Non-profit Fundraising Ideas: 20 Effective Ways of Raising Funds for Charity

When nonprofit fundraisers are done very creatively, you can avoid the pitfall of donors are ignoring the same-old, same-old, boring fundraising ideas. Your ideas must be unique and be able to rally a following. Participants must have fun and be motivated to take it viral, attracting more thousands of more donors. The nonprofit fund drive organizer must be willing to make the events fun to encourage mass participation of the community.

Easier said than done, right?

It is therefore vital to have a solid background in events organization before undertaking such a huge gamble.  This course on Fundraising Masters: The Ultimate Resource to Raising Money will take you through a great lesson on making your event succeed. Follow up and enroll, the investment is really worth the salt.

Below are some very useful strategies that can be used to gear capital for worthy causes. Take a look at some nonprofit fundraising ideas that might work well for your charity.

1. Make children part of your target

Do not ignore children, because they have power to influence parents and donors. Children have a way of hyping up peer influence which is good for business. Let children participate in a show or other event, and parents will turn out in waves to help the cause and support their children..

2. Host a street carnival

Get a bouncing castle onto the street complete rented with music or band. Allow people to play games for small amounts of money and charge an entry fee. This is a great joint event idea where many charities in your community can come together to all have different booths and raise money.

3. Text in dollars

Have people text to donate a small amount, which will simply be added onto their phone bill. Promote the campaign by word of mouth and social media. For example, the Red Cross uses this kind of campaign very successfully. Online Fundraising Bootcamp for Nonprofits is a specialized course that will fine tune the tech and social media marketing skills for your event, to enable you achieve tremendous success.

4. Organize a competition

Have a competition say eating, dressing or fashion. Members of public will pay to participate in voting or tasting foods or sampling fashion as they donate to the cause. Just be aware of local laws regarding competitions before you start, so you can make sure that your competition is legal!

5. Use old tricks: Raffle selling

Sell raffles for surprise prizes. Everybody fancies being a winner, and this will create some positive energy that will attract donors. You can either give away a prize or do a 50-50 drawing, where the winner receives 50% of the money raised through the raffle. Again, check legal regulation in your area before planning this type of fundraiser, since raffles aren’t allowed everywhere.

6. Wrap events around holidays

Get people to donate a certain amount of money on their special events. Target occasions such as birthdays and public holidays where it is easy to net many people simultaneously. Valentine and Christmas would be a great choice. For example, you could partner with a local winery for Valentine’s Day to have people purchase a certain type of premium wine where a percentage of the proceeds go to your charity.

7. Organize a dance-a-thon

Getting couples and friends to dance until they wear out. The last duo standing are the winners! People will be willing to pay premium rates to participate. A small amount for watching can be charged as well,  and the event can even run in multiple locations simultaneously.

8. “Imprison” a celebrity

Imprison a local celebrity (like a radio DJ or school principal) in a public cage and tell the public to bail her/him out for a certain amount of money. This kind of event is funny (especially if a prison costume is involved) and can create a lot of social buzz in your community.

9. Striking gold

Organize for members of a community to donate old items for cash. Auction the items on the spot for a small profit, or simply sell them in a huge rummage sale. You can also organize a community rummage sale where each participant keeps their profits, but pays a small fee to have a table.

10. Busting balloons!

Fill up balloons with unique tickets and sell them to ‘lucky’ buyers. Bust them in public to look for the winning tickets for several prizes. This is an easy way to raise money at a local event.

11. Organize karaoke competition or a sporting event

Get talented (and not-so-talented) people to participate in a karaoke show or sport event. Each participant/team must have a supporting audience, made up of are paying attendees. Members of the public will also donate to participate in watching the event. For a detailed study on how to fundraise through sporting events, enroll for this course in The Ultimate Sports Fundraising Program.

12. Gift wrap for people

Organize a group of volunteers to warp gifts for shoppers at a store for a small fee. The money is then donated to the charity. This is a life-saver during the holidays, and many shopping centers or malls will be happy for your to set up show (as long as they don’t also provide wrapping services).

13.   Eat for a good cause

Organize with a restaurant to donate a fixed amount of money for every patron on a certain period. Promote the restaurant wildly to create a buzz around the cause. Many local TV stations will even do a spot to promote it. All you have to do is ask.

14.   Organize a cooking face off

Allow people to show off their skills by paying to participate in a cooking competition. You can have both amateur and professional categories, so everyone can compete. Allow the public to participate by paying a small fee then tasting and voting, or have them vote with cash, and the cook with the most money at the end wins!

15.   Give it up campaign

Encourage people to sacrifice certain activities for a good cause. You may compel couples to give up roses and donate the small amount to charity on Valentine’s Day for instance.

16.   Do not ignore crowdfunding

One big mistake people make is to ignore the power of social media. Create a portal where people can give toward a certain cause and promote it via twitter or Facebook for maximum impact. Register for this program on Secrets to a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign for an A-Z guide in accumulating monies for your course online through crowd funding websites. This will be a sure catapult into new levels of the campaign.

17.   Pump in the dollars

Organize volunteers at gas stations to wait on drivers. They should pump the gas, clean the windshield, and collect donation for the certain cause. You can also partner with local gas stations to offer car washes.

18.   In case the organization has kids, pledge grades

Kids in the organization may be asked to promise some ambitious grades. On achieving the grade, the donor must give a fixed amount of money. Families love inspiring their children to study.

19.   “Go casual” day of support

Organize with top management of key organizations for a great students/employees deal. Ask them to allow a casual dress code if the employees or students reach a certain target of donations.

20.   Organize a date auction!

Line up volunteers in turns for auction and the highest bidder get a chance to go for a date with a volunteer. This is always a fun (and usually funny) event, especially if you include dates with local celebrities!

More often than not, the goal of the campaign is to get as much money as possible. Check out this course for even more tips on attracting people who want to give you money: How to Throw Events and Attract Corporate Sponsors.