Frequently asked questions

What does RAG stand for?

RAG stands for ‘Raising and Giving’ because that’s exactly what we do. We raise money and then give donations to good causes.

How are Sheffield RAG and Bummit linked?

Bummit is a sub-committee of Sheffield RAG who organise two charity hitchhiking events every year. To find out more about Bummit, have a look at their website.

What is a RAG raid?

A RAG raid is where students as groups or individuals take RAG charity buckets and ask for donations from the public. To complete a RAG raid you need  either a license from the council obtained by the Collections committee member, or permission from management if in a privately owned building, 

Email adoptacharity@sheffield.ac.uk for more information.

What is street teaming?

Street teaming is the selling of glow sticks at Students’ Union nights out.

Email adoptacharity@sheffield.ac.uk for more information.

What is a RAG rep?

A RAG rep (Raising and Giving representative) is a student who isn’t part of RAG Committee but still wants to get involved. This can be through helping to organising and promote events, or stewarding at an event like Spiderwalk. RAG reps can get involved as much or as little as they like and, if they attend at least one RAG reps workshop and do 10 hours of activity they are eligible for a HEAR award.

Visit our page about RAG reps or email rag@sheffield.ac.uk for more information.

What is Adopt a Charity?

Adopt a Charity is the process by which clubs, societies, committees or individuals run their own fundraising events, with RAG’s assistance, for a charity or charities of their choice. Clubs and societies have the choice to claim back up to 45% of their fundraising for their society or club.

Visit our page about Adopt a Charity or email adoptacharity@sheffieldrag.com for more information.

What percentage of the money that we fundraise can we claim back?

Clubs and societies have the choice to claim back up to 45% of their fundraising for their society or club (please note that Working and Representative Committees are not eligible to claim back fundraised income).

Email adoptacharity@sheffield.ac.uk for more information.

What percentage of the money we raise do RAG aim to donate locally?

We aim to donate 85% of the money raised locally. 

We cannot guarantee that we will donate 85% locally each year. This is because the student groups who fundraise with us have the freedom to choose the charity they support, regardless of whether that charity is local or not. 

However, we ensure as much as possible of our fundraising is donated locally by choosing to support local causes through our own events such as Spiderwalk and Bummit.

What fundraising support can RAG offer?

We have a full time staff member who works towards helping with budgeting, finance, risk assessments, insurance, event-planning and other fundraising legalities.

RAG is also a working committee consisting of 17 volunteers who can all help you in your fundraising. We can assist you with designing publicity and advertising your events using our Facebook and Twitter pages. Our Adopt a Charity team are designated to helping you with ideas creation and booking spaces around university for your society to use.

We can sort out more formal things such as permits from the council for RAG raids, setting up Virgin Money Pages online and giving you the pink buckets for you to collect money in. We’re also here to help with any general fundraising queries and to guide you through your event. By the end of the year you’ll be doing it like it's second nature.

How can charities work with Sheffield RAG?

Our ethos is that we are student led, with fundraising done by students for the causes that they care about. 

We find that most of the students who choose to fundraise with us come to us with an organisation in mind already that they want to support. However, for the few that are unsure we keep a charity database that we share with them of organisations who have approached us. 

If you would like to add your organisation to our database, see the form on our Information for charities page.

Email rag@sheffield.ac.uk for more information.

When can I get RAG buckets and card machines from?

RAG buckets and card machines can be collected from the Students' Union Welcome Desk during their opening hours. 

Our Adopt a Charity team will pass this and lots of other information along once you’ve filled out the Adopt a Charity event enquiry form and your request has been approved.

What is Gift Aid?

See this short video explaining Gift Aid.