The Best Fundraising Ideas to Reach Your Financial Goal

| 10 min read Uncategorized

If you’re looking to energise your fundraising efforts, these easy fundraising ideas will help you refresh your existing plans while making a lasting impact. Use this guide to inspire your fundraising with strategies that capture donors’ attention, encourage donations, and amplify your reach within the community.

Fundraising ideas that spark creativity

You don’t just have to do a sponsored silence or run a marathon to raise money. 

Get your creative juices flowing and fundraise in a fun, creative way. 

You can make this inclusive and invite lots of people, or you can take part in smaller ways. 

1. Host an art fair

An art fair is one of the more unique fundraising ideas. If you’re an artist or have friends or students that are artists or craftspeople (perhaps photographers, painters, or jewellery makers), ask them to donate pieces to an art sale supporting your cause. Here’s how:

  • Find a space to host the event—ideally a gallery, café, or school space. Serve drinks and appetisers.
  • Allow people time to walk around, chat, learn about your cause, and enjoy the art.
  • Provide information about your cause by setting up a donation station with a mobile device displaying your fundraiser page.
  • Show people how much their purchases and donations can help.

2. Run an art workshop

An art workshop is one of our favourite quick fundraising ideas. You can host an art workshop if you have artistically talented friends and family. There’s likely to be a great deal of overlap between people who support your cause and those who want to learn a related craft.

  • Ask yourself: what fun art workshops can you and your fundraising team teach? Can you book an accomplished teacher to donate their time?
  • Think about figure drawing, portrait or still life photography, landscape painting, cake decorating or other food art.
  • Host half-day or full-day workshops to ask for donations at your event.

3. Organise a talent show

If you’re looking for easy fundraising ideas, you just need to allow your community to show what makes them special. Host a talent show and invite supporters and members of your local community to perform. Some easy steps to do this are:

  • Name the talent show after your fundraiser and share the fundraiser with guests.
  • Choose a venue like a gymnasium, local theatre, or other public space.
  • Publicise your talent show in your community and share your crowdfunding page.
  • Ask a well-known member of the community to act as your emcee and have them share it on Instagram or TikTok.
  • Ask businesses for sponsorships and matching donations.
  • Share pictures and videos from the show on your fundraiser page and social media to inspire those that didn’t attend to donate.

4. Sell crafts online

Selling homemade items online, like custom clothing, jewellery, or other artwork, can help you raise money.

  • Choose crafts you can produce in quantity, don’t require too many resources, and customise easily with buyers’ names or other information.
  • List your handcrafted items on an e-commerce site like Etsy or eBay.
  • Note in the item description that profits from the sales go to fundraising for a cause and link to your fundraiser so people can donate as an alternate way to support you.
  • Make and deliver the items to order. If your first set of items succeeds, consider adding more inventory.

5. Sell handmade wreaths

The perfect gift for the holidays! The best fundraisers plug into existing trends and excitement. You can either sell your wreaths for a set amount or ask people for a donation of their choosing.

  • Make them yourself, or find a wholesale supplier willing to donate fresh wreaths or raw materials to your cause.
  • If you assemble the wreaths yourself, add flourishes like dried berries, succulents, flowers, chilli peppers, herbs, or ribbons.
  • If one wreath is selling out, recreate it to meet the demand.
  • Create a delivery process and schedule your deliveries.

6. Knit a quilt with your community

Making a quilt with your fundraising team and other volunteers is a great way to use a traditional craft to raise funds. Here are some tips:

  • Ask people, organisations, and businesses to sponsor squares on your quilt with a donation to your fundraiser.
  • You can include a message or image of their choice for them to read on the square of each sponsor. Share your progress on Instagram!
  • Once the quilt is finished, you can sell it for a reasonable price and put that towards your fundraiser goal.

Fundraising essentials

Set up your fundraiser

Add your fundraising goal, photos, videos and a detailed fundraiser story.

Increase awareness and build your community

Share your fundraiser via our integrated links to your Facebook, Twitter and email accounts.

Keep it current with fundraiser updates

Write several updates, add new photos and send thank you notes to your donors.

Seasonal fundraising ideas

Although you can fundraise all year round, using the seasonal calendar can be a good way to get fundraising events organised. 

Christmas, Halloween and the changing of the seasons can be an inspiring time for donors. Here’s some of our ideas below.

1. Winter gift wrapping station

During the winter holiday season, you can raise funds by setting up a gift-wrapping station. Many people prefer to pay someone else who is better at wrapping gifts. You can collaborate with a local business to set up your station nearby or inside. Make it clear that all funds will support your cause through a sign or poster. People will happily contribute to a good cause while finishing their holiday shopping. It’s a quick fundraising idea during the giving season.

2. Easter Egg treasure hunt

An Easter egg hunt is a really fun way to fundraise with all the family. 

You can organise a fundraising day for children and adults alike and create an accessible treasure hunt that doesn’t have to break the bank. 

You can raise money by asking people to donate ahead of time, or sell tickets to attend. 

3. Summer BBQ and jumble sale

Why not combine your favourite summer activities with an outdoor fundraising event? A summer BBQ is a great idea as it promotes sharing, community bonding, and opportunities to discuss your cause with others. You could sell tickets to the event in advance, informing community members that all proceeds will go towards your cause. Or you could organise a yard sale, invite the community to buy and sell and share that all sales will go to your fundraiser.

4. Autumn book sale

When autumn arrives, many students go back to their studies and tackle their required reading. Why not reach out to your community and neighbours and ask if they have any books they no longer need or want? Once you have enough books, you can organise a book sale in your garage or even team up with a local school to use their gymnasium. Let everyone know that the proceeds from the sale will go towards supporting your cause.

First time crowdfunding?

It can be hard to know where to begin if you’ve not crowdfunded before. 

Fortunately, there’s plenty of examples to look at to understand how to create an effective fundraiser. 

If you’re unfamiliar with crowdfunding pages, or want some inspiration before you start, you can look at these examples below. 

What is crowdfunding?

Top crowdfunding sites

How it works

Fundraising ideas by cause

You may be motivated to fundraise because of a cause that is important to you. 

This could be something personal or something that affects somebody you know. 

Medical

Raise funds to cover out-of-pocket costs for medical expenses like surgeries, medications, and even lost wages due to time off from work. Here are fundraising ideas for family or friends facing illness or medical debt.

Funeral and Memorial

Reduce the financial burden of a loved one’s funeral by fundraising online for a memorial service or raise money to honour their legacy with a scholarship fund.

Pets and Animals

Raise funds for your pet’s veterinary care, treatments, or surgery. Animal lovers can also employ their fundraising ideas for animal shelters or support the preservation of endangered species.

Emergencies and disasters

Help rebuild communities that have been hit with a sudden emergency or disaster. Quickly set up a fundraiser in the wake of a hurricane, fire, flood, or earthquake to support your family, friends, or community.

Kids and Family

Fundraising online for children of all ages. Help pay for sports camps, school projects, science fairs, and more. Or, host a virtual fundraising event for a family looking to add to their family through adoption.

Education and schools

If you’re looking for the best fundraising ideas to change someone’s life: raise funds for school supplies, field trips, school improvement projects, programs, or facilities upgrades. Connect your student group with a special charitable organisation or raise funds for a classroom.

Nonprofits and charities

Create a charity fundraiser to support the causes and nonprofits you’re passionate about. Raise funds to help the sick or disadvantaged or provide scholarships and training to those in need. Invite your community to donate and help create positive change locally and globally with these easy fundraising ideas.

Churches and faith

Raise funds for building enhancements, education, training, mission trips, and other church programs and community activities. Leave a donation jar with a sign out near the coffee station or ask if you can organise a sale on the grounds of your church.

Neighbours and community

Provide financial assistance to friends and neighbours struggling in the aftermath of a natural disaster or other hardship. Help fund projects that benefit your community and neighbours.

Sports

Support amateur athletes by raising funds for equipment, facilities, league expenses, prizes, team activities, tournaments, travel, and more. Put together a sports tournament and let people play a game for a good cause. You can sell tickets and food to spectators and funds can be put toward your fundraiser with a cause in mind.

More fundraising ideas

There’s no shortage of unique fundraising ideas to help you raise meaningful donations. A well-executed idea can be the key to fundraising success. Create your fundraiser and share the link so that supporters know exactly where to get involved.

Written by olivia