Fundraising Events

Each year lots of people take part in a wide variety of events to raise much needed funds for Unique..... 

If you want to take part in an organised event to fundraise for us, we often have guaranteed places in events such as:

The Virgin Money London Marathon, The Great North Run, The Great Birmingham Run, The Great Edinburgh Run, The Big Half and the Royal Parks Half Marathon.

We can also help you set up a skydive, cycling event or something even more extreme! Please get in touch with us (our contact details are below) for more information.

If running or cycling is not for you, there are loads of other ways you can get involved. Some of the things other people do include:

Organising a coffee morning, Holding a cake sale, Having a dress-down day at work or school, Holding a music or comedy gig, Doing a sponsored car wash, Having a garden party, a Sponsored slim, silence, walk etc....

We have lots more ideas in our fundraising pack. Just email Craig@rarechromo.org to request a copy.

If you’re organising an event we can help. Where possible we provide fundraisers with a t-shirt or running vest and for events like coffee mornings and cake sales other materials such as flyers, balloons, posters etc. Please contact our co-ordinator Craig on Craig@rarechromo.org or telephone +44(0)1883 723306

Fundraising at Work

Below are some ideas but if you'd prefer to, why not give us a call to discuss how you can help?

Charity of the Year

If your company has a charity of the year, please consider nominating Unique. It's a great way to engage staff in fundraising and volunteering to help children who are often sick and disabled with very rare disorders.

We were recently delighted to be chosen as the Charity of the Year for Venn Group, a leading recruitment company. Their staff took part in lots of activities throughout the year and were able to provide funds to directly support our frontline services. We were nominated by a Unique dad who made sure all his colleagues voted for us!

Workplace Fundraising

Lots of our members fundraise for us at work, either within their own teams or offices or if they own their own company. Some fun ideas to get everyone involved include:

Staff at Connections Recruitment in Berkshire supported Unique recently

Hold a ‘mufti' (dress down) day: staff make a donation to dress casually

Have a bake-off/cake sale: cakes always go down well at work!

On the refreshments theme, a coffee morning can be relaxing and good fun

Hold a raffle: get business partners/customers involved and ask them to donate prizes. You could even raffle a day off! The winner gets an extra day's holiday.... if the boss agrees!

Organise your own Olympics! Can be done indoors on games consoles and even between two teams from different departments

Have a team quiz night. Teams can be from different departments or you can rope in friends and family to take part

Skip lunch: ask everyone to skip lunch and donate what they would have spent

Sponsored events: from walking, to running to cycling, even a group workout, why not organise an after work event

Your imagination is the only limitation here (and the company's health & safety policy of course!)

Payroll Giving

If you’re in the UK, Payroll Giving (also known as Give As You Earn or GAYE) allows you to make donations to a chosen charity such as Unique directly from your pay or company/personal pension. The donations are made after your National Insurance contributions are calculated but before Income Tax is worked out and deducted. Because of this, you only pay tax on what's left. This means that you get tax relief on your donation immediately - and at your highest rate of tax.

If your employer has a Payroll Giving Scheme you can make a donation by authorising your employer or pension provider to deduct a set amount from your salary or pension income. Your employer or pension payer hands over your gift to a government-approved Payroll Giving Agency, which then passes the money on to your chosen charity. You do not have to tell your employer or pension provider which charities you support. Instead you complete a simple form for the Payroll Giving Agency, telling it where to send your donations. Some Payroll Giving Agencies can provide you with a charity card or cheque book so you can make gifts directly to any charity whenever you want to.

You can give anonymously - your chosen charity doesn’t need to know your details but obviously we would like to thank you for supporting Unique so please let us know if you have joined your company’s scheme as we won’t automatically be informed. If your employer doesn’t yet have a scheme, ask them to contact us and we can point them in the right direction!

Skill Sharing

Do members of your company's staff have skills that Unique could benefit from? Specialist areas like financial and corporate governance, HR and marketing are often very useful for charities like Unique with limited resources. Donating a member (or members) of your staff for a set period can be hugely valuable to them and us.

Gifts In Kind

If you or your company can't make a donation right now, gifts in kind (donated gifts and services) can be a huge help. For example, with only a very small office we have been extremely grateful to SupaStorage in Wimbledon, London (www.SupaStorage.com) who have donated a storage unit for the past three years, saving us the expenditure. Can your company do something similar to help us out?

Please contact Craig Mitchell, Unique's Chief Operating Officer (craig@rarechromo.org) or Louise Jeffree, Finance Officer (louise@rarechromo.org) to discuss support for the charity.

Become one of our ‘Unique’ Volunteers

Unique is based in Surrey, UK but you don’t have to live nearby to volunteer to help us. In fact, we have volunteers all over the country and even beyond.

From raising awareness and helping families in your local area as one of our local contacts, to shaking a bucket at your local supermarket, selling wristbands, stuffing envelopes or helping out at one of our events, there are often ways you can get involved.

Why not drop us a line to see what you can do to help? If we don't have any immediate volunteering opportunities, we'll keep your details on record and contact you when we do.

Just email Craig at craig@rarechromo.org

Do something Unique today!

Schools & Colleges

Are you a parent? A sibling maybe? Want to help us raise awareness about your family member's rare chromosome or gene disorder? Maybe you're a teacher or teaching assistant and you have a child at your school with such a disorder and want to show you care about them.

We've had great support from schools and colleges holding dress-down days, cake sales, coffee mornings for parents, bring and buy sales, special olympics and much more so wherever you are please do ask your school to consider supporting Unique. We even have tailor-made presentations - great for assemblies.

To find out more or to get involved please contact us at;

craig@rarechromo.org or telephone +44(0)1883 723306

Raising Awareness

A key part of Unique’s work is raising awareness of rare chromosome disorders, we really need your help to do that.

One way you can help is to give a presentation. This can be done at your child’s school, at a local group you go to such as the WI or just to friends and family. We have developed a generic presentation called ‘The Unique Network’ which gives a clear and simple overview of what a rare chromosome disorder is, how it affects families and what Unique does to help. Email Craig@rarechromo.org for details and to receive the presentation.

You do not need to be a geneticist or medical professional, it’s been designed so that anyone with experience of a rare chromosome disorder, such as a parent or grandparent, can deliver it. Personal stories are always well received by audiences, and more so when it involves children. It can be tailored by adding in photographs of your own child if you wish (we know from experience that the personal touch really adds to the presentation). Often as a result of giving a presentation, fundraising opportunities arise, whether a collection on the day, a small donation from the committee or future fundraising events on our behalf.

Unique Shopping

We have a range of carefuly-selected, Unique merchandise, from clothing to keyrings, torches to tote bags. Buy some today and 'wear that you care!' We are happy to ship items across the world - please just ask.

To visit the shop, just close this box and then click the Shop link at the top of the page, or alternatively, copy and paste this link into your internet browser:

www.unique-chromo-shop.myshopify.com/

For any queries about our merchandise, Email craig@rarechromo.org

Happy shopping!