Fundraise for Britain’s wild mammals

A quiz is a great way to come together for a good cause, and can raise some money for conservation while also leaving attendees with loads of new knowledge about mammals and the issues they face.

Host a quiz in your local pub, village hall, or online, and theme it around British wildlife and nature – especially mammals!

Instructions:

• Create rounds on mammals, habitats, nature trivia, and more. We’ve created a bank of questions to draw on – and some fascinating printable picture round sheets. Quiz resources

• Award a special prize for ‘best team name’ and encourage some creative mammal-themed ideas! You can ask other teams to vote for their favourite other team name to select the winner.

• Charge an entry fee per person, and ask for donations for refreshments.

• Offer a small prize or trophy (or ask local businesses to donate).

• Include a bonus round or raffle to boost funds.

Top Tip: Add a fun twist — dress up as your favourite British animal or offer bonus points for wildlife facts!

Everyone loves a chance to win something! Convery goodwill from local businesses or supporters into funds.

Run a Raffle

Great for community events, workplaces, or schools.

Steps:

• Collect donated prizes from local businesses. It can be a nice way to increase local brand visibility in a positive way. Template approach letter/email.

• Sell tickets in advance and/or on the day.

• Draw winners live or online.

• Promote your raffle with posters and social media.

Legal note: If selling tickets in advance to the public, check UK gambling laws (small society lotteries) or keep it on-the-spot at private events to keep things simple.

Run a Tombola

Great for community events or school fetes.

Steps:

• Appeal for prizes from your community and local businesses. They can be small things – the key is that there are lots of them and they are appropriate for the people who will take part. For example, if there will be young people playing you should not include alcoholic drinks as prizes unless you have two separate sets of tickets to allow for an ‘adults only’ draw.

• Lay prizes on the table and stick a raffle ticket on each one in a visible place. To make it quick and easy for people to tell if they have won a prize you could put all tickets ending in 5 or 0 (eg 5, 10, 15, 20 etc) on a prize.

• Put the equivalent tickets, along with those for all the non-winning numbers, into a tombola drum or other container. Ideally make sure it is not see-through, so people can’t take a sneak peek and reach for those ending in 5 or 0!

• Sell tickets and let people draw a ticket, and then take away their prize if their number is on one.

• It can be nice to have a ‘consolation prize’ – especially if running a tombola for children to play. A lollipop or other sweet could be the default prize for anyone who doesn’t win one of the prizes on the table.

Delicious fundraising made simple.

Bake Sale

Host a bake sale at school, work, or a community event — with a nature-inspired twist!

Ideas:

• Molehill cupcakes (complete with jelly worms?!), sugar mice and gingerbread animal shapes all work brilliantly!

• For younger customers, having icing pens and decorations, and encouraging them to decorate their own gingerbread animal can add to the appeal.

• Offer vegan and gluten-free options to ensure there is something for everyone.

• Add info cards about the animals you’re supporting.

Tip: Display a donation jar or contactless payment option for those without cash.

The best ideas are those that suit your interests and inspire your network. Here are some other ideas you could consider in order to raise much-needed funds for the Mammal Society. You may have your own!

• Mammal Spotter Challenge: Organise a challenge event where all those signing up (paying a registration fee to bring in some initial funds or to cover any event costs) seek to find and record as many signs of wild mammals as possible on the Mammal Society’s free Mammal Mapper app. Each participant could raise their own sponsorship by asking family and friends to offer a donation per record, and at the end of the allotted time, prizes could be awarded for greatest number of mammal records, longest survey, or the largest variety of mammal species recorded. You could hold an event to announce the results and present prizes, at which you could run a fundraising refreshments table and/or tombola!

• Craft Sale: Sell wildlife-themed art, cards or handmade items. Or if you source all the materials to make a craft project (eg wooden figures to paint, pom-pom animals, Air clay, painted pebble mice) you can ask for a donation and let people make their own. Why not raise funds and create homes for mammals at the same time by providing the materials and tools for making bat boxes or hedgehog houses and walking people through making and decorating one to take home in return for a donation?

• Wildlife Walk: Arrange for a guided walk in a local nature hotspot, with attendees given wildlife facts and the signs of mammals in the local landscape as they ramble. You can ask for a recommended donation to attend the walk, or organise a longer walk and ask all attendees to set up their own fundraiser to attract donations from their friends and family. This could be focused on a particular habitat or mammal (for example an ‘otter potter’ along a river to look for signs of otters while learning about their biology and behaviour, or a twilight ‘bat walk’ along the edge of a wood or along an old railway line to spot and identify bats as they hunt overhead). You can draw information to share with attendees from our website, or enlist a local nature expert. If you want help to find someone who might be able to bring the knowledge on British mammals to your event, contact info@themammalsociety.org. Don’t forget to use the Mammal Mapper to record your walk as a survey, and show your attendees how they can do this for their own outings!

• Eco-Challenge: Pledge to go plastic-free, cycle to work, or plant wildflowers — ask for sponsorship to support your challenge.

• Music performance: If you have a musical talent, or know those who do, why not arrange a concert in aid of British mammals? When your audience is assembled in anticipation of the show it’s a great opportunity to tell them about their local wildlife, and why mammal conservation is so important. If music isn’t your thing, perhaps dance or magic tricks could draw a crowd?

• Karaoke Party: Why do all the work yourself? A karaoke night is a great way to bring people together for fun and laughter while raising funds for mammal conservation. The event can be ticketed, or attendees could be invited to donate to the fundraising appeal of their favourite act, allowing the favourite to be crowned the supreme songster at the end of the night. You could have fun selecting songs that have references to mammals, or singers could switch out lyrics to famous songs to bring references in – for extra laughs! Blue suede shrews anyone?!

• Hold a cinema night: Showing a film on a projector in a school hall, lecture theatre or community space can be a relaxing way to raise some funds through tickets or donations. You could lay on popcorn and ice creams, or make it a ‘BYO’ event and just provide the entertainment. Most films can only be screened for an audience if you first obtain a licence. Showing a film publicly, including for fundraising, requires permission from the copyright owner. For most major films, this usually involves obtaining a licence from Filmbankmedia or the Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC). A single-title license is suitable for one-off events. Why not encourage costumes inspired by the film? Some films – for example documentaries on Netflix – can be screened ‘for educational purposes’ without obtaining a licence, but the event must be free. You could use this as the focus for bringing people together, and then run other forms of fundraising activity or invite donations for mammal conservation from attendees.