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Now that you know who or what you’re going to raise money for, you need to decide how to fundraise money for charity.
This may have been your first thought and actually sparked your ideas to raise money for a charity or this could be something you’re yet to consider. Take a look at our top tips for brainstorming ideas for fundraisers, as well as our top 4 tried & tested methods and ideas for unique fundraisers.
Whether you’re planning a full event, a few simple charity fundraising activities or even just a single stall, it’s always best to begin brainstorming good ways to raise money for charity with a team of fellow fundraisers.
Start by noting down all your charity fundraising ideas on potential stalls and activities regardless of the limits. Once all your ideas are on the table, you can then start eliminating suggestions by budget, timescale and how realistically you’d be able to pull off the event. This may even spark new ideas of how you could modify ideas to accommodate your budget and other limitations.
Don’t go through the planning stage alone. Not only can it be stressful and time-consuming, but it’s also not as fun to plan the event solo. Try to get a team (or at least a friend) to help you plan and brainstorm charity fundraising ideas. After all, two heads are better than one!
Even if you already know how you’re going to raise the money, brainstorming is still an important part of the process. Do you need to find a location, pick a theme or find prizes?
Brainstorm ideas for each element of your to-do list. This will make sure you’ve thought of every solution and chosen the best way forward.
Spending time planning and organising your fundraiser will help your event to run smoothly. And it’ll allow you to have fun on the day of the event. Investing more time now will inevitably save you time in the future.
Finding inspiration for fundraising events is pretty easy online. But finding charity fundraising ideas that’ll guarantee success is a little more difficult.
That’s why we’ve put together what we consider to be the best, easiest and cheapest tried and tested charity fundraising ideas. We’ve also included a few unique and creative ways to raise money to spark your imagination – and for those who fancy something extravagant!
It doesn’t get much easier than getting your colleagues, friends, pupils or community to dress up for charity.
Choose a theme or an idea to base the fancy dress around and get people to donate money to dress up at work, to school or to a particular event.
This could be seasonal fancy dress such as Halloween or beach party style. Or it could be formal with a black tie event or something funny like a bad hair day as hosted by GOSH.
It’s both easy to organise and easy for the supporters to participate in. So a dress-up fundraising event is a winner all round.
Who doesn’t love an old-fashioned cake sale? People don’t mind paying for a little treat in return. So whether you’re a dab hand in the kitchen or you purchase some cakes and sell them on, you’re guaranteed to raise a lot of money for your cause.
A cake sale doesn’t always have to mean cake (although they’re usually the best). It could also be a savoury bake sale, a healthy food sale or even a lunchtime buffet.
Great food will also persuade people to part with their cash. So depending on your budget, location and abilities, you can sell any type of cooked or baked goods with a profit for your charity or cause.
We may be biased, but we believe hosting a raffle is still the best way to raise money. With a small outlay, you can get a huge return for your charity.
The key things to organise are sourcing prizes, getting tickets and selling them in advance of the draw. With our successful raffle guide and other top tips, we can guide you through planning a raffle to ensure you maximise donations.
Marathon, walk-athon, dance-athon, bike-athon, you name it, you can make it into an endurance fundraising activity.
‘A-thons’ require sponsorships, which is how the participants make their donations. So it can be pretty simple to gather participants and their sponsors to help raise money for your charity.
You may not be a college student any more. But that doesn’t mean you can’t throw a classic house party.
Be inspired by MacMillan’s charity coffee mornings. But instead add some cocktails, dance tunes and a bit of karaoke.
You can charge per entry, ask for donations or even set up a bar and pay per drink. People love to have an excuse for a party. And raising money for your charity or cause is the perfect one.
Everyone loves a challenge, especially when it involves food.
We’ve taken inspiration from Norfolk butcher Ali Dent, who organises the annual Four Pound Burger Challenge to help raise money for the mental health charity MENCAP. His challenge has increased in popularity since 2012, and it’s the perfect event on its own or as a stall in your existing fundraiser event.
Eating challenges could include:
We’re not talking about your traditional Crufts show when we suggest a dog show fundraiser. It’s more of a quirky ‘everyone welcome’ event.
Not only do dogs win over the hearts of the public, but their owners love to show their little pooches off. So create some unique categories such as the waggiest tail, the best dog/owner lookalike or the best costume, and get as many people as you can to join in.
Ultimately, animals are a one-way ticket to success with the public. So you could even host a cat show. Anything is possible!
If you’re catering to a younger crowd (or a niche audience of any age) a video gaming tournament is a great way to raise money. You could also offer a competitive video gaming booth as part of a bigger charity fundraising event.
There are plenty of fun, casual local-multiplayer games to choose from depending on what systems you have available. Super Smash Bros is a great choice for all ages if you have a Nintendo console. Fighting games like Street Fighter are popular classics among teens and adults. And every console has a wide selection of quiz games or party compilations that anyone can enjoy.
When choosing your games, be sure to pick ones in which each round only lasts a couple of minutes. That way, you can get as many players as possible and keep both energy and attention high.
Everybody who has a talent loves to show it off. So when you host a charity fundraising talent show, it’s easy to attract participants who’ll perform for free.
There are hundreds of possible talents that are suitable for a charity talent show. You might want to look for volunteers who can support you with:
The best thing about this idea is that every time you host a talent show you can recruit new talent. So every performance will be original. Supporters always get something fresh, performers get to strut their stuff and your audience will be amazed time and time again.
Once you’ve found the best ways to fundraise money for your charity, it’s time to start planning. In the next part, we take a look at planning your raffle, with top tips for setting a budget, sourcing prizes and purchasing your raffle tickets. Alternatively, if you’re still unsure who or what to raise money for, part 1 of this series can be found here.
