Here are some of my favorite fundraising ideas, most of them found on: http://www.gapyear.com/articles/90420/a-to-z-of-fundraising-ideas
- Auction of Promises
Visit local businesses and ask them to donate their services for you to
auction off. Or rope in your friends, who could promise to wash cars,
mow lawns or do housework for the highest bidder.
- Beard Shaving
Grab a few hairy marys and shave them. Not just for fun - fundraise
by getting people to sponsor them to go through with it. You can shave
heads, beards, backs or legs... the possibilities are great.
- Back to Front Day
Get sponsored to wear your clothes the wrong way round for a whole day.
- Concert
Get some talented friends to perform in front of those less talented.
Or, vice versa for a laugh. Charge an admission fee and organise a
collection during the matinee.
- Car Washing
Grab some willing friends and get knocking on your neighbour's doors.
Tell them why you are offering to wash their car and chances are, they'll gladly stump up a bit of cash.
- Chocolate Ban
Get sponsored for every three days you can go without chocolate - or for every day without, if you're a serious chocoholic!
- Fairs, fetes, bazaars, etc
Get yourself a big space (a hall, a field or even a car park) and let
your imagination go crazy. Set up a coconut shy, apple bobbing stand,
races and white elephant stalls.
- Film show/premiere
There are two main ways to do this. Speak nicely to your local cinema
manager and ask if you can rent out a screen - or even if they will
donate one to your worthy cause. Charge your friends and family an
admission to watch the newest blockbuster. Alternatively stage a
screening in your own home - maybe you could theme the type of films you
show with your gap route? Ask people to bring their own snacks and to
pay a small amount for the screening.
- Fashion Shows make for Fashionable Fundraising
Depending on how ambitious you are, this could raise a significant
amount towards your charity of choice. Either grab a couple of mates and stage a
show in your house. They could model clothes that you no longer want or
need, which could then be auctioned off at the end of the day.
Alternatively, let local clothes shops know about your fundraiser and
ask them to donate clothes for the show. This is also great publicity
for them. Get hold of a hall and advertise the event well in advance -
give out flyers in your town centre and post them through letter boxes.
- Fill Smartie tubes with coins
Pass smartie tubes out to your friends and family and ask them to fill
them with spare change - preferrably £1 coins! Then collect them back in
- you'll be amazed at how much you will raise this way and there is
very little effort involved. Also, you could empy the smarties from
their tubes into a jar and run a 'Guess the number' contest.
- It’s a Knockout competition
Get some teams together and arrange assualt courses, games and quizzes
galore. Each team member pays a few pounds to take part - with the
winning team being awarded a prize donated by a local company.
- Ice-cream Eating
Either get sponsored to make lifelong friends with Ben and Jerry or buy
huge tubs of ice cream and sell them by the scoop as cornets on a hot
day.
- Joke-a-thon
Go up to people on the street and asking them to pay you fifty pence if
you can make them laugh. Best to be armed with a ready supply to
hilarious jokes for this one.
- Karaoke competition/display
Rent a karaoke machine and hold an event in your local pub, college
bar, or bedroom. Sell tickets, or make it a competition and charge
people to enter. Get a local company to donate a prize.
- Leap Frog
Get sponsored per leap, or per quarter-hour. More fun if you're leaping
over strangers, in the local park or on the beach. Tell them what
you're doing; they'll either laugh and agree or walk very quickly in the
opposite direction. Take photos to prove you did it!
- Obstacle Course
Set up a hard-core obstacle course and charge people to race.
- Pram push
Dress up, push your mate in a pram through the streets of your town,
shake a bucket and be prepared to tell a lot of curious bystanders why
they should give you money for your fundraising shenanigans.
- Scavenger Hunt
People pay to enter. They each recieve a list of items they need to
scavenge (a beer-mat, a yellow flower, an item of underwear that's not
their own...) Give a prize to the person who brings all the items to you
first.
- Throwing wet sponges at a person in stocks
Great at a summer fair!
- Tuck shop
Buy cheap multi-packs of chocolate bars and crisps and sell them at
extortionately inflated prices. This works well at offices and
factories, as well as schools and youth clubs. Sell home-made cakes and
cookies too if you've got time to bake them.
- Twister-a-thon
Get sponsored to play an all-day game of Twister with your mates.
People will donate more if you're doing it in a public place - your
embarrassment is always worth a few quid.
- Video-a-thon
Rent a bunch of classic movies and play them back-to-back for 24 hours.
Print schedules and hand them out to your friends and acquaintances,
who'll hopefully turn up and pay to watch their favourites. Offer a
discount for those who last the whole 24 hours. Don't skimp on the
popcorn.
- Costume Sponsor
Make a crazy costume and then get sponsors to wear it for the whole day, wherever you go.
-Personal Shopper Service
We all know someone who doesn’t like to go shopping, doesn’t have the time or energy or is unable to get out to the shops.
Earn money for your cause by setting up your own personal shopper
service. Do someone’s grocery shopping, run their errands or just
accompany them around town… all for a small donation of course!
A Slave Auction
Not
as bad as it sounds. Get volunteers to agree to be a 'slave' for an
hour, an afternoon, a day etc. Once you have a sufficient quantity of
slaves, you can organise the auction and invite loads of people along to
it, preferably including a few successful local businessmen and women.
The slaves that are 'won' in the auction may end up performing a number
of tasks for the winning bidder, usually based upon their skills, e.g. a
carpenter might put up some shelves, a chef might cook a nice meal, a
gardener might do some digging etc.
Bidding for Blue Plate Specials
This is a fun and sometimes hilarious twist on the dinner fundraiser.
Tell people to bring an individual serving, cooked meal or dessert,
their checkbook, and their sense of adventure. They will be bidding for
their dinner. Meals can be simple such as hard boiled egg or scrambled
eggs, or elaborate such as lobster thermidor. It is up to each person
to decide what to bring. Put a cover over each meal to keep it a
secret and let the biding begin. Keep hot meals in a warmer to keep
them hot. Either start the bidding the same for each meal, or start
with a high or low bid to keep people guessing as to whether it is a
fancy meal or not. You may want to reveal what the meal is during
bidding if you think it will drive the price up. It will be funny to
see a peanut butter and jelly sandwich go for $25 when prime rib only
sells for $5. Just be careful to announce any potential food allergies
before bidding starts.
Board Game Tournament
Create a fun twist on a card tournament and do something that everyone
can participate in. Have a Board Game Tournament. Pick a favorite,
such as Sorry, Trouble, or Monopoly. Assemble 4 person teams that will
work together to accumulate points or you can allow individuals to
participate. Charge an entry fee for each team, in order to earn money
for your charity. Give a portion of the proceeds as the winning prize
or get prizes donated from local businesses. Decide if you are going to
play with a time limit for each game so that everyone has the same
chance and to keep things running on a schedule. Decide on any “House”
rules beforehand. Set up bleachers for the audience and consider having
a 50/50 raffle or raffle for door prizes. Definitely have a concession
stand with coffee, soda pop, popcorn, chips, hot dogs, and bottled
water to earn extra money.
Carnation Day
Everyone loves to receive flowers and it can be very uplifting to know
that someone is thinking of you. Have a carnation day on Valentine’s
Day or Sweetest Day as your group’s next fundraiser. This is a great
fundraiser for a school. Carnations are a relatively inexpensive flower
and you should be able to get a great deal buying them in bulk.
Contact a local nursery, greenhouse or florist and see if they can help
you out. Have pre-sales of the carnations before school and during
lunchtime for a week before the day. Make up cards that have a line for
student’s full name, homeroom, and spot for a personal message. Set up
a table to sell the cards and pens for the students to fill them out.
Have collection boxes to place the cards in. You may want to have the
boxes labeled with homerooms or alphabetically (A-D, E-G, etc.) to make
sorting easier. Have a cash box with small bills and coins so that you
can make change. On the morning of Carnation Day, have some people
grouping flowers and cards and others delivering them to homerooms. The
recipients will love hearing their names read off and receiving the
flowers. Consider ordering extra to give each teacher and principal one
as well.
Christmas Cookie Baking
Most people have already been rushing around for more than a month,
first getting ready for Thanksgiving, and now preparing for Christmas.
There's shopping to do, decorating, possibly travel to plan, or
preparing their homes for guests, and they have to do it all while still
keeping up with the day-to-day tasks and activities. It's a miracle if
anyone has any time left over to bake anything from scratch. That's
where your group comes in. Offer baked holiday cookies that members of
the community can buy by the dozen. Decide on a few varieties to make,
and they don't have to be complicated. Simple sugar cookies, or
gingerbread will do. You can get fancier if you like, and offer premium
cookies at a slightly higher price. If your volunteers have the time,
inclination, and skill, you can also offer larger baked goods like cakes
and pies. Ask people to place their orders a week or two in advance so
there's plenty of time for preparation and and baking. And for that
inevitable emergency request, add on a small last-minute fee. This way,
families still get homemade treats rather than store-bought, and your
organization raises money for its cause. Everyone has a happy holiday!
Death By Chocolate
Chocolate lovers are everywhere. Give them what they want with a Death
by Chocolate Fundraiser. Contact local restaurants and pastry chefs to
see if they would be interested in participating. They would receive
free advertising in return. Find a banquet hall that is willing to let
you host the event for free or a reduced price. Let them set up a cash
bar to recoup some of the cost and maybe you can split the proceeds.
Sell tickets as a Chocolate Tasting Event. Tickets sold in advance can
be reduced price from tickets sold at the door to encourage pre-sales.
Have each chef prepare sample sized portions of their favorite chocolate
desserts. It would be great if they could attend the event to answer
questions (and get praised) about their desserts. Make sure you have
variety of milk, dark and white chocolate desserts. Something for
everyone! You may also want to have a wine tasting. Find a sommelier
willing to help suggest wines that will pair well with chocolate. This
fundraiser is sure to be popular and a great moneymaker.
Giving Tree
This is a great fundraiser to stock a food bank or other church pantry,
or collect gifts for people in need during the Holiday season. Instead
of decorating a tree with regular ornaments, decorate it with hand
crafted paper ornaments that have items that are needed written on them.
Have ornaments that hit all price points. Items in the $1.00 to
$25.00 range are best, so that everyone can participate. If you are
collecting items for a food bank, request non-perishable items. Have
bins set up around the tree for people to deposit their gifts in. Or
have a collection date and time to gather everything at once. If you
are collecting items for those in need, try to have as much information
available on the ornament. It is easier to shop for someone knowing
that they are a size medium woman who likes the color blue and needs
some long sleeve shirts, or a little boy who needs a pair of snow boots
and is a size 7.
Holiday Shopping in One Night
Holiday gift shopping can be time consuming and hectic. Host a “holiday
shopping in one night” event for your next fundraiser. Find vendors
willing to set up a booth, either for a set fee or a percentage of their
sales for the evening. Contact representatives from popular companies
such as Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, and Watkins. Most companies have
online directories to find representatives in your area, or ask around
to find them. Send home flyers, advertise with posters, and contact your
local newspapers. Offer a free grab bag or raffle ticket to the first
fifty shoppers. See if the vendors will donate gift baskets or product
samples to give away. Have a bake sale and concession stand to feed your
hungry shoppers and make extra money. Consider having craft vendors as
well, but do not make the show bigger than one shopper can get through
in one evening. Your shoppers will appreciate being able to get all
their shopping done in one place.
Love from Home Packages
Being away at college is a huge adjustment and can leave you homesick.
The perfect remedy is a care package from home. This fundraiser would
be perfect for a high school or church. Mail flyers to the parents of
recently graduated seniors (within the last four years) and explain your
group and what you are raising money for. Have a list of care packages
for sale and their contents. For example, you can have a chocolate
lover’s package, a coffee lover’s package, an assortment package, etc.
You will want to put things in the care package that are convenience
foods that can be easily prepared in a microwave and are shelf stable.
Let the parents place a personal message in the care package. Shop at
discount food stores to get the best price on items. Find businesses
willing to donate cardboard boxes so that you can ship the packages.
Parents will appreciate the convenience and students will appreciate the
love from home.
No Dirty Dishes for a Week
No one likes to wash dirty dishes. With our busy lives, it is sometimes
hard to find the time to make a home cooked meal. This fundraiser will
probably be very popular and appeal to a large group of people. This
fundraiser is appropriate for all groups. You will want to find several
local restaurants that are willing to donate a dinner for two, or even
four if the restaurant is really generous. Approach local restaurants
over the phone or in person and explain who your group is and what you
are raising money for. Tell them you are looking to raffle off a whole
week of dining out at local restaurants. Ask if they are willing to
participate. Let them know that they will receive free advertising at
your event. Try to find a wide range of restaurants from simple to
elaborate and different cuisines. You can either work with the
restaurants to schedule a set week with a night at each restaurant, or
they could just offer a certificate redeemable for a dinner for two.
Selling raffle tickets for this should be easy.
Pampering in Prison
Create a new twist on the lock up for charity. Instead of just locking
up your prisoners and having them make phone calls to family and friends
to raise bail money, pamper them too. People will request to be locked
up for the day. For a small donation take down the names of people to
arrest. Create a list of offenses for which they are being arrested
for. Instead of picking them up, you may want to have them turn
themselves in. You may want to forewarn them with a note, so they can
prepare and have their phonebook with them. Tell them what amount they
need to raise and let them know they can begin ahead of time. You will
want to arrange to have people that pamper there, such as massage
therapists, manicurists, estheticians for facials, hair stylists and
makeup artist. Have pampering stations set up that appeal to both men
and women. You will also want to have phones available to them.
