With the festive season around the corner, we wanted to provide you with some fun and creative fundraisers. Our Charity elves have even included a checklist with each idea to help you make your event totally tree-mendous!
Where required, don’t forget to apply for a street collection licence from your local council as soon as possible, as these are limited.
If you would like any help or guidance on any of the ideas below, please contact your local Charity Regional Fundraiser.
And remember to post your activity on social media – tagging us in – so we can support your un-fir-gettable festive event!
Festive Fundraising Ideas for Fire Stations
- Santa’s Grotto
- December Ascender
- Sleigh Collection
- Christmas Fire Engine Pull
- Santa Dash
- Supermarket Collection
- 24 Days of Activity
- Christmas Fair
- Wrapping Station
- Raffles, Tombola and Quizes
- Unwanted Christmas Gifts
Santa’s Grotto
Bring some Christmas joy to the little ones this festive season and invite families to a Drive Through Santa’s Grotto. Festively decorate the appliance bay, get the Christmas music on and have the Crew dress up as elves, reindeers and, of course, Santa.
Tips for organising a Drive Through Santa’s Grotto
- Promote the event to all your local community groups: cubs/brownies, dance/gymnastics/sports/martial arts classes, primary schools
- Make it a real community effort, by asking local businesses to donate selection boxes, books, soft toys
- Organise a one-way route for cars to drive into Santa’s grotto to see Santa
- Everyone can stay in their vehicle – This could be of particular benefit for children with additional needs, who may not feel comfortable visiting a traditional grotto.
- Santa passes a gift to the children with the help of the elves
- Have a 2nd stopping point with a donation bucket, Just Giving link and QR code, and contactless payment machine etc. so all means of payment is available – this can be before or after entering
- You can include a post box, so children can post their letters to Santa
- As an additional fundraiser, Mrs Claus could provide refreshments, “drive-by” style!
December Ascender
We’re asking fire and rescue service teams from across the UK to take part in their own December Ascender event. The concept is simple: one team of six, a ladder pitched to the second floor and one hour exactly. Set up your fundraising page and get climbing to raise vital funds for our charity.
Rules
- The event will run from 1 December – 31 December 2024. Note: The challenge can only be re-scheduled to January if postponed due to work, weather-related or unforeseen circumstances, provided we are informed by the date you would have taken part
- You must register for the challenge to take place on a date in December 2024
- Only one person is allowed on the ladder at a time. If you descend an additional ladder, you must use only one to ascend and one to descend
- An adjudicator from a different station must record and confirm the number of ascents achieved and sign to verify
- Wholetime, retained/on-call and volunteer teams are invited to take part
- Please submit your return to December Ascender – Fire Fighters Charity.
- All fundraising must be banked by 15th January 2025.
Ladder
- You can use any ladder pitched to the second floor.
The Challenge
- 1 team of up to 6
- 1 Hour – You have no more than one hour to complete the most ascents with only one person on the ladder at any time.
- 1 Ladder
- Ladder pitched to the 2nd floor
- You must be registered via our website to participate
- Set up a JustGiving Page and gather sponsorship to support Fire Fighters Charity.
Prizes
- Prize for the most money raised
- Prize for most ascents
- Announced in January 2025
Sleigh collection
This popular fundraiser is back for another year!
Tips for organising a Christmas engine or sleigh collection
- Choose your dates/places carefully, around your local community, a busy high street, or a shopping centre – on or just after pay day is a good date!
- Plan and promote your route on social media, in the local press or radio so the community know when to look for you
- Or tap into someone else’s festive event as an “added attraction”
- Make a sleigh, or decorate your engine as festive as possible – there’s no such thing as “over the top”
- Have some Christmas music playing, to attract attention
- Make sure you have plenty of bucket collectors on hand – antlers or Santa hats are a must!
Christmas Fire Engine Pull
The Christmas Engine Pull is a great variation on the traditional fundraiser!
Tips for organising an Engine Pull
- Choose your dates/places carefully, like a busy high street or shopping centre near to pay-day
- Decorate your engine as festive as possible – there’s no such thing as “over the top”
- Have some Christmas music playing, to attract attention
- Commandeer 9 willing “pullers”, or have a team to swap as you go if it’s a long-distance
- Adorn the pullers with antlers, ensuring the front “reindeer” also has a red nose!
- Make sure you have plenty of bucket collectors on hand
Santa Dash
Whether you join a Santa Dash or your local park run, a sponsored run is a great way to have fun whilst keeping active. You can choose your distance, meaning every age can take part, and costumes are absolutely necessary!
Supermarket Collection
Please note: You’ll need to book these well in advance to get slots during November & December.
- Ask as many locations as possible
- Don’t just stick to supermarkets, ask discount stores too, such as Iceland, B&M, The Range, Home Bargains, Pound shops
- We can provide a template letter for you to use, simply ask our Customer Care Team.
- If doing a bag pack, try to have 1 bag-packer per till, perhaps family and friends could help?
24 Days of Activity
As an individual or team (get your colleagues, friends, and family involved!) set yourselves the challenge of completing something every day for 24 days. Whether it’s squats, however many miles of running, flights of stairs, laps of the drill yard, etc., the ideas are endless. You can control how challenging your targets are, such as whether they increase every day, and inspire others to get involved too.
If you need some help or are unsure of what to do, we’ve created two options; a downloadable Activity Advent Calendar with lots of fun and simple activities you can do by yourself, or a downloadable Fitness Advent Calendar you can put up in the station and follow along together with your watch. Or get in touch with your local Regional Fundraiser for some inspiration.
Christmas Fair
This is the perfect festive activity to bring the community together around the holidays.
Tips for organising a Christmas Fair
- Choose a date and publicise it well in advance to give people the opportunity to add it to their diaries
- Ask for donations from local businesses for refreshments, prizes
- Invite local crafters and makers to take a stall
- Charge £10 or £20 depending on the size of your event
- Ensure there is only one stall per product e.g. preserves, handbags, jewellery, wood carving etc. to ensure stalls aren’t competing with each other
- Include your own fundraising stalls, such as a tombola, raffle, cake stall, or name the cuddly toy game
- Ask a few local community groups (church/WI/Scouts etc.) if they’d like a table to promote their cause, or fundraise, but ensure they DON’T do the same fundraising as you – tombola/raffle etc. as it will dilute your fundraising opportunities
- Have A Santa’s Grotto, complete with Mrs Claus and elves!
- Have a “Stage” area, for local performances, and have a timed programme throughout the day
- Ensure collection buckets are on hand during all displays
Wrapping Station
Does your station have an open day coming up? Or any community events you’re going along to? A simple way to fundraise is by offering your services as an expert gift wrapper! In exchange for donations, offer to wrap gifts – big or small – for your friends, colleagues, or neighbours. You can even offer a brew and a slice of cake, and use to opportunity to engage with members of your community too.
Raffles, Tombolas and Quizzes
- Ask local businesses to donate gifts or voucher (you can either use the vouchers as a prize or buy an item as a prize)
- If holding a raffle you could group lower value items into a “Goody hamper” as one prize
- With a Christmas quiz, make sure the questions cover a variety of Christmas-themed topics to make it inclusive to as many individuals as possible
- Having 20-30 raffle prizes won’t sell more tickets and people get bored waiting for all the numbers to be called/ prizes to be collected. If you have around 5 higher value prizes, consider raffling those and using the others for a tombola (30-50 prizes make a decent tombola) or a “Prize Every Time” 1 gift per gift bag – pay £1, choose a bag
Unwanted Christmas Gifts
Don’t let unwanted Christmas gifts go to waste. Ask colleagues to bring in their unwanted gifts to be used in a raffle or tombola at your next open day.
Whatever you do to support us this Christmas, we want to say a HUGE thank you! With your help, we can continue to be there for our UK fire family now, and in the future.