How We Raise Funds

We appeal to university students for the majority of the funds that are raised, by organising exhilarating fundraising events such as skydiving, mountain treks, sponsored runs and bucket collections for university students to partake in.

Skydiving has been our main approach to raising funds since the birth of The Little Things. We run the skydiving event as an annual fundraiser, with multiple days dedicated to our fundraisers leaping from planes all across the country.

In 2015, we led groups of students from the University of Kent and UCL on a trek of Mt. Snowdon in Wales.

In August 2016, we hosted our first international fundraising event - a trek of Machu Picchu in Peru. We took a group of student fundraisers to Peru and spent an incredible 5 days climbing through the mountains, bathing in hot springs, zip lining through the Andes and sleeping by campfires. We repeated this trek of Machu Picchu in September 2017.

We have also hosted an 18-hour football match in London and a 5km sponsored run in Canterbury.  Bucket collections are a successful mode of fundraising, and we have days where student volunteers head into city or town centres and collect funds.

For each fundraising event, an ‘Information Evening’ is hosted at universities across the UK, where the respective Student Ambassador gives a presentation on The Little Things and explains the details of the fundraising event. Interested students then sign up to the event and are supported by The Little Things throughout their fundraising journey. We provide each student that signs up with a charity T-shirt, collection bucket, collection tin and information pack.

The fundraising model is similar with all of our university fundraising events, where the student is given a minimum fundraising target and that target covers the student’s costs of partaking in the event, and also includes a sizeable donation to The Little Things.

We strive to maintain ethical fundraising practices, as we provide full support to our fundraisers and work alongside university and Charity Commission guidelines with regards to fundraising. We provide a briefing pack to all our fundraisers including all relevant information.

In the academic year of 2016/17, we have attempted to widen our reach by focusing more on appealing for grants and support from schools and also for support from the local community.

In January 2017, we hosted a New Year’s Ball, where approximately 150 guests attended and helped to raise nearly £10,000 towards our healthcare projects. We successfully sourced sponsors to cover the costs of organising the Ball.

In May 2017, we received a grant from Mazars LLP for £12,000. Throughout the academic year of 2016/2017, members of The Little Things were tasked with applying for corporate sponsorship. In addition to this significant donation from Mazars LLP, we have received a donation from TD bank for £500. In the future, The Little Things will dedicate more time to appealing for donations from large corporations.

Some of the student volunteers that have joined The Little Things are not just university students, but also secondary school students. The secondary school students help with raising awareness of our cause at primary and secondary schools across the UK. These student volunteers arrange fundraising activities at the schools such as non-uniform days, bake sales and bazaars.