Sometimes it’s difficult to know how to help charity initiatives you’re passionate about. People are always asking for money for causes, which can result in donor fatigue and leave people less interested in opening their wallets for your cause. Rather than straight up asking for money, try getting creative to bring in those dollars.
Here are some ways that put the “fun” in fundraising for you and the donor:
Host a second hand sale
If you host an event where the donor is getting something in return often times you’ll find it easier to get people to commit and you’ll likely raise more money than if you would have asked outright for a donation.
Invite people to sell their second hand goods. The sale could be for clothing, dresses, baby clothes, dishes, jewelry, or whatever item you think people would be eager to pass along and others would be interested in buying. Have the sellers mark the price themselves and then you can either ask for a percentage of sales for the charity or have buyers pay an admission to come to the sale.
Donate a birthday
As adults, many people don’t celebrate their birthday, never mind receive gifts from their friends, however people are usually willing to celebrate with you given the opportunity. Host a birthday party for yourself and inform people what you’re hoping to raise money for. If it’s something tangible it may be easier for people to grasp. For example “for my birthday I want to buy a well for a small village.” Then you could have a drawing of the well on the wall and every time someone contributed, they could color in a portion of the drawing. This would give the group a visual representation of how close they were to fulfilling your birthday wish 🙂
Host a fundraising challenge at your work
These can be a lot of fun! Break your coworkers into teams and challenge each other to raise the most funds in a given period of time. Teams can come up with activities around the office to make money. Our work hosted a challenge like this and people sold hot chocolate in the mornings, held a sumo suit-wrestling match where people had to pay $2 each to enter, and the CEO even offered to jump into the ocean if people donated $100 within a specific time frame. The whole team had a lot of fun with it and in the end we raised a lot of money for charity.
These are just a few ideas of events that you can host to raise money for a non-profit. Get creative with whatever you decide and have fun with it!
About the Author
Ashley Dueck graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Commerce specializing in International Business. She has a passion for event planning, fundraising, and online marketing strategy. Her experience allowed her the opportunity to be the Marketing Coordinator for the first ever World Elephant Day that gained world wide support from elephant organizations and advocates around the globe.