Theme: Fundraising by charity appeals in the UK . The types of charitable cause in the UK today.
Lexical area: Money and related vocabulary: raise, donate, earn, sell, spend, and fundraising : sponsorship
Cross curricular links: Personal and social education, citizenship.

Instructions for assistants in italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
This is a series of activities based on a table of information describing the 3 main charity appeals in the UK this Autumn. These appeals have direct relevance and interest for young people and in the UK there has been a massive response. Since the 1980s the participation in charitable work and fundraising has quadrupled. Charity events are more high profile and charities have to be far more aggressive in their advertising campaigns (see below for extra suggestions on this topic): DR Barnardo’s campaign using children’s heads on adult bodies in grim situations was heavily attacked and applauded.

• Higher levels can be given the word 'fundraising' and asked to brainstorm other words related or given the key words from the lesson and asked to guess what the lesson might be about or asked to write sentences using the words: fundraising, donate, charity, raise money, campaign.
  
  Lower levels can be given an advert for a charity if you have one and asked to think of words they associate with it or you could go straight in to the first task.

1. Charities
You could give out task 1 and give the students a couple of moments to think the questions before getting them to share what they know in pairs. Then have a quick chat about it as a class.

Task 1 Charities

• Have you ever heard of the following organisations?
  
  • Save the Children
  • The Red Cross
  • Amnesty International
  • Oxfam
  • The World Wildlife Fund

• What do they do? What have they got in common?

2. Fundraising in your country
The first part of this task could be used for open class discussion to get students thinking about the subject. Then for the second part they could work in groups and you could see which group can come up with the most ideas for raising money.

Task 2 Fund raising in your country

• Do you know the names of any charities in your country?

• Do any of them work with young people?

• Have you ever been involved in raising money for a good cause?

• Many charities advertise in newspapers and magazines. Think of other ways they might use to get support and to ask for donations.

3. Read and find out
This is a reading task. give the students the task part before you give them out the text and get them to try to predict what the answers might be. Then give them the reading text to check to see if they were right. There is a quick post reading discussion task which they could do in pairs so that they can exchange opinions about the content of the text.

Task 3 Read and find out

• 2 funny things people in the UK do for charity

• 2 charity appeals which asked people to change their clothes

• 2 different things the charities might sell to raise money

• 2 groups of people who really need help in the UK today

• Which of these words might best describe the UK people’s way of raising money?:
  
  • boring
  • fun
  • strange
  • weird
  • humorous
  • exciting
  • inventive
  • daring
  • predictable

4. Sponsorship
Work through the introduction to this task with the students to make sure they understand the concept of sponsorship as it may not be something they do in their country. Put the students in pairs or groups to look at the task. You could tell them that they have to choose three from the list and justify why they would do those three rather than any of the others.

Task 4 Sponsorship
Many charity appeals involve sponsorship. Someone promises to do something like walk a long way, swim 200 lengths or jump out of a plane and other people sponsor them. They say 'If you do this swim I will pay you 50p for every length you swim' or 'I will pay you £2 if you jump out of a plane/ sing in public'. Many schools have sponsored spelling, swims, walks and football matches.

• Which of the following things would you do to raise money for a charity?
  
  • Run a marathon
  • Cook a meal for the whole class
  • Do a bunjy jump
  • Do a parachute jump
  • Swim in the North Sea in January (recently called “splashing for cash”!)
  • Eat as much pizza as you can
  • Sit in a cage with a lion
  • Have all your hair cut off
  • Walk 30km
  • Sing a song on TV
  • Learn a new dance craze
  • Walk on hot coals
  • Have a telephone conversation in English with a real English person

• Which good cause would you give your money to? Why?

5. Tournaments
There are some examples here of types od tournaments that have been used to raise money in the UK. You may have to explain what 'Pop Idol' is. Get students to work in groups or pairs to do this task. If it is possible you could even use it a as a project and get the students to raise some money for a charity.

Task 5 Tournaments

• Many schools and companies or work places organise tournaments to raise money.
  
  • Cake baking competitions (the cakes are sold for charity)
  • Five-a-side football (sponsor a team to win)
  • School 'Pop Idol' competition (pay to come and watch)
  • Design a T-shirt competition (pay to see the fashion show)
  • Computer game competition (pay to participate)
  • Wear something silly competition (pay to participate)

• Do you like competitions?

• Would you participate in any of the competitions listed above?

• What sort of competitions could you organise in your school?

6. Dress codes
This is a discussion task that could be used either in groups, pairs or even with the whole class together. It might be interesting for students to hear your opinions too as this will show them how the UK differs or how it is similar to their own country.

Task 6 Dress codes
Jeans for jeans and Strip4shelter ask people to throw out their usual dress rules. Many charity events ask people to abandon their usual reserve or their usual habits. People in the UK find it funny to break rules like this. Many of these social rules and habits are part of an unspoken code of behaviour.

• What dress rules exist in your country?

• Are there dress rules at your school or place of work?

• Have you ever broken a dress rule? What happened?

• Do your parents or grandparents think certain types of clothing should be worn for
  
  • school
  • work
  • weddings
  • funerals
  • parties
  • meals out in restaurants
  • other occasions?

• Make a list of any other situations where their might be a dress code (spoken or unspoken).

Internet links

All these excellent sites have real life stories, interesting downloads for schools and quizzes!
http://www.strip4shelter.org.uk
http://www.jeansforgenes.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey

Archive link
Swap a book day is an example of how very effective public campaigns are used in the UK.
Red Nose Day and Show racism the red card are a good follow up to this lesson, covering one appeal in more depth.

BY Clare Lavery