Many people get a lot of pleasure raising money for charity, some also get a lot of pleasure just trying to raise money for charity. however, there is no doubt that taking part will introduce you to a lot of lovely people, some of whom may become lifelong friends. Being successful at raising money for good causes gives a real buzz, even if that is not why you are supposed to be doing it.

Knowing that you have helped a family on the other side of the world or that you are aiding the education of a single child somewhere on a monthly basis is rewarding. as is knowing that you helped put a new roof on the church or helped stock your children's school library. Everyone should do some work for charity from time to time and, importantly surprisingly, tell people what you are doing, it may spur them on to doing something too.

so, if you are short on ideas or you are just getting going, here are five bits of advice for raising money for charity:

Just Another Brick In The Wall: if you are raising money for something that can be depicted do so. For example, if you are raising money for books in a library, try to find out how much you will need and how many books that will buy. Then, make a large drawing for the wall showing that number of books on the shelves, say 1,000. a computer can do this fairly easily. Mark some books as $1 on the spine and others ranging from 50c up to $20, when people donate let them colour in the spine when they donate. There is no need to put the titles of the books.

Likewise if you need a new roof, get a builder to give you an estimate and how many slates or tiles it will take. Tell him why you want to know and he will almost certainly help. Dive the sum needed by the number of tiles. Let people pay for half tiles too, if necessary.

Quiz: create a varied of 20 or 50 questions and sell them to people: pubs, clubs, school gates, supermarkets etc. Keep the cost down to something low like $1 or £1 and offer a decent prize for the first one drawn from all the correct answers. Do it weekly, fortnightly or monthly. see how it goes, how many you can sell etc and work out a fair prize. On every quiz sheet, you can advertise too and give details about where the money is going. People love quizzes look at all the nights about.

A Quick Hit: towards the end of a dinner, a dance or a do of some sort, spontaneously get up to the mike and announce a special fund raising lottery. Take out a fiver and write your name on it. Encourage others to do the same, promising that the first out of the box will get 50% of the take. You will make money, guaranteed.

Reverse Snobbery: send out invitations to stay away from a non-existent ball. With the invitation offer to sell a very expensive pin or button (I mean 10 times its cost to you; 20 times if you like). It has to look good and it could read: 'I Stayed Away From The Bore Ball!". It's not as much trouble to organize as a ball, but can raise as much.

Posters: when making up and distributing posters (with paid advertising on it), leave an A4 space in the centre. Then you can change the notification without printing new posters.