Reward-based projects work well here. Choose one with a physical or experience reward they’ll actually enjoy, such as food, drink, or tickets, so it still feels like a normal, thoughtful present.

Can a group of us combine the daily saver challenge? Yes, and it often works better that way. Agree an amount, a project (or a few), and a date to pledge together, whether that’s daily or all at once on Christmas Eve.

Where to go next

Explore live projects to find a cause worth backing
Make a donation directly to a cause you already know
Running a campaign yourself this year? Start with Festive fundraising 101 (link live once published)

Get started on Crowdfunder

The post Crowdfunder Stories | Watch the series appeared first on Crowdfunder Stories.

How to approach organisations to match fund your project

Rebecca Hughes — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 13:44:54 +0100

Match funding can be the single biggest lever you pull in a crowdfunding campaign. When a business, funder or local authority commits to matching donations, every pound your supporters give effectively becomes two, three or more. Research shows people are 84% more likely to donate when match funding is on the table. So it’s worth doing properly.

But match funding rarely just appears. Somebody has to ask for it. Here’s how to go about approaching organisations, whether you’re applying to an existing fund or cold-pitching a local business for the first time.

Start with the two routes into match funding

There are broadly two ways to get matched:

Apply to an existing match fund. Many funders already run open programmes on Crowdfunder, from national names like Aviva Community Fund and Sport England to regional bodies like Creative Scotland. These have set eligibility criteria, ratios and application windows, so your job is to check eligibility and apply through the published process.
Approach an organisation directly (Add your own match fund). This is where you go to a local business, trust, foundation or council and ask them to become your project’s own match funder. It takes more legwork, but it isn’t reserved for big charities. A garden centre matching donations for a community allotment, or a local solicitors’ firm backing a youth football club, are exactly the kind of relationships that work.

This blog is mostly about the second route, since it’s the one entirely in your hands.

Know who to ask before you ask

The strongest match funding pitches are the ones aimed at organisations with an obvious reason to say yes. Before you write a single email, make a shortlist of:

Local businesses with a visible stake in your community or cause (a builders’ merchant for a playground rebuild, a health food shop for a wellbeing project)
Corporate foundations and CSR teams, who often have small grants budgets for exactly this kind of visible, feel-good spend
Trusts and foundations whose funding criteria already mention your theme, whether that’s the environment, youth, arts or health
Local authorities or parish councils, particularly if your project supports a public space or service they’d otherwise have to fund themselves

A pitch to a company whose values genuinely overlap with your project will always land better than a scattergun approach to fifty random businesses.

Build a case, not just a request

Organisations that match fund want to know three things: what the money does, why it matters to them, and what they get back. Structure your approach around those three points.

What the money does. Be specific. “Help us fix the roof” is weaker than “£2,000 will replace the last of the leaking guttering before winter.” Concrete, tangible asks are easier to say yes to than vague ones.

Why it matters to them. Connect your project to something the organisation already cares about, whether that’s their location, their customer base, their sustainability goals or their published funding priorities. Do the homework so they don’t have to.

What they get back. Be upfront about what you can offer: logo placement on your campaign page, a shout-out to your supporter network, social media tags, a mention in local press, or simply the reputational boost of visible community backing. Crowdfunder’s live matching mechanic and updates give a funder a visible return, which is worth spelling out.

Make the ask easy to say yes to

Vague requests get vague answers, so give the organisation something concrete to respond to:

Propose a ratio. A 1:1 match is the simplest to explain and the easiest to approve.
Suggest a cap. “Match donations up to £5,000” is a far easier internal approval than an open-ended commitment.
Set a timeframe. Match funding tied to your campaign’s launch window creates urgency for both the funder and your donors.
Offer options. Some organisations would rather match at a lower level than not at all. A tiered ask (£500, £1,000 or £5,000, each with a different level of recognition) gives them room to say yes at a level that suits their budget.

Get the timing and format right

Reach out well before you plan to launch. Most organisations, especially anything above a sole trader, need time to get sign-off internally, so give them a few weeks. A short, well-written email beats a long one: introduce your project in a line or two, make your specific ask, attach a one-page overview if you have one, and offer a call. Follow up once, politely, if you haven’t heard back after a week or two.

Learn from what’s worked

Community share offers like Bramley Baths in Leeds and the East London Waterworks Park both combined direct approaches to mission-aligned funders with public crowdfunding to hit six-figure targets. Neither relied on the crowd alone, both did the groundwork of finding funders whose goals matched the project before asking for support.

A few things to avoid

Don’t ask too late. Chasing match funding after you’ve launched puts you on the back foot and rushes the funder’s decision.
Don’t oversell. Be honest about your target and your realistic reach so the funder isn’t matching a campaign that quietly falls short.
Don’t forget to say thank you. A funder who feels appreciated and sees the impact of their contribution is far more likely to come back next time, or to recommend you to others in their network.

Match funding turns a good campaign into a great one, and it starts with a well-aimed ask to the right organisation. Do your research, make the case clearly, and give them an easy decision to make.

If you already have a funder in mind, you can add your own match fund directly to your Crowdfunder project.

Learn about adding your own match fund

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How to raise more this Giving Tuesday with Crowdfunder

Rebecca Hughes — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:08:27 +0100

This year, Giving Tuesday falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026. After the spending of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s the one day in the calendar built entirely around generosity, and on Crowdfunder, more people give, more often, than on any other Tuesday of the year. Here’s how to make sure your campaign is ready to catch that lift.

What is Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday started in 2012 in New York, as a simple counterpoint to the shopping frenzy on either side of it. It’s now marked in more than 90 countries, and in the UK it’s been led by the Chartered Institute of Fundraising since 2022. They run the official UK campaign each year and this year we’re here to make sure your campaign is in the best possible shape to benefit from it.

Read the blogs we wrote for the CIOF:

Why it’s worth planning around, on Crowdfunder

28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical November or December Tuesday on Crowdfunder (Crowdfunder platform data, 2019 to 2025)
Over half of Christmas pledges (54%) come through direct shares like WhatsApp and email, not public posts, so a Giving Tuesday push works best as a message to your list, not just a social post (Crowdfunder platform data, 2022 to 2025)

How to actually use the day

Giving Tuesday is a 24-hour window, and a good third of that is spent asleep. That changes the maths compared with a normal campaign launch, where we’d usually tell you the first 48 hours are what count. For Giving Tuesday, the day itself isn’t your starting line, it’s your push moment within a campaign that’s already moving.

A sequence that works:

The Friday before: this is your real launch day. Get your page live, shiny, and ready.
The weekend: bring in your first pledges from friends, family and your closest supporters. A campaign that already has momentum is far more persuasive to everyone else.
Monday: check everything, your story, your rewards, your target, is in the shape you want it to be seen in. Prep your audience for the following day, you could post a count down on socials.
Tuesday: send your ask first thing in the morning. That gives it time to be seen and shared well before Crowdfunder’s own evening peak of 5pm to 8pm.
Wednesday: don’t go quiet. Say thank you, and keep the campaign visible for anyone who missed the day itself.

A few other things worth knowing before the day arrives:

If you’re planning a prize draw and match funding together, they can’t run on the same Crowdfunder project. Decide which one this campaign is before you launch, our sector guides below can help you sequence the two across the year.
If you already have a match funding partner lined up, ask whether they run their own Giving Tuesday boost on top of their standard match rate. Some do, and it’s worth asking rather than assuming either way.
If you’re a registered charity, don’t forget Gift Aid. It turns a £100 donation into £125 at no extra cost to your donor, and it’s easy to miss in the rush of a campaign if you haven’t set up your declaration in advance.

You don’t have to wait for one big moment each year

A lot of Christmas fundraising advice treats one annual match-funding event as the only way in, and if you miss it, you wait until next year. Crowdfunder doesn’t work that way. New match funding partners are added to the platform throughout the year, so there’s no single 16-week form to fill in, and no single date that decides whether you get support this year or not. Your dashboard now shows you which funds you’re eligible for as they open, so you can plan around whichever moment actually suits your campaign, Giving Tuesday included.

Make it part of a bigger strategy

Giving Tuesday works best as one moment inside a longer plan, not a strategy on its own. A single well-timed prize draw can do well at Christmas, but so can four or five smaller ones spread across the year, each one building the list of supporters you bring back for the next. And every campaign you run, whatever it raises, is evidence of something funders care about: that you can mobilise a community around your cause. That’s worth having on record long after this Giving Tuesday has passed.

Where this fits in your wider Christmas campaign

Giving Tuesday is one day within a longer run-up to Christmas. For the full six-week planner, start with Festive fundraising 101. Or go straight to the guide for your sector.

FAQs

Do I need to launch my campaign on Giving Tuesday itself? No. Ideally you’re already live before the day arrives, and you’re using Giving Tuesday as a push moment within that campaign.

What’s the difference between Giving Tuesday and Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Giving Tuesday is a day for generosity, positioned as the deliberate counterpoint to the shopping-focused days that come right before it.

Can I run a prize draw and get match funding on Giving Tuesday? Not on the same project. Prize draws and partner match funding can’t run together on Crowdfunder, regardless of the day. Take a look at match funding and prize draws for charities to see which fits your campaign.

Does Giving Tuesday fall on the same date every year? No. It’s tied to the Tuesday after US Thanksgiving, so the date moves each year. In 2026, that’s 1 December.

Is Giving Tuesday only for registered charities? No. Schools, CICs, sports clubs, faith groups and community groups all take part, alongside registered charities.

Get started on Crowdfunder

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