Frequently Asked Questions About Fundraising

Click this registration link and follow the prompts to register your fundraiser. Answer a few questions and we'll be in touch with you within a week to go over next steps.

Your staff partner will reach out to confirm your registration is approved and discuss next steps.

Your fundraiser must align with the mission and image of Boston Children's Hospital for us to endorse it. For example, we cannot endorse fundraisers sponsored by alcohol or tobacco companies. We'll let you know if we're concerned with any aspect of your fundraiser during our initial call.

View more fundraising guidelines

Whenever you'd like; our program runs year-round. Please note that fundraisers of 100+ participants cannot be scheduled on the same day as an event hosted by Boston Children's Hospital without our prior approval.

Boston Children's Hospital can only be identified as the beneficiary of your fundraiser. For example, it cannot be called "Boston Children's Hospital Comedy Night"; instead, it should be "Comedy Night benefiting Boston Children's Hospital."

Yes! If you have a particular part of the hospital in mind, please discuss this during the initial call with your staff partner. Please note, certain programs might not be available for philanthropic support.

While you can fundraise in honor or in memory of a specific person, Boston Children’s is unable to direct funds to cover a specific patient family’s expenses. Our social work team works closely to connect families with internal and external resources that can assist them. You may choose to direct your fundraising efforts to the Extraordinary Needs fund, which allows Boston Children’s to ease some financial difficulties for families that are experiencing challenging times.

Yes! Check out our Fundraising Ideas page. 

Take it one step at a time. Log in to your Fundraising Center for helpful tips and tools, and to edit and share your Personal Fundraising Page. Create a budget, set a goal, use social media and engage friends and family. We'll also provide you with staff support and guidance along the way.

Log in to your Fundraising Center. Use the same credentials you created when you registered your event. From the Fundraising Center, you can edit your Personal Fundraising Page, send emails and access lots of tools to help you succeed.

We cannot guarantee physicians, staff or volunteers at your event. 

To avoid duplicate solicitations, we ask that you notify us before asking a business or company for a donation, cash or in-kind.

To legally conduct any gambling activity or "game of chance" in Massachusetts, including raffles, bazaars, and "Las Vegas night" events, your organization must maintain 501c3 status and acquire a permit from the clerk of the city in which the fundraiser will take place. For more information, visit the Department of the Attorney General's website.
 

You can host a silent or live auction. As a reminder, when advertising any items in a silent or live auction, you must display the fair market value. No items can be priceless. Boston Children's Hospital will only issue IRS-compliant tax receipts if the donor pays above the fair market value and if payment is made directly to Boston Children's Hospital.

The fundraising coordinator (that's you!) is responsible for obtaining any permits or insurance.

We're here to guide you and we provide tools in your Fundraising Center to help you promote your event. We can't manage your event, provide donor lists, stationary, or promote on hospital property.

Yes, you can download "benefiting Boston Children's Hospital" logos in your Fundraising Center. Whenever you use our logo or name, your promoting piece (flier, etc.) needs to be approved by our staff.

We love sharing your success! Contact your staff partner to discuss Boston Children's sharing your event photos and success on Facebook. Please note, we do have guidelines and posts are at the discretion of our social media and marketing team.

Unfortunately, no. Because of technical changes that Meta (Facebook's owner) has made to Facebook Fundraisers and payment processing, Facebook Fundraisers are no longer compatible with our fundraising systems.
 

Yes, we hope you do! Mail some of your own or email your staff partner to receive branded thank you postcards.

No need! You just need to register online for our approval.

Boston Children's will issue IRS-compliant tax receipts to the full extent of the law, only if a donation of $250 or above is made payable directly to Boston Children's Hospital along with detailed contact information for the donor. Please do not promise any kind of receipt to your donor; issuing an inappropriate receipt can hurt our charitable tax status.

You're responsible for covering event expenses and will not be reimbursed by Boston Children's. If you are paying for expenses, please deduct them from the funds raised prior to sending your donation check to us. Your expenses shouldn't exceed 30% of funds raised. We maintain an average expenses-to-funds-raised ratio of 22% and strongly encourage the same standard.

Many companies offer matching gifts to employees who give to nonprofits like Boston Children's Hospital. Increase the impact of your donation by applying for your company to match your gift. Please note: Matching gifts can only be applied to your fundraising page once they are received and processed by Boston Children’s Hospital Trust.

View our matching gift guide
 

All proceeds must be made payable to Boston Children's Hospital and mailed to us within 30 days of completing your fundraiser. Boston Children’s reserves the right to prohibit future fundraising if proceeds are not sent in a timely manner.

Please mail your donation with the mail-in donation form found in your Fundraising Center to: 
Boston Children's Hospital Trust
Attn: Gift Services
401 Park Drive, Suite 602
Boston, MA 02215
 

We strongly advise that you register and utilize our fundraising pages so we can best support you. Third-party sites take fees from each donation, while 100% of donations made through our fundraising pages goes to the hospital. We also cannot guarantee that money received from a third-party site will be earmarked in honor or memory of someone or designated to a specific area of the hospital.