Fund raising for Friends of Bwindi

Many visitors to Bwindi go home inspired to raise funds and make a difference to the lives of the people they have met - others decide to do so before they leave for Uganda. Friends and family are often inspired to help too when they hear about the situation of communities in the region.

One of our aims is to support these fund raisers and provide a way for them to contribute to local organisations.

The practicalities of raising and sending funds can be barriers to support. Bank transfer fees are high, making smaller donations impractical. Other potential barriers include the problem of credibility - if you are raising money and asking for donations, you want to be sure that the funds will be used as intended. Organisations with charitable status are subject to statutory regulations which mean that our trustees must do their best to ensure this, and monitoring and feedback are conditions of our funding.

Advantages of fund raising for Friends of Bwindi

Friends of Bwindi monitor the funds that we send to Uganda, very difficult to do as an individual, providing reassurance to fund raisers when they invite friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to make a contribution.

By combining the contributions for supported organisations and sending them a couple of times a year we reduce the amount spent on bank transfer fees, leaving much more for the families and community groups that we support. We do not use your donations to pay bank transfer fees; these are covered by gift aid payments and our own fund raising (eg our ebay account, charity search and shopping service etc), with plenty left over to add to the beneficiary payments!

This means that 100% of your fund raising proceeds will be used in direct support of families and community groups in Uganda - with no percentage for office costs or other overheads!

We are registered with fund raising services such as Everyclick and CharityGiving to help you with your fund raising. These services allow you to set up your own fund raising pages, share the link with friends and enable them to sponsor or donate online and make Gift Aid declarations, adding 28p to every £1 donated by UK taxpayers - or £28 to every £100! These services are similar to some more well-known providers but with much lower overheads for charities (some of the better-known services are run by profit-making companies). Where possible we encourage you to use the CharityGiving pages, as this service is run by a charity and takes only a small percentage of Gift Aid as their fee with no fee for those unable to make a Gift Aid declaration. (We encourage you to use and share the Everyclick link too, for extra fund raising support!)

Fund Raising Ideas

You may find it helpful to tell us about your plans. We can include your fund raising in our website updates and newsletters or help with specific materials such as posters and leaflets.

Even if you don't want us to publicise your event you may find it helpful to tell us about your fund raising, so that your supporters can contact us if they have any questions.

Make a sponsor page on CharityGiving - you can choose to support our general fund or a specific Friends of Bwindi project area (Students and Families/Stay Safe Children Foundation/Bwindi Community Hospital), divide your proceeds between projects or even share them with other charities!
Start a blog or mini website about your fund raising using a free service such as Blogger, Wordpress or Googlesites. Add the link to your charitygiving page, and link from your blog to the donation page too or make a donation button 'widget' on the charitygiving site (if you have problems with this please contact us for support).
Tell us about your fund raising events
Add links to your fund raising page to your email signature
Share it on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and other social networking websites
Share our website address too, so that people can check up on us!
Don't forget to ask your friends to try our Everyclick service for searching the web, and our Buyat shop for their online shopping.
If you have more ideas, questions, or ways we can help your fund raising, please contact us.