Fundraising

There are many great ways to fundraise and reduce the fee that you need to pay to attend the World Scout Jamboree. We hope the information below will help you with your fundraising - it’s up to you how much fundraising you do and how you do it. We’d love to hear what you’re getting up to and how it’s going for you though! 

Resources

We have prepared some things that you might need or find helpful while seeking funding - check out the Resources page.

With many participants in our contingent and a small Contingent Management Team, we have limited capacity to help with your fundraising. We will do our best to support you when you need it though so if you come across something else you need, get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to help you.

Tip: Break it down

When you’re starting to put together your fundraising plan, start by looking at how much you need to fundraise to make your monthly payments. Then think about what activities and/or events you can run and try to estimate how much money they will raise for you. Then you can start putting a plan together and scheduling things in to help you reach your fundraising goal each month.

Tip: Tell your story

Make sure you put lots of effort into telling your story when you can - this is especially important for letters and websites. For example: 

• Why do you want to attend the World Scout Jamboree?

• What excites you about the trip?

• What do you hope to get out of it?

• Is there something about it that will be challenging for you to overcome?

• Is there anything you’re hoping to see or do?

The better you can communicate the value of the trip for you, the more likely people are to donate to you! 

Getting a job

One of the most effective ways to raise money is to get a job if you’re able to. This is because of the guaranteed return for each hour of effort you put in, as well as the number of hours you can be paid for. For example, if you were able to work 8 hours per week on the starting out wage of $18.80, you would earn around $132 per week and $528 per month.

Doing odd jobs

Not able to get a job? You could try doing odd jobs instead! Who do you know that might need a hand tidying up their garage, mowing their lawns, cleaning up their garden, or painting their fence? Talk to your parents for help advertising on social media and Neighbourly or try dropping some fliers to drum up some more business.

Baking

Do you really enjoy baking? Or are you prepared to find a recipe and practice it? Figure out who you can sell your treats to and then bake up a storm! This worked really well for one of our participants from the last World Scout Jamboree - they raised $3000 just by selling baking through their grandparent’s facebook page!

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a way to get money from people you know. Sign up for a page on a fundraising website, such as Givealittle, write about the trip and then share it with your friends and family. Some crowdfunding pages offer rewards for different donations too - are there some creative ways you can say thanks to those who donate to you? Perhaps personalised thank you cards, a postcard, or an opportunity to hear from you about the trip afterwards?

Sponsorship

Why not write a letter to a local business and see if they will partially sponsor you to attend? They might want something in return like sharing their sponsorship on social media or maybe you can share some photos from Poland while wearing some business merch. Just make sure the business aligns with our values!

Sausage Sizzles

Everyone loves a good old sausage sizzle! In a place with good foot traffic, you can easily earn a few hundred dollars a day. Get in touch with your local Mitre10, Bunnings, The Warehouse or supermarket to arrange one. A lot of places now will even supply the barbecue for you and some will even donate the sausages - otherwise it’s worth talking to your local supermarket and butchers who might be able to help you too. 

Raffle

Visit or write to some of the local shops around your community and see if they will contribute any items to a raffle. Then start selling tickets to your friends, family, teachers or colleagues of your family members!

Movie Night

Get in contact with your local cinema or contact your Group Leader to book out the Scout Hall for the night. Find a popular movie to play and sell some popcorn, fizzy drinks, lollies and fruit to earn some extra money while you have a captive audience! Sign your friends, family, and Scout Group up and you’ll make money while they have a great time.

Make a Calendar (or something else!)

Are you creative at all? Make a local Scout Calendar with some photos from your Unit, Group, or Zone. See if someone in your family will let you use the work colour printer, laminator, and binder to get them made and sell them to friends or family. Or take photos while we’re away to make a calendar as a crowdfunding reward!

Tshirt Sponsors

Grab an appropriate tshirt and see how many people you can get to make a donation to add their name to your list of supporters! If you can convince 30 people to pay $20, you’ll get $600 minus the cost of printing their names. Or at $30 per name, you’ll get $900 minus the cost of printing.

Applying for funding

There are organisations who manage funds to donate to community organisations, as well as some groups who sometimes choose to donate to community groups and might help you with your fundraising. Here are a few that you might find useful:

• Community foundations

• Gaming Trusts

• Masonic Trusts (in particular a couple of youth-focused trusts) or try to find a local Masonic Lodge

• Rotary Clubs

• Lions Clubs

• Generosity New Zealand has a funding database which you may be able to access at your local library or through your school

Organisations like trusts will have a formal application process and require you to apply for funding. On the other hand, clubs may not regularly donate so may not have a process and it’ll be up to you to approach them, communicate why you’re looking for help, and politely ask if they would be willing to support you (it’s possible they may offer help other than a financial donation). Try to make sure that you’ve read any information available about what they will/won’t support before contacting them so you can tailor you approach to them. 

In either case, it’s unlikely that you would be successful applying for/requesting the whole fee amount. You’ll probably be more successful if you apply for a smaller amount, e.g. $5000, and talk about how you’re working hard to fundraise the rest too. In some cases, you might also be better to ask for funding for specific parts of your fee which relate to purposes they prefer to fund - have a look at the fee breakdown in the financial support letter to help you.

Some things to look out for in particular:

• Make sure that you are in the geographic area that they support (or that they are local to you if it’s a club without a defined funding process) and match their criteria for providing funds to you

• Check their criteria for things like whether exclude international travel or equipment (e.g. uniforms) that is kept by you

• You may find that if an organisation does decide to support you, they won’t send you the money directly but will prefer to pay it to us. Keep us in the loop and we’ll work with you to make that work.