Hair today, Gone tomorrow

David Kay who works for Deutsche Bank arranged a fundraising event with one of his colleague to raise funds for Nystagmus Network. They very bravely agreed to have their heads shaved in front of all their colleagues and raised the grand sum of £2,627.11. David's employer Deutsche Bank have a matched giving scheme which means that this sum will be doubled to a grand total of £5,254.22. This is a fantastic boost to funds and will be used to further research into the condition. Perhaps your employer runs a similar scheme?

Here are just some of the exciting ways you could help the Nystagmus Network raise funds and have a lot of fun, too. Click on any underlined events to see get some practical suggestions. Or email our Fundraising Co-ordinator (see Contact & Join), for further help and ideas.

If you have useful tips on how to organise an event please email us, so that we can add it to those below (see Contact & Join).

How to run a tombola

Introduction
A tombola is a great fundraising idea, because it is so versatile. You can make it part of a bigger event, such as a fun day or garden open day, or you can use it to take part in a school or church fete.

The Prizes
Prizes can be anything and of any value. We tend to save up all our unwanted Christmas presents! You might like to theme your stall for extra interest, eg. by colour or topic. You could do an animal tombola for children, with pens and erasers, notebooks, etc. or beauty products for Mother's Day.

Obviously, the more prizes you have, the more tickets you will sell. Prizes can be of different values, ranging from 50p (the usual price of a ticket) upwards. I find lots of prizes in Pound Shops, Charity Shops and closing down/end of season sales.

Tickets
You can buy books of cloakroom tickets from any high street stationers. Decide roughly how many tickets you think you will be able to sell (tip! Always overestimate!) as books come in varying quantities, eg 1-100, 1-500, 1-1000, etc. Remember that you won't be able to use all the tickets in the book. It's much easier if you stick to winning tickets having a 5 or a 0 at the end, ie. 50, 55, etc. Stick the winning tickets firmly to your prizes with sellotape.

Next you will need to find something to put the tickets you are selling in. It should be a substantial box, which will take a bit of rummaging without falling apart or getting knocked over. If you are working on a fairly small scale a man-size tissue box can be quite useful as it already has a ready-made hand slot! For bigger enterprises, get a cardboard box from the supermarket, or use a plastic bin with a lid. Decorate the outside of your box with coloured paper.

You will need to decide on the ratio of winning to losing tickets. If you are hoping to sell strips of 5 tickets, try to make your ratio about 1 or 2 to 5. There is no point in being mean with your ratio. People will be encouraged to buy more tickets if they win or see other people winning prizes, and you don't want to be left with all the prizes at the end of the day. But, of course, be sensible, you won't raise much money if all your prizes are gone in the first fifteen minutes.

Fold all the tickets you are selling into four. Don't forget to include the counterfoil of all the winning tickets in the box, but not the rest of the 5 and 0 ones as well! You could cause a riot if you haven't got prizes for all of them! Warning! Don't leave this job till the last minute. It can take ages and is best done the night before in front of the telly!

On the day, make your display of prizes look as attractive as possible. Use a bright paper cover for your table and have a vase of flowers or a flowering plant. Make sure you have a bin or bag to put the losing tickets in and a good float of small change. You might like to consider having a bowl of sweets as consolation prizes for the losers.

Enjoy!

How to organise a progressive supper

This is a very enjoyable way of raising funds for the Nystagmus Network. It will be of interest to anyone who enjoys cooking good food, or just eating it (!) and to those people who just love looking around other people's houses! The idea is that, on a given evening, different courses of a meal are offered at different locations. Everyone moves from house to house and eats a course at each place.

You will need to gather together a number of participants to take part. These could be friends, neighbours, work colleagues, members of the same sports or social club, etc. It works best if people all live fairly close together.

Each volunteer host has to agree to provide one course of a meal. This needs to be carefully co-ordinated, so that you don't end up with five puddings and no starter! Depending on the number of people you have, you may need to include several 'extra' courses, such as sorbets. The person who offers the coffee and liqueurs at the end will probably be in for a very late night!

All the ingredients for the meal are donated by the volunteers. Participants, ie. the diners, are charged for the meal (this is where the funds are raised!)and are provided with a map and itinerary. A lot of planning is needed here, to make sure that there is sufficient time to get from one location to the next without there being a culinary disaster. There can be no major hold ups along the way or later courses will be spoilt.

All the diners need to know exactly what time they are to arrive and where for each course and all the hosts need to know what time to expect their guests.

This event can be as modest or as extravagant as you like. You might like to stick just to two courses, to keep it simple. But, if you have a large group of volunteers, you could have guests going off to different locations for their food and then only coming back together at the final location.

Provided the planning is good, you will have an enormously successful evening.

How to open your garden for Nystagmus Network

Introduction
You don't need to own acres of parkland or hold the national collection of some tender perennial. We have opened our own garden several times and it really is nothing special, just an average-sized plot behind a 1930's semi. You could open your window box, if you wanted to. Guaranteed someone would come to see it!

Of course, it helps if there is something a bit different about your garden. Water features are very popular, as are exotic plants, statuary, themed or single-coloured gardens. If our garden is a bit of a hotch potch, just call it a cottage garden!

If you have done a lot of work to your garden since you moved in or there is still work in progress, people will love to see before and after photos in the style of Ground Force!

A garden open day allows you to be as ambitious as you like. You can go the whole hog and do refreshments, a tombola, plant sales, a raffle, a quiz, a produce sale (very popular and a good idea if you have a glut of tomatoes, runner beans or courgettes!) the works!

Garden Safaris
Lots of local gardening clubs, churches and other organisations now organise Garden Safaris, where several local people get together and open their gardens on the same day. The organisers will usually produce a guide/map for sale and deal with the publicity. This saves you an awful lot of time and work. The individual garden owners are then free to raise money in their own gardens for their preferred charity.

Advertising
Find someone who is artistic (children love this job!) to design you a poster, giving the address, date and opening times from and to and the NN registered charity number, which is 803440. Using colour photocopies or scans, put up as many as you can in your local area about two weeks before the event. Try: the corner shop, local post office, library, church notice-board, take-away restaurant, nearby schools, garden centres, etc. But avoid fly-posting, which is an offence. Send copies to the secretaries of local garden clubs and societies. Your local newspaper may offer free advertising for charitable events in their 'What's On' guide. You could even try doing a press release or editorial, including a photo, some details about nystagmus and a quotation from you about the garden.

Help
Make sure you enlist the help of lots of friends and family on the day. Never think you will be able to do it all on your own. You won't! You will be amazed at how much help you need. You will need someone to be on the gate if you are charging an entry fee (around £2.00 seems to be the usual price), someone serving refreshments, someone selling plants, etc. Your own time will be fully taken up showing people round and answering all their questions (make sure you have your gardening books to hand to prompt you with the names of all the plants!)

Choosing a Date
You will know when your garden is looking at its best. Is it in the Spring, when the bulbs are all in flower, or in early Summer, when the perennial boarder is looking its best and everything is looking lush and green in the vegetable patch? Or do you have beautiful Autumn colour with lots of berries? Obviously, the weather is an important consideration. But who can predict that? It is wise to make provision for sudden showers at any time of the year, eg. a gazebo (you can buy canvas ones very cheaply now), potting shed, conservatory, or a large supply of umbrellas.

Security
You will need to decide beforehand whether or not you are going to allow people inside the house - and stick to your decision! This may be necessary if you are serving refreshments, if it rains, or if someone needs to use the loo. Try to stick to one room only being accessible and close (preferably lock) all other internal doors. If you have a room, which opens on to the garden, eg. a conservatory, use this. Keep furniture to a minimum so that people can mingle. If there is any area of your garden, where you would prefer visitors not to go, eg. if you don't want precious seedlings trampled, put up tape to bar the way. Take care that ponds and greenhouses are clearly marked.

Plant Sales
These are very popular, but take some planning. Try to think which plants will be in flower or particularly looking their best on the day and pot up plenty of cuttings or seedlings in good time. Potted herbs are very popular, as are house plants eg. geraniums. Make sure everything is labelled clearly Gardeners are notorious for taking their own cuttings, so why not offer a cuttings service and charge a nominal fee or ask for a donation.

Refreshments
If you are expecting a lot of visitors, it is probably better to buy disposable plates, cups, napkins and spoons. See if you can borrow or hire a tea urn. Provide a choice of cakes. The most popular seem to be Flapjack, fruit cake, Victoria sponge, chocolate cake and carrot cake. You can offer a free biscuit with tea or coffee to justify a 50p charge. Have some plastic food bags available for those who prefer tot take their cake home. If you have a lot of cakes left over at the end, sell the whole ones off - unless you want to eat cake three times a day for the rest of the week!

Quiz
Devise about 10 to 15 questions based on your garden, the type of questions which any curious, but observant visitor could answer. Try to inject a bit of humour, eg. Which salad crop could take you to the moon? Answer: rocket. Charge £1.00 per question sheet and offer a small prize to the winner, eg a £5.00 gardening gift voucher. Completed sheets can be left on the day, or posted back through your door by a given closing date.

Tombola
If you decide to have a tombola, try to theme the prizes to the garden. You could include any of the following: packets of seeds, potted plants, garden twine, packs of plant labels, gardening gloves, outdoor candles, packs of floral paper napkins, etc.

Conclusion
Opening your garden means a lot of hard work, but it is a very rewarding experience. Whatever the weather, you will have a brilliant day and you will be flushed with pride at the compliments you receive. And after all that hard work, your garden will look beautiful for the rest of the season!

How to set up a bottle stall

Introduction
A bottle stall is a great fundraising idea, because it is so versatile. You can make it part of a bigger event, such as a fun day or garden open day, or you can use it to take part in a school or church fete.

This is very similar to running a tombola, except that all the prizes are bottles. This doesn't necessarily mean alcohol, though grown ups would probably enjoy that, too!

The Prizes
Bottles can be anything: shampoo, bubble bath, tomato sauce, juice, water, olive oil, salad dressing, home-made wine, nail polish, anything, in fact, that comes in a bottle. You might like to theme your stall for extra interest, eg. by colour or topic. What about 10 green bottles? A blue-bottle stall, or beauty products for Mother's Day?

Obviously, the more prizes you have, the more tickets you will sell. Prizes can be of different values, ranging from 50p (the usual price of a ticket) upwards. I find lots of prizes in Pound Shops, Charity Shops and closing down/end of season sales.

Tickets
You can buy books of cloakroom tickets from any high street stationers. Decide roughly how many tickets you think you will be able to sell (tip! Always overestimate!) as books come in varying quantities, eg 1-100, 1-500, 1-1000, etc. Remember that you won't be able to use all the tickets in the book. It's much easier if you stick to winning tickets having a 5 or a 0 at the end, ie. 50, 55, etc. Stick the winning tickets firmly to your prizes with sellotape.

Next you will need to find something to put the tickets you are selling in. It should be a substantial box, which will take a bit of rummaging without falling apart or getting knocked over. If you are working on a fairly small scale a man-size tissue box can be quite useful as it already has a ready-made hand slot! For bigger enterprises, get a cardboard box from the supermarket, or use a plastic bin with a lid. Decorate the outside of your box with coloured paper.

You will need to decide on the ratio of winning to losing tickets. If you are hoping to sell strips of 5 tickets, try to make your ratio about 1 or 2 to 5. There is no point in being mean with your ratio. People will be encouraged to buy more tickets if they win or see other people winning prizes, and you don't want to be left with all the prizes at the end of the day. But, of course, be sensible, you won't raise much money if all your prizes are gone in the first fifteen minutes.

Fold all the tickets you are selling into four. Don't forget to include the counterfoil of all the winning tickets in the box, but not the rest of the 5 and 0 ones as well! You could cause a riot if you haven't got prizes for all of them! Warning! Don't leave this job till the last minute. It can take ages and is best done the night before in front of the telly!

On the day, make your display of prizes look as attractive as possible. Use a bright paper cover for your table and have a vase of flowers or a flowering plant. Make sure you have a bin or bag to put the losing tickets in and a good float of small change. You might like to consider having a bowl of sweets as consolation prizes for the losers.

Enjoy!

Bonus Ball Lottery Scheme

What is it?
An opportunity to raise monies, on a regular weekly basis, for Nystagmus Network at the same time as giving people the chance of winning a weekly cash sum based on the outcome of the bonus ball number from the National Lottery's Saturday Draw.

How does it work?
Offer family, friends and acquaintances the opportunity of paying for a chosen number (or numbers) between 1 and 49 at £1 per week per number. People can buy for any number of specified weeks, but the ideal position is for people to be willing to commit to purchase the same number on a longer term (rather than a shorter term) basis.

Payments are recorded on a simple spreadsheet.

Every Saturday the holder of the bonus ball number wins £25 in cash, with the balance going to Nystagmus Network. Obviously the Nystagmus Network benefit most effectively if all 49 numbers are allocated each week.

Clearly anyone who sets up a scheme needs to have rules (see below), and a clear understanding of what will happen if less than 49 numbers are allocated in any given week. For example will enough money be raised to pay out the winnings and what if the bonus ball number is an unallocated one?

Since the scheme was set up in May 1999 all participants (some buying three numbers a week) have stayed with the scheme, and each pays varying amounts at various times. The spreadsheet record can cope with that - providing it is kept up to date!

The surplus monies are banked into a separate account and sent off to Nystagmus Network on a regular basis.

Every participant has a copy of the scheme rules, and the weekly payout is made in a timely way to maintain the integrity of the scheme. Obviously it is important that the name of the Nystagmus Network is not tarnished by poor administration of the scheme, particularly over the collection of money. Some people like to pay weekly and others like to pay for a whole year in advance, and the scheme can easily cope with that. The only proviso is that the payment is made before the Saturday Draw, otherwise there is not much of an incentive to pay!

Every participant has an equal chance of winning and, in the last twelve months, one person has won five times, and another's number came up three times over four successive weeks!

Author: Kevin Bromback

BONUS BALL LOTTERY SCHEME FOR THE BENEFIT OF Nystagmus Network UK - RULES

Scheme Manager : [Name] [Full Address]

SCHEME

1. The scheme will be based on the Saturday National Lottery draw.
2. Individual named participants will select a number and pay £1 per week for each number, in advance, for as long as they wish to remain in the scheme.
3. There will be one winner each week being the participant who has selected the Bonus Ball number drawn in the National Lottery each Saturday.
4. There will be one prize with the winner receiving £25 (say).
5. There will be no second prize and no "roll-over" of an unallocated prize.
6. The balance of £24 per week will accumulate for the benefit of Nystagmus Network (charity number 803440), a registered charity.
7. There will be a maximum of 49 participants per week.
8. In the event of less than 49 players participating the weekly prize will remain at £25.
9. In the event that the scheme needs to be suspended all participants will be notified.
10. In the event that the Bonus Ball number has no participant in a particular week the whole of that week's payments will accumulate for the benefit of Nystagmus Network.
11. Any participant who has not paid their weekly payment prior to the Saturday National Lottery draw will forfeit their entitlement to any prize that week.