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Hambleden Valley Africa Link was started in 2004 by a group of people to support our work in Ethiopia. Over a five year period HVAL successfully raised a lot of money supporting education projects and orphan support.

We asked HVAL to write down the ways they raised money.

Fund-raising and other events

• Sponsored job swap – this was arranged between our then Rector and the village shopkeeper in Hambleden. The Rector ran the shop for a day, while parishioners competed to ask for the most obscure items, and in return the shopkeeper was ‘licensed’ for one Sunday to preach in the parish church, and he also helped with assembly in the valley CofE aided school. The two participants said the swap would not go ahead unless they were sponsored to the tune of £1000 each, but in fact raised considerably more. The swap also had the effect of increasing awareness of our fundraising commitment in the Hambleden area to a very marked degree.
• Birthday bash – for a party for the Rector’s recent ‘significant’ birthday, he held an open-house event at the Rectory. Various local people brought contributions to the food and drink, there was barn-dancing and also a session from a rock band comprised of local players including the village hall caretaker, one of the members of the HVAL committee and the Rector’s young son playing drums for part of the time. The Rector specified ‘no presents’ but asked for contributions to SMCF, and this produced a substantial sum.
• Sponsored dog-walk – this event has been held more than once and is popular with some of the younger people.
• Moonlit walk – this was not sponsored but everyone was asked to make a contribution, suggested at £10 for adults and £5 for children. This had the advantage that the money is collected at the start of the walk, rather than the walkers going through the potentially embarrassing process of trying to get people to pay for what was essentially an enjoyable time. We are fortunate to have a very extensive network of footpaths in the Hambleden Valley passing through some very beautiful countryside, but even walkers who know it very well find it looks very different at night. We were lucky enough to have a dry and mild evening during a very wet week although there was very little moonlight. One problem was the different speeds at which people walk, and we could have done with a ‘back marker’ to ensure that people didn’t fall behind. However everyone appeared to enjoy themselves and said they would come again, although one did say he would pay £10 not to walk next time! Some of the participants were non-local friends who were keen walkers, so helping to spread the support for the fund.
• Quiz nights – these events always seem to be popular in our local villages. At one quiz we were honoured to have Jeremy Paxman as question master – a much less scary figure than he presents on University Challenge, which was just as well as there were some very obscure questions! Even he said ‘I don’t know how you’re supposed to know this stuff!’ This was held in the event barn at a local vineyard and attracted a number of teams from outside the Hambleden Valley, again meaning that more people were drawn into supporting the fundraising effort. Another quiz was held recently with the questions supplied by the two local quizmasters, including an 'Ethiopia' round, and a local knowledge picture round. The two-course supper was provided by a number of local cooks, and as the drinks and village hall rent were all donated, all the proceeds of the evening went to the fund. There was a short talk about the work of St Matthew’s by our Associate Priest and a slide show in the supper interval, which again helped to give information about the charity. We find that quiz nights are supported by people who come because they like the competition rather than because they want to support the fund, so they are a good opportunity to reach a wider audience.
• Ball – this was organised by the local church youth groups and was held at Parmoor, a former convent which is now used as a retreat centre and for events such as parties and weddings etc.
• Christmas sale – one parishioner has held a sale of Christmas gifts etc with the profits going to SMCF for the last few years.
• Ethiopian evenings – a local family has a daughter married to an Ethiopian and they have put on two Ethiopian evenings with traditional food, music and dancing, and a raffle and sale of Ethiopian silver jewellery and other items. 
• Sponsored slim – this was a one-off one-person event but perhaps could be tried again, maybe for a number of people during Lent.

Some other ideas we have not tried yet

• Showing an Ethiopian film  (in Amharic with English subtitles)
• A quiz night or other event with local MP Boris Johnson, who has indicated his willingness to help if a suitable date can be found.
• Before the Iraq war we had a very informative ‘brains trust’ discussion chaired by Jeremy Paxman with a panel comprised of various local journalists and current affairs specialists. There is a possibility of organising something similar on a suitable subject, although it is always difficult to find a convenient date for such participants.

Other events – there are also some other events which are not primarily for fund-raising purpose but more to give existing supporters information about the use of their funds and the progress of various projects in Ethiopia, and to encourage other people to become supporters. These have included showing films taken by visitors to Ethiopia, suppers attended by the Director of SMCF and/or the Director of JeCCDO, visits by SMCF staff to show film footage of the projects and answer questions. Donation and gift-aid forms are available at such events, and one-off donations may be made or new standing orders set up.

Other sources of funding

Some funds have also been raised by other means. For example:

• One Christmas we tried having gift certificates along the lines of the bigger charities’ schemes to ‘give’ a goat/cow/well. The idea was that people would give £10 or £20 to SMCF and then give a certificate to someone saying that the donation had been made in their name, and also giving them some general information about SMCF.
• St Matthew’s Christmas cards and notecards have also been sold through the local churches: this does not contribute to our fund-raising target but help to make people aware of it.
• T-shirts etc. We have a small range of clothing produced locally and embroidered with SMCF logo in Amharic and other Ethiopian designs. The range includes t-shirts in a variety of colours and sizes, white linen ‘granddad’ shirts and blue denim long-sleeved shirts. Profits from the sale of these items goes to the fund.
• Sale of various items, such as scarves, baskets and jewellery, brought back from Ethiopia.

Some important factors in keeping our fundraising on track

• Having a minimum annual target
• Having a commitment to fundraise for a specified length of time
• Having a specific person, our Associate Priest, with a very strong commitment to meeting the target each year.
• Having personal connections - a young Ethiopian woman living locally, and other local people with personal knowledge of the country
• Visits to Ethiopia and the JeCCDO projects by local people, bringing back video footage, photographs and word-of-mouth reports.
• Having a small committee to keep an eye on the progress of fund-raising and to encourage and support ideas for events.
• Having a wide variety of events to appeal to different tastes and ages.
• Having some events which are easy to organise, and have little or no fixed costs if they have to be postponed/cancelled.
• Having some profit-making events which people will attend even if they have no interest in the charity.
• Having some events which are largely aimed at making people interested and informed about the charity even if they do not raise much money
• Having occasional events with input from local celebrities.
• Encouraging as many people as possible to commit to regular giving
• Encouraging people to Gift Aid their donations, whether regular or one-off.
• Having information, posters, donation and gift-aid forms available at events
• Having posters etc displayed in some of the valley churches
• Spreading events throughout the year and throughout the valley.
• Being flexible and open to new ideas - using local facilities, skills, people and amenities.

Regular donations

A major contribution is made by a group of about 30-35 people who make regular donations to SMCF, mostly monthly by standing order, and mostly Gift-Aided. A few people make their payments quarterly or annually, and a few use CAF cheques. This regular income is extremely important, as it is reliable, whereas the money raised from events depends on many factors. The Gift- Aid element is also very important and we have found that it is worthwhile making the effort to ask people to sign a Gift-Aid declaration. Somehow there is often a reluctance  to make the declaration which can often be overcome if people are persuaded that their confidentiality will be respected. In some cases it may be that, for example, a wife does not pay tax, and if the standing order is made by her husband then SMCF benefits without any extra cost to the payee. Generally we have found it very valuable to take the time to explain the benefits of Gift-Aid and encourage regular or occasional donors to make the small extra effort to fill in the required form. It can save quite a bit of time to ensure that the declaration is valid ie that the address includes the post code and that the form is signed by the tax-payer.