2 ways hen parties can make a major impact
There are some really easy and effective ways that hen parties can make a huge contribution to social causes, all while celebrating your bride. We’ve crunched the numbers to show you 2 ways that hen parties can make a major difference and give to charity through donations or by volunteering for great causes. We use these numbers as the guiding motivators for Hens with Heart because we can see there’s huge opportunity for hen parties to contribute positively to society when they celebrate together.
The main ways in which hen parties can easily make a major difference are:
Volunteering: Hen parties could contribute up to 2.5 million hours of volunteering based on each hen giving 1 hour of time.
Fundraising: Hen parties could raise around £6 million per year for charity by giving 1% of the hen party budget as a donation.
Have a look at our infographic about how hen parties can make a huge difference and read on below for details about the statics we used.
Hen parties in numbers
Here are some figures to give you an idea of the potential scale and impact that hen parties could have on the charity sector.
According to the Office for National Statistics there were 213,000 opposite-sex marriages in 2019 which means that there were potentially the same 213,000 hen parties held. We’ll take that as a guiding average for annual hen parties at the moment.
Now according to our calculations, if the average hen party contains 12 women, then potentially 2.5m women attend hen parties each year. (We chose 12 as an average hen party size - a conservative number which is based on our general experience with hen parties.)
Indeed, these numbers assume that people only attend 1 hen party per year but we all know from experience that there’s a few years in our lives when it can be more than that!
We’ve looked only at opposite-sex marriages for these numbers because there’s enough data available to use it properly.
However we know that same-sex couples and queer marriage celebrations would add significantly to the statistics, and that only means we can assume that the love would spread even further!
The potential impact of hen parties when they give back
Volunteering
If all hen parties incorporated 1 hour of volunteering as an activity, that’s 2.5 million hours of volunteering, equal to people doing 320,000 work days, or 64,000 work weeks.
That’s the same as more than 1360 people working a full year for charity.
That’s a lot of hours of voluntary service and doing good, and when it’s done by millions of people it feels easy, and it can be fun!
Discover volunteering options with our charity partners for your hen party and do your part in making a difference.
Making a donation
Hen parties don't come for free, but we’re all happy to spend to give our besties a fabulous celebration. And if you build a donation into your hen party budget that can make a huge impact.
According to Hotels.com, in 2022 Cosmopolitan reported that the average hen party cost £242. Think how much money could be raised for charities close to our hearts if we added even a small amount onto the total cost.
Based on the numbers above, if each hen party budgeted for 1% of their hen party costs to be donated to a charity, hen parties could raise nearly £6 million in donations in just one year.
What an incredible way to raise money for charity, which goes virtually unnoticed as part of the total cost of a hen do! So what are you waiting for? Help your bride make a difference for a cause she cares about while you celebrate her!
Ways you can volunteer or donate at your hen party:
Positive Hen Party Planning
Plan it Myself
Use the resources, ideas and contacts on our website to organise on your own. Get our free Hen Party Planning Kit to help you manage the budget and guest list, too.
Help Me Plan
Make your hen party seamless and stress-free with the Virtual Planner. We send you perfectly timed ideas, tips and exclusive discounts with bridal & event partners to level-up your hen.
Plan it For Me
Pre-planned 1-day hen parties in cities around the UK. We’ve put in the effort to find fabulous, ethical activities so you can focus on other fun parts of planning your hen do.