Home / Support Us / Fundraising Ideas
Donate & Fundraise:
Ways in which you can help Wintercomfort
Donate
Make a regular donation
Make a one off donation
Leave a gift in your will
Make your concern for homeless people live on
Gifts of all sizes can make a real difference and will help us transform the lives of homeless people. Many of our supporters leave us something after providing for loved ones.
How to leave a gift in your will
Contact your solicitors and ask them to add a codicil to your existing will, or help you draft a new one, they can advise you on the exact wording.
or visit www.totallyfreewills.co.uk
Ways to leave a gift in your will:
Residuary – this gift is a percentage of your remaining estate once all the expenses, liabilities and other specific gifts have been paid.
Pecuniary – this gift is a specific amount of money.
Specific – this gift is a specific item for example, jewellery or antiques.
You only need to say that you are leaving a gift to Wintercomfort, and include our registered charity number 1003083.
Gift Aid It
Gift Aid explained 
What is Gift Aid?
Gift Aid is a scheme by which you can give a sum of money to charity and the charity can reclaim from the Inland Revenue basic rate tax on your gift.
How much money will Gift Aid add to your donation?
If you Gift Aid your donation, Wintercomfort will receive an additional 28p. We can claim Gift Aid tax relief of 25p on every pound you give. HMRC will also be operating transitional provisions for Gift Aid donations made from 6 April 2008 until 5 April 2011, paying a Government supplement of 3p on every pound you give.
For example, if you give £10 using Gift Aid in the tax year that gift is worth £12.82. At no cost to you.
How to make payments
You can make payments by cash, cheque, postal order, direct debit, standing order, debit or credit card or even in a foreign currency.
Subject to a few rules, you can give any amount, large or small, regular or one-off, and Wintercomfort can reclaim the tax.
Higher rate taxpayers
Higher rate taxpayers are eligible to reclaim 25p from the taxman for every £1 donated to charity by including details of their donations on their Self Assessment form. This rebate can be donated directly to Wintercomfort on the same form and if the donor chooses to do so it can be increased further through Gift Aid.
Fundraise
Individuals
Why not organise your own event to raise money for Wintercomfort, either with friends, family, or through your community group, choir or gym?
There are some ideas below. Just remember – the only limit is your imagination, and every penny you raise will help Wintercomfort support a homeless person in the rebuilding of their life.
Break a record . . .
. . . and ask people if they will sponsor you to do it! Visit the Guiness Book of Records website www.guinnessworldrecords.com and either go for a new record, or think of a wacky idea that hasn’t been done before!
Pull a cracker for Crisis!
Hold a special Christmas dinner for friends or family, either before or after Christmas. Ask everyone to make a donation (say, £10) in return for your culinary skills. You can pull a cracker for Wintercomfort at home or at work!
Hold an auction
Do you know any celebs who might offer a signed t-shirt, or companies willing to donate prizes for a charity auction night for your friends and family? Or go for the “auction of promises” route, where donors offer their own time and expertise.
Run, walk, cycle . . .
There are sports events taking place throughout the year, from half-marathons to cycle rides. There’s sure to be one near you – sign up and raise money for Wintercomfort at the same time!
Fancy dress at the pub
Hold a fancy dress evening at the local bar or pub and ask everyone to make a donation to attend. For example, why not ask people to dress up as a London Underground station?
Schools
Hold a cake sale
Organise a dress down day
Hold a collection at your Christmas carol concert or play
Sponsored event – silence, spell, walk, run, swim, dance
Hold a fundraising Summer Fair
Collect your coppers
Organise a school dance with money from each ticket going to Wintercomfort
Organise a raffle and sell raffle tickets
Organise a charity concert or talent competition
At Work
Hold a cake sale – what better for your afternoon mug of tea?
Organise a dress down (or dress up) day
Hold a collection at your Christmas party or team lunch
Hold a promise auction in your office, wouldn’t it be great for someone else to do your filing for a week?
Trading Places – swap jobs with a colleague for a day or a week
Office Juke-box – set up your i-pods and pay-per-play
Collect your coppers – spare change makes a big difference
Secret Santa – give your Christmas donations rather than send cards and gifts at work
Donate the Last Hour 2009’s pay to wintercomfort – this is easy to arrange through your payroll department or through Payroll Giving
Payroll Giving
Simple, convenient and tax effective
When you give through your payroll, your donation is deducted from your payroll before you pay tax. It costs only £8 for every £10 you donate. If you pay a higher rate of tax, only £6 is deducted from your pay, the other £4 is paid by the tax man.
Payroll giving is the most tax effective way of making a donation to charity.
How you help us
Giving regularly through your pay allows us to plan for the future. It means we can work on long-term projects and carry on delivering life-changing services throughout the year.
How does it work?
Ask your payroll depatment for a payroll giving form. If your company does not currently have a payroll giving scheme, encourage them to become Geared for Giving and drop us an email to let us know you’d like to explore other ways to give.
For employers
If you don’t have a payroll giving scheme in place but want to find out about it, visit the Payroll Giving Centre or become Geared for Giving
Through your place of worship
The support of religious organisations from all faiths plays a vital part in helping us continue with our work transforming the lives of homeless people.
How you can raise money
Hold a collection for Wintercomfort
Organise a Sleep Over for the children in your parish
Organise a coffee morning
Raise money from carol singing or a carol concert
Organise a sponsored walk in your local area
Organise a Wintercomfort stall at your church fete
This list is by no means exhaustive, and we are always happy to discuss your ideas with you. We can provide support throughout your fundraising, from helping with initial ideas to providing the materials to help make your fundraising a success.
Any help you can give us will be gratefully received, and will go directly towards helping the vulnerable and marginalised people we work with throughout the year.
Giving In Kind
Throughout the year we gratefully accept gifts and donations of:
art materials
good quality and clean clothing
sports wear
toiletries
fresh and preserved food stuffs
plants and gardening tools
musical instruments (especially percussive instruments and guitars)
