Fundraising for our charity
We need your help. Like many charities, we rely heavily on fundraising and individual donations, but unlike other charities, many dismiss us as a branch of government. We’re not. In fact we’re a small, independent charity and we work purely for the people of South Gloucestershire. As a local business, we hope you’ll want to help us.
Anyone can access our services and come back as many times as they need to for free advice on any topic. Our work really does make a difference to people’s lives. We’re helping over 7,300 people a year with over 33,000 issues, putting £15 million a year back into the pockets of local people who need it most.
There’s many ways you can help us:
Fundraising for schools
Are you a local school in South Gloucestershire and would you like to fundraise for us?
How much can your South Gloucestershire school raise for us for this academic year? £500? £1,000? £2,000? Or even £5,000?
If you would like to get your class or school involved, just email us for you a fundraising thermometer poster to colour in as you go and share your fundraising journey as a school together.
You’ll also find below a poster below to put up on your class noticeboards with your target, a poster with ideas on how everyone can fundraise for us as an individual or collectively, and a class fundraising award poster to celebrate your achievements – you may like to do this at the end of every term or at the end of the academic year.
Please let us know if you’re taking part and we’d love to see photos of your fundraising activities and how you’re doing on your fundraising target. We’re happy to support you every step of the way – we’d love to promote your activities on social media!
Hall of Fame
Huge thanks to St Anne’s CE VC Primary school in Oldland Common who have chosen us as one of their charities to support for 2023/24, raising funds for us on their non-uniform day in July.
If you want to get involved, just download our resources here:
Schools Fundraising Goal Poster
Best Fundraising Class Certificate
(NB: The full images on the posters will show fully when in print mode)
Wondering about something smaller?
Perhaps you want to fundraise for us as a class or suggest us for a fundraising school concert, a dress down day or a bake sale coming up. Your teacher could email us so we can provide you with bunting, posters or leaflets to help you along the way.
Just email us for more information on how your school can do their bit in South Gloucestershire today.
Fundraising for Businesses
Are you a local business looking to help raise money for our local charity?
Ways you can help:
1. Donate directly
2. Nominate us as your Charity of the Year or social corporate responsibility giving
Lots of local business funding is done by word of mouth and the larger charities are sometimes the most obvious choice. When your chance to nominate a charity to give to comes up, please nominate us! Don’t forget that you need to nominate our full name “Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire” (and not just “Citizens Advice”) for us to receive the donations.
3. Host a networking event, presentation or talk for us
Perhaps you attend local business breakfasts, network at women’s groups or host interest events? Why not invite us along to do a presentation about our work as a charity or find out what it’s like to be a Citizens Advice advisor? We would be happy to do a short talk or presentation for you.
4. Gather colleagues to enter a sponsored challenge as a work team
Do something social with colleagues and raise money for us at the same time. Why not raise sponsorship for us as a work team or department? To find out more visit our Choose Your Challenge page.
If you don’t find anything quite right, why not set your own event up and tell us about it?
Equally, your business would be welcome to sponsor our running merchandise.
5. Ask your HR department to claim back matched funding
If you’ve ever done any volunteering for us (or even collected sponsorship money for us) and work for a larger company, they will probably offer a limited or ongoing financial contribution towards your volunteering or fundraising efforts and match the amount! It’s worth asking your HR department about it as it might not be so obvious. Go to our Matched Funding pages where we tell you a bit more about it and some of the local companies that might offer it.
Example: One of our volunteers is a generalist advisor and recently claimed back some of her hours with her employer, Lloyds Bank. Generously, they have donated £900 towards our work for our volunteer’s amazing efforts, which she can continue to claim back year after year if she keeps volunteering with us!
6. Host a Collection Tin for us in your reception area
If you have an area that is client or customer facing such as a reception desk, waiting room or a retail or cafe space, we would love you to host one of our collection tins to raise cash for us through your customers. You won’t need to do anything – as we’re local we can make sure the funds are collected regularly.
Example: Soft Rock playcafe in Thornbury has been hosting a collection tin at their tills for a number of months.
We also have posters and leaflets to display, letting people know about our daily services to put up. If you would be happy to have one, please phone our Yate office on 01454 334961 or email fundraising@southgloscab.org.uk.
7. Donate a voucher or prize towards a charity raffle
If your business has something to sell, like a product or an experience, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to get in touch or post directly to: Fundraising team, Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire, Unit 1 Badminton Court, Station Road, Yate, BS37 5HZ or email for us to collect locally.
If you are in the building/decorating trade or simply relocating offices, we’d be particularly interested in practical donations towards renovating our new premises.
Example: Tesco and Morrisons Yate, Marshfield Ice Cream have contributed chocolates and fizz and a voucher to some recent prize winners. Swagger gift shop in Chipping Sodbury have kindly donated gift bags to sell to raise further funds.
8. Have our logo on your Christmas cards
Why not make a donation to our cause and include our logo on your company Christmas cards for 2024? It looks great for your social corporate responsibility and supports our work financially and raises awareness about our work for all your customers – Win win?
9. Something bigger
If you’re interested in match funding for future appeals or contributing significantly to a face-to-face outreach session in your neighbourhood or even place of work, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Fundraising in our neighbourhoods
Supporting our local communities across South Gloucestershire is what we do. But as a small charity covering the breadth of the county from Severn Beach right across to Marshfield as well as the outskirts of Bristol such as Longwell Green and Filton, we have a lot to do to raise awareness and much needed funds for our work.
So whatever age you are and whatever your interests or abilities, we know you can help. Perhaps its having a coffee morning, suggesting your local pub quiz to raise funds for us, hiring a hall and having a clothes swap or putting our name forward for your local choir concert – we’d love for you to help make it happen.
Nominate us
There are lots of ways of putting our name forward to win funds without actually needing to donate yourself. Go to our Nominate Us page to find out how with a few clicks you could help us win important donations!
Local Girlguiding
We know that for a number of local Brownie and Guide units, there is a chance to complete your charity badge. If you’re interested in learning more about what we do for your badge or just to raise money for us, we can help. We would happily send you some information or come and do a talk in your South Gloucestershire unit.
Matched funding with your employer
If you’ve ever done any volunteering for us (or even collected sponsorship money for us) and work for a larger company, they will probably offer a limited or ongoing financial contribution towards your volunteering or fundraising efforts and match the amount! It’s worth asking your HR department about it as it might not be so obvious. Go to our Matched Funding pages where we tell you a bit more about it and some of the local companies that might offer it.
To see what other people have been up to locally, visit our Community Fundraising News page.
Want to start planning something regularly for us? If you would like to play an active part in our community fundraising for Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire, please contact us here we can be in touch.
Make us your Charity of the Year
Whether you have an official AGM for charity giving or a good social rep who organises charity collection pots – we would love you to consider us as your Charity of the Year this year, or at your next event, no matter how small.
NB: Please donate to “Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire” rather than the national umbrella charity “Citizens Advice” which can’t be diverted to us.
Other ways to help
Enter a running challenge as a work team
We have some opportunities where you can raise sponsorship for us as a work team. You can register charity places to run for us at the Bath Half Marathon in October 2024 or at the Great Bristol Run in May 2024. To find out more visit our Choose Your Challenge page.
Host a Collection Tin for us
If you run a retail or cafe space, we would love you to host a collection tin by your till or public area to raise cash for us through your customers. You won’t need to do anything – as we’re local we can make sure the funds are collected every month.
We also have posters and leaflets to display, letting people know about our daily services. If you would be happy to have one, please phone our Yate office on 01454 334961 or email the charity at fundraising@southgloscab.org.uk.
Raffle Prizes
We always appreciate raffle prizes to raise further funds and would love any contributions – a gift or voucher. If you have something you would like to donate please post to: Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire, Unit 1 Badminton Court, Station Road, Yate BS37 5HZ or email for us to collect locally.
