United Way of the Tri-Valley Area Employee Campaign Manager

United Way of the Tri-Valley Area

Employee Campaign Manager

FUN-Raising Guide

Thank you for leading the United Way Campaign in your workplace!

We have put together this guide to fun special events that you can use to raise money

towards your goal. Getting together for fun is a good way to remind people about the

United Way campaign, answer questions individuals may have,

and add to employee payroll contributions.

Volunteer Day

Employees who give at or above a certain level are rewarded with eight hours they can use volunteering in the

community any way they wish.

Paper Airplane Contest

Have a paper airplane contest with an entrance fee going to United Way and prizes awarded for longest and

straightest flight.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest

Plan a Halloween theme and hold a pumpkin-carving contest. Find a local business

willing to donate pumpkins for your organization to sell to your employ-

ees. Employees buy pumpkins for their families to use in the contest.

Charge $5 to enter and $1 per vote. Award prizes for various catego-

ries: best traditional, most creative, best effort by group, best effort by

an individual. Throw a party to end your campaign.

Putt-putt Contest

Design and set up your own wacky miniature golf course within your office, lobby or

work area. Charge each person to play and award a prize to the player with the lowest

score. Flag each hole with a fact about United Way.

Food Drive/School Supplies

Conduct a food drive or collect school supplies for needy children as a part of your

campaign. This is a great way for people to participate who may feel like they can't

afford payroll deduction or a monetary gift.

Vacation Day

Employees "buy" a vacation day. When an employee chooses to participate, his or her wages from the day's

work are deducted from his or her paycheck. The organization may choose to match the amount deducted,

with all proceeds donated to the community. Win-win situation: the organization achieves high participation, the

employees get a vacation day, and the community is helped.

Greeting Card Sales

Have staff design various greeting cards (Congratulations, Birthday, Thank you, Anniversary, and personal-

ized) and sell them with proceeds benefiting United Way. Have a contest between different departments to see

which can sell the most! Give prizes on Kick-Off Day.

Casual Day

Sell "casual day" badges allowing employees purchasing them to dress casually on certain days. Employees

purchase badges for $5 each. The badges carry an expiration date, depending on the amount donated.

Designate certain casual days as "crazy days" and encourage your employees to show their wild side: Tues-

day – Stupid Hat Day Wednesday – Outrageous Sock Day Thursday – Sports Team Day.

CEO Car Wash

Employees donate $5 to have their car washed at high noon by their "boss."

Charge for Polaroid photos of the employees and the boss washing their cars.

Charge extra for special services such as interior cleaning and polishing tire rims.

Balloon Pop

Employees donate prizes for this event - a variation of a traditional raffle. Before

filling a balloon with helium, put a note inside with the name of a prize. Employees

pay $1 to buy a balloon and pop it to find out what prize they've won. Include a

United Way fact in each balloon.

Employee Cookbook

Collect and group recipes and household hints into a customized cookbook. Have employees' children create

illustrations for the cover and categories. Print books in-house or by a local business, pro bono. This has been

so popular that some organizations have not been able to fill all requests. Plan for an enthusiastic response.

Potluck Luncheon

Have employees bring a dish and then charge $3-$5 to each lunch. You may want to set a

theme such as Italian Food, Mexican Food, International, Vegetarian, etc. Don’t forget

desserts!

Paycheck "Pocket Change"

For a period of time, employees donate any change above an even dollar from their

paychecks.

Spelling Bee

Organize a spelling bee with participants paying an entry fee. Have other employees pay to place bets on the

winner. Award the winners with a special incentive.

Coin War

Set up large, empty bottles for each department or floor in the cafeteria. Have employees drop their spare

change into the bottle. Coins are positive, while paper money is negative. Employees can sabotage other bot-

tles by dropping paper money into them. The department with the most money in their bottle wins, with the

money going to United Way.

Lunch Box Auction

Have employees create gourmet lunches to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Give prizes

for the most creative, nutritious, elegant or humorous.

Karaoke Party

Have participants pay to enter the contest or pay to have company executives sing the song of their

choice. Have costumes and props available.

Nacho Party

Plan an afternoon to sell nachos or popcorn to interested employees in your break room. Employees pay $2 for

each serving with all proceeds benefiting the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area.

Thank you Gram

This is a great way for your employees to raise money for United Way and also say thanks to a colleague for

their hard work or friendship.

 Decide on a product you would like to sell such as flowers, candy, office supply baskets, coffee mugs

with hot chocolate or instant coffee inside, bags of cookies or snack mix, balloons etc.

 Recruit a committee of delivery people (can be your campaign committee)

 Put out an email or memo to all employees with an order form telling them that they can purchase a spe-

cial thank you gift and have it delivered to their own special person in the office.

 Make sure you charge enough to make a profit which will be included in your Special Events money for

your campaign.

 Pick a special day and time to have your team deliver the gifts to the recipients.

 Attach a note with the gift explaining that this gift will also help provide funding for solutions to UWTVA’s

most pressing issues, include the name of the person who purchased the gift.

Cook Off

You undoubtedly have a few amateur chefs on your staff who love to cook. Have a cook-off featuring the food

of your choice – could be lasagna, pies, casseroles, chili, soup, cake, barbeque, cookies or candy and the list

could go on forever. Have your committee set up the rules of the cook-off being very specific about ingredients,

amounts, time limits, etc. as well as what qualities you are looking for along with the judging criteria (hottest,

spiciest, creative, healthiest, etc.).Each participant could pay an entry fee to compete (optional). Have all of the

food prepared and completed by noon. Have employees sample the food and vote for the best one. Provide

ballots and a ballot box for voting. Award prizes to the winner and serve the food as a luncheon. You could

add other items such as carrot sticks, salad, relish trays and drinks to complete the meal. Charge employees

for the meal with proceeds going toward your special event United Way campaign.

Baby Baby who are you?

Ask employees to bring a baby picture of themselves, Display the pictures in the break room

or in a display case if you have one. Number each picture. Create a voting ballot with the pic-

ture number and a line for each. Include the rules of the game and the potential prizes on

the ballot. The voter will identify the employee and record them on a ballot. Include a list of

participating employees to match up. The voter will pay an entry fee for each ballot ($1 each,

five votes for $4 – or whatever you choose). You can vote as many times as you wish. The

person who gets all the answers correct wins a prize. If there are multiple winners the names

will be drawn out of a hat for prizes.

Silent Auction

A silent auction is always a simple way to raise money and have a lot of fun too. Ask employees to donate

items to be sold at your silent auction.

Suggestions for items:

 Baked item (cake, pie, cookies, lasagna, cinnamon rolls, banana or zucchini bread)

 Services such as clean your house, wash your windows, mow your

lawn, clean your garage, handyman services.

 Hand crafted items such as quilts, pillows, bird house, wood working, jewelry, painting or art work, pottery,

ceramics, wreaths.

 Items can be purchased such as gift certificate for a massage, gift card, tea set, CDs, DVDs, dolls.

 Put items on display for a few days in a secure area.

 Provide a bid sheet for each item with a full description (including limitations or exclusions) with lines for

each bid. We suggest bids be in a minimum of $1 increments.

 Post the deadline for bidding and make sure someone is there to shut down the bidding. The time of the

deadline should be announced at about 30 minutes prior with a page or email to everyone.

 Plan a luncheon or potluck and announce the winner after the meal.

Book Sales

Invite employees to donate books they have read and get great deals from other employees. Encourage em-

ployees to bring their donations in early. Sell paperback for $1 and hard cover for $2. Any books left over can

be given to Literacy Volunteers.

Cake Walk

Have employees donate cakes or baked goods. Place numbered pieces of paper on

floor corresponding to the number of cakes or baked goodies in event. Play music like

musical chairs and when music stops, draw a number from a jar and the person standing

on that number wins their choice of goody. Charge an entry fee for those participating

say $1 to $3 per game with all proceeds benefiting the United Way.

Senior Managers Serve as Chefs at a Kickoff Barbecue

Let them serve a pancake breakfast, burger-fry, bake-off or ice cream social.

Give out "survival packets" containing antacids, lemon-lime soda and United Way information flyers.

Office Treasure Hunt

Organize an office treasure hunt. Use United Way oriented “clues” to direct your curious co-workers to a “prize”

hidden in the office.

Funniest Home Videos

Encourage employees to bring in their funniest videos or to create new ones. Allot a time for showing videos.

Establish a small entry fee. Funniest video wins grand prize of a donated DVD player.

United Way trivia contest

Distribute e-mail or printed questions about United Way or an agency every day for a week. Those completing

all the questions go in a raffle drawing.

Brown Bag Lunches

Invite an agency speaker to give a lunch-time workshop on a topic of interest. Contact

United Way at 778-5048 to schedule.

Company Comedy

Have employees bring in their favorite jokes. Combine all the jokes into one volume.

Sell the books at a comedy-themed lunch hour.

Team Fitness Challenge

Break participants into teams, or have them compete individually based on numbers.

Each participant determines how much s/he wants to lose during a determined amount

of time and for each pound s/he puts $5 into a pot. Each person weighs in. Each day

there could be special lunches planned and motivational quotes posted around in sup-

port of the efforts and as a reminder. On the last day everyone weighs in again. For

every pound lost they receive $5. All left over money goes to the United Way.

Prizes and Incentives

 Departmental pizza party

 Movie tickets

 Parking spaces

 Company promotional items

 A travelling trophy or funny item (like a giant stuffed lizard) that travels to the winning dept. or an individual

your campaign identifies as going above and beyond each year

 Sleep in late or leave early coupons

 Lunch with the boss

 Dress down days

This guide to fun-raising ideas was compiled by the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area. It is important to acknowl-

edge, however, the significant contributions to this guide from United Ways across the country.

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