The Best Ways to Raise Money for Charity
Raising money for charity can be overwhelming when first starting out.
With so many options and routes available, it can be tough to decide the best way to do this.
GoFundMe is an accessible, easy and stress-free way of raising cash for charities important to you. Through crowdfunding you can raise money, encourage donations and draw attention to your cause on an online platform that has the potential to reach countless people.
At GoFundMe, we’ve helped people raise more than £5 billion on our crowdfunding platform powered by donors™. GoFundMe makes it simple for anyone to create an easy-to-share fundraising page and accept donations. We also offer a wide range of free tips and ideas to help you make the most of your fundraiser.
Seven strategies for charity fundraising success
1. Talk to the charity you’re raising funds for
While you can raise money for charities without ever contacting them directly, there can be advantages to getting in touch with them. If you let the charity know about your fundraiser, you can ask if they have any upcoming events or promotions that you could be part of. For example, if they’re hosting a 5k run, you could use that as a fundraising event with your supporters.
Even if the charity doesn’t have anything going on in your area, they may be able to offer advice or freebies (such as keyrings, stickers or pens with their logo on) that you can give out to supporters when they make a donation. Also ask about any successful fundraiser events they’ve done in the past and steal any good ideas that they share with you.
2. Run your own fundraising event
If the charity you’re raising funds for doesn’t have any upcoming events in your area or if you represent a charity, consider organising your own event. A charity fundraising event is a big undertaking, so don’t go it alone – get everyone who’s passionate about your cause to volunteer their time and then delegate tasks to the group.
A fundraising event does involve some up-front costs, but you can cut down on expenses by asking local businesses to donate food and any other necessary resources. You could also ask a restaurant or a cafe to host the event – they’ll be happy to help you if it’s good for their business too. Many businesses, such as local restaurants and pubs, frequently host charity events and already have a variety of options available for charities. In other words, you may not have to reinvent the wheel!
Before the event (and during, if necessary), ask guests to donate to your crowdfunding fundraiser in the form of an entry ticket or to pay for specific items or activities at the event. When you ask people to donate this way, rather than with cash, it helps you keep donors in the loop with updates as your fundraiser goes on.
3. Launch a social media competition
On average, every time you share your fundraiser with friends on Facebook, you’ll net £35 for your cause. If you want to do more than sharing to raise funds for charity, you could think about running a social media contest.
Social media competitions can include photo and video entries that meet your specifications, the best original hashtag for your cause or fundraiser, slogan-writing contests or “tell us your story” fundraisers (ask people to share stories about the positive impact of the charity on their lives; select the best stories as winners). Prizes are optional – working together as a community is its own reward.
On average, every time you share your fundraiser with friends on Facebook, you’ll net £35 for your cause. If you want to do more than sharing to raise funds for charity, you could think about running a social media contest.
Social media competitions can include photo and video entries that meet your specifications, the best original hashtag for your cause or fundraiser, slogan-writing contests or “tell us your story” fundraisers (ask people to share stories about the positive impact of the charity on their lives; select the best stories as winners). Prizes are optional – working together as a community is its own reward.
When sharing on social media, it’s also a great chance to get some more exposure to your campaign. You can do this by tagging the charity you’re raising funds for, for example.
By doing this, you increase the chances of your fundraiser being seen by a wider audience as the charity, who will have a large following, could reshare your post. It could also lead to celebrity attention, or celebrity endorsement if they work with the existing charity already. We’ve also created a list of handy fundraising tips for social media that can help you out further.
4. Ask people to volunteer their time and skills
When you’re raising funds for charity, you’ll often hear supporters ask how they can help beyond making donations. Don’t be shy about asking willing volunteers to donate their time and skills to help boost your fundraising efforts.
What are your volunteers experts in? If a volunteer is great at baking, ask them to bake cakes that you can sell, perhaps at a lunch or dinner event that you host for the charity. Depending on how big your event is, you may need to provide the basic ingredients or rent a commercial kitchen for half a day. Or perhaps a volunteer who’s an artist could donate art that you could sell at a gallery event. If you’re raising money for a sports team, can the coach and players host an afternoon sports camp as a fundraiser? There are many ways to convert your volunteers’ expertise into funds.
5. Make it easy for others to share details of your fundraiser
You’ve got friends and family who want to help you raise funds for your cause and each of them has an address book. Write a template for them to share with their contacts (for email sharing, include a subject line in the template that includes the name of your fundraiser). Ideally, you could also include an image or custom graphic. This is a great way to provide your team with the tools they need to contact their friends and family more effectively.
Another approach: Write the perfect public Facebook post about your fundraiser, tag your team in the post and ask them (via text, email or Facebook Messenger, for example) to share the post on their own timelines. If the original post was made on your Facebook charity page, pay to boost its visibility. Combining this approach with a compelling video is a great way to get people to stop scrolling and pay attention to your message – and it can be replicated on Instagram.
6. Get your community together – online and off
Some of the most successful charity fundraisers use a mix of in-person fundraising events and online crowdfunding which can reach sympathetic people around the globe.
Fundraising events can be lots of fun and they’re a great opportunity to build relationships with new people. The more your volunteers and supporters enjoy what they’re doing, the more likely they are to do more of it – and to share your online fundraiser, creating a virtuous circle between your fundraising events and your online fundraiser.
7. Speak to local businesses
If you’re rallying to raise money for charity, have a chat with local businesses to see if they’d be happy to get involved. You could ask them to put up posters for your cause up with QR codes. If it’s a business with a shop front, this could encourage members of your community to donate and maximise how many people see what you’re doing and who you’re fundraising for. And if you ask local businesses that aren’t subject to public footfall to put it up in their reception or staff room, local employees will have an easy way to donate.
Also, many local businesses donate to good causes – you could ask whether they would help you to host fundraising drives for employees. And they may also have a recognisable presence on social media, which could help to spread your campaign even further.
8. Update and build
Once you’ve built your GoFundMe page and started to raise money, you’re gathering a community together who will be invested in what you are doing. To keep donations rolling in and to keep people talking about your good cause, it’s important to keep this community engaged.
You can do this in a number of ways. Firstly, it’s important to keep your GoFundMe page fresh with regular updates about how the fundraising is going. It’s good to keep these updates varied – if you’re training for a sporting event, let people know how that’s going and include pictures. If there has been a fundraiser in real life, thank attendees for giving their time and support. Keep people updated if you reach your goal (or if you’ve met your goal and want to increase it!). When you’ve updated, also share these updates on social media, in your family or friend group chats, if any schools or businesses are involved. Keep people invested in how you’re getting on!
Other charity fundraising ideas
With this list of the best ways to raise money for charity, you’re well on the way towards raising every penny you need. Read about more fundraising ideas at GoFundMe and run your entire charity fundraiser for free on our platform.
For example, our school fundraising ideas will provide some inspiration for how you can raise money for charity with your pupils or classmates.
If you’re fundraising in the office with colleagues, we also have pointers about how to do this as efficiently as you can.
We also have advice if you need to fundraise quickly, or if you want to launch a fundraiser with a shorter time period imagined. If you’re stumped or are struggling to come up with an easy fundraising idea, we’re also here for you.