Special Events Ideas

New Ideas

Action Auction—Auction the skills and talents of your co-workers!

Executive Tricycle Race—Charge an entry fee and allow employees to “bet” on the winner. The day of the race, allow spectators to pay to have teams moved forward or backward at the starting line. These races can be done with single participants or as relays to get more people involved.

Flamingoing—Buy a few dozen pink plastic flamingos and they put them out on the lawn of a competing company with a note that to remove them, they need to pay a certain dollar amount and they can pass them on to another company.

Oldest Company T-shirt Contest—Dust off those old company t shirts and model them proudly! Charge $3 per entry, and have a fashion show to model the shirts.

Sodawe—Like soda? So-do-we! Set up a stand or table in your building lobby and sell drinks to benefit the United Way Community Campaign.

Ugly Lamp Contest—Have a new hideous lamp each year and pass it around from office to office. Charge one dollar amount to make it go away or double your donation to choose the next victim.

Favorites

5K Walk/Run—Charge a set amount for participants to enter or ask participants to get sponsors. Hand out prizes for people who raise the most amount of money.

Bake Sale/Candy Sale—These can be great around the holidays. Consider taking a traveling bake sale or coffee cart around the building.

Best Appetizer Contest—Employees bring in their best appetizer and compete for the title of top chef. Employees pay $2 to sample all the appetizers and vote on their favorite one. Create cookbooks with all the recipes and sell them for $5.

Book/DVD Sale—Have co-workers bring in used books or DVDs and sell them to raise money for the campaign.

Bowling For Dollars—Recruit some teams and have a group bowling night, raising money via entry fees or per pin donations.

Children’s Drawing Contest- Give employees “official photographs”of one or two top executives to take home for their children to draw. Or, children can draw what “helping others,”what “hope”means to them. Charge a $5 entry fee and ask employees to vote for best drawing. Give prizes to all participants and display winning portraits during campaign time.

Chair Massage—Bring in a massage therapist for a day. Allow all those who submit a pledge form a relaxing 5-minute chair massage or charge a fee to benefit the campaign.

Chili Cook-off—Employees cook their favorite recipe and enter it into the contest. Charge employees to sample all of the entries. Also consider a dessert bake-off or an apple pie bake-off.

Car Wash—Employees pay to have their car washed by colleagues or management.

Garage Sale—Have employees clean out their closets and set up a company-wide garage sale to benefit the United Way Community Campaign.

International Food Day—Teams of employees create tasty treats from around the world. Employees decorate their own booths and dress in costumes. Hold the event at lunch, allowing employees to purchase tickets redeemable for food at the booths. Have a panel of judges award prizes.

Kiss the Pig—Allow employees to vote for who should kiss a piglet. Charge $1 per vote.

Mini-golf event—Set up a mini-golf course at the workplace, using Slinkys, ramps, “water hazards,”and sand traps. You can play in teams; have the lowest score win a prize; or vote on the most creative hole. Pay to play.

Office Olympics—Set up an obstacle course in the lunchroom or a conference room. time your contestants as they type a few paragraphs at one station, file at another, and photocopy at another station. Add in other stations like pencil sharpening or making a paper clip chain. The contestants pay an entry fee and the winner gets a prize.

Penny Wars—In a penny war, two or more groups compete to win a fundraising competition. Each group has a bucket for collecting coins or dollar bills. The value of any pennies collected by a group count positively toward that group's point total, while the value of other coins or dollar bills are subtracted.

Paper T-shirt Sale—$1 per paper LIVE UNITED t-shirt benefits the United Way Community Campaign. Staff decorates the t-shirts for display in your workplace.

Scrabble Tournament—Hold a Scrabble tournament. Charge an entry fee, or ask employees to match their score with a gift to the campaign.

Silent or Online Auction—Have individuals or businesses donate prizes (college/professional football or basketball tickets, a weekend getaway, restaurant gift certificates, paid time off, etc.) and hold a silent auction or online auction with the prize going to the highest bidder.

United Way Trivial Pursuit—Distribute e-mail or printed up questions about the United Way Community Campaign every day for a week. Then ask trivia questions based on the information.

Video Game Tournament—Set up three or four game systems in a small conference room. Employees pay to play, with prizes going to the top scorer in each game.