A-Z of Ideas

Antique Fair - Clear out your attic and sell what you find at an antique fair, or organise your own and invite friends and neighbours. (Or donate your antiques to Third Age project The Way We Were)

Auction of Promises - Get your friends and family to promise to donate their skills for free. They could wash a car, mow a lawn, bake a cake, give financial advice, do some chauffeuring, paint a room, do some DIY... The skill is sold to the highest bidder in each case.

Breakfast - Hold a fundraising breakfast for us and invite family, friends and neighbours.

Book Sale/Book Exchange - Ask friends to rally round and hold a book exchange and book sale.

Bridge Drive - Organise a Third Age bridge event with your local bridge club with an entry fee of €10 per head. Add value with a cake sale.

Car Boot Sale - declutter the house of equipment, clothes, possessions, ornaments and furniture items you don’t want. Take a stand in your local car boot sale.

Christmas Day Swim - Organise sponsorship for this plunge.

Coffee Morning/Cake Sale - Ask friends to get baking. Organise a coffee morning with home baked cakes, breads, scones and biscuits. Hold a cake sale too...

Concert - Organise some talented friends to sing/dance/perform in front of an audience. Charge for the privilege.

Darts Tournament - Organise one in your local pub.

Door to Door Collection - An oldie but goodie. Again we will supply you with collection boxes and relevant information.

Fashion Show - Stage a show at home with friends to model clothes they no longer want which could be auctioned at the end of the evening. Or ask a local clothes shop to donate clothes for the shop which will garner them good local publicity.

Five A Side - Organise a match asking each player to pay a fee to play.

Garden Party/Barbecue - Charge a small fee for friends to attend one of these summer events.

Give it Up - Get sponsorship to go for a week without sweets, chocolate, biscuits or cakes. Or stop smoking, or biting your nails, or swearing, or losing your temper, or getting up late.

Go-Karting, golf, squash, tennis, tug o’ war... organise a tournament and ask each person to pay a fee to enter. Award a small prize to the winners.

Indoor Games - Organise a night of Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly cards or other indoor games. This could also be run as a tournament with a prize for the winners.

International Night - Organise an evening with themed food and costume. Have your guests pay for the occasion.

Jigsaw - Organise a jigsaw marathon. Each team has a jigsaw and is timed on how long it takes to complete, when the jigsaw can be passed on to another team.

Joke-a-thon - Organise a joke evening with each participant paid for every joke they tell.

Karaoke Evening - Rent a Karaoke machine and hold the event at home or in your pub.

Night In: Stay in on Saturday with your friends and donate the money you save.

Pancake Party - Turn Shrove Tuesday into a fundraising evening for Third Age.

Photographic Competition - Charge friends/colleagues to enter. Have a local camera shop to donate a prize and judge the best.

Picnic - Hold a summer picnic and choose a lovely scenic spot for your group.

Pizza Party - Buy a load of pizzas and charge double per slice. Ask friends to bring their own wine or beer.

Sponsored Silence - Get family and friends to pay you to stay silent for a weekend day or weekday evening. Or bring a group together and charge someone each time they break the silence.

Strawberry & Cream Party - Another summer event in your own garden.

Tombola - This works best in at another event like a lunch, fete, sale of work. Ask local shops to donate prizes. Similar to a lucky dip, sell tickets, each linked to a particular prize, put tickets in a box, shake well, and have them take that dip.

Treasure Hunt - Organise a treasure hunt with clues laid in advance. A car treasure hunt is very popular.

Valentine’s Day - Soft music, velvet hearts, wine and chocolate. You get the idea. Hold your own Valentine Evening.

Wine Tasting - Hold a wine-tasting evening. Ask local supermarkets and off-licenses to donate some bottles for the tasting, and sell any bottles left over at a small profit.