Every year, our supporters do the most amazing things to raise money for Friends for Leisure. Every penny makes a huge difference to lives of children and young people with additional needs across Cheshire East. We raise funds from a variety of groups and organisations to make sure the charity isn’t over reliant on one source. That could include you!
Find out more about the many ways you can help local children with additional needs feel less lonely and enjoy fun and friendship:
Individuals
As an individual you can be as imaginative and wacky as you like to raise funds for Friends for Leisure! Any idea is possible – just get in touch with us and we can help you get everything in place to make sure you are safe, successful and have great fun!
A few ideas to get you thinking though….
Give it up – alcohol, social media, chocolate…you choose and get sponsored for it!
Challenge yourself – it could be a 5 hour danceathon! Or for an even bigger challenge join one of our UK or overseas adventure challenges, in conjunction with Global Adventure Challenges http://www.globaladventurechallenges.com
Save your pennies in one of our Friends for Leisure change boxes – get in touch and we’ll post one out to you.
Schools, Colleges and Universities
Friends for Leisure already works closely with lots of local schools, colleges and universities through our Volunteering Programme. However, we’d love to get you involved with our fundraising efforts too if you can.
We can integrate fundraising with the opportunity to promote our volunteering opportunities as well as disability awareness in assemblies or at events if this is of interest.
What could you do? Anything that children and teachers are excited and interested in! A non-uniform day, a sponsored silence, a disco – whatever works best for you!
Contact us to chat more on 01260 275333 or info@friendsforleisure.org.uk
Businesses and Employees
We’d love for you to become an official ‘Business Buddy’ of Friends for Leisure. By working together with us in one or more of these ways you’ll be showing your local community how caring and considerate your company is, bring staff members together to boost morale and encourage team-work, as well as benefit from increased publicity and networking:
- One-off or monthly donations
- Tax-effective payroll giving
- Staff fundraising in the workplace e.g. cake sales, sponsored challenges, team events
- Donate a Day’s Wages
- Staff volunteering
- In-kind donations e.g. free use of facilities, business expertise etc.
- Charity of the Year partnerships
- Displaying Friends for Leisure collection boxes by your Point of Sale / reception desk etc.
To find out more why not download our Business Buddies brochure here or contact us for a chat on 01260 275333 or by email info@friendsforleisure.org.uk.
Community Groups
Friends for Leisure have been amazed by the support and generosity of our local communities. From sports clubs to Girl Guides and Scouts, Rotary clubs to Churches, we couldn’t be more grateful for the phenomenal lengths you go to to raise funds for our young people.
We welcome any ideas that you and your group may have, so contact us on 01260 275333 or info@friendsforleisure.org.uk to tell us your plans. We can provide materials too – posters, leaflets, collecting buckets – to help with your event.
Students from King’s School, Macclesfield, supported Friends for Leisure in 2022, raising a fantastic £2,359. This helped towards funding our Macclesfield youth group, drama club and bowling sessions.
Local business Life & Soul Ltd has raised almost £4,000 for Friends for Leisure, culminating in a London to Paris Cycling Challenge in September 2023!
The Congleton Rotary Club recently supported us with their Congleton Swimathon in 2026 where half of the sponsorship money will be donated to Friends for Leisure.
Friends for Leisure events
We organise a range of events throughout the year that you can come and join in. We advertise these on our Facebook page so make sure you like and follow www.facebook.com/Friends.for.Leisure/ to keep you informed of what’s on!
Every December staff, volunteers, registered young people and members of the local community join us for an afternoon of carol singing at John Lewis, Cheadle. It is one of our favourite events and makes everyone feel festive! We take collection buckets and last year raised a fantastic £352.15!
Also in the run-up to Christmas we gather a team of ‘elves’ to help Santa as he visits children in the Congleton and Handforth areas on his sleigh. Our door-to-door collections on these evenings last year raised over £600! It is a wonder to see the excitement in children’s eyes as they get to meet Santa!
Volunteering
We are always on the lookout for fundraising volunteers to help us generate much needed income to continue help the hundreds of disabled children we work with annually.
From helping to promote events on social media to bucket collections and bag packing; attending cheque presentations to administration duties in our office – there are endless opportunities to help.
All you need to do is complete the Fundraising Volunteer Application Form and email it to info@friendsforleisure.org.uk. You can download our role description to see more about what it means to be a fundraising volunteer!
