Community Fundraising
Helping a cause you care about can sometimes seem like a rather daunting task especially for those of us who find it hard enough to organise their own lives, let alone thinking about organising a fundraising event!
It is easy to forget that as part of our social and professional lives we come into contact with many different groups, made up of individuals like us who want to make a difference. Individually it is sometimes hard to muster the resources and skills, however as part of a group one plus one equals three which is why we want to work with your social networks.
This year, Afghanaid is launching in the UK a communities programme and asking supporters to put us in contact with their church, school, mosque or other community group. We have produced letters and resource packs which you can forward on to these groups on our behalf, or pass us their details and we'll contact them directly.
Like most things in life, establishing a personal connection means that people are far more willing to listen to and support us.
Schools
As part of the UK's national curriculum children learn about the developing world and what it means to be a globally aware citizen. Afghanaid has created educational packs which we will be ready to distribute in the new school year and for downloading from our website.These packs will look at the situation in Afghanistan and will use Afghanaid's work as an example of a humanitarian and development agency in a post-conflict country.
Are you a teacher? Doesyour child attend school? Do you have a local school you could approach?
Churches
We will be asking churches to participate in our Harvest appeal. Much of Afghanaid's work focuses on making sure Afghans are able to feed themselves and their families, as well as helping them produce surplus products for market. The appeal will discuss how vulnerable rural Afghans are to malnutrition and hunger periods of up to 6 months in a year in many rural communities and how small interventions such as creating a vegetable plot, and giving women skills in food processing to stock family food for hunger period can reap large benefits.
Do you attend church, are you a member of a church group?
Mosques
During Eid and Ramadan we will be asking for special ‘zakat' donations from Muslim congregations and community centres.
Do you attend a mosque, are you linked to any Islamic community groups?
Afghan and Asian Business
We are working with small/medium Afghan owned businesses in the UK to encourage them to host our collecting tins and talk to their customers about our work.
Are you a business owner who could host a collection tin? Do you use any local shops that are owned or run by members of the Asian and Afghan Community - could you let us know where, be our ambassador?
Are you a member of any other group like the Rotary club or Soroptimist?