Activity
$550    Deposit
$4950  Discount Voucher Book
$5,500

I considered a lot of ideas including; raffles, under 8 disco's, moonlight movies and a Melbourne Cup lunch BUT I needed to find something that I could run without too much outside help. So I did a Discount Voucher Book because lets face it, everyone loves a bargain! The books were printed free of charge on donated paper of course!

Activities
$1,100   Deposit x 2
$5,000   Trip Component x 2
$  500    Entertainment Books
$3,300   Trivia Night
$1,650   Raffle
$11,550

We sold Entertainment Books, making almost $500. We also held a Trivia Night which was a great success, we made $3,300. Tickets were $25, so everyone there was making a difference paying for one cataract operation. We also had a raffle with donated prizes and played games.

Activities
$   550  Deposit
$   500  Christmas in July dinner party
$1,000  Screening of the AFL Grand Final 
$3,450  Sponsored bike ride
$5,500

My first fundraising event was a Christmas in July dinner at my house for my mates, attended by 30 people at $25 per head. I raised $500 that night.   

I organised a venue to watch the  AFL Grand Final!  It was held at the Brunswick Bowls Club and included a BBQ lunch, unlimited bare foot bowls (a lesson from Old Jack if needed), entry to win a door prize, and raffles throughout the day - all for $15 a head. The weather was perfect and thankfully I had about 90 people. The event and raised just over $1000.

I also did a fundraising bike ride in January (200kms in a day around Albert Park Lake) where I raised the rest of the money through sponsorship from local businesses, friends, family and colleagues. 

Activities
$   550  Deposit
$3,200  Skydiving
$2,500  Music Gigs
$1,300  Chocolate Sales
$7,550

I organized a 'Jump for Joy' skydive in conjunction with a fellow 'See the World' fundraiser. For every person that jumped with us on the day, Skydive Express donated $100 towards our total. I earned $1200 as myself and 11 mates took the plunge. 

What a great day out with mates!! I then sent out group emails asking for sponsorship to jump (for those scaredy cats not willing to jump themselves), and got around $2000 as a response!

I also used music gigs as a fundraiser, once word was out about my challenge my diary was soon full for local gigs. Having a donation jar at my feet proved to be worthwhile too! 

A good money earner was selling chocolate Freddo Frogs at my work place. Several friends also took up the cause and sold chocolates for me at their work. This was very successful and generated $1300.

Activities
$   550  Deposit
$5,450  Horse Riding Event
$6,000

I decided on a sponsored horse riding event.  It was important to me to only ask my friends and colleagues and businesses once to donate money to this mighty and worthy cause.

In a flurry of about two months I developed the idea of riding my Arabian horse Pip across the mountains of southern New South Wales into Canberra where I live, a distance of over 250+ km. I prepared a sponsorship letter and promoted the ride to all my networks of friends and colleagues.

The response was astounding. I completed the ride, with incredible support along the way from my brother and his son, and this event alone raised in excess of $5,000!

Activities
$1,100  Deposit x 2
$1,600  Sponsored Walk
$1,200  Garage Sale
$6,000  Birthday Party
$1,615  Sponsored Swim
$11,515

My bushwalking club, the Sydney Bushwalkers, holds an annual event, the 'Six Foot Track in a Day,' 46 kilometres, from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves. I asked the organiser's permission to use it as a fundraiser. The final total reached over $1,600!

Then came the monster garage sale. We asked our neighbourhood for donated goods and received a great responce. We couldn't believe the amount of stuff we jammed into our front garden! I also baked copious quantities of chocolate fudge which came in handy as bargaining power and even change! By the end of the day we'd moved most of the goods and to our astonishment raised $1,200!! The left-overs went to a book dealer and St Vinnies.

In November we had our joint 50th birthday party. It was a catered affair in a hired venue, which we intended to have anyway and it proved an ideal opportunity to raise funds. We called it a 'Centenary Celebration' with the theme 'Make a spectacle of yourself', everybody had to wear glasses. Everybody had a great time and the evening raised $6,000!

We still needed more! So we organised another sponsored event: 'Swim to See'. 100 laps of the local 50m pool between us. We targeted anyone who had not yet been caught in our net (even the family doctor and dentist!). We completed the swim in early December and raised $1,615. We made it!