TeachingEnglish
      Fundraising UK style

      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


      Fundraising UK style

      This month the UK’s Children in need campaign will be a main event on TV, radio and in many schools and workplaces. Since the 1980s charities, like Children in need have involved more and more people in raising money to help their causes. People of all ages, race and religion are involved and many schools and companies do creative things to find money to help people less fortunate than themselves. Charities have developed shops in many UK high streets and these shops sell goods donated by the general public. Old toys, clothes, books and furniture are not thrown out but donated to a good cause like Cancer research or The British Heart Foundation.

      This Autumn’s main charity campaigns

      Charity 1 Jeans for Jeans: organised by 4 national charities

      • Who are they raising money for?
        • One in every 33 babies in the UK is born with a birth defect. The money raised is used to fund research and to pay for treatment for many people and children
      • How?
        • Everyone across the UK was invited to throw out their usual clothes for one day and wear jeans. They were asked to pay one pound to their school or employer to be able to wear the jeans. Uniforms in schools, police stations and hospitals all over the UK were changed for jeans. People in companies did not wear their usual suits and formal clothes. People could also buy a silly joke book and a T-shirt with Jeans for genes written on it.

      Charity 2 Strip 4 shelter
      • Who are they raising money for?
        • Every 90 minutes, 40 families or individuals are made homeless and over 750,000 children in the UK have either no home or live in bad housing. Some housing might have no inside toilet, no heating or be very damp. The money raised by this campaign pays for a telephone help line called Shelterline which helps homeless people find a new home.
      • How?
        • Working people were asked to donate 90 minutes of their salary. It takes 90 minutes to play a football match. Schools and companies changed their usual dress and paid money to be able to wear their favourite team’s strip or just the team’s colours. They wore wigs, painted their faces and organised football quizzes and football tournaments. Some people baked cakes in football team colours to sell at work or school.

      Charity 3 BBC Children in need
      • Who are they raising money for?
        • Since 1980 this campaign has raised over £325 million. The money is used to help disabled children and children suffering from illness, abuse or problems caused by homelessness or difficult family situations. It is usually timed before Christmas.
      • How?
        The BBC organise a 7 hour television show with a telethon. Famous people, actors, pop singers, news readers and members of the public make special funny programmes. Very serious journalists and actors sometimes do very silly things, dress up, sing or do something to raise money like jump into the North sea, have all their hair shaved off or sing a song. You can donate money during the show by telephoning, posting a donation or going on the BBC’s special website. A single is released into the music charts and all the money goes to the campaign. Last year’s single was sung by Will Young and before that S Club 7 made a single to raise money. Christmas cards, calendars and gifts are just some of the things sold to raise money too.

       

      • 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 bungy 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

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