Student Group Fundraising

Why Fundraise?

Fundraising is about more than just the money: it's the experience you have, friends you make and causes you fall in love with along the way. 

There are so many ways to raise money at York that could suit you as an individual or your student group. Whether it's participating to physically challenge yourself or face your fears, or perhaps fundraise for a cause you're really passionate about. Whatever the reason may be, you can gain a host of professional skills along the way such as relationship building and communication, and also make a huge impact to local, national or international charities too. 

Who can I Fundraise for?

The law that applies to Students' Unions and our groups dictates that we cannot donate money to other charities or organisations.

Don't let this put you off! This doesn't mean you can't fundraise for a worthy cause, it just means you need to make sure you follow our processes so you can stay above the law. The main thing before you get started is to make sure the cause you are fundraising for is a charity registered in England and Wales. 

We are unable to support fundraising activity for Community Interest Companies (CIC), Trade Unions, Businesses and non-profit organisations or Crowdfunding pages such as GoFundMe.

Ways to Fundraise

When it comes to actually raising money for charity, you have a number of different options, and this might come down to the type of fundraising event you are organising. The different options available to you are:

Fundraising for Charity: The Process

Being part of a sports club, network, volunteering project, society or media group provides you with a great opportunity to fundraise for a cause you care about whilst having an audience of supporters who can promote your events, support your ideas and help you reach your fundraising goal. You may choose to fundraise for a charity your group is connected to, for a one-off cause such as Comic Relief or Children in Need, or for the YorkSU Fundraising Beneficiaries. Whichever charity you choose to raise money for, use the information below as a flowchart to guide you through the process.

Raising money for your Student Group

As a ratified student group, you may instead want to raise money for your group's own funds, to use for some new equipment or for a group activity. Whatever the purpose of your fundraising, you can follow the same steps as if you are raising money for charity, and make use of YorkSU's online JustGiving platform or a bucket to take cash donations at your fundraiser. The key difference here that rather than any funds raised being deposited by York SU Finance to your chosen charity, they will instead be deposited into your own funds.

 There are a few top tips you could consider in raising money for your student group:

• Make sure your online fundraising page, or your marketing is personal to your group. You might know why your fundraiser is a worthy cause, but you need to ensure anyone else understands this too. Why do you need to raise money? What will the fundraising enable your group to do? 

• Appeal to Alumni, if you've got social media pages or networks where you are able to connect with York graduates that were directly involved with your group, then make use and share your fundraising goals and donation pages with them.

• Consider utilising the University's crowdfunding platform YuStart or YuFund, which offers developmental grants to groups across the University that you can apply for twice a year (Autumn and Summer).

Ethical Fundraising

Whoever you are fundraising for, your fundraising should always be ethical, and there are certain ways to ensure that it is:

• You should always let your donors know where the money is going e.g. to a specific charity / to an individual / to a York SU group. 

• If you are doing bucket collections, your buckets should be labelled with the charity or group branding. Additionally, your buckets should have a security seal on them. These seals can be picked up from Helpdesk. If the seals become broken during the fundraising process, they are no longer valid. The security seals should be filled out with the charity number and the date on which the funds are being collected.

• If you plan to fundraise on public land you must obtain a permit from the local authority. If you are fundraising for a specific charity, it is the charity’s responsibility to obtain these permits for you. If you are fundraising for your York SU group or campaign, please inform the Fundraising and Volunteering Coordinator.

• You should have information readily available for donors who ask about where their money is going - i.e. you should be able to tell them some facts about the charity/organisation and what it does.

• However, do not make promises that you can’t guarantee with regards to the exact investment of the funds, i.e. do not promise that their money will be used to buy xyz if you do not know this for a fact.