Nonprofit fundraising ideas are everywhere but finding something special isn’t so easy. If you’re eager to start planning your next charity fundraising event – you need that big, unique idea!
Something that aligns with your mission, suits your available resources, and will help you achieve your fundraising goal. After all, the key to successfully supporting your cause is getting donations.
No-one cares more than you do, and that makes this decision extra challenging.
So, this post is going to be a little more than your run-of-the-mill list of fundraising ideas. It’s also going to teach you how to choose an original idea, take the idea and develop it, and ultimately integrate it into a grand fundraising campaign that exceeds your charities expectations.
These ideas for your non-profit fundraising campaign are all vetted, proven and popular. We’ve gone ahead and sorted them by the type of charity they would suit best, though any idea can be adapted if you see potential in it. Follow the 4-step process for best results.
Each idea contains important details on fundraising experience, cost, effort, and efficiency. You can also click on the fundraising idea below to leap to that section and get started.
These nonprofit fundraising ideas will give you enough inspiration to shape, combine or design a campaign that will meet your individual needs. They may even spark an original idea of your own.
Here are the 4 steps.
Step 1: Get Inspired with These Ideas
The best place to begin is by reviewing what other non-profits have done successfully. Some fundraising ideas are better suited to certain types of charities. Below we’ve chosen three high impact ideas for each type of non-profit.
See which of these winning concepts piques your interest and stokes the flames of originality.
Health Charities
If you’re focused on raising money for your health charity, you are looking to help people who are sick, disabled or living below the poverty line. These ideas work well in this space.
1. Livestream Comedy-a-thon
Experience: Livestreaming, a-thon, event
Cost: 1/5
Effort: 2/5
Result: 4/5
Laughter makes the world go around, and these days we could all use a good laugh. Host a unique comedy-a-thon where funny people get on stage and tell jokes for as long as they can. You’ll need a live audience, a gaggle of willing amateur comedians, and community support.
This non-profit fundraising experience involves three components, selling tickets to the live event, finding comedians, and getting the community to pledge money for every joke told. Finally, you’ll livestream the event to an audience of paying donors.
Every ticket sold, pledge realized, and livestream access granted is money towards your goal. Spice up your event by inviting professional comedians from your local stand-up comedy club. At the end of the marathon comedy session, crown the highest earning comedian the winner.
2. Team-Based Scavenger Hunt
Experience: Peer-to-peer, livestreaming, event
Cost: 2/5
Effort: 2/5
Efficiency: 4/5
A scavenger hunt is a great way to get groups or teams of people involved in a fun event. They’re also quite easy to setup – all you need is a way for participants to buy tickets, and a platform that they can use to raise money for their team before the event begins.
You can make your scavenger hunt as simple or as complex as you like. Start by picking a location where the hunt will take place. Then design a map with a dynamic clue list that leads from one location to the next. Hide items for your teams to find at each stop – make them interesting!
Nonprofit fundraising ideas like the classic scavenger hunt are fun to livestream. Set up a stream at each location to film the teams as they discover your items or perform your challenges. Charge people to watch the hunt online, then edit and package the videos for sale after the hunt.
3. Community Auction
Experience: Auction, event
Cost: 1/5
Effort: 3/5
Efficiency: 4/5
Community auctions are popular with health charities because they cost almost nothing to create, and the items up for auction can be donations from the same community. Donated item auctions are easy to stage in-person or online. They simply require the right platform and a bit of promotion.
At the auction, your attendees will bid on the displayed items as they come up for sale. Set a minimum bid, and make sure that its low enough to encourage a lot of people to feel like they might get a great deal if they bid to win. Bidding competition will take care of the rest.
Successful fundraising ideas for nonprofits like the community auction will help you raise the money you need for your cause. Host regular auctions once your charity has accumulated enough donated items, or list them online for sale as an alternative. Charity shops love this type of fundraiser.
Environmental Charities
If you’re raising money for an environmental cause, you will be concerned with climate change, pollution, wildlife conservation and educating people about recycling. Here’s what will work.
4. Beach Clean Up Event
Experience: Event, sweepstakes
Cost: 1/5
Effort: 1/5
Efficiency: 4/5
Beach cleanups are great if you want an event that people will pay to attend, and still has practical use for the community. Everyone loves the beach, so make sure to host this event on a beautiful summer’s day. Charge people entry and ask them to bring along supplies (gloves, tongs, water).
To make the beach cleanup fun, tell your attendees that you’re running a competition for the most trash collected. You could also split this into types of trash, and award prizes to people who have collected the most plastic bottles, aluminum cans or paper cartons.
A fun beach cleanup day wouldn’t be complete without hot dogs, volleyball and some bonding time for the donors who came to support your cause. When green teams brainstorm charity fundraising ideas in the workplace, beach cleanups are a big winner – they’re ideal for team building.
5. Virtual Race Relay
Experience: Livestreaming, a-thon, event
Cost: 2/5
Effort: 3/5
Efficiency: 4/5
Some nonprofit fundraising ideas for the environment don’t take place outside. The virtual relay race is one of these ideas. It’s recently become popular with virtual fitness enthusiasts who join largescale online events that sync with their home exercise equipment.
Now your charity can run a virtual team-based race that is the equivalent of a triathlon, simply by setting up a livestream event. Entrants will form teams (a cyclist, a runner, a rower) to compete in a head-to-head virtual relay race that happens in real time. It’s super exciting!
Get your teams to find sponsors who will pledge money for every leg of the race that they finish, or how many laps they can do before giving up. However, you structure it, this is a new way of raising money for charity that has zero impact on the environment – with no event cleanup afterwards.
6. Sustainable Craft Fair
Experience: Sales, event
Cost: 3/5
Effort: 5/5
Efficiency: 4/5
Here is one of those easy charity fundraising ideas that takes a bit of organization. A sustainable craft fair is a gathering of crafters who only create products for sale using reusable, recycled or otherwise sustainable materials. This is the perfect way to raise awareness for a green cause.
Craft fairs are popular because they attract large crowds. A small entry fee will get you inside, where vegan food stalls, live music, and a host of fascinating eco-friendly items are displayed for sale. Families will come out to support your charity if you promote the event a few weeks before it’s opening date. Sustainable craft fairs are best over a weekend, to give people time to enjoy the festivities on the most convenient day. Use the fair as a platform to get your message out to the media and plan to have everything used at the fair recycled or composted.
Animal Charities
If your goal is to end cruelty to animals, to undo global species extinction and to fund better rights for domestic and international wildlife then you’re an animal charity. Here are the ideas that work best in your niche.
7. Online Silent Auction
Experience: Auction, event
Cost: 1/5
Effort: 2/5
Efficiency: 4/5
A virtually hosted silent auction will reach a wide variety of donors that want to help you support your cause. These auctions are easy to create online and involve uploading your auction items for donors to view and bid on. No auctioneer is present, so the bids are automated.
You only need an allotted timeframe, items to auction, and a platform that will help your charity manage the bidding process. Bidders will passively receive text notifications if they are outbid and will get the chance to bid again – driving up your bid prices.
These nonprofit fundraising ideas are ideal if you don’t have a lot of time or money to invest in an online fundraising campaign. If your items are great, silent auctions can be extremely lucrative and will raise you a lot of money. These can be hosted monthly, to an ongoing community of donors.
Check out our guide to silent auctions here.
8. Animal Fun Run
Experience: Peer-to-peer, event
Cost: 1/5
Effort: 3/5
Efficiency: 5/5
There’s a reason why fun runs have such an engaging name, and that’s because everyone enjoys them. This fundraiser costs virtually nothing to setup and is guaranteed to help you achieve your funding goal. Simply add a creative theme to get media attention and to attract runners.
This works well for team entries, especially if you pick a theme like ‘be your favorite animal.’ In this instance you will entice joggers, serious runners, corporate sports teams, and once-off racers if you keep the run as short as possible. Collect entry fees from your fun runners and make a day of it.
Runners will raise money for your cause through team fundraising, and you can sell food at the event for additional revenue. Get a media professional to collect as much content about the event as they can, then use it to place news articles about the race online, for additional crowdfunding.
9. Shelter Sleep In
Experience: Event, crowdfunding, donations
Cost: 2/5
Effort: 3/5
Efficiency: 4/5
Sleep-ins at an animal shelter are one of those fundraising campaign ideas that invite mass community support. Your basic sleep-in involves spending the night with a shelter animal (usually a dog or cat), and bonding with them over a fundraising period of 2 days.
This raises awareness about the animal shelter, what it’s like for the animals who stay there, and it encourages adoptions, donations, and support for the shelter. Non-profits promote the event and invite members of the community to the sleep-in and adoption drive.
Over the 2-day period other events take place, like training showcases, pack walks and organized livestreams to collect donations for food, shelter repairs and medical care. Charge to take part in the sleep-in and promote the event so that the community supports the drive with donations.
International NGOs
If you spend most of your time raising money to provide relief and aid in developing nations, then you’re an international NGO. From fighting for human rights, to being an advocate for social, environmental, and political change – these fundraising ideas will produce results for you.
10. Gala Fundraising Event
Experience: Event, raffle, sales
Cost: 4/5
Effort: 5/5
Efficiency: 5/5
As nonprofit fundraising ideas go, the traditional gala is an event that can raise an enormous amount of financial support for your NGO. Galas are glamorous social events where multiple sources of entertainment inspire guests to donate to your cause.
It’s up to you to make them something special, by inviting guest performers to delight your audience. Often the model involves a simple dinner and a show – with performances from various artists, entertainers, and musicians that follow a specific theme.
These grand gala events charge ticket entry, sell merchandise to guests, and involve raffles to excite the crowd with winnings at the end of the evening. Come up with a superb theme for best results, and recruit talent from across the entertainment spectrum to crank ticket sales into high gear.
11. Livestream Variety Show
Experience: Livestreaming, event
Cost: 3/5
Effort: 4/5
Efficiency: 5/5
A variety show is another high-end fundraiser that has the potential to garner widespread attention from a broad audience of donors. Effective fundraising for nonprofits in this instance, means tracking down some original acts to perform in your variety concert and grouping them together for flow.
Get individuals or teams from local schools, universities, and clubs to join in – and add a special show from a local playhouse or performer. These can be plays, showcases, stand-up comedy, instrumentalists, singers, bands, or trapeze artists. The keyword here is to attract variety!
Your nonprofit will raise money through ticket sales, and you can livestream the event to an online audience. The evening can be a celebration of your cause, or a competition to see which act is most popular with the crowd. This one can take some organization, so start a few months in advance.
12. A Virtual Conference
Experience: Livestreaming, event, donations
Cost: 2/5
Effort: 5/5
Efficiency: 4/5
If you’re looking for business fundraising ideas for charity, few are as effective as the virtual conference. It casts a wide net for who might attend, which increases your conference ticket sales. Plus, it’s COVID-19 safe, and gives a lot of stranded business influencers the chance to help a cause.
A virtual conference is run exclusively online. Before promoting the event, you will reach out to various leaders, influencers, and personalities. Ask them to donate their time to your NGO and build a strong list of speakers around an enticing theme. Make it uplifting, inspiring and relevant.
Then spend time promoting the conference and try to sell out of tickets before the event. If you make your conference important for businesses to attend, you’ll raise money quickly. Companies have a CSR budget, and will sponsor tickets for their employees.
Arts and Culture Charities
There is no greater investment than the arts, so when you’re called to protect, preserve and commemorate works of cultural and artistic memory – you must be an art charity. These are the best ways to raise money in your niche.
13. The Art Show
Experience: Event, auction
Cost: 2/5
Effort: 3/5
Efficiency: 4/5
An art show consists of inviting a host of local artists and creators to exhibit their work in a central location. These sorts of non-profit fundraising ideas are best in cultural hubs, seaside villages and other art-centers where large crowds will be drawn to new installations, expressions, and voices.
You can charge artists a small entry fee, and then charge ticket sales to your donor audience on the day. Shows can run in a single day, or over a weekend. Depending on your chosen model, artists can donate pieces of their art to sell at a live auction to help you raise more money.
If you plan it well, you can get everything donated – the venue, catering, and even live music if you want to be fancy. The goal is to create a unique experience for ticket holders. Give them a reason to see your show, by thinking outside-the-box when you brainstorm themes.
14. Themed Film Evening
Experience: Event, sweepstakes, sales
Cost: 2/5
Effort: 2/5
Efficiency: 4/5
One of the more creative charity fundraising ideas is the themed film evening. This kind of event is generally more accessible to the public than an art show – everyone loves the movies. The trick is to make the evening unusual by picking an interesting location, or a vibrant costume theme.
Movies like Grease, Jurassic Park, Mad Max, and Star Wars are a few that have inspired seriously fun film evenings for donors. An outdoor screening of Jurassic Park, complete with authentic dinosaur foods and merchandise, and cosplay level costumes – can create a lot of social media buzz.
Host a dress-up competition, sell themed foods at the event and collect ticket sales. This idea can be reused over and over again, especially if you land on a formula that works. The success of your evening depends on your theme, so ask your intended audience to vote for their favorite.
15. Music Festival
Experience: Event, livestreaming, sales
Cost: 3/5
Effort: 4/5
Efficiency: 5/5
Music festivals are a celebration of sound that will help support your charity. Whether you decide to organize professional musicians, famous bands, or have school kids perform, is up to you. Local concerts, battle of the bands competitions and even ‘American Idol’ styled singing contests are fun.
These nonprofit fundraising ideas boil down to one thing: sharing the love of music with your local community. Direct ticket sales and the promotion of your cause is enough to get people through the door. Once there, merchandise sales can become just as valuable as ticket sales.
Stream the show live online to add another revenue stream to your fundraiser. You can charge to watch the stream or ask for donations periodically throughout a free livestream. Both can produce strong results, especially if your bands are calling for donations throughout the event.
Education Charities
An education charity works hard to improve access to education among marginalized groups and improves everything from educational systems to policy. If you’re raising money for an education charity, these ideas will come in handy.
16. Online Classes
Experience: Livestreaming, event, sweepstakes
Cost: 2/5
Effort: 5/5
Efficiency: 5/5
If you have access to teachers, or desirable skills that people want to learn – setting up an online class is an incredible way to raise money for your cause. Classes can be livestreamed, and you can charge per person, or by the group. These events have a lot of repeat potential for your nonprofit.
Online classes are one of the most popular school charity fundraising ideas today. They’re easy to structure, setup and sell, and if people loved your class, they will be back for more. Everything from once-off classes (livestreamed then packaged for sale), to regular class slots can raise money.
Add an amazing sweepstakes contest to your class for a bonus cash boost. Your students will be challenged to enter the contest, and by the end of the class the winner will get a prize. Make sure your prize is relevant to your class, and the lessons you’re teaching.
17. Trivia and Quiz Night
Experience: Livestreaming, event, raffle
Cost: 1/5
Effort: 3/5
Efficiency: 4/5
Hosting a trivia or quiz night is perfect for the education space, and much-loved by adults and kids alike. Sometimes the best charity fundraising ideas are realized when light competition is involved. All you need is creativity, imagination, and a strong theme to get attendees excited.
This charity event can be hosted online or in-person. The venue is critical, so choose wisely! Sell tickets to the evening a few weeks in advance, and invest time developing fun and challenging questions for your theme. Rock music, Harry Potter, Movies from the 80’s – the sky’s the limit.
A nice addition to your general ticket sales is to offer a live raffle at your event. Attendees will pay to enter, and you can do a draw at the very end of the evening. It’s a nice way to finish off a lively evening of debate and good-natured competition.
18. Rent a Tutor
Experience: Event, auction, sales
Cost: 1/5
Effort: 2/5
Efficiency: 4/5
The rent-a-tutor concept is one of those non-profit fundraising ideas that always hits the mark. It’s a combination of a live event and an auction, or sale. Kids will always need tutors, and if your organization has access to skilled volunteers, they can be ‘rented’ as an educational resource.
Other models include recruiting teachers, parents or teams who then donate their time for your auction – and are rented over the period of a week (or however long you choose). The rental amount is established at the auction, and proceeds go to your non-profit.
A direct sale of a period of time is also popular and is easier to sell at auction. Host these engaging live auctions in the weeks leading up to exams, at a school fundraising evening, or online if your charity wants to tap into a much bigger donor base.
Step 2: Create an Original Idea
When choosing your charity fundraising ideas, you might decide that creating something original is better than doing something that’s been done before. Whether this means trying something entirely outside-of-the-box, or combining a few fundraisers into one unique experience, is up to you.
Here is what to keep in mind as you make your choice:
- Mission Alignment
Your charity’s mission needs to align with your choice of fundraiser. Whatever you pick, make sure that it will inspire your target donors to engage with your charity and care about your cause. This can be done by infusing your story into the fundraising narrative.
Consider where your donors come from – a corporate team, the general public, or other non-profits. At all times you want to create synergy between your mission and your event. An example of this is a charity cook-off to raise money for the homeless. Not only are the meals part of the competition, but they can also be donated to the shelter once the judging is done. Synergy!
- Resource Sustainability
Most non-profits will have an allotted budget for fundraising, and you’ll have to stick within these parameters. Consider upfront costs, labor, raw materials, and the promotion involved. If you really want your charity fundraiser to be a hit, take advantage of every potential revenue stream available.
The best way to do this these days, is by combining various types of fundraiser into a unique event. These extraordinary fundraising experiences pull in donations from multiple sources. You’ll notice that the majority of our nonprofit fundraising ideas use this approach – because it works so well!
You can find out more about this here.
- Goal Matching
Your goals – specifically your fundraising goals – are key in your decision-making process. If you need to raise tens of thousands of dollars, a local bake sale isn’t going to give you the reach or opportunity to do that. Event ideas for charity fundraising should match the extent of your goals.
Always begin with a worst-case scenario and try to exceed it. If you list 300 items for sale at your auction, and only sell 20% of your inventory – will you have raised the money you need? Be conservative, and make sure that your marketing push is equal to your financial goals.
Step 3: Develop Your Idea
Every big idea needs a personal approach to work. This can be achieved by adding a theme to your fundraiser or by making it a day of fundraising events. Once you have multiple ways for people to donate to your fundraiser, and you’re expecting a crowd – you can look at sponsorships.
This is when you will problem-solve your way to ‘fully funded.’ If your marketing isn’t doing so well, get a digital marketing company to donate their time to your campaign. An idea is like a seed that needs to be watered. For the idea to bear fruit, get as many people involved as possible.
Step 4: Build an Integrated Fundraising Campaign
The best fundraising ideas for charity will allow you to build an integrated fundraising campaign, with a time limit, and a fairly predictable outcome. The keystone in this process, is technology. The right platform partner will make integrated campaigns easy to run, without serious upfront costs.
You don’t have to launch several fundraisers separately anymore. RallyUp gives you everything you need to launch and run multiple fundraisers from a convenient dashboard area. You can even run multiple experiences in different locations. There is no limit on how big or small you choose to go.
Your next event could be the most amazing experience for your donors.
Whether it focuses on a single fundraiser or combines multiple experiences that realize your original ideas – anything is possible with enough planning. Remember to align your ideas with your mission, resources, and goals.
