Time for a Cuppa

Time for a Cuppa is Dementia UK’s annual tea party fundraising event. It’s a fantastic way to get together with friends, family or colleagues to share cake and a cuppa and raise vital funds for families facing dementia.

Making Time for a Cuppa couldn’t be easier – simply pick a date, choose your venue and invite your guests. You can hold an event wherever you like: at home, at work, in a care home or in your local community.

You can chat and share ideas with your fellow hosts by joining our Time for a Cuppa Facebook Group.

Time for a Cuppa week takes place 1st-8th May, but you can hold your event on any date that suits you.

Your fundraising pack will be sent second class and can take up to 10 working days to arrive. If you need your pack sooner, or have been waiting longer than 10 working days, please get in touch by emailing timeforacuppa@dementiauk.org.

There are lots of ways you can spread the word about your event:

Hand out physical invitations – you can find downloadable ones in our resource section

Text, WhatsApp or email all your friends and family, and share the details on social media with our downloadable social media graphics.

If your event is open to the public, you can use our press release template to send to your local media.

The simplest way to raise much-needed funds is to ask for donations for cuppas and cakes. You can either set prices or ask guests to donate an amount of their choice and Gift Aid their donation (which means we’ll get an extra 25p for every £1 donated, at no extra cost to you or your supporters). If you need extra Gift Aid forms, please find them in the downloadable resources section.

Raffles and tombolas are always popular, and previous hosts have told us they’re a great way to raise lots of money. If you’d like to hold a raffle, please use the letter of authority included in the fundraising pack to source prizes from local businesses.

Setting up a JustGiving page is as easy as one, two, tea! All donations from JustGiving are sent to us automatically.

Visit https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/timeforacuppa2025 and click ‘Start fundraising’

Create your JustGiving page. Add a photo, a description of why you’re taking part, and a fundraising target.

We recommend sharing your fundraising page link by email, text, and on social media. You could even write the link on posters at your event or print off a QR code for people to scan and donate seamlessly on the date. Learn how to do this by following JustGiving’s instructions.

Did you know? People who set a fundraising goal on their pages tend to raise 46% more, so it’s worth doing!

If you would like us to be able to claim Gift Aid on donations collected at your event, your guests must be free to give a donation of their choice as we cannot claim Gift Aid on direct proceeds of a sale.

There is a Gift Aid form in your fundraising pack. Your guests will need to complete every column on the form in their own handwriting and tick to confirm that they want to Gift Aid their donation.

We can’t claim Gift Aid on donations from raffles, auctions, entry fees, ticket sales or competitions.

In 2024, our incredible Time for a Cuppa hosts raised over £200,000!

Your support means so much – and by taking part in Time for a Cuppa, you’re helping to ensure no family faces dementia alone.

£33 could fund a new dementia specialist Admiral Nurse to spend an hour helping a family in the community, offering practical solutions and emotional support to cope with their loved one’s distressed behaviour.

£135 could pay for an Admiral Nurse to answer calls for an evening on our Helpline, when other sources of support have closed for the night.

£447 could pay for the telephone costs of 116 families calling our free Helpline for expert dementia advice

£1,250 could fund a new dementia specialist Admiral Nurse for a whole week to support a community where people are struggling to access local dementia services.

Every cuppa you pour and penny you raise will help our nurses bring their life-changing support to families facing dementia when they need it most.

Online: pay in your fundraising.

Bank Transfer: We will have emailed you our bank details. If you cannot find these, please drop us an email.

Cheque: Please make this payable to Dementia UK and send to 7th Floor, Dementia UK, One Aldgate, London EC3N 1RE

You are required to include your unique supporter reference number when paying in via these methods, otherwise we won’t know where the donation has come from! We will have sent you emails that include this supporter reference, but if you still can’t find it, drop us an email at timeforacuppa@dementiauk.org