How to Fundraise for Clean Up Australia Day 2026
Clean Up Australia Day is the country’s largest community-based environmental event, bringing Aussies together to improve and conserve the environment, eliminate litter and end waste.
As a nation of environmentally-minded citizens, this annual event is the perfect opportunity for people to raise awareness and take action. This includes individuals, schools, businesses and community groups across Australia’s states and territories.If you’d like to contribute to this worthwhile cause, organising or participating in a Clean Up Australia Day 2026 fundraiser is a great place to start. This guide provides helpful tips about how to get involved and shares fundraising strategies for the big day.
What Is Clean Up Australia Day?
Clean Up Australia Day brings communities from across the country together to help reduce litter and protect the nation’s incredible natural surroundings.
This year’s annual event, which takes part on Sunday 1st March 2026, marks 36 years of improving and conserving the country’s environment. So far, over 22 million Aussies have got involved over the years.
It all started when environmental campaigner Ian Kiernan decided to take action after being shocked by the pollution and rubbish he encountered in the world’s oceans. He then organised a community event with the support of a committee of friends, which gradually grew as awareness spread and more people wanted to participate. As a result, Clean Up Australia Day was born in 1990.
Since then, Clean Up Australia has evolved to provide practical solutions for Australians who wish to live more sustainably. It’s now one of the country’s most recognised and trusted environmental charities.
Clean Up Australia Day continues to have a massive impact on local Australian communities and the country’s ecosystems, with the eventual aim of moving towards a circular economy – where everything is a resource and there is no waste.
To do so, the charity relies on the cooperation and involvement of local schools, businesses, volunteers and the wider community.
How to Get Involved
If you’d like to get involved and donate your time to improving the environment, you can register as a participant for Clean Up Australia Day 2026 in just a few clicks. It’s completely free for communities (individuals, local community groups) and schools, but businesses have to pay a small fee.
By registering, you’ll be covered by the charity’s public liability insurance and receive a free Clean Up kit with all the materials to host a successful event. Plus, additional benefits of registering in advance include aiding organisers, increasing official participation numbers and gaining access to event resources and logistical support.
Here’s step-by-step instructions for registering as an official volunteer at a cleaning-up event:
- First, go to the Clean Up Australia Day website and register as a community, business or school.
- You’ll then be asked to add your personal account information and event details. For businesses, a registration fee of $220 plus GST is payable at the time of registration.
- Next, you need to choose whether you want to register a Clean Up event or join a Clean Up event.
- If you’re registering and organising a Clean Up event, you’ll be sent a Clean Up kit to help make your event a success. This contains bags, gloves and everything you need to create a safe and enjoyable event. You can also check out the charity’s online resources.
- Get your friends, family, neighbours and local community group together to join in the fun!
Finally, why not consider starting a fundraiser to maximise the impact your Clean Up event has? This is an excellent way of receiving donations and spreading awareness.
Fundraising Strategies for Clean Up Australia Day
Now you’ve registered for Clean Up Australia Day 2026, it’s time to boost the impact of your event with a fundraiser. By implementing the fundraising strategies here, you can ensure your crowdfunding efforts are as successful as possible.
For more information, check out our fundraising tips.
Embrace Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is an effective and affordable way of raising funds for Clean Up Australia Day and just about any other charitable cause. The benefits of crowdfunding are enormous, helping you to raise awareness, reach a wide audience, engage local communities and boost donations.
With the right online platform, crowdfunding is simple. As Australia’s leading crowdfunding platform, thousands of Australians trust GoFundMe to raise money for worthwhile causes by engaging with donors from across the world. GoFundMe makes the donation process quick, safe and efficient.
Therefore, by choosing GoFundMe, your Clean Up Australia Day event can make a huge difference, ensuring the funds you raise go straight to the environmental causes that matter.
Launch a Compelling Campaign
Crafting a powerful campaign is vital when raising money for Clean Up Australia Day. If you don’t plan properly and fail to capture the attention of donors, you’ll struggle to make the impact you desire. Here are some top tips for creating a meaningful campaign:
- Set a realistic fundraising goal: A fundraising goal needs to be challenging but achievable. Your goal should be based on factors such as the predicted size of the event, expenses, location and any other logistics.
- Write an effective campaign story: Your Clean Up event campaign story must resonate with donors and supporters, which is why it’s important to give it a personal touch. Tell your story using honest and heartfelt words, giving as much detail as possible.
- Use photos and videos: Include visual content to make it more engaging. For example, you could use images and videos of past Clean Up events or evidence of other environmental work you’ve done.
- Launch it early: Sharing your fundraiser early and often helps you to build momentum and trust with donors immediately. The more you share your Clean Up campaign, the more likely you’ll reach your fundraising goal.
Engage Your Local Community
To give your fundraiser the best chance of success, you should reach out to your networks and communities as soon as possible. Encourage family, friends and the wider community to support your fundraiser, or any other group that may find an environmentally-driven cause appealing.
Community is important to Australians, so make sure you leverage this common value to get people into the spirit of Clean Up Australia Day. By bringing the community together for your event, you can contribute to establishing a sense of ownership and shared responsibility concerning the climate.
You could even organise other local fundraising events to help support your Clean Up Australia Day fundraiser, helping to spread awareness of your campaign. Here are some additional fundraising ideas to get started.
Spread the Word on Social Media
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool in our modern, online world. It can have a profound impact on your fundraiser, helping you to raise awareness and reach a much wider audience. By combining the benefits of social media with a compelling fundraiser story, your Clean Up event could go viral!
Here are some top tips for creating social media posts:
- Include photos and videos to make posts more visually appealing and engaging.
- Work on your storytelling to craft imaginative posts that draw users in.
- Use hashtags to increase your posts’ visibility, such as #CleanUpAustraliaDay and a custom hashtag for your specific event.
- Use calls to action in your social media posts, such as ‘please donate’ and ‘share this post’.
- Keep people in the loop with regular updates about your event and campaign.
Explore more social media fundraising tips here.
Consider the Practicalities
When planning your Clean Up Australia Day 2026 event, it’s important not to overlook some of the finer details. For example, you’ll likely need to consider safety and legal compliance. Here are some helpful tools provided by Clean Up Australia:
It’s worth noting that while Clean Up Australia sites are covered by the charity’s public liability insurance, Personal Accident or Injury Cover for participants is not.
You’ll also need to take donor privacy seriously, protecting it where necessary. Fortunately, by choosing to fundraise with GoFundMe, our strict policies and giving guarantee help to keep donors safe and secure.
Finally, remember to always maintain full transparency with donors as to how their information and donations will be used.
For more details about logistical and safety considerations for your Clean Up Australia Day event, take a look at their official FAQ page.
Protect the Earth On Clean Up Australia Day and Beyond with GoFundMe
If you’re passionate about the Australian great outdoors and the natural environment, then Clean Up Australia Day is an excellent cause to support. By organising an event to eliminate rubbish and waste in Australia, you’ll be doing your bit to make the world a cleaner, more sustainable place.
To maximise the impact of your event, fundraising can make a real difference – boosting donations and spreading awareness. As an Australian, the best online fundraising platform available to you for Clean Up Australia Day 2026 is GoFundMe.
Join the millions of people around the world fundraising for a cause they care about on GoFundMe today.