A duck race on Boxing Day? Not a quackpot idea!

Most people are aware of duck races - lots of numbered yellow plastic ducks, each sponsored for perhaps £1 per duck by anyone that your volunteers can persuade to do so, and the sponsor of the winning duck gets a prize. But - with a little ingenuity - the humble duck race can be transformed into a duck festival with even more fundraising opportunities.

And a quacking good idea for Boxing Day!

It's win-win: you get ducks sponsored before the event (funds raised, no matter how many people turn up on the day) and with refreshments (like burgers and hot soup) attractions like a ducky raffle and bran tub and games to occupy the children between races, you have a family-friendly event that's something different from the usual Christmas fare.

You can drum up enthusiasm with duck flags and quackers for the children. Put up some duck bunting, and you can be sure that passers-by (walking off the excesses of Christmas dinner) will want to join in too.

And if you want to raise an extra £1000 or so - why not ask local businesses or local pubs, to sponsor a giant duck for £100 and have a special duck race with a trophy for the winner? It's good PR for businesses, good community involvement for pubs and - precisely because it's daft and it's fun (and it's Christmas) - it appeals.

Of course, not everyone has a convenient stream or river for a duck race - but, whatever your particular fundraising opportunities, we'd say the same principles hold good:

• be different
• be family-friendly - which these days means sensitive to financial constraints

Let's take the Christmas fair - or the Christmas party or Christmas dinner.

Your stalwarts will come along anyway. But can you encourage them to give a bit more? And how can you get more people to come along?

Make sure you give value for money.

Most people will give as a matter of course to a raffle or a tombola - but have lots of good (if inexpensive) prizes rather than dreary bottles of home-made wine; and they'll give more.

Entertain the kids!

Help mum have half-an-hour's breather from the Christmas rush with a cup of tea or a glass of wine (don't forget that refreshments raise funds!)

Put on face painting, an arts and crafts session, or a giant games area which - for a modest sum - will keep the kids amused.

Or have some games of playing card bingo, or beetle drive, which the whole family can enjoy - and, even with refreshments, at much less than the cost of going out to the pizza parlour.

Make a collection...

...because of course Christmas is the time for giving.

Well - you could hire some real reindeer to attract people to your appeal! Or you could just have a poster alongside your charity boxes asking people for pennies in their loose change - and research shows they give much more than that.

Give something back

Indeed the generosity of ordinary people - especially at Christmas - is phenonomal; and even in difficult times. But it can't be taken for granted - and you need to show how much it is valued.

Try giving back that bit of fun, an enjoyable time, even an heroic effort at singing carols in tune! And the more you give, the more you will be given.

All the products mentioned in this article - and lots more besides - are available from the Charnwood Catalogue at www.charnwood-catalogue.co.uk or ring 0800 881 8822 for a free catalogue. More than just a catalogue, we have fundraising information pages on our website - and fundraising ideas throughout our catalogue.

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