Searching for inspiration for your next fundraising ideas?

With 133 ideas ranging from the quick and easy, to the weird but wonderful; we got you covered. Encourage your supporters to donate and expand your donor portfolio by ditching your old, beat-into-the-ground ideas and embracing some new approaches to fundraising.

Quick Reads

• Online Fundraising Ideas
• Seasonal Fundraising Ideas
• Food and Drink Fundraising Ideas
• Sports and Activity Fundraising Ideas
• Art Fundraising Ideas
• Competition Fundraising Ideas
• Unique Fundraising Ideas
• Fundraising Sale Ideas
• Raffle and Auction Ideas
• Ongoing Fundraising Ideas
• Party Fundraising Ideas
• Simple and Effective Fundraising Ideas
• Fundraising Event Ideas

 

 

1. Viral Video Fundraiser

Remember the ALS ice bucket challenge? There is no reason you can’t try a viral video fundraiser of your own! Get your company employees to participate and share - even if it only takes off in your community, its a free and easy way to collect donations and raise awareness.

2. Text-to-give

Make fundraising easy for yourself by embracing the digital age. People find it very easy to interact with organizations via text message, so text-to-give offers a convenient fundraising solution. All you need to do is find a provider able to do the hard work for you, and then all your supporters will need to do is text the amount they wish to donate. Simple!

3. Crowdfunding

The king of simple and effective fundraising methods, this modern campaign can both spread awareness of your cause and unite communities in their fundraising efforts. You can source a crowdfunding platform through which to operate, then all you need is a compelling story, engaging photos, and a goal. With these three things ready to go, your online donation page could garner a lot of attention and reach far corners of the internet.

4. Peer-to-peer Fundraising

Instead of having to organize your own means of fundraising, your members and supporters volunteer to attract donations! They can choose their own goals, pages, and events and will be responsible for soliciting donors. This will help you retain your current donors while possibly attracting more.

5. Amazon’s Smile Program

If you can get your supporters to sign up for Amazon Smile, your organization will get 0,5% of each purchase they make. Although it's not a big amount, promoting it won't be a lot of work for your organization and even small amounts will eventually add up!

6. Shared Photos

Upload and share photos from an event that attendees can then purchase for a small amount. This is useful for maintaining a fundraising event’s momentum - the proceeds go directly to your organization and people will have gained a valuable or funny momentum of the occasion.

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Seasonal Fundraising Ideas

7. Easter Egg Hunt

A great excuse to capitalize on the holidays, an easter egg hunt at an event could be fun, engaging and rewarding. Hide mini prizes around a location, or stay even more traditional and just hide easter eggs.

8. Popsicle stand

Perfect for a hot summer day: buy a bunch of popsicles wholesale and charge at an inflated price, or make your own artisanal popsicles!

9. BBQ

No summer is complete without one, and what better cause to plan a BBQ than for your next fundraising event! Recruit volunteers to cook, buy burgers, sausages, buns, veggie skewers, and more wholesale and sell them to your guests. These could even be hosted at suitable locations during the colder months, offering a flavor of what's in store for when summer comes back around that could attract customers.

10. Sausage Sizzle

An even more sweet but simple concept than the BBQ. Popular with Australian’s, a sausage sizzle is a BBQ where you just sell sausages. These can be held at all times of the year: add lashings of sauce, some fried onions, and bread and set up shop at a popular and busy event.

11. Haunted House

It can be really simple to turn any space into a haunted house. Hire actors or even train volunteers act for you and deck out your venue with spooky decorations.

12. Pumpkin Smash

Have people donate their old pumpkins instead of throwing them out. Offer protective clothing, goggles, and bats and have people pay to be able to smash a pumpkin! A satisfying way to dispose of the holiday’s waste.

13. Christmas Tree Recycling

Charge a fee to dispose of old Christmas trees - if you collect enough you can turn it into a bonfire party with additional fundraising options involved, selling concessions as well as tickets.

14. Office Decorating Contest

Give your office a month to decorate an area for Christmas before inviting people to tour through the office paying to vote for their favorite spaces. This could be a great way of involving members on the ground of your organization and letting them see the ins and outs of your organization first hand.

15. Gingerbread House Making Competition

Another Christmas favorite! Charge a fee for people to enter a gingerbread house-making competition. The results will make for a magical exhibition that you can charge entry for too, or you could charge $1 per vote in a competition. Prepare a prize for the winner.

16. Polar Bear Plunge

Often called simply an Ice Plunge, you can guess from the name what this event entails. These events can be huge, with multiple participants garnering large sponsorship amounts as they take to a body of ice-cold water in winter. Embrace the polar bear in you and plan an ice plunge as an annual fundraising event!

17. Christmas Decoration Service

Charge a fee to go to people's houses or offices to decorate them with festive and seasonal decorations.

18. Gift Wrapping Service

Offer a gift-wrapping service to people who are overwhelmed by the time-consuming task of wrapping presents at Christmas or other events. A great way for people to offer something to the community for a day and raise some funds.

19. Valentine's Rose-o-grams

Allow workers or students to purchase a rose to be sent to somebody anonymously (or not!) nearby on valentine’s day. A kitsch but cute way to make money for your company on Valentine’s day, awwww.

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Food and Drink Fundraising Ideas

20. Candy-grams

As if sending roses wasn’t enough, get even more sickly sweet with candy grams! These could be offered as a romantic gesture, or merely a small pick me up/surprise for somebody.

21. Red Cup Party

Throw a party selling cups on the door at an inflated price to be donated to your cause.

22. Pig Roast

Have a classic hog roast - a surefire delicious way to raise money that can be done as part of a larger fundraising event or as a stand-alone occasion.

23. Cookbooks

Have members of your organization donate favorite recipes to be compiled into a book to sell online or at events.

24. Meatless Monday Dinner Party

Throw a dinner party with Meatless Monday as the theme. With what seems like the whole world making a concerted effort to eat less meat, make eating out easy by hosting your own fundraiser vegetarian dinner party. Charge a certain price for the set menu and have volunteers help prepare the food.

25. Pot Luck

Very easy to organize and make a profit from! Have people pay an entry fee to a pot luck dinner and pledge to bring a dish with them. Very low cost and should result in an interesting variety of dishes!

26. Food Fight En Blanc

Start with a blank slate by dressing all in white and then prepare to get messy with a food fight! There are different options here. You can collect sponsors for a spaghetti food fight, a cream custard fight, a chocolate sauce slip n slide - additionally charge around $5 registration fee and $15 for the slip n slides, and perhaps see if there are any world records you can break in the process!

27. Themed Afternoon Teas

Afternoon tea can be a delightful and profitable fundraiser - make it more exciting with an interesting theme. Alice in Wonderland is a popular option bound to attract more ticket sales. Have ‘Eat me’ cake and ‘Drink me’ tea as part of your set menu!

28. Chili Cook-Off

Used staggered prices, charging around $15 for early bird entry, $20 for on the door and $30 per competing teams. Spice up your cook-off with other events such as a hottest chili pepper eating contest, fun runs, and more.

29. Food Truck Festival

Hire a plot and invite local food vendors and trucks to sell for a day on behalf of your organization's fundraiser. Charge an entry fee or ask for shares of the truck profits, play music and immerse yourself in foodie heaven.

30. Bake Sale

My mouth is watering just thinking about this one! Nothing can go wrong with a bake sale. Have volunteers offer to bake cakes, cookies, muffins, scones, cupcakes, biscuits, pastries, cake pops - everything you can think of - and organize a time and place to sell.

31. Adult Lemonade Stand

Your classic lemonade stand but more R rated. Sell cocktails or turn the office into a bar at the end of a workday.

32. All-Inclusive Pancake Breakfast

A great option for pancake day enthusiasts. Collect toppings, make a LOT of batter, and recruit volunteers to help flip at an all-inclusive pancake breakfast. Sell all-inclusive tickets to cover costs and make as much money as possible.

33. Winery Tour/ Brewery Tour/ Distillery Tour

Wine/beer/gin tasting are exceptionally popular events. With vineyards, brewers, and distilleries always looking to promote their products, finding sponsorship for the fundraiser should be relatively easy. Like other events, the popularity of the experience could draw in people from outside your supporter base and so grow this base. Combine with a few other fundraising options, such as raffles or auctions - a wine or beer pull raffle is an especially good option here. You will make a profit from the ticket sales but should organize with the merchant you partner with to receive a percentage of the sales of the product they manage to sell through the event.

34. Bar Crawl

Sell tickets for a pub crawl! See if you can get venues onboard to subsidize the cost of the drinks; partnering with various venues for this could attract more patrons for the various venues on the crawl. With the extra publicity you could ask for a share of the profits made during the event, or at least place a fish tank there to collect small change donations.

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Sports and Activity Ideas

35. Beer Run

Food and drink-related but moving into sports territory now: a beer run is a more intense version of a bar crawl where participants run between the locations. Sell tickets to prospective beer runners and the competitive/long-distance run element should allow your participants to collect sponsorship too, maximizing the returns for your fundraiser!

36. Stair Climbing Tournament

Have fundraisers pledge to climb a certain amount of steps in a day, or have people donate $1 per 10 steps or so - then find a tall enough public building to accommodate for this challenge, and put your fundraisers to work until they have fulfilled the donation pledge.

37. 10,000 Steps Challenge

Have volunteers pledge to walk over 10,000 steps a day for a certain amount of time and collect sponsorship for this period.

38. Sponsored Skydive

Perfect for thrill-seekers or those who want to test their boundaries a little with the excuse of donating to a good cause. Participants usually pay for the skydive themselves and fundraise on your behalf by collecting sponsorship. Recruit a handful of volunteers and make a day of it.

39. Sponsored Abseil

Less hardcore than a skydive but still a little out of the comfort zone, a sponsored abseil can also be a great activity to have volunteers fundraise on your behalf.

40. Board Game Tournament

To cut costs, have people bring their own board games for a night of competition and games! Provide snacks and beverages to keep up stamina. Charge guests to participate with either an entry fee or a small amount per game.

41. Bingo Night

A golden oldie but a classic nonetheless. Charge per game and have sponsors or businesses contribute to a variety of prizes or one large prize.

42. 5k Race

Sponsored races, walks, marathons, cycling events - all are handy ways to earn money for your cause. Allow people to collect sponsorship donations months in advance to ensure large profits.

43. Dog Walk

Like a sponsored 5k but with man’s best friend as your companion! Time will fly at a sponsored dog walk, and money will pour in from those sponsors. Plus, your pup will get more than their daily portion of exercise.

44. Themed Yoga Classes

Put a spin on a traditional yoga class, making it appealing even to inflexible, exercise-phobes! Encourage participation and raise funds with your one-off yoga event - cute animal visitors, beer and chicken nuggets are three things that have been incorporated into yoga classes before and can make your event appeal to all kinds of people.

45. Activity Marathon

An activity marathon - such as a 24-hour dance-a-thon - is an ideal option for collecting sponsors. Live streaming the event can show the effort put in for the donations as well as giving a live counter of the money raised to encourage more on the day donations.

46. Rock - Paper - Scissors tournament

Or Roshambo! Charge a lot of people a small amount to enter a roshambo contest and try their luck to win a grand prize. Does it come down to chance? Psychology? Who knows but by throwing a roshambo event you can get multiple people engaged.

47. Golf Tournament

Solicit donors and sponsorship for an all-day golf tournament fundraiser. Some tips for maximizing your profits:

1. Host a golf-a-thon by finding a number of golfers to raise pledges for each hole. Depending on how many holes there are, you can raise a lot of money this way!
2. Put a local golf pro or celebrity with each foursome and raise your ticket or registration price
3. Find a great venue - golfers will be more willing to pay for a club course they don’t ordinarily have access to.

   48. Ping Pong Tournament

   Charge an entry fee for your participants to play in your ping pong tournament. Make sure that your prizes reflect your entry fee. A better prize means you can charge a higher registration fee! Just make sure you have the basics - ping pong tables (you could ask for community members to lend them), paddles and balls - and you’re good to go!

   49. Field Day

   Otherwise known as a Sports day. Organize a day of events for adults or families to participate in. Obstacle courses, egg throws, egg and spoon races, sack races, and the tug of war are all classic events people can sign up for. Charge a registration fee and maybe even turn it into your own mini Olympics fundraiser!

   50. Workout Class Fundraiser

   Raise money and pulses with a workout class fundraiser - ask a local instructor to donate their time for a class and get sweating!

   51. Bowl-a-thon

   Solicit prizes from local businesses and sponsors and allow for more engagement from participants by organizing a group or team event like a bowl-a-thon. This can be a senior event, for the children of your associates and donors, or completely family-friendly allowing you to tailor it to ensure you reach whatever fundraising goal you set.

   52. Family Friendly Mud Run

   Double the mess, double the fun of a regular race. Share sponsorship forms early and don’t forget to have a bath waiting at home for all those messy kids! You could even recruit the local fire department to help shower everyone off at the end.

   53. Marathon

   Have volunteers apply to run a marathon on behalf of your organization!

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   Art Fundraising Ideas

54. Theatre Performance

Put on a show or arrange for some of the shares of the profits of a show to go to your cause. Collaborate with your local theatre group or simply plan your own. The families and friends of your organization's members could get a kick out of seeing their loved ones put on an amateur performance and maybe you’ll even discover some talent in the process.

55. Drawing Auction

Recruit people to spend a day doing some creative artwork and sell the pieces at the end of the day! This could be an excellent way to exhibit fresh talent and allow budding artists to get credit for their work while supporting your organization.

56. Fashion Show

Ask volunteers who won’t be afraid to strut their stuff on the catwalk to participate in a fashion show. Local designers and business owners can get involved for a chance to highlight their talent and partner with your cause. Sell tickets and if your designers plan to collect orders after the event, request a small commission to be donated to your cause.

57. Photo Exhibition

Invite local photographers and artists, amateur and professional alike, to exhibit their work at your fundraiser. Charge a small entry fee and see if you can collaborate with the artists to allow a commission to be donated on any artwork sold. This is a great way to offer artists a space to exhibit their work while raising money for your cause.

58. Create One-of-a-kind Pieces to Sell

Ask local artists to contribute art pieces or create yourself if you are a creator/inventor. You have the option to either set up a physical store or take commissions for pieces.

59. Art Auction

Another means to showcase local talent, request donations from the creative community to be sold at a charity art auction. You could even ask for commissioned pieces for your cause, or suggest to go 50/50 on the profits made from a work. Curate a collection and let the bidding begin.

60. Film Screening

Score a projector and an open space and you’re well suited to host your own film screening. Fill the space with comfy cushions, buy and sell microwavable popcorn at around $2 a cup and sell tickets for a private screening of your choice. This event can be either big or small, from large old school drive-ins to cozy, intimate rooftop screenings.

61. Battle of the Bands

Invite local musicians to compete in a battle of the bands! Allowing up and coming talent a space to perform for a large crowd will invite acts to complete your headline. Charge a small entry fee per band, have a prize ready for the winners and runners up, and then sell tickets to the community, spreading the word about your event online, via social media and with flyers.

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Competition Fundraising Ideas

62. Treasure Hunt

To make things a bit more difficult, turn your easter egg hunt into a treasure hunt with clues leading to one large prize or reward. The clues or questions can be related to your organization at times, or simply a series of riddles made to challenge the hunters. Teams or individuals can pay to take part and you can be creative with the prize. Additionally, a treasure hunt can be done at any time of the year and the location doesn’t matter too much!

63. Quiz Night

Trivia nights or the humble ‘pub-quiz’ are easy to organize. There are a host of example questions and categories online, and you can even tailor questions to reflect the interests of your organization. Offer prizes for the winner and runner up, and charge an entrance fee for a night of competition and fun.

64. Pie Throwing Contest

It’s never a bad day for some pie... in the face! Use pie tins filled with either shaving foam or whipped cream. Pick people who are active in your community or organization and people with strong personalities. For a one day event, place the volunteers behind a face-in-the-hole board and have guests pay to aim their pies at the face. For an event lasting a few days, pit five or so participants against each other, having attendees and participants alike pay to place votes on who should be pied on stage.

You can also send out ballots before the event to maximize profits. Have a board showing the progress of the ballots, but take this down on the last day of the event so only the organizers know the standings - this will help encourage participants and attendees to purchase more ballots as they know where they last stood in the race, but not their current progress! Count the votes on stage with the participants seated and announce the third-place winner, runner up and the winner and recipient of the pie to build tension. Then pie them!

65. Beard Competition

One for the men - no shave November or ‘Movember’ has proven a popular and successful way of raising money in aid of men’s health awareness. But why not host your own beard competition at any time of the year? Tell participants a few months in advance and have them style their growths for a contest. Sponsorship collected over a couple of months would be a great pot to add to your cause, and you could make the day of the competition an event in itself charging $1 to vote for favorite beards, hosting a raffle, or more.

66. Bake Off

A British favorite that has caught the attention of the wider world, hosting your own bake-off is the perfect way to indulge in some friendly and delicious competition. You could try and organize high profile stars to be the bakers, or even just office BNOC’s (big name on campus), charge entry, and charge people per vote for their favorites to win

67. Masterchef

Challenge event attendees to become their own Masterchefs in the same competition style layout as bake-off - you can challenge each participant to make a large portion so that event attendees can each try the dish and decide

68. Penny Wars

A simple event, place several tanks at a location and encourage people to donate their pennies. Add the competitive element by assigning some character or theme to each tank to see which gets filled first. But there’s a twist! $1 cancels out 100 pennies. The group with most pennies at the end of the period wins.

69. Beer Pong Tournament

A beer pong tournament where players pay to enter the game and play for a shot at glory (and a prize) harks back to college dorm days. Up the stakes and have people sponsor players in a fear pong tournament, where a dare is placed under each cup and the cup can be saved if the dare is fulfilled.

70. Poker Tournament

A little friendly competition can raise the profile of an event with cash buy-ins and a cash prize. Sell tickets, snacks, and drinks, combine with one of the raffle events and watch as players gamble away the night for a worthy cause.

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Unique Fundraising Ideas

71. Open House

Invite people into your organization and see what happens behind scenes - buying tickets to a tour can allow people to feel involved at ground level. Equally, collaborating with a local landmark or venue that isn’t ordinarily accessible to the public to offer VIP tour or experience tickets where you take a share of the revenue made could work.

72. Parents’ Party

Offer to watch the kids while the parents have a party. Give your parent members a night off, without having to worry about childcare and bedtime. You can collaborate with local businesses/restaurants so that the parents can have a date night there, making it even easier to get parents on board.

73. Pet Picture Day

Ask a local photographer to donate time and set up a ‘studio’ at your organization - invite pet owners to come and have their pictures taken!

74. Rubix Cube Party

Like any fundraising party, charge a set price for tickets in order to make a profit. Having a fun theme for your party makes it even more appealing and heightens your chances of selling tickets. At a Rubix cube party, arrive wearing all the colors of a Rubix cube and trade items of clothing at the party until you are all one color. Prizes for those who complete the activity in the shortest amount of time.

75. Teacher/Boss in Jail Fundraiser

Elect someone to put in ‘jail’ for the day - usually a boss or teacher - and charge $1 per minute to keep them there. The person elected can get work done in jail while allowing employees or colleagues the chance to work unsupervised.

76. Baby Photo Contest

Have members or colleagues bring in baby photos and pin them onto a board - charge a small amount for people to place votes such as ‘funniest looking’, ‘chubbiest’ or ‘best baby style’. Equally, you could introduce a competition for matching the baby photos with the adult photos - offer a prize for the person who gets the most answers correct the fastest.

77. Pennies from Heaven

Instead of simply dropping change into a container, donors toss change into an upside-down umbrella hanging from the ceiling. You could try to organize this as a permanent installation somewhere public and create a quirky, artistic and fun way to donate small change.

78. Morning Dance Party

Struggling to beat those morning blues? A morning dance party can be the perfect way to get some energy flowing for the day ahead. Unusual events like these can draw a crowd, and what’s a better feel-good boost than an energizing dance party for a good cause?

79. Dare Fundraiser

Have people pledge to fulfill dares once a certain donation threshold has been reached. Invent more extreme dares for different thresholds. These can be exceptionally creative and weird, just use your imagination! If you need a push in the right direction, consider these:

• Dare pledges to spend a day in public in fancy dress
• Dare pledges to let someone style their hair in whatever way they want - cutting, shaving, and dyeing won't be off-limits!

80. Multicultural/International Fair

Selling tickets to a multicultural or international fair can be a wonderful way to bring the community together. Ask members from the local community to host their own stalls representing their home countries or family heritage, selling multicultural foods, drinks, products, and services (think Latin cuisine, german wood ornaments, henna painting for example).

Stage traditional dances, musical performances and shows and invite guests to attend in traditional outfits. The resulting fundraising event will be a magical celebration of diversity and culture.

81. Arcade Game Night

For a Throwback Thursday, rent a handful of arcade machines and charge people inflated prices to come and play. Offer arcade-style snacks - hotdogs, fries, nachos - and enjoy a nostalgic night of fundraising.

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Fundraising Sale Ideas

82. Custom Bracelets, Totes and T-shirts

Recognize those rubber charity bracelets found all over the world? You can create and sell your own! Ensure the design is eye-catching and iconic enough to make it recognizable. This works just as well for tote bags and t-shirts.

83. Custom Water Bottles

A winner for the environment as well as your organization!

84. Flower Bulb Sales

Buy these wholesale and sell off individually for-profit and a more beautiful community!

85. Themed Charity Calendars

Charity calendars are a popular way of raising money and awareness for your organization around the New Year. Plan to create the calendar for the months leading up to December and sell it during the Christmas period. For a more novelty and risqué item, you can opt for the nude calendar (or nearly nude - suggestively cover ‘bits’ with beach balls, candy canes, pumpkins, etc.); having your members or colleagues get involved in this can be a hilarious way to raise money.

86. Buy-a-brick Fundraiser

Allow supporters to buy and have their name engraved on a brick-built into a new structure. This is perfect for companies that are raising money to build or renovate a community-building, inviting supporters to share in the excitement of a project while raising money for that project and others.

87. Book swap/Used Book Drive

Have people bring in old books to be sold or swapped, making the most of that house clutter and repurposing beloved copies while raising money.

88. Golden Ticket Prize

Source a desirable prize and sell items with a special ‘golden ticket’ hidden inside - Willy Wonka Style! something you would want to win in a raffle, such as a holiday, experience, $500 gift-card, etc. Hide multiple prizes to maintain interest in purchasing the items. You can go for the traditional chocolate bar or something more in line with your organization's interests.

89. Greeting Cards

Have your organization design its own greetings cards for sale to the general public. Offer a unique and lovely alternative for the hallmark seasons to be sold at all events or via an online store or social media channels.

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Raffle and Auction Ideas

90. Reverse Raffle

In a reverse raffle, it is the last number drawn that wins the grand prize rather than the first! Watch excitement for your event build with the tension as you get closer and closer to that grand prize. Set a fixed number of tickets, and offer either a substantial donated prize or a share of the ticket profits (for example, 100 tickets at $100 grosses a $5,000 prize and $5,000 for your organization). Make it a party with some food, drink, music, and games and draw numbers throughout the night.

91. Mentorship Auction

Bidding for one-to-one chat sessions with thought leaders or participating celebrities - conversations can happen remotely online if necessary making it very easy to organize.

92. Silent Auction

Solicit valuable prizes to auction off from supporters, donors and local businesses then host a silent auction during an event. Simply place sign up sheets by the item or description of the item and allow people to outbid themselves throughout the evening. Experience and holiday prizes, hampers, gift cards, and high-value items are all favorites for a silent auction.

93. Date Auction

Have volunteers offer a night for a date to be bid on by your event attendees. All you need are some willing, outgoing participants to offer their time. You can even get some celebrities involved to make the bidding more exciting and hopefully competitive.

94. IOU Auction

Auction off cheques written by volunteers entailing IOU’s to be exchanged for some sort of service - this could range from offering to do someones laundry for a month, cleaning houses for a month, mowing lawns for a month to more specific services such as massages, haircuts, and private fitness instructions.

95. 50/50 Raffle

Sell a large number of raffle tickets and put the money into a pot that will be split 50/50 between your winner and the organization! The more tickets sold and the higher the price the higher the prize and the donation respectively.

96. Drinks Pull Raffle

Give people the opportunity to walk away with a bottle of top-quality wine or beer with a drinks pull raffle! Wrap the respective wine and beer bottles so that their labels are covered, and allow people to purchase a bottle. They will then blindly choose from the selection which bottle they would like - all go home with a bottle and you raise money for your fundraiser, win-win!

97. Best Seat in the House Fundraiser

Hold a traditional raffle to raffle off the best seats at a sporting event/theatre performance/ concert etc.

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98. Giving Days

givingtuesday is a national day of charitable giving that begun a few years ago. Giving days work well because they create a sense of urgency and community - your supporters will rally together to raise as much money as possible in the 24 hours.

99. Write Letters Asking for Donations

A simple but effective means of fundraising: asking your partners/members/affiliates or whoever else you can think of who might be interested to donate to your organization with a written letter. Reaching out can sometimes be the easiest way.

100. Casual Day

Allow for ‘Casual Fridays’ in the office for a small fee on a regular basis to have a steady flow of donations coming in to support your cause. People can opt-in whenever they feel like.

101. Pajama Day

As if Casual Day wasn’t exciting enough - up the ante with pajama day! The same concept but maybe a harder sell to an office full of adults.

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Party Fundraising Ideas

102. Charity Ball

Give your organization members, family, and friends a chance to dress to impress at your charity ball. Book a classy venue, decor, and caterer to vamp up your event and add a mandatory donation to each ticket price to ensure high returns for your organization. You could combine this with a silent auction or raffle fundraiser to maximize your profits!

103. Black Tie Buffet/BBQ

Think budget ball. The same black tie dress code, but with a more budget-friendly cost. Low-cost food and decor cut down the need for extravagant expenses whilst maintaining the allure of sophistication.

104. Silent Disco

Host this event well into the night without having to worry about noise complaints! Take a portion of the ticket sales, sell concessions to up your profits and boogie the night away.

105. Themed Costume Party

Love or hate a costume, having a themed party is a chance for a bit of fun fundraising. You can make your theme align with your organization, or simply just choose one that you think will attract the most attendees.

106. Neighbourhood Street Party

Invite members of your community to party on the streets! Set up a long table on an available street (make sure you have permission from the relevant authorities) and have a feast. Ask people to bring their own dish to save costs, and raise money selling tickets to your party and concessions.

107. Casino Night

Raise the stakes with an entire casino night of gambling. Hire slot machines, play cards, get a roulette table, and offer cocktail. You could additionally suggest a theme for a real 007 feel.

108. Ugly Sweater Party

People could pay $1 or so to place votes on the ugliest sweaters, earning your organization money on top of an entrance fee.

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Simple and Effective Fundraising Ideas

109. Balloon Fundraiser

There are many ways to play a balloon fundraiser, and it is easy to upscale, making it an efficient and effective fundraising idea. Fill a room with however many balloons you want and hide pieces of paper in the balloons offering prizes. Ensure each balloon has something inside so you can’t tell which ones have the big prizes and then sell pins with which to pop the balloons!

The players get to claim the prize on the slip of paper. Up the prizes and up the costs of the pins accordingly. You can even make it more fun by having people throw darts at a balloon board. The room itself will be picture perfect and the satisfying pop of the balloon bursts will entice crowds to take part in the fundraiser.

110. Chauffeur for a Day

Ask volunteers to give up their time to act as a personal chauffeur service! Whether you need a designated driver so you can enjoy Happy Hour a bit more, or you simply want to live in the lap of luxury for a while, who could turn this down as a potential raffle or auction prize? Organizations can also choose to have this as a stand-alone option, offering a day for their supporters to opt-in for the personal chauffeur service.

111. Haircut

Ask local hairdressers to donate a day or so of their time for your fundraiser. Have people donate a certain amount for each cut and add whatever value they believe is reflective of the cut.

112. Car Wash

A fundraising classic. Charge a certain amount per car and recruit a host of volunteers to wash the cars.

113. Dog Wash

Invite the local dog-owning community to a community dog wash! Charge a reasonable amount and have some volunteers prepared to spend all day pampering pretty pooches and getting covered in dog kisses!

114. Dunk Tank

Find volunteers who don’t mind getting a little wet and who are potentially large targets for being dunked by their coworkers/employees! Set up a dunk tank at your event and charge for sponges to be aimed at the target. With some tanks costing approximately $200 for 6 hours, you’re bound to make a profit.

115. Kick the Habit

Called a ‘give-it-up’ fundraiser, this idea combines fundraising with turning over a new leaf. Have people sign up to donate money that they would have spent on a habit or indulgence that they have given up for the duration of the fundraiser. Participants could additionally increase their fundraising profits by having sponsors support them to achieve their goal!

116. Envelope Fundraiser

Buy a pack of 100 envelopes and number each one, then stick them to a pin-board numbered 1-100. Allow people to choose which envelope they want to donate to. This pin-board can be left in the office, put up at an event or put in a safe public space.

117. Guessing Games

This can be applied to so many things. Charge people to guess the number of sweets in a jar to win the jar. At Christmas time you could make a gingerbread house and have people guess the number of sweets on the house to win it. Or you could simply offer a prize for someone to guess the correct number of beads in a jar. Supersize this for a more captivating game.

118. Fish-tank-funds

So simple you’ll kick yourself for not already having one. Buy or even ask for a donation of an old fish tank. Place the tank somewhere in a public space with permission, and see how long it takes to fill up with change. you can place targets on the tank if you would like to encourage people to donate towards certain goals.

119. Face Painting

Hire a kid's face painter and even have some adult options available so everyone can get in on the fun.

120. Meal with a Celebrity

Ask a local celebrity (for example the mayor, popular athlete, local artist or entrepreneur) to donate a few hours to have a meal with a raffle or auction winner. You could even ask a local restaurant to offer the meal for free in return for a visit from the celebrity and publicity.

121. Junk Donations

Ink cartridges, batteries, old magazines, defunct electronics, etc. Have people donate these things they won’t miss so you can raise money.

122. Call Sprint

Tell members or affiliates of your association beforehand that you are going to hold a call sprint for a certain period of time on a certain date. Gather a group of volunteers to then call the members and affiliates and ask for donations, live streaming the event so the progress can be monitored - setting a goal can help encourage potential donors to dig deep in support of your organization!

123. Garage Sale/ Car Boot Sale

Get people to donate old clothes/homewares/shoes/tech that’s in good condition and sell it on! One point for recycling and another for fundraising.

124. Donation Match Drive

Source partners with local businesses willing to match all donations made at an event to double your profits!

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Fundraising Event Ideas

Balloon Fundraisers, Kid’s Face Painting, Guessing Games, Drinks Pull Raffle, Pie Throwing Contest, Dunk Tank, Adult Lemonade Stand, Food Truck Festival, Popsicle Stand, BBQ, and Haunted House.

126. Comedy Night

Everyone likes a laugh, so why not throw your own comedy night in aid of your organization? Invite local talent or people from the comedy circuit to participate in your comedy night fundraiser. Sell tickets to cover the cost of the comedians or ask them to donate their fees to your organization. You could partner with a local restaurant to have them offer the space as a venue, whilst they can profit from the revenue of the patrons by selling food and drink during the event.

127. Karaoke

Offering the chance to belt out a few bangers, karaoke is an optimum fundraising event. Recruit some energetic and willing singers (and some not so willing participants), find yourself a karaoke machine, get some drinks and snacks and sing yourself towards your goal.

128. Lip Sync Competition

For those who are microphone shy put on a lip-syncing competition. Participants can pay to enter and get the chance to showcase their performance skills AND claim a prize for the best performance. You could even include small prizes for different categories, such as best dressed, best dancer, best Cher impression, etc. Charge a base fee for entry to maximize your fundraising potential.

129. Car Show

Set up a car show to raise money in a few different ways. Motor enthusiasts will pay to exhibit and display their cars, and to see others. You can also add on raffles, prize drawings, food and drink stands on the day to maximize donations. Consider charging participants a fee to vote for their favorite car(s), and then present “People’s Choice” awards to the exhibition

130. Serve-a-thon Event

Raise money while doing something good for your community! Collect donations from the local community by offering to pick litter. Have local residents or businesses pledge a certain amount per item of trash recycled/cleared - for example, 1 aluminum can = $1

131. Speed Dating

For all those singletons, hosting a speed dating event is easy to facilitate and fun to do. Charge for entry, offer a cozy space with drinks and snacks, and let the sparks fly.

132. Sky Lantern Send-Off

Another activity that can be made into an event itself. Offer sky lanterns to be purchased and then organize a clear evening to release them. Encourage people to bring a picnic on a balmy night or offer your own food options at an inflated price as another means to raise money for your cause.

133. Open Mic Night

This could attract local talent keen to showcase their performance, or simply individuals looking to have a good time. Charge entry to your venue and perhaps an admin fee for each band or artist wanting to participate, and host your own charity gig!

Good luck raising those bucks!

Fundraising Events are by and large coming in various, and creative forms these days. Even more so, NGOs and Non-profits are also looking towards digital leverage when marketing and accepting donations. Book a Demo with Glue Up and we'll show you how our engagement platform can boost your next fundraising event.

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