Fundraising for GOSH Charity: Frequently asked questions

If you have a question about fundraising for GOSH Charity, we hope you'll be able to find the answer here. If you do not find what you are looking for, or have more questions, please contact the team at community.events@gosh.org, who will be happy to help.

About your fundraising

Thank you so much for choosing to fundraise for GOSH Charity. If you would like some ideas on how you can fundraiser, check out some options.

If you know what you would like to do and would like some support running your event, please register your event and someone from the team will be in touch.

We also have a range of 'how-to' guides for guidance on specific fundraising activity.

Resources for fundraising

We have a range of physical fundraising materials you can order. Please email us and we can let you know what might work for your event. Please include your mailing address and details about your event.

Unfortunately we don't ship to addresses outside of the UK. Check out our downloadable resources to print yourself instead.

You can download fundraising materials, including bunting, posters and sponsorship forms, to print at home.

We can loan you a contactless/card device to take donations at your event. Please note, you will need to return the device to the charity three working days after your event as we have a limited number of devices for supporters.

Fill in this form to request a device.

We can provide up to five t-shirts for free for your event. For any additional t-shirts we ask for a donation of £5 per t-shirt to cover postage and production.

Email us with details of your event, your address and your size(s) to order your t-shirt(s).

Unfortunately, we do not stock children’s sizes. The smallest t-shirt we stock is an adult small.

You may use our 'in aid of' logo if you are fundraising for GOSH Charity. This is different from the main charity logo, and makes it clear you are fundraising in aid of GOSH Charity but do not represent the charity.

To get a copy of the 'in aid of' logo, plus instructions on how to use it, please email us with details of your fundraising.

About your donations

Your donations will help us to enable Great Ormond Street Hospital to provide world-class care for its young patients and their families. The funds will be used to contribute to:

  • The redevelopment and refurbishment of the hospital
  • The purchase of the most up-to-date equipment
  • Research into new treatments and cures
  • Accommodation and other support services for the children and their families

GOSH Charity works closely with the hospital to ensure that the funds you raise are spent on the most important projects, equipment and activity. Therefore we have certain funding priorities.

If you want to fund a specific item, it may be possible if this item is within the funding priorities and you are able to commit to a certain amount of fundraising. Please get in touch with us to discuss your options.

Unfortunately, we usually cannot allocate donations to specific wards.

There are lots of ways to pay in your fundraising:

  • Online
  • Call us on 020 3841 3131
  • Email us for details of paying by bank transfer
  • Post cheques and CAF vouchers to: Community Fundraising, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, 40 Bernard Street, London, WC1N 1LE. Please include a paying in form.
  • If you’ve fundraised using JustGiving or Facebook, there’s nothing you need to do – the money will make its way straight to us

We can claim Gift Aid from individual donations but not from any collective fundraising donations or for sales of goods. For example:

  • We cannot claim Gift Aid on a bucket collection or other collective donation
  • We cannot claim Gift Aid from cake sale donations or other events where the donor receives something for their donation
  • We cannot claim Gift Aid from donations made by a company or group
  • We cannot claim Gift Aid if you are paying in cash given to you by others to an online fundraising page (eg. JustGiving)

To claim Gift Aid ask your donors to:

  • When using JustGiving: Fill in their Gift Aid details when prompted by JustGiving
  • When using a paper sponsorship form: Fill in their Gift Aid details and tick the box on the form
  • When donating in another way: Register their Gift Aid status with the Charity

If you're not sure about whether you can claim Gift Aid for your event please get in touch.

We recommend using JustGiving to fundraise for GOSH Charity, however you can use GoFundMe if you wish.

If you set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe, please email us with the URL of the fundraising page so that we can match the donations to your activity.

If you set up a crowdfunder on GoFundMe, donations will be sent to the bank account you use to set this up, and you will need to transfer the money to GOSH Charity yourself. See how to pay in your fundraising.

Using JustGiving

Visit our page on JustGiving and choose 'Fundraise for us'. Set up or log into your JustGiving account and then follow the instructions to set up your fundraising page.

Remember, pages that have a personalised story and photo raise more money so include some information on why you are supporting GOSH Charity for your friends and family to read.

If you have set up a JustGiving fundraiser you do not need to do anything, JustGiving will send the money to GOSH Charity directly.

If you have set up a JustGiving Crowdfunding page you will need to send us the money.

Authorisation for fundraising

We can provide an authorisation letter for you. Please email us with details of your fundraising event, including when and where it will take place.

Other questions

We have a limited number of speakers and can only visit certain events. Please take a look at our Youtube channel to see if there are any appropriate videos you could use instead.

Unfortunately we cannot promote your event on our social media channels. As you will understand, we receive a lot of requests to promote events from supporters, in order to be as fair as possible, we don’t promote events in this way.

There are other ways to help boost attendance at your event. We recommend considering your own social media networks, such as local Facebook groups and neighbourhood or community groups. This is much more likely to reach people who would be able to attend your event in your area and increase your fundraising.

You can also find more tips here on how to promote your fundraising using social media.

Please email us with further details around your fundraising and how much you have raised, and we can create a letter for your employer.

We cannot provide raffle prizes, but can we provide a letter for you to send onto local businesses who might be able to offer you free prizes or experiences for your raffle. Please email us with details of your fundraiser and we can create a letter for you.