Perennial is often described as a ‘lifeline’ by the people we help. Your fundraising will make a real and lasting difference to lives.

What your fundraising will do

£25 pays for a new school uniform for the child of someone struggling to make ends meet

£50 will pay for a care alarm to be installed for an elderly or disabled client

£150 will pay for a TV licence for a client whose only companion is the TV

£200 pays for 10 sessions at a nursery for a baby whose parent is critically ill

£500 will help furnish a flat for someone who was previously homeless

£750 pays the removal fees for a client fleeing domestic violence

£1,000 will buy a new boiler for a family living without hot water or heating

How to get your money to us

Online – The easiest way to get your sponsorship money is by setting up a page via JustGiving (www.justgiving.com/Perennial).

Sponsor Form – You can also download our HortAid sponsor form, and get your friends and colleagues to support your fundraising. Don’t forget to make them tick the GiftAid box!

Text Message – The fastest way of sending us a donation is via your mobile phone:

Text one of the following messages to 70070:

HORT16 £1
HORT16 £2
HORT16 £3
HORT16 £4
HORT16 £5
HORT16 £10

Let us know what you’re up to

Don’t forget to tell us what you’re doing to raise money and send us photos and video of your event. You can share your story on our Facebook page, tweet about it on Twitter, or email marketing@perennial.org.uk.

You can read about some of the people Perennial has helped here →

Need some inspiration in your fundraising for HortAid?
Try one of our ideas below…

• Take part in one of our challenge events:
  • London to Brighton Bike Ride (11 September – #GetCycling)
  • Go Nuts for Perennial (18 September – #GetMuddy)
  • Three Peakers Ride Again (18-24 September – #GetCycling)
    

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• #GetSporty; organise a football or cricket match, or have a golf day to raise money
  

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• #GetGiving – nominate Perennial as the Charity of the Year for your workplace or company
  

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• #GetFit – Walk, run or cycle to work for a week – you can donate the money you save in transport costs to Perennial AND get sponsored by colleagues to boot!
• There’s a gym outside your window – get out in the garden and get fit in the process – why not ask friends and neighbours if they need a hand in their garden in exchange for a donation to Perennial?
  

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• #GetBaking – hold a cake sale or a tea party in the office, or with your friends
  

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• #GetDressed – dress to impress in your workplace – get going in a superhero costume or morphsuit
  

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• #GetMoving – hold a Zumba session in your office, or dance the night away to raise money for HortAid
  

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• #GetGreen – Recycle your old mobile phones, inkjet cartridges and any unwanted jewellery to Perennial via Recycle 4 Charity and Recyling for Good Causes
• Save on fuel and carbon emissions for the day – use manual equipment instead of petrol power for the day and get sponsored for your efforts
  

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• #GetRid – reuse your unwanted items and hold a bring and buy sale at work to raise money
  

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• #GetOpen – host an impromptu ‘Garden Open’ event with voluntary donations and tea and biscuits!
  

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• #GetGrowing – Put your extra plants, fruit and veg to good use by holding a plant sale outside your house – set up an honesty box with a sign about Perennial asking for donations
  

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• #GetWet – Take part in a sponsored swim, or relive the summer of 2014 and do an Ice Bucket Challenge
• Hand car wash – charge for your efforts, or ask for a voluntary donation
  

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• #GetGlam – wear makeup – nail polish, lipstick, complete with a green wig (or hair dye) – for the day
  

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• #GetGunged – create a gunge tank at work – everyone pays for a vote and the one with the most gets the gunge! Will the boss be gunged?
  

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• #GetDaring – skydive, bungee jump or zipwire for HortAid
• Dare to get going in as funny a way as possible and nominate a friend to join you (use #GetGoingforHortAid on Twitter) –how many people can you join together…

Whatever you do, don’t forget to tell us about it!

Coming up in 2016

23 July – 9 October – Broomfield Landscaper Challenge

A group of colleagues and friends fromGreenspace Solutions in Leeds (now owned by GRITIT UK) are joining forces to raise money for HortAid this year in memory of Alan Broomfield.

Alan, who worked for Greenspace Solutions, died from cancer last year and leaves a wife and young son.

The team are participating in three events:

• Yorkshire Three Peaks (23 July)
• Yorkshire Tough Mudder (August)
• Yorkshire Marathon (9 October)

Find out more on their JustGiving team page, or sponsor them individually via the links below:

• Adam Ralph
• Nikki Singh-Barmi
• Michaela Walker
• Liam Stead
• Jim Nuttall

11 September 2016 – London-Brighton Bike Ride

Want to emulate the extraordinary exploits of our Grubby Gardeners 7-seater team?

The 54-mile route is one of the most iconic in British cycling – starting from Clapham Common, you’ll wind Mitcham, Carshalton, Chipstead, Turners Hill and Haywards Heath before tackling the big one – Ditchling Beacon!

• More details on our Event page
• Sign up to take part today

18 September 2016 – Nuts Challenge

Will you get muddy for Perennial?

The Nuts Challenge is the most famous muddy obstacle course in the UK, and we’ve teamed up with the event organisers to provide a specific Perennial race in 2016. 5km, 60 obstacles, and lashings of mud!

Will you enter a team?

• More details on our Events page
• Registration is now open
• Set up your JustGiving fundraising page

18 – 26 September 2016 – Three Peakers Ride Again: Snowdon 2 Lands End

Would you like to join a team of landscapers and nurserymen and women from across the UK in their attempt to ride from Snowdon to Lands End in just 6 days? One team on road the other off road. Or perhaps you’d like to sponsor the event? Find out more about the challenge and how you can get involved.

• More details on our event page
• Sponsor the team here

9 October 2016 – Royal Parks Half Marathon

A new event for Perennial in 2016! Come and join our ‘Get Going’ team and take part with over 16,000 runners through Central London, and four Royal Parks.

• More details on our Event page

10 July 2016 – British 10K London

James Robbins, Fullers Mill Head Gardener Annie Dellbridge and her son Sam completed the British 10K London on 10 July.

You can still add to their fundraising totals via JustGiving:

• Annie Dellbridge
• Sam Dellbridge
• James Robbins

24 June 2016 – Slieve Donard Challenge

A group of Irish horticulturists, led by Doug Thomson, tackled the trek from the coast up to the top of Slieve Donard, the tallest mountain in Northern Ireland.

Along the way, they have raised well over £1,000!

View the JustGiving team page, or visit an individual to sponsor them:

• Doug Thomson
• Paul Robbins

11 June – Tandem Skydiving

A group of intrepid fundraisers – including Gold Medal-winning garden designer Ann-Marie Powell – raised over £4,000 on 11 June!

However, you can skydive for Perennial at any time of year. Watch this video to get some inspiration.

24 April 2016 – Virgin Money London Marathon

The amazing Paresh Raithatha and Andrew O’Brien ran the London Marathon for HortAid in 2016, and between them raised nearly £5,000!

• Marathon heroes raise nearly £5,000 for HortAid
• Running the London Marathon next year? Email our HortAid team

15 January 2016 – Party for Perennial

Our 2016 HortAid campaign got off to a flying start at the Party for Perennial at Skyloft, Altitude London.

The event raised a total of nearly £35,000, with over £26,000 of that for HortAid!

• Record fundraising at Party for Perennial
• Charity Champions announced at Party for Perennial
• Plans unveiled for ambitious cycle challenge
• View our photo gallery (Flickr)

6 September 2015 – London to Brighton bike ride

Claire and Jamie completed an extraordinary weekend by forming part of a team that cycled a 7-seater bicycle all the way from Clapham Common to the seafront in Brighton! They were joined by our Extreme 3 Peaks team. Between them, they raised more than £3,000.

• Grubby Gardeners complete epic 10-hour, 7-seater cycle
• View our London-Brighton photo gallery

5 September 2015 – Nuts Challenge

Claire Vokins and Jamie Butterworth braved the daunting 7km Nuts Challenge course, near Dorking, Surrey. With over 100 obstacles and lashings of deep Surrey mud, they had a fantastic time!

• View our Nuts Challenge photo gallery

1-14 September 2015 – Go Green for HortAid

Fire engines were pulled, raffles were held, jam was sold, and green custard pies were thrown. Our fool-hardy fundraisers raised almost £10,000 during our Go Green fortnight!

• Orpington school children and Coolings Garden Centre raise £500
• The Go Green Riddler gets her own back on our Marketing Manager

12 July – British 10K London

Our amazing team of runners raised more than £2,270 racing through the streets of London in one of the country’s most popular running events!

2 May – Skydive for Perennial

Intrepid Perennial thrill-seekers leapt out of an aeroplane to raise over £4,200 for Perennial! While two of our “Grubby Gardeners”, Michael Perry and David Lewis, marked World Naked Gardening Day at the same time…

• Skydiving fundraisers took the plunge

18 April – Dirty Dozen Races

The Grubby Gardeners got down and dirty for another fantastic mud run in Kent, and raised over £2,500 in the process!

12 and 26 April – OTT (One man, Two marathons, Two weeks)

Nigel Bowcock, owner of Acre Landscapes Ltd and BALI board member raised over £2,500 running two marathons in a fortnight!

• Brighton Marathon (12 April)
• London Marathon (26 April)
• Nigel Bowcock completes HortAid marathon challenge

15 January – Party for Perennial

We started the year in fantastic style with more than 300 people attending the Party for Perennial, raising more than £20,000!

• Inaugural Party for Perennial kicks off new year of fundraising
• View our Party for Perennial photo gallery (Flickr, or Google+)

We want to know if you’re planning to Get Going for HortAid!

We can support with publicity, marketing collateral, and help to make sure your fundraising event is as successful as possible.

Fill out the form below to let us know.

Will you #GetSnapping for HortAid?

In the build-up to this year’s Get Going for HortAid fundraising fortnight (5 – 18 September 2016), Perennial has launched a garden photo competition.

Followers of Perennial on social media channels Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are encouraged to enter their favourite garden photo, taken personally over the last 12 months. The charity, which is dedicated to helping all horticulturists when times get tough, will share entries on social media during its HortAid fundraising fortnight in September.

A number of entrants will be selected to win a popular Perennial wristband on each day of the fortnight with the best also being considered for the 2018 Beautiful Gardens calendar.

You can enter online below, email your image with a completed application form to: photocomp@perennial.org.uk.

There is a maximum of 3 entries per person. Good luck!

For full terms and conditions and information about how to enter, see our Terms & Conditions here:

Perennial Amateur Garden Photography Competition 2016 Terms & Conditions