Mystery Hunt - Clues (sent via e-mail or memo) lead hunters to a United Way agency or co-worker who is connected to an agency. You could have a new hunt each week for a month. This is a great way to educate employees about United Way programs and services. 

Bagging It - Designate a day as “Brown Bag Day” every month or every other month. Encourage staff to bring their lunches on that day and bring in a speaker to talk about a United Way funded program. After the lunch, post a brief summary of the presentation on your website, print it in your newsletter, or distribute via e-mail. 

Got Games? - Educate employees about United Way and its partner programs in a fun way by incorporating a game show theme. Use information from United Way printed materials and our partners’ websites. Play the game(s) at a group meeting or give everyone the opportunity to play by creating a worksheet or posting questions online. 

Start Right - Make United Way part of your new staff orientation. We have packets of information that will help your new employee learn more about United Way in our community. Get your new staff off to a good start and increase participation in your campaign. 

Literature Drop - Help your employees learn more about United Way’s impact in the community. Set up a table and make brochures, newsletters and other materials from United Way and our partner programs available. Posters, table tents and note cards are also great for building awareness. 

Latte Stand and Giving Example - For more distinguished coffee drinkers, offer a latte-stand during a morning meeting. Remind them how much a cup of gourmet coffee or tea costs. Give examples of what giving up one cup of coffee, one soda or one candy bar a day can do for a person in need. Ask if they can donate that same amount (or more) each week to United Way. 

Bake Sale/Cookie Exchange - Ask employees to bake their favorite cookies or other goodies. Sell plates of the treats to employees. Charge an additional fee for the recipe. 

Employee Cookbook - Encourage employees to donate their favorite recipes to be collected, published and sold in a company cookbook. A variation of this theme is to sell books on golf, gardening, etc. Request employees’ children provide illustrations. 

Candy Grams- Sell candy with your company or United Way’s logo on it. All proceeds go to the United Way. 

Midnight Breakfast - If your organization has a third shift, charge employees for a midnight breakfast served by executives and other day employees. 

Eating Contest - Who can eat the most in a given amount of time (hot dogs, pie, crackers, pickles, etc.). 

Whipped Cream Pie in the Face - Host a whipped cream throwing contest. Use sponges covered or pie tins filled with whipped cream and try to hit a target. Get management to be the targets and have employees pay to play. 

Bakery Cart - Wheel a serving cart through the workplace and sell bagels, doughnuts, cookies, coffee cake, coffee and juice, with proceeds going to United Way. 

Lunch Box Auction – Employees create gourmet lunches to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Give prizes for the most creative, nutritious, elegant, or clever meals. 

Taste of the World Luncheon – Offer a lunch buffet of ethnic foods. 

Executive Chef – Auction off dinner for two (or more) at the home of an executive.  

Car Wash - Charge employees to have their car washed by management. Take and sell pictures.  

Dress Down Day - Sell employees the right to dress casually or silly for a day. Variations include: “Silly Hat Day”, “Sport Team Day” or “Ugly Shoe Day”. United Way has “Casual Day” stickers available at no cost. 

Survivor Game - Each participant pays $5 to join and has to do something each day to stay on the island. They have to: bring an item for the silent auction, bring in baked goods for the bake sale or wear a certain color. Winner receives paid time off.  

Auction - Auction off staff services (i.e., babysitting, oil change, lunch for a week), executive parking spaces, donated merchandise or services. Try conducting the auction over your internet site. 

Rummage Sale - Ask employees to donate old items (books, CDs, videos) for a company or department-wide sale. Unsold items may be donated to a local shelter. 

Carnival Lunch – Set up a mini carnival over the lunch hour. Charge to play games such as ring toss, balloon pop, ping pong toss.  

Mini Massage – Find a massage therapist who is willing to donate their time. Charge employees for a 15-minute chair massage. 

Football Toss - Measure for distance and accuracy with prizes for top Guy and top Gal. Charge per attempt. 

Golf Outing - Organize a golf outing for employees. Participants pay an entry fee. Have goofy prizes for highest score, most putts, longest game, etc. 

Office Miniature Golf - Provide putters and build a nine-hole course featuring slinkys, staplers, chairs and other creative obstacles. Participants sign up in teams of two, with or without a registration fee. 

Office Olympics - Make up your own “Olympic” games having a team admission fee. Brainstorm new ideas– roll the egg (not hardboiled) with your chin across the finish line without breaking it, relay race handing off a full glass of water on a tray using one hand spilling as little as possible, office chair races, waste basket free throw, paper airplane toss. Use your imagination! 

Tricycle Race - Run a tricycle race around your building or parking lot using children’s tricycles. Entrants decorate their bikes and have that as a contest also. Have the staff place money on the one they think is going to win. Cookout after race. 

Volleyball/Softball/Touch Football/Basketball Challenge - Play real or improvised games with teams of employees. Charge an entrance fee or a canned good for each participant. Spectators may wager for the winning team. Do the challenge with year-round sporting events to raise money all year round. 

Who Is It? - Gather baby pictures of co-workers. Have a contest to see who can correctly name the most co-workers. Contestants pay a fee to take part. Give an award for the most correct matches. 

E-Bingo - Sell Bingo cards for a small fee. Send e-mails sporadically throughout the week with one or two Bingo numbers each time. The first person to get Bingo should let everyone know by sending an e-mail to all users, and, of course, he or she will win a donated prize. 

Kids Coloring Contest - A colorful way to get everyone’s children involved is to have children color a United Way logo or have them make a picture that shows giving or sharing. These pieces of art are great to use on thank you cards, t-shirts or bookmarks. Sponsor a contest and give a prize to the top three artists. 

Ugliest Apparel Contest- Contestants pay to enter the ugliest tie, earrings, socks, or stockings contest. Take pictures of the participants and have employees ‘vote’ on the ugliest apparel by contributing a dollar. 

Picture Match Game - Invite employees to try their luck at matching high school pictures, pet pictures or celebrity pictures to executives. Charge employees to vote and award the employee with the most correct answers a fun prize. 

Scavenger Hunt - Employees pay an entrance fee to hunt for hidden items around the office or neighborhood. Give employees a time limit. Award the winning team a prize. Add themes by having employees dress as detectives or hunt for themed items. 

Board Game Contest - Recruit employees to play a chosen board game. Create a pool around the winning team or allow employees to move/acquire a game piece for every returned pledge card. 

Spirit Week – Use this high school throwback for a full week of virtual fun; pay a set amount to participate in things like Crazy Hair Day, Favorite Team/Jersey Day, Hat Day, Company Color Day, Opposite Day, Fun Zoom Background Day . . . you get the idea! Set a time for a virtual call to show your spirit, or just let it show in video meetings. Drawing a prize at the end of the week for all who participate. 

Cooking Lesson – Find team members who have always wanted to host a cooking show; have them record or host a live cooking demonstration and charge “admission” (donations) to join the meeting or view the video link. 

Mentorship Auction – Bid out or drawing a virtual coffee chat with C-level executives. 

Dress UP Day – Flip the Dress Down Day and charge a donation to wear your best suit, favorite dress, trendiest tie . . . anything to get out of quarantine-comfy clothes! 

Special Delivery – Beep beep . . . have your company executives deliver lunch to the highest bidder or Drawing winner. 

Department Challenge – Challenge internal departments with prizes for the most United Way campaign donors, highest increase in average gift, or first department to complete donations.  

Baby Photos – Have employees send their baby photos to be included in a virtual document or presentation; charge a small amount for each entry and challenge team members to match the photos. Send a prize to the person who matches the most! 

Cutest Pet Contest – Post pet pictures on your intranet or send via email and have people vote with dollars on the cutest furry friends. 

Recipe Exchange – Have team members submit their favorite recipes to share in an electronic cookbook. Charge a set amount to “buy” the book.  

Candy Count – Send a picture of a packed candy jar and charge a small donation to guess the count. The winner will come back to their office with a big jar of candy! 

Home Date Night Drawing – Enter to win gift cards to GrubHub/local restaurants and Redbox. Maybe add a delivery from a local winery or brewery, too! 

Team Connect Five/Scavenger Hunt – this is a really fun way to do some teambuilding and learn more about your teammates while in a virtual setting. 

Sports/Poker Games – show your competitive team spirit.  Choose your favorite sport or poker game and get ready for some game day fun. 

UW Poverty Simulator – is a great way to learn more about our community needs and why their contribution through United Way each year is so important – this can also be done virtually! 

Talent Show – this is a great way to allow your team to show off their hidden talents, learn more about and encourage each other to help build a stronger virtual team. 

Trivia Game – this is a fun and creative way to engage your team and have some a great time learning new facts about your company, United Way, your community or topic of choice. 

Game of Chess/Checkers – a easy and simple way to have some virtual teambuilding fun. 

"Chopped" challenge - People pay to participate, receive their set of ingredients and have to film their process of using the ingredients to make a finished product.  

Crafternoon - Lead an afternoon craft class or painting party. Materials can be digital, or they can be delivered to company/employees in a contactless manner.   

Online tutorial - have staff with a hidden talent or skill train others (ex: language class, public speaking class). 

Game Tournament - create a series of challenges that test team skills, endurance, and aptitude with a game tournament. Teams can register to compete in different challenges with the top scorers winning a prize! Possibly get local prize sponsorships. Considerations: have an impartial umpire or judge for the games so that it’s a fair contest for all.  

Jeans Day - Everyone loves an opportunity to wear jeans to work for a day. Ex: Have employees pay $5 to wear jeans to work for a day, or $20 for a week with all funds raised going to United Way. Employees can wear stickers saying, “United Way Jeans Day.” Or, to encourage more people to donate, set a participation goal that rewards “Friday Jeans Days” for the remainder of the year if that goal is met. 

Balloon Pop / Envelope Choice - Employees or vendors donate prizes for this event– a variation of a traditional raffle. Before filling a balloon with helium, put a note inside with the name of a prize. Employees buy a balloon and pop it to find out what prize they’ve won. 

White Elephant Sale - Have items in storage you don’t use? Gifts you never returned? Donate them to the sale or conduct a gift exchange. Your trash is someone else’s treasure!