Full Proof Fundraising Ideas That Work!

Finding the Best One for Your Non-Profit

On the surface, finding fundraising ideas is easy. Get together a group of co-workers or co-volunteers into a brainstorming session, and you will likely get a list of ideas ranging from jumble sales to door-to-door selling to a direct mail campaign.

Type in fundraising ideas into any Internet search engine and you are likely to get thousands of hits, ranging from bake sale ideas to companies offering fundraising opportunities.

It is not simply a matter of picking an idea, any idea.

To be successful at fundraising, you carefully need to consider which ideas work well for your group. Choosing the wrong ideas is disastrous: you will waste time, money, and effort to get little or no financial return and the failure to raise funds may well ruin the morale and motivation of your group. More ways that non-profits can raise money

Getting out of the financial hole left by a bad fundraising campaign can also be quite difficult, especially for small non-profits.

There are a few things that separate a good fundraising idea from a bad one:

Cost of getting going should be what you can afford to spend
Good use of resources and talents
You have enough people power - or can get enough for it
It is a theme-appropriate idea for your group
It is appropriate for the size of your group
It does not require expensive resources you do not have
It is likely to appeal to donors
It gives added value to your donors - your donors will feel that they are getting something from the experience
It will bring in the required money.

You will need to consider these requirements against every idea you consider making sure that you are choosing a fundraising idea with some legs. Find great ways that non-profits raise money for fundraising

However, to save time, you may want to find fundraising ideas by starting with this list rather than starting with brainstorming.

On a piece of paper, note the following:

The purpose of your organization
How much money you are willing to invest into fundraising
What resources you have that can help - even small resources such as someone's car can be a big help when fundraising for your group
How much money you need - and when you need it by. Be sure to note whether you need money only for a specific project or whether you need to raise money on a consistent basis.
How much time you are willing to expend on fundraising
Who do you expect money from?
What sort of time frame do you have for the fundraising? Is there a specific thing you need money for? Do you need a specific amount by a specific time?
What is the money for?

Based on this simple inventory, you can start weeding out potentially bad ideas and can start focusing on the possibilities right away. This will get you actually fundraising sooner, and with less hassle. Beware anything can go wrong when fundraising

With your fundraising goals in mind (and these goals are what you are determining by answering the above questions), you can easily tell which ideas can contribute to your goals and which are unlikely to be a help.

It may be useful to consider the many ways that non-profits raise money for their programs and groups:

Lotteries and raffles: Ticket sales for games of chance are quite high and many non-profits are finding that people are willing to pay large amounts of money for the chance to win a fabulous prize. Many larger non-profits routinely raise money in the millions of dollars by having companies donate prizes such as cars and homes and then having donors pay one hundred dollars or more per ticket. What does a fundraising plan do?

Donors like the fact that these raffles and prizes often have good odds and great prizes. However, many areas have laws about lotteries and gambling, so before pursuing this idea be sure to check the laws in your area.

Sales. Selling products is easy and inexpensive to set up. You can easily organize sales by asking people to donate things and then selling these at a profit. You will need a space to store donated items, volunteers to sort and sell items, and a place to sell the items.

Sales are a good way to generate fundraising money for a short-term project, although some groups have success in hosting regular sales that contribute plenty of money continuously. If you are able to find a location that will allow you to make sales regularly, you can often host sales each week. One advantage of sales is that there are many types that your group can organize:

Gardening Sales: If your group has a green thumb or a green theme, you can sell seedlings, seeds, bulbs, or other items for peoples gardens at an outside sale. In many cases, volunteers can raise plants on their own or get plants donated from gardening centers or other peoples gardens. This is a popular sale theme in spring and early summer, when many people are starting to work on their gardens and are looking for plants.
Craft sales: If members of your group like creating crafts - knitting, sewing, wood crafting, then creating a craft sale to sell small created items is often a good way to raise money. Craft sales tend to do especially well in tourist areas during the summer and in all locations before the holidays (when people are looking for items to buy others). Many small craft items can be made quite quickly, and it is often best to try to make lots of smaller items for such a sale along with a few larger items (such as quilts).
Children's Sales: Selling items specifically for children - such as toys. Children's clothes, and children's books - can be a good way to draw people and donors for a children or family-related non-profit. These sales are often quite popular because many people like to buy things for their children without spending a lot of money. In many cases, items can be donated by stores or donated by volunteers. Volunteers will need to check carefully to make sure that all items are in good condition, however.
Bake Sales: Bake sales are quick to organize and inexpensive to set up. All a group needs to run this type of sale is some people willing to bake some items and a small area to sell the items. It is important to choose a good place for a bake sale. This is the sort of sale your group will want to organize at some event (such as a picnic) since few people are willing to travel out of their way to buy baked goods.

A bake sale can bring in extra fundraising cash, though, if you set up your sale someplace where people already are. If you are organizing a bake sale, you will want to set up sign-up sheets so that your sale has several varieties of baked goods. In general, volunteers should be encouraged to make baked items that are finger food. Baked items that are very gooey or require a fork to eat are often too fussy for many bake sales.

Book Sales: If you live in a town that has a college or several used bookstores, you generally have the buyer base to hold a book sale. Book sales can bring in plenty of fundraising money, because many book fans are enthusiastic about reading and will gladly buy books in larger quantities.

Plus, many people are attracted to book sales because the book prices are so much lower than the prices at book stores. You will need to find book donations by appealing to the public and will want to set prices fairly low in order to attract lots of buyers.

Jumble Sales: Jumble sales are very popular, as there are plenty people who frequent yard sales in the summer - and jumble sales are just larger versions of the usual garage or yard sale. Jumble sales often take place during the summer, and are easy and inexpensive to organize.

You will need to collect donations of used goods, organize them, price them, store them, and then sell them at a large sale. To do this well, you will need a storage and selling space and plenty of volunteers.

Flea Markets: There are many people who like hunting for lost treasures at flea markets, and these people can make a flea market fundraising idea very attractive. Flea markets usually charge an admission fee but have a similar range of items as jumble sales. At flea markets, however, it is possible to find higher-end items such as antiques as well as the usually assortment of used goods. Different ways that non-governmental organisation raise money

Flea markets often have several sellers and sometimes offer larger items and collectibles as well. Organizing a flea market is similar to organizing a jumble sale. However, many flea markets are successful year round. In fact, many non-profits benefit by hosting regular flea markets on a weekly or monthly basis.

Home or art sales: Sales that offer art works or items for the home (such as decor or furniture) often do well because people are always looking for these items. If your non-profit can create art or find used furniture and used art pieces to sell, this sort of sale can be quite profitable.
Auctions: Auctions can take place alone or as part of a larger sale or fundraising campaign. If you can get someone to donate more valuable pieces (artworks or antiques) to your non-profit you can organize an auction yourself or have a local auction house sell the piece in exchange for part of the profit. Silent auctions (in which bidders write their bids on a paper instead of aloud) can be a great way to make more money on larger items at a fundraising sale or marathon.
Marathons: Marathons involve getting people to volunteer to participate in an event. These volunteers then recruit other volunteers to sponsor them for money. For example, the most popular types of marathons usually involve walking or running.

Participants have friends and family sponsor them for a flat fee or for a specific sum for every mile jogged or walked. Once the marathon is done, the volunteers go to their sponsors and collect the money, which is then handed over to the non-profit. In order to organize a marathon, you will have to find a place for the marathon, ensure that advertising gets enough participants, and arrange ways to feed or refresh the participating volunteers.

The nice thing about marathons is that volunteers will often work themselves to find sources of money, which increases the amount of fundraising money that the non-profit can get through this method. Since marathons are also quite visible, many companies are often willing to help with expenses and supplies in exchange for some advertising at the event. Many non-profits successfully hold a once- a-year marathon in order to help with fundraising.

In many cases, you can get more volunteers to take part by offering prizes to participants who raise the most money. Besides that usual marathons that call for participants to jog or walk, there are other types of marathons:

Dance-a-thons: In these events, participants have to dance to provided dance music for a specific amount of time. This type of event is good if you have a younger target donor list.
Sew-a-thons: In these events, participants sew (or quilt or craft) for a pres-set period of time or until a specific amount of things have been created. As an added bonus, the things created this way can then be sold at a fair or sale. However, if you decide on this sort of marathon, you will need to make sure that you can find enough volunteers willing to sew or craft for an extended period of time!
Exercise-a-thons: These were popular a number of years ago, but it is still possible to find this sort of marathon hosted by non-profits. Participants are encouraged to exercise for a specific period of time or are encouraged to take part in once type of activity (skiing, swimming, horseback riding, biking, boating, aerobics, skateboarding, in-line skating, or some other activity). It is important to ensure that the marathon is not so long that people will be injured and it is important to provide some medical help at the marathon site to ensure that anyone who is injured or becomes ill can get the help they need.
Clean-a-thons: This type of marathon is very popular among groups with a green theme. In exchange for the possibility of cash and prizes, participants agree to clean part of a city or highway, often agreeing to pick up specific amounts or garbage in order to get sponsor support.

Fundraising ideas continues....