Host an event based on your own interests…

If you like Sports

• Fitness Classes – Do you go to a weekly yoga, Zumba, cycling, or other exercise class? Ask your instructor if they would be interested in donating their time to your fundraiser. Pick a time and day when they are available and charge an entry fee for the class. Make sure to tell all of your friends and family about the class!
• Bowling Tournament – Love to bowl? Ask your local bowling alley if they would be willing to donate a few lanes for a night. Invite community members and charge a fee to enter the tournament.
• Mini Golf Tournament – Discover your competitive side with a Mini Golf Tournament. Find a place nearby or even set one up in your house.
• Scavenger Hunt – This can be done in a small area like a park or even around your town or city. Place clues around the area and charge for the first clue.
• March Madness – Charge friends, family, and coworkers to enter a March Madness event, with team fundraising through Canada Helps.

Family Fun

• Movie Night – See if a local school (or even a generous movie theater) will donate their auditorium for a movie night and charge for tickets. Keep in mind we can list a theatre as a contributor to the event on our site.
• Car Wash – Nothing has withstood the test of time like a good old car wash. See if a local store will donate necessary place and materials and advertise around your town. A great way for teens to get in their volunteer hours. Possibly Canadian Tire or Walmart.

Food events.

• Pancake Breakfast or a Spaghetti dinner – A pancake breakfast can be done anywhere from your house, a school, or even a local diner. Charge a flat fee for all-you-can-eat pancakes. Maybe around the time when maple syrup is being harvested? Or Spaghetti with garlic bread. See if you can have a baker donate some desserts.
• Happy Hour – See if your local bar will assist with a happy hour event. Many bars will donate a portion of their proceeds to a good cause. Invite your friends and have a fun night out for a cause!
• Restaurant Night – Just like bars, restaurants (like Boston Pizza) will sometimes donate a portion of their proceeds to a cause, especially when you help bring business to them. Ask around your favorite restaurants and see if they’ll participate.

Other

• Trivia Night – Everyone loves trivia! Have a trivia night and see if a local bar or restaurant will donate the space. This not only helps you raise money, it helps the bar/restaurant make money with food and drink sales!
• Art Auction – Talk to local artists and see if they’ll donate a piece to an art auction, or even create your own for a sale. This not only helps you fundraise, but it puts the artist’s name out into the community.

We would love to help you brainstorm creative ways you can raise money and awareness in your community. Call or email Nancy and we’ll set up a meeting to discuss how we can support your ideas.

Hosting an event seems a little overwhelming, but I would like to help. Do you have any other fundraising ideas?

Yes! Hosting a fundraiser in your community is not for everyone. An easy but effective way to raise money is to create a donation page, using Canada Helps and ask your friends and family for their support. You could tie this request for donations around a special day, like your birthday or a holiday, or use it as a way to celebrate a GBS/CIDP milestone – for example, one year since your first steps. Many people want to help, especially after they hear about your personal connection to the GBS/CIDP Canadian community. 

Where does the money go?

DIY fundraisers, like the one you’re planning, help the foundation support patients across Canada, connecting them to a network of volunteers, health professionals, and researchers that will help their journeys with GBS/CIDP be a little easier. Money also helps educate the medical community and families and friends of patients. GBS and CIDP are rare diseases, meaning many healthcare professionals and care givers often don’t have much experience with them. Our foundation helps to educate so that patients are receiving the best care as quickly as possible.

Through funds raised, you can also support Canadian Research, through grants provided to researchers. Working on new treatments and hopefully one day a cure. These grants are helping groundbreaking research that will provide quicker diagnosis, new medication, and a better understanding of GBS and CIDP. Lastly, fundraising dollars go towards advocacy. We advocate on the federal, state, and grassroots levels to help benefit our patient and caregiver community.

If you would like to raise money for a certain aspect of the organization, such as research, please contact the us at info@gbscidp.ca. You can ensure that all money you raise goes towards the GBS/CIDP Research program.

I’m not sure how to set up a page, can you help me with that?

Contact the Nancy at info@gbscidp.ca. We would love to provide some technical assistance and show you all of the features your Canada Helps (or Facebook) fundraising page has to offer.

How does the Foundation help in planning my event?

The Foundation Events team LOVES events. We would love to help you brainstorm or talk about your event planning timeline. We can also help promote your event to our GBS/CIDP community in your area by posting it on our events calendar. We can assist with raising awareness of these rare conditions by sending you Foundation literature and giveaways. For more information on Community Outreach and Events, contact Nancy at the foundation at info@gbscidp.ca .