Fundraising

Whilst our volunteers are more than happy to work for free, the same cannot be said for our equipment. Minidisc players seize up, microphones break and, if you can believe it, sometimes even our computers stop working. On top of problems like these we also have to pay things like phone bills and various broadcasting licences. With no financial help from the hospital, the moneys owed soon mount up and so regular donations and fundraising activities are an essential part of keeping the station on the air.

A large slice of our income is generated by charitable donations from the public. It is difficult to stress how important such donations are to keeping the station in operation, nor how much they are appreciated by the station’s audience.

There are many ways in which you can help contribute to Walsall Hospital Radio. Perhaps the easiest method is by hitting the ‘Donate’ button at the bottom of this page. This will take you straight to WHR’s PayPal site through which you can make a quick direct donation to us. Alternatively, you can download the standing order form found below. Simply fill it in, drop it into your bank and they'll do the rest. If you don’t like the sound of this, we also accept cheques made payable to ‘Walsall Hospital Radio’ and if that doesn’t do it for you, there is the option of donating to us some or even all of the proceeds of your eBay sales.

Here is an overview of the methods through which you can make a donation to Walsall Hospital Radio –

Donation Type	How it works
PayPal online donation	PayPal is, in their own words, a ‘safe, simple and smart’ way of sending money through the internet. You can quickly and easily make a donation using your credit or debit card and you don't even have to sign up to the service to do so. Simply click on any of the 'Donate' buttons that you'll find on the bottom of each page of this website to go straight to our PayPal donations page and follow the onscreen instructions. If you are registered with PayPal (if you've ever used eBay then you probably are) then you can make a donation to us from the funds attributed to your account. Again, simply click on the 'Donate' button and log in to your account to do so.
Standing Orders	Just as ‘charity muggers’ approach you in the street and encourage you to set up standing orders to Oxfam, we do the same, albeit in a gentler manner. Standing orders are a great help to the station as they provide us with a regular, reasonably reliable source of income which is sent straight to our account each month. You can set up a standing order to us either directly with your bank (if you use internet banking you’ll be able to arrange one online) or by filling in and returning our downloadable Standing Order Form. Download Walsall Hospital Radio's Standing Order Form  (Please Note - the above form is in .PDF format and will require a program such as Acrobat Reader or similar to view. An alternative .DOC format copy of the form, viewable in Microsoft Word, is available here)
Cheques	Whilst some see cheques as an archaic, outdated form of payment about to be consigned to history, we at WHR are more than happy to accept them. In fact, there's nothing that excites us more than opening an envelope to find a cheque enclosed as it makes such a nice change from bills! Please make them payable to Walsall Hospital Radio and send them to us at Walsall Hospital Radio, St. John’s Wing, Walsall Manor Hospital, Moat Road, Walsall, West Midlands, WS2 6PS
Donations through eBay sales step-by-step guide	If you have something to sell on eBay, you can help us by opting to donate to us some or all of the money raised in your sale. This can be advantageous to you as not only do you get the buzz from donating to a worthy cause, the kind people at eBay will also refund an amount of your fees proportionate to how much you've chosen to donate. Choosing to donate, say, 50% of your sale revenue to WHR for example for mean eBay would refund you 50% of your listings fees. It's win-win!  If you're an eBay veteran, you'll find that donating to us through your favourite bidding website is easy - just select Walsall Hospital Radio as the benefactor of some, or all, of the sales proceeds when you are making the listing and follow the instructions from eBay's charity coordinator, MissionFish (our MissionFish profile is here). If you're a little unsure about how the process works, check out our step-by-step guide for a full explanation.
Donating unwanted items	If you have things lying around the house that you don't want, don't really use or haven't ever worked out how to use, you might like to consider donating them to us so that we can sell them and raise cash for the Station. Preferably, the ideal way in which you can do this is by listing them on eBay and opting to donate the proceeds of you sale to us by selecting Walsall Hospital Radio as the sale's benefactor whilst creating the listing. Alternatively if you aren't too confident with eBay, you could contact us and we'll discuss with you how we could make use of the things you don't need. You'd be surprised at what we can sell at our Table Top Sales so if in doubt, give us a call. Donations of equipment from businesses are also very welcome.

Below are some examples of the way in which Walsall Hospital Radio's volunteers have themselves helped raise essential funds for the Station -

Tin shaking & collections –

The staff at Walsall Hospital Radio are for the most part a friendly and approachable gang hence sending them out with collection tins is an excellent way of raising essential funds. We collect both inside the hospital (you will, for example, find a tin in the hospital canteen) and out in Walsall itself.

Table Top Sales –

Usually held out in the hospital’s reception area, these sales take place on Saturdays and help both make the station some money and also give us a little publicity boost. Volunteers sell things that they’ve been able to harvest from home or work and are always happy to chat to anyone interested in the station.

Donations of unwanted equipment etc –

A significant and easy way in which you can help us is by donating unwanted items from about your home or work. We welcome donations of things that we can either sell such as books, toys etc, or things that would be useful in the station itself e.g. computing equipment or records. If you’ve just had a clearout and find yourself left with a pile of items that you think we might be able to sell, please consider donating them to a charitable cause and get in touch with us.

Beer & Skittles Evening –

Members, their friends and family get together to play skittles, drink a little beer and raise cash for WHR in the process.

Broadcasting Marathons –

Sure, Radio 1 broadcasts for 24 hours a day, everyday. We, however, are a bit of a smaller operation than Radio 1 and so make a big deal of it when we hold what we call a ‘Broadcast Marathon’ – an uninterrupted broadcast spanning up to two whole days. The Marathons are great fun and involve WHR’s staff presenting non-stop shows in exchange for sponsorship. Tiring and rewarding in equal measure, the last Marathon brought in a massive £450 for the station’s funds.

WHR is committed to being an open and accountable charity. True to this commitment, we invite you to view our 2007 Accounts to get an idea of how money donated to the Station is used.