You're volunteering for a charity that helps victims of the earthquake in Haiti. You're asking for donations on the sidewalk in a busy part of town. You ask each person who walks by:
Excuse me, we're taking up donations for the Haiti Relief Fund. Do you have a moment?
Excuse me
This is the usual way to begin talking to someone that you don't know.
take up donations
A donation is money that you give to a charity, a church, a school, or to someone who needs help. To "take up" donations means to collect money from other people to give to these organizations or people.
The phrase "take up" is only used with this meaning (collect) in a few situations. One is with donations. Another is when a teacher collects students' assignments:
Mr. Elliott always takes up the homework at the very beginning of class.
relief fund
"Relief" means help that you give to people who have been through a disaster, a famine, or a war. A "fund" is a collection of money that has been gathered for a specific purpose. So a "relief fund" is money that has been collected to help out disaster victims.
Do you have a moment?
This is a question that you ask when you you want to talk to someone for a few minutes. This phrase is used to ask the person if it's OK to talk to them for that long. You use it when a person seems busy.
"Moment" is formal. A less formal way to say this is "Do you have a minute?"
(Print this lesson)
Follow PhraseMix