STOP! Hold on to your skateboard, for a moment...

Before you go rushing off, why not look at some other really useful resources available on ScoutBaseUK.

Getting Scouting Noticed

Click on 'how to work with the media' and download the Shouting for Scouting booklet. It really will help you increase your chances of media coverage (see if your District has a Media Relations Manager who can also help)

Also, click on 'local newspaper TV or radio station' for local contacts.

Fundraising

Index page for you to pick and choose your subject. Ideas are being developed all the time, so why not look at the Funding Points newsletters and get on the mailing list.
E mail: fundraising@scout.org.uk

All fundraising is strictly regulated by law. Make sure that you check out the Fundraising Factsheets on ScoutBase UK before you start.

Adult Support

Your activity could be stopping adults in the street to watch (or take part), or getting them involved delivering some of the ideas. These may be people who can help you in the future!

For more information on how to get these people involved in Scouting, contact the Info Centre. New resources and information on recruitment, retention and support for volunteers will be available on ScoutBase. Call to check out the dates and latest information.

Abseiling off public buildings needs some thought if trying to promote to the public, after all it is happening high up or even out of the way. Get your publicity at ground level sorted out - flyers, posters, and banners. Or use some of the other activity ideas.

If taking photographs for your press release, they will probably need to be taken from the top looking down on the happy smiling face of a young person.

Bucket rattling.

Individual sponsorship is a very common method.

Try and get a partnership going with the building owner. After all, their building will also feature in your press release.

Under Scout Association rules, members of the public are not permitted to use Scout equipment, facilities or instruction.

This activity will get you involved your local community. Why not extend it by inviting a local councillor or MP to discuss your findings.

For press coverage, try an angle along the lines of 'Scouts vote best access'.

Discuss this with the manager of the cinema, theatre (or even bingo hall). They may have someone appointed to look after promotion and public relations. Look at the fundraising section below for possible ideas to get a story.

Discuss with the cinema manager. Hire the cinema/screen for an off-peak period for the screening of a film. Sell tickets. You could also think about doing this with a bingo hall.

You may also be able to negotiate a deal for on-peak periods, whereby tickets can be sold on commission, or sale-or-return basis, to the public, family or friends.

Approach a film distributor for a preview copy of a new film. Screen it at a local hall. Sell tickets.

Sponsored Nights Away in a cinema.

Somewhere public, like a shopping centre. Set up a simple BMX obstacle course and use it (see the Wheelie Cool page). If you want to set up something more demanding (like a show), make sure that you practice and get it right.

You can invite members of the public to take part in some thing as simple as 'how long can you balance on the same spot'

For press coverage, why not use the title 'Scouts are wheelie cool'. Avoid the temptation to get too much in your photograph, or a long distance shot.

Bucket rattling.

Sponsored stunts e.g. 'how long can you stay still on the spot', how many 'bunny hops' in a minute.

Approach local bike shop for loan of kit, sponsorship.

Letting people have a go, for a charge or donation.

Combine it with one or two other activities for an Urban Outdoors display.

Hold an all-day event. How many hours, in total, can the group do?

For the all-day event, sponsorship forms for everyone. Set your target for each individual carefully.

Approach someone with some pretty advanced skills and hold a fee-paying workshop.

Practice and get to a certain skill level. Seek an interview with a local radio station and combine it with a behind the scenes tour.

Hold a 'dance'. (Make sure that the venue has a licence to do so)

Seek sponsorship from your local record shop to back the event or supply records.

Hold an event in a local park, but choose your day carefully e.g. Sunday or when something else is taking place. Design a message banner for the kite, or tail. Make sure that you have plenty of ground level publicity material.

Think about the press photograph. A shot taken a long way off will not tell a story. How about a lot of faces around one or two kites?

Bucket rattling.

Let the public have a go, and charge an amount for, say, 5 minutes.

Hold a kite making work shop whilst doing the public display.

Hold a Chinese fighting kite competition and charge entrance fee.

This is a community service project, so invite local people along. Put posters in local shops and other public places such as schools and libraries.

Do it! In the information you supply the media tell them why. Also see the 'soup kitchen' idea in Fundraising.

Approach a local supermarket and ask them to donate soup and rolls for the evening, and the cardboard boxes. If it is one of the big chains, you may suggest to the manager that they should contact their public relations department for some support.

Sponsored sleep out.

Hold a soup kitchen before you start and invite local councillors, MP, District Scouters.

Use as a competition to promote a specific event/activity

Great photo opportunities from this activity. It may pay to think about producing one big piece rather lots of small ones, or a combination of both. Why not hold it in a public place and get people involved.

Bucket rattling.

Charge a fee to come and see, or have a go.

With the kind permission of your local supermarket, in their car park. You can construct a simple obstacle course, perhaps pushing a number of trolleys in a 'snake'.

Bucket rattling

See if your supermarket will allow you to borrow a few trolleys for a couple of hours for a sponsored push and bucket rattling event around your area.

See 'Wheelie Cool'.

Wouldn't it be great to do this on a billboard? Ask.

You don't necessarily need one large space, two or three smaller ones could be just as effective. Cover the walls with wall-paper liner available from DIY shops (unless you have permission to spray directly on to the walls).

Get people to have a go. It is not just young people that can (or want) to do this.

Charge people to have a go. You can set up a number of smaller cards to get more people doing this.

If some of the work is really good, what about a sale or auction?

Set up a mini league or competition and get the local community involved.

Do you have a local ice hockey team? Get one or two of the players ( or the whole team!) involved to boost your publicity.

For mini-league or standard competition, charge a fee to play.

If you are doing an exhibition match, charge an entrance fee.

What about a sponsored 24 hour hockey-thon as a Group or District event?

Show video in window of local TV shop. Have cards produced to explain what people are watching.

Where else uses TV screens? Some Doctor's surgeries, bus companies, post offices. Have a look.

Contact your local schools to see if the video can be used with citizenship. In might be a great idea to speak to them before making the video, they could have the contacts and resources to help.

Talk to your local television company for tips (you never know, you might get them to show part of it)

Use the video to provide another feature at an event.

If the video is looking at a particular problem or issue, publicise that fact on cards near the screen. Rattle that bucket!

Build in a donation messages at the start and finish of the video, with contact details.

Get your results published in the local press as a consumer survey with a picture of the owner of the winning shop. Don't just think about a 'chip' survey. What about foods linked to cultural/ community festivals - we have a country with a great deal to offer.

Sponsored or pay a fee to'scoff' but be clever. How about the number of baked beans you can eat in a minute, using a cocktail stick. Or, the number of cream-crackers (you'll be amazed at how few you can eat).

Sponsored no-fast-food week (or month!). Now, that would be a challenge for some!

Thinking about doing this at dusk, or night? Ask your local police, Territorial Army base or wildlife society if they have night vision equipment and get them involved in your press release.

Young people with magnifying glasses towards the camera can make a good picture. Another photo opportunity.

How about undertaking a big clear-up of a piece of waste ground (see Scouts Go Green resource).

If you take some good pictures of wildlife, how can you use them? Sell the pictures or design and print festive cards using a computer.

Sponsored big clear-up.

Contact your local historical or archaeological society, Regional/Country Heritage or National Trust and work on some joint publicity. Why not stage a one-day or weekend Time Team event and get the story in to the local media.

You may find some valuable items. Talk to the experts about how these can be used.

Run a treasure hunt and charge a fee. Bury or cover items and give clues in the form x paces west from the Old Oak Tree.

Lots of possibilities here and very much depends on what you pick. Think about what story you can tell about young people getting involved.

Lots of big and wacky ideas can be used for very good stories and photographs.

Since you will be moving around your local area, produce posters to raise your profile. Don't just rely on uniform.

Take obscure photographs of places in your area and see if your local paper will run a 'spot the place' competition - 'Can you Scout around?'