Celebrate with ActionAid

Birthday Fundraising

Can’t think of what you’d like for your birthday this year? Having a party and would love to have a collection for ActionAid at the same time? Celebrate turning another year older by helping to change the lives of women and girls in some of the world's poorest countries.

The easiest way to help support ActionAid on your birthday is to set up a fundraiser for friends and family to donate to.

How do I set up a fundraiser?

There are two main platforms you can use to create your fundraiser – JustGiving and Facebook. Both are really simple to set up and your donations come automatically to ActionAid so you can concentrate on celebrating.

Fundraise at your wedding

Congratulations on your special day! We know that your wedding is one of the most important and memorable days of your life, and it can also be a great way to support ActionAid.

Create a JustGiving page so it’s easy for loved ones to donate on your special day. Be sure to let them know why you have chosen to support ActionAid instead of wedding gifts.

Remember to add the link to your page to your wedding website, invitations and you could even include it in your 'thank you' messages, too.

We’d love to hear more about how you’d like to incorporate ActionAid in your celebrations, please let us know about your plans by getting in touch with our friendly supporter contact team on +44 (0)1460 238 000 or by emailing us at events@actionaid.org.

Ideas for celebrations over the years

An anniversary, graduation or retirement - whatever the occasion can offer the chance to raise money for ActionAid.

Setting up your JustGiving page will help everyone come together and see how collectively you can achieve amazing things.

Why not try some of our ideas below to help you hit your fundraising target:

Games: Get competitive and set up quizzes that guests can pay to enter, with a prize for the winner.
Collection: Include a collection box on the gift table – and make sure people know it's there! You can order yours here.
Speeches: Thank everyone who has helped raise money and tell them the total you’ve raised so far. Remind everyone else of your target and let them know it’s not too late to make a donation.
Sell any spares: If you get any duplicate gifts, you could consider selling them online and donating any money you make.

Find more fundraising ideas here to help change the lives of women and girls living in poverty.

Remember your loved one

Celebrate a loved one's life by donating or fundraising in their memory. By remembering a loved one in this way, you can help us respond to emergencies quickly, empower communities to bring about lasting change, and work with women and girls to find the best solutions to the challenges they face.

Find out how you can remember someone special to you

Give the perfect gift

Gift a goat, donate a beehive kit, or choose from many more charity gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, wedding gifts, thank you gifts and more.

Take a look at our range of Gifts in Action gifts.

Meet Aneka and Jay

Aneka and Jay chose to donate a percentage of their wedding gifts to ActionAid.

"It was a pleasure to donate a percentage of our wedding gifts to ActionAid because Aneka’s late grandma was hugely passionate about the rights and wellbeing of women, and this is a charity we feel she would have felt compelled to support. We also felt that whilst celebrating our own happy occasion, our wedding was an opportunity to improve the lives of others.”

Thank you Aneka and Jay!

Supporters Aneka and Jay at their wedding

Stream for change

£100
could buy an emergency bundle gift, which could provide clean water, food and blankets to families who have lost everything.

£224
could provide a bed, mattress and bedding for temporary shelters in India for women and girls escaping violence.

£490
can buy a solar-powered pumping machine for five households in Cambodia, providing them with a dependable water source for farming.

£1400
could provide leadership training for 10 women in Ethiopia who are members of a savings and credit co-operative.

Lydia, police detective helping tackle child marriage in Ghana

Ruth McDowall/ActionAid

Rescuing girls abducted for child marriage in Ghana

Lydia, 34, is a detective in Tumu, northern Ghana. Since 2010, she has been working with ActionAid to rescue girls who have been abducted into marriage and help return them to their families.

"I deal with one to three cases a week of child marriage," she says. “The youngest girl I have had to save was 15. When you find them they are miserable – not happy being with the man, especially if taken forcibly to the man’s place.

“On a normal day, people come to report cases like aggression and child marriage in my office. Whenever they come to report it, I go round to investigate the case. If it’s true, I go and bring the child back to the office and bring the child’s family and the complainant’s family to solve the case and get the child back to school.

"The problem is improving through the support of NGOs. ActionAid staff will go to villages and talk to people. Because of that, it has reduced and is no longer as high as it was. Now we are educating the parents and children too.”

Contact us

If you have any questions or need support with your fundraising, please get in touch. Email events@actionaid.org or call 01460 238 000.