Fundraising ideas for the harvest season

Harvest time can be a good opportunity to get together, share what we are growing, making or cooking and raise funds for Lemon Tree Trust. Whether you share homegrown produce, enjoy a meal with friends or organise a garden gathering, there are plenty of simple ways to bring people together and support our work.

Whether you are enjoying autumn or fall in the Northern Hemisphere or spring in the Southern Hemisphere, you can adapt the following ideas to suit you.

Make the most of your harvest

Have you grown more aubergines, chilli peppers, pumpkins, squash, beans, apples, pears or other seasonal produce in your garden or allotment than you can use?

Why not offer some to friends, family or neighbours in return for a small donation to Lemon Tree Trust.

You could also use your harvest to make something in the kitchen, such as a cake, chutney, soup or meal and invite friends and neighbours to enjoy it in return for a donation.

Host a garden gathering

Invite friends, neighbours or allotment friends for tea, cake or a meal and invite them to support Lemon Tree Trust.

You could combine the gathering with a plant or produce sale, seed swap or garden activity. Our gardening activities, developed in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society, include making leaf and petal crowns, planting herbs and making plant labels.

If a garden party isn’t for you, a simple plant or produce sale from your front garden or allotment can also raise funds and provide an opportunity to chat with neighbours and others in your local community.

Cook and fundraise

From 1-18 October, Lemon Tree Trust is running its Annual Cooking Competitions across refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The competitions are linked to our community and home gardening programmes, with participants using fruit, vegetables and herbs grown at our community gardens, in their home gardens or locally sourced ingredients in their savoury and sweet dishes.

You could run your own cooking fundraiser alongside our competitions. Invite friends to cook one of our gardeners’ recipes, organise a shared meal, hold a bake sale or run your own recipe competition, with proceeds supporting Lemon Tree Trust.

Organise a pumpkin carving party

If pumpkins are in season where you live, you could organise a pumpkin carving party to bring people together and raise funds for Lemon Tree Trust.

Invite friends, family or neighbours to take part. You could provide the pumpkins, ask participants to bring their own, or combine the activity with refreshments or a garden gathering.

Turn your hobbies into a fundraiser

Lemon Tree Trust supporter Katie Cox recently raised £1,000, plus £250 in Gift Aid, through an arts and crafts event in her home and garden.

Katie’s friends kindly donated paintings, handmade cards, hand-thrown pottery and homemade cakes, while plants were offered for sale in the garden.

Her event shows how a fundraiser can bring together the things you enjoy doing and the shared interests you already have with friends, from art and crafts to cooking and gardening, while providing a reason to get together.

We can help with your fundraiser

If you are planning a fundraising event for Lemon Tree Trust, let us know. We can provide information, printed materials and possibly also help with promotion.

We have a supporter poster that you can download and print to promote your event, and we can also send printed promotional materials, including gardening activity sheets and recipe cards. These online resources are also available to download on our website.

Have an idea for a fundraiser? Get in touch with us and let us know what you’re planning.