Fundraising is an essential component of any charitable, individual or non-profit organization’s success. It can be challenging to come up with innovative ideas to raise money for your cause, but with a little creativity and effort, you can make significant progress.
In this article, we’ve put together a list of 15 fundraising ideas that shows you how to raise money for your cause. So whether you’re looking to support a local charity, fundraise for a school or even raise money for a personal cause, these ideas offer a range of options to help you meet your fundraising goals.
Top Online Fundraising Ideas
Don’t want to go through the stress of physical fundraising? Here are some tips to raise funds from the comfort of your home using the online space.
1. Crowdfunding campaign
Crowdfunding is a method of raising funds where a large number of people contribute small amounts of money to finance a project or an initiative.
To achieve successful fundraising through crowdfunding, we recommend sticking to donation-based crowdfunding. Donation-based crowdfunding involves receiving donations for charitable projects without offering any rewards to the donors.
Next, research and identify the crowdfunding platforms that align with your project goals and needs. We have varieties of them which are: GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and so on. Each of these platforms has its rules, so it is important to research and compare to know the best for your project.
After that, crafting a compelling pitch to attract backers and convince them that your project is worthy of their investment is necessary. Your content should be persuasive and contain a clear explanation of the project and its goals without ambiguity. Be sure to showcase the team’s expertise and highlight any unique or valuable features.
2. Social media fundraising
Social media fundraising involves raising funds through various social media channels where you have built an audience.
With the number of active users, it is one of the fastest means of raising funds. In addition to this, it helps you to reach a wider audience. You can also keep in touch with previous donors, and reduce the workload of recruiting volunteers for your project.
The first step to take for social media fundraising is to figure out the best social media site that works best for you. Is it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and many others?
Although you may have an account on each social media platform, the result you get from each one differs and that’s why you need to choose the one that gives you more audience reach.
After this convince your audience that you are goal-oriented by making sure you use the platform to educate them and keep them engaged about your cause. If you’re a charity organization, talk a lot about your organization’s mission and vision. With time, you can ask for donations when you are convinced that you have captured their attention with what you do.
Remember not to ask for too much because it can serve as a turnoff to potential donors who are the main target audience.
3. Peer-to-peer fundraising
This is a type of fundraising where individual supporters host personal campaigns to collect donations from their friends, family, and colleagues. If you haven’t built enough friends in your network, you can call for volunteers who will create their own unique pages, which they’ll promote to their own friends online.
This method is very helpful because it expands your reach beyond your contact list and helps you network with others that you have never known thereby increasing your brand visibility.
4. Online auctions and sales
Online auctions are web-based transactions that let users buy and sell varieties of products online through bidding. Your fundraising team can decide to create a specific product in large quantities then place them on your website to help you raise funds.
When starting, ensure you are producing a product that you can afford and create in large quantities. Once produced, upload on e-commerce sites to attract buyers and remember to note in the item description that all profits made from the sale of the item go directly to the fundraising.
Once purchases are made, do a delivery to the owners and in many cases, some may be willing to support you in an extra way. That’s why it is advisable to link the item description to your fundraiser, just in case someone gets inspired and is willing to support you through donations.
5. Virtual events
Rather than using a physical venue, virtual events allow you to interact with your target audience on the web. You can think about an idea that aligns with your vision and also interests your audience. After this, pick a date and time that is convenient for everyone to attend the event virtually.
Decide on a fee to be paid before having access to the event platform and then publicize across social media platforms for a wider reach. You can also offer merchandise sales such as t-shirts, or any item related to your brand then you can donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales to your brand’s growth.
You can also encourage attendees to make a donation on your donation page to move your brand or organization forward. If you don’t have a donation page or account, set up one for free here.
Offline Fundraising Ideas
Would you prefer physical events instead? Here are offline fundraising ideas to get you inspired.
6. Bake sales and food events
Host a bake sale or food event to raise funds for your cause. Start by planning what type of snacks, time, date, and location you’d like to work with. Place a price on the various meals available ensuring that you are making a profit by calculating the costs of ingredients used for the meal preparation. Remember, all proceeds go to charity.
Once this is sorted, you can begin recruiting volunteers to help with the event, such as chefs, bakers, servers and cleaners. Be sure to provide clear instructions for your event ahead of time.
After this, create publicity for your event by highlighting any special meal or features of the event like live musical performances. Host the event and ask attendees to support your brand with their donations.
7. Car wash events
Hosting a car wash event is another easy way to raise funds. This is because it doesn’t take a lot of money to run. With enough publicity, your organization can raise a huge amount of money in a single day. Before hosting one, you need to find a suitable location with a proper drainage system to avoid polluting the environment.
You will also need enough trained volunteers who are willing to sacrifice their time to make it a success. For awareness, you can publicize the event by creating flyers attached with catchy content and sharing them in strategic locations.
You can sell tickets for publicity, charge a fee for the services rendered or ask for their donations.
8. Garage sales
If you’d like to declutter, hosting a garage sale is a great way to reduce them and make an impact. A garage sale is an informal event where used goods like furniture, and clothing, are sold by private individuals.
You can also reach out to friends and family members to donate their unused items to your garage sale. Post signs around the location so that it can attract interested buyers who might just be passing by.
9. Benefit concerts
A benefit concert is another way to make money for your organization. You just need to find a performer that your audience loves, reach out to them to seek their consent and then begin the planning process. In some cases, you may not know the performer to choose and to avoid a wrong pick; you can ask your audience about the performer they resonate with.
You can even invite more than one local performer to consider donating their service in-kind and then you can secure a conducive and spacious venue. Once that is met, you can begin to publicize the event flyer and even ask for sponsors who are willing to assist your event in cash.
For more funds, you need to prepare a paid ticket that serves as a prerequisite to enter the venue. During the concert, you can ask for donations from those present. Take some shots and put them out on social media for those who could not attend. They might also love what you do and then decide to encourage you with their little donations.
10. Charity auctions
Charity auctions are win-win events where guests bid to win auction items and packages. The highest bid wins the items and the fundraising organization wins the proceeds.
To achieve this, you must plan, set goals and begin to gather auction items for the event. You can choose to make it an exclusive event or a public one.
Conduct the auction by allowing attendees to start placing bids which you must ensure is fair and transparent. Once the bidding ends, distribute the items with an appreciation note or package to thank attendees.
Creative Fundraising ideas
Here are five additional creative ways to capture the attention of your donors and reach fundraising goals.
11. Art exhibition
You can launch an art exhibition if you have friends or a member of your fundraising team who is artistically talented and can teach others. In this case, your donors will be willing to support you, while enriching themselves by learning a craft.
Secure a nice venue that is conducive for learning and create publicity for your event. Prepare an entry ticket with a price that is affordable. Always state that the proceeds of your event is going to charity so donors can be more inclined to purchase more.
12. Charity walks and runs
You can decide to do charity walks and runs around a location to publicize your brand and what it represents. You must plan ahead for it by considering a suitable location, and calling out for volunteers to assist in the process. Next, publicizing it on social media, email newsletters or other mediums so that interested persons can register.
During the course of this walk, you will get to meet donors who are highly inspired by what you do and are willing to support you in cash. If you don’t find anyone who wants to willingly support you, you can request by making it known to them that your organization needs financial support for effective operation.
13. Talent shows
Hosting a talent show is another fundraising idea because there are people who like to be recognized for what they can do best. To have a successful talent show, plan ahead for the event by creating the goal you wish to achieve, and then invite supporters and members of your community to perform. Create an enticing prize for the winner of the talent show.
Importantly, choose a nice and comfortable venue like a theatre, gymnasium or other public event location. Also, choose a relevant person in the community as the emcee for the show. Once all these have been met, begin to publicize the event on your social media or crowdfunding page, and you can even reach out to popular people to help publicize too.
Apart from asking for donations during the course of the event, you can even decide to raise extra funds by placing a registration price for all persons that wish to show their talent.
14. Auction off experience
This can be a unique and exciting way to raise funds creatively. All you are required of is to get an item you want to use for auction and then ask donors to bid for it. This could be a painting, sculpture, or even mosaic. Ensure the bidding rules are fair enough and once the bidding is over, choose the winner based on the highest bid.
15. Partner with local businesses
You can identify a business in your community that shares similar values and is interested in partnering with your cause. Send them a brand partnership proposal outlining how it will benefit their business to become more visible to potential customers.
Negotiate the partnership terms by discussing what they will offer you like donations, in-kind support, and so on and what you will also give in return. Once the deal is sealed, promote the partnership online via social media channels to increase their visibility and also thank the business owner for choosing to support your cause.
Bottom line
The fundraising ideas we have explored in this article offer a range of options that can be adapted to fit any cause, budget, or audience. Whether you decide to host a bake sale or a virtual event, the most important thing is to stay committed to your cause and make sure your supporters feel your appreciation. To securely receive donations from all around the world, create a custom payment link with Creathor here.
