Plan a Fundraiser that Engages Kids: 6 Top Tips for Schools

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Your school undoubtedly enjoys supporting the programs and activities that your students love, and you should be able to continue to do so. But as an educator or member of the PTA, your time is limited. You have many tasks vying for your attention and it can be difficult to balance everything and still perform each task well.

School fundraising should not be another source of stress in your life. Fundraising for all of your kids and teens’ favorite programs can be fun and engaging for you, your students, and your community. However, to avoid becoming overwhelmed with stress as you organize the fundraiser, utilize an effective event fundraising software.  

To cultivate a fundraiser that kids will want to participate in and promote, you should:

  1. Plan a fun event.
  2. Stay organized.
  3. Encourage personalization.
  4. Allow healthy competition.
  5. Offer incentives.
  6. Make it shareable.

If you follow these 6 best tips for school fundraising, you will be blasting through your fundraising goals in no time—and getting your kids involved in the fundraising process. So, without further ado, let’s start learning how to create the best and most engaging fundraiser your school has ever seen!

1. Plan a fun event.

The best way to guarantee your students actually want to get involved in your fundraiser is to make it fun and simple. It is entirely possible that the goal of raising money is not enough to get the students to engage with the fundraiser.

Depending on the age of the kids, they may not quite grasp the importance of money in making sure the programs you provide can still be offered year after year.  

To ensure the students value the fundraiser, try planning your fundraiser around a fun event. To get some inspiration for fundraising ideas, click here.

A Fun Run or Jog-a-thon is an excellent example of a fun and easy event that’s well-suited for school-aged children.

The concept of a Fun Run or Jog-a-thon is simple. The student should recruit friends, adults, and family to pledge money for each unit of distance that they run or donate a lump sum for the entire distance. This could look like:

  • Uncle Joe pledges $3 for every lap ran by Timmy S.
  • Janet pledges $2 for every half mile ran by Ellie H.
  • Charlie donates $50 to Louis’ Fun Run fund.

An effective walk-a-thon allows for the kids to hang out with their friends and stay active while supporting their school.

2. Stay organized.

One of the hardest parts of organizing and promoting a large-scale school fundraiser is making sure all of your data stays organized. You may be unfamiliar with fundraising techniques and strategies—and that’s completely normal!

To stay organized and properly manage the information you gather from your Fun Run or Jog-a-thon you should employ a Fun Run/Jog-a-thon fundraising software, like 99Pledges.

The best software will track and manage the pledges made to your Fun Run or Jog-a-thon so that you don’t have to! Yes, you heard that correctly. You will never have to sit with a calculator adding up the money that each pledgor owes to your child’s fundraising page.

This technology will allow you to load each child’s information into the program and create a custom-made, individualized fundraising page for supporters to donate or pledge money to.

If you want to get kids and teens involved invested in your fundraising efforts, you need to have an organized system that can easily integrate students into its process.

3. Encourage personalization.

While you are all fundraising for the same end result, your fundraiser participants may have many reasons for becoming involved. Some people might participate because they are passionate about the cause or the program that your event benefits. Meanwhile, others may want to compete for incentives or simply participate in your fun event.

Whatever the reason for their participation, you should encourage students to personalize their fundraising page to entice more supporters.

With the right software tool, each student will be able to fundraise separately for a common goal. While some fields on their unique page may be consistent throughout all the supporters, such as the:

  • School name or program
  • Description of the fundraiser
  • Per participant goal
  • Date of the fundraiser

The students or their parents should still have the option to write a fundraising letter that offers an impassioned appeal for donations and pledges that will be more likely to draw in friends and family supporters.

This fundraising letter should:  

  • Describe the fundraising event in their own words.
  • Explain what the fundraiser benefits.
  • Convey the student’s reason for participating.
  • Provide donation information.
  • Thank the supporter in advance.

It is not likely that friends and family members will donate or pledge money simply because it is a good cause. They want the emotional appeal—they want to donate and pledge money because it is something the student is passionate about.

Feel free to encourage your students to make this fundraiser their own. This will not only cause the students to become more invested in the outcome of the fundraiser, but it will also boost your fundraising revenue!

4. Allow healthy competition.

One of the benefits of your PTA hosting a participant-based fundraising event is that the work is divided up among a wide range of people. While we know it can be difficult to motivate such a wide group of kids, make sure you don’t underestimate the power of healthy competition.

Friendly competition among friends has the potential to greatly enhance your fundraising revenue and encourage students to work hard to gain supporters.

The students should be able to have some sort of visual that represents how much each student is fundraising. A good software tool will display top donations that can serve as motivation for students to seek out additional support for their pages.

If you choose to do a walk-a-thon, or any variation of the event-a-thon, it is easy for the students to see how hard their peers are working. The student may be more inclined to walk further or read more or hit more baseballs if they can see how well other participants are doing.

While good, old-fashioned competition is one of the best motivators in fundraising among kids and teens, you must remember to provide some incentives that will further encourage the students to put effort into the campaign.

5. Offer incentives.

If you want to modify your fundraising strategy to maximize the number of students who are meaningfully engaging with your fundraiser, you should offer incentives to participants. Kids and teens love free stuff and added perks— but then again, who doesn’t?

To make competition a sustainable motivator and to help students stay excited about your fundraiser, you must give them a light at the end of the tunnel. They need something to look forward to and something to latch onto as they fundraise.

Don’t worry. The incentives don’t need to be elaborate or expensive, just something that will appeal to the kids and teens participating in your fundraising event.

Potential incentives you may want to offer include:

  • A pizza party for the classes with the highest participation rates.
  • Giving a percentage of the total earnings to the class who raises the most money.
  • Allowing the class to allocate the money they earn above their goal to a project of their own.

Depending on the age of your students, they may respond better to different incentives. Make sure you offer incentives that you know your students will love and want to achieve.

An easy way to incentivize all of your students at once is to provide fundraising team t-shirts. These can be custom made based on class, grade, or school depending on the size of your fundraiser. The kids will love the free merch and be excited to wear it, which will, in turn, promote the fundraiser.  

To see how you can increase excitement in your fundraiser with a tangible incentive, check out Bonfire’s custom school shirts.

6. Make it shareable.

The best tactic to include in your fundraising plan when hosting a school fundraiser that kids and teens will want to be a part of is to make it shareable on social media. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and so many more social media platforms have taken over how people communicate with one another and share news that is important to them.

Depending on the age of your students they may have their own social media accounts or, at the very least, it is likely their parents have accounts. Enabling students to share the fundraiser with remote friends and family members and to engage with the fundraiser on their own terms will make it more likely that the students actually want to participate.

You will be able to reach more people and encourage the students to promote their own fundraising page if the event-a-thon software that you use allows mobile sharing of personalized pages, your students and their parents are sure to want to spread the word about the school fundraiser.

Your school fundraiser should be easy and fun for everyone involved—student, teachers, parents, and supporters alike! With the right software, your walk-a-thon or other exciting fundraising events can engage your students and increase your fundraising revenue.

This post was contributed by Brad Dowhaniuk.

Brad Dowhaniuk is the co-founder of 99Pledges, which provides schools and teams with an easy-to-use, web-based fundraising solution to manage and drive success in Fun Runs, jog-a-thons, baseball hit-a-thons, and much more.

Matching Gift Retention is the Future of Fundraising

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With so many different ways to fundraise for our nonprofits, we’re being pulled in too many directions, and our ability to focus on the most impactful channels is becoming difficult. The future of fundraising is a strategy that enables organizations to overcome resource constraints and competing data sources to maximize fundraising and optimize programs.

Two areas that are worthy of tactical coordination are matching gifts and donor retention. In this post, we’re going to outline why retaining your matching gift donors, in particular, is going to have an amazing impact on your organization’s immediate revenue and long term sustainability.

Why retention needs to be your central strategy

The cost to acquire $1 from a new donor averages $1.25, yet retaining a donor comes at a significantly lower cost. According to research by acclaimed nonprofit researcher Adrian Sargeant, if an organization retains 10% of their current donors then their net growth in giving for the “typical” nonprofit will grow by 50%.

This data has historically focused solely on the individual donor and not taken matching gifts into account. Given that the majority of companies offering matching gifts are matching at a 1:1 ratio, while others can give as much as $4 for every $1 donated, there is an amazing amount of potential when we focus our retention efforts on match-eligible donors.

From a pure revenue generation standpoint, organizations will be able to dramatically alter their revenue projections if they can identify and retain donors who have historically been able to match their gifts.

So where do we begin?

Data stewardship will maintain your impact

A common source of frustration for donors is poor communication, which is typically a symptom of a much larger issue surrounding data integrity. It costs an organization $1 to verify a record upon entry, $10 to dedupe and clean data AFTER input, and $100 per bad record if nothing is done.

Identifying matching gift opportunities and maintaining donor retention both begin with having accurate data on your donors, so kick off your retention strategy by investing in data stewardship. This can be achieved by concentrating on small changes to processes that your organization may be missing right now:

This becomes especially important when leveraging impact-focused integrations like the 360MatchPro integration with NeonCRM’s donor management system, since having an accurate name and email on file will ensure that the automated marketing will be automatically delivered to drive more matching gift requests to completion.

An important process adjustment includes logging which businesses a donor works with. If you notice on LinkedIn or through your matching gift outreach that a person has changed jobs, be sure that this change is reflected in their account in your database of record.

Use personas to hone your retention message

Once your organization has established a confident foundation for your donor database, you will be able to begin strategic outreach and cultivation around donor retention. Rather than randomly calling people who have donated in the past, your organization can implement a data-driven outreach plan that centers around the creation of donor personas for your retention stewardship needs.

The concept of personas originally came from the marketing world as a way to group buyers into key segments of your audience. Since then, there has been some exciting work done around developing donor personas specific to the nonprofit industry.

Developing a persona to organize your work around can help to clarify the key items that will relate to your audience. Instead of creating mass messaging that doesn’t appeal to anyone, organizations should be crafting communications that speak directly to a specific audience.

An added step that your organization could be taking involves running reports specifically on donors who have requested matching gifts in the past. Being able to create a persona specifically around match-eligible donors will be an empowering step toward maximizing your impact. Take it one step further and create personas around new match-eligible donors versus lapsed match-eligible donors.

Make donor love central to your mission

Beyond poor communication, another reason that your organization may be losing donors is the donation experience itself. Review how easy it is to make a donation on your website and, more specifically, how clear your instructions around initiating a matching gift are.

Donor love should be at the center of the giving experience. You can do this by centering fundraising appeals around your organization’s mission and message as well as the donor’s role in making an impact. Make the experience about the donor’s ability to drive change and ensure that your organization is not taking a “me me me” approach to communications.

You can start by taking a hard look at your organization’s website since it will be one of the primary resources that donors use to determine whether they will be giving to your nonprofit.

No matter what your organization does, focusing on your mission will always ensure that donors feel an emotional attachment to your organization.

Donor retention is about ensuring that you are building a lasting relationship with the individual that is giving to you. Matching gifts take that relationship to the next level, involving a generous corporate partner as well as your individual donor. By combining matching gifts with a strategy focused on donor retention, you will be able to chart an exciting path towards sustainability and growth for your nonprofit.

Tim SarrantonioTim Sarrantonio is a team member at Neon One and has more than 10 years of experience working for and volunteering with nonprofits. Tim has raised over $3 million for various causes, engaged and enhanced databases of all sizes, procured multiple successful grants, and formulated engaging communications and fundraising campaigns for several nonprofits. He has presented at international conferences and is a TEDx speaker on technology and philanthropy. He volunteers heavily in his hometown, Niskayuna, NY.

 

Shoe Drive Fundraising: A Mini Guide for Schools and Clubs

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What is shoe drive fundraising?

Shoe drive fundraising is quickly becoming one of the most popular fundraising options for schools and clubs of all sizes! As an incredibly simple and effective fundraising method, shoe drives are a fantastic way to engage your community, set a great example, and raise some serious funds.

Check out our quick guide to starting and directing your own shoe drive fundraiser! Use this table of contents to navigate the page and find some quick answers:

  1. Who conducts shoe drive fundraisers?
  2. How does shoe drive fundraising work?
  3. What are the benefits of shoe drive fundraisers?
  4. What are some ways to conduct a shoe drive fundraiser?
  5. How can I promote my shoe drive fundraiser?
  6. Additional fundraising resources

Shoe drive fundraisers are perfect for schools and clubs.

Who conducts shoe drive fundraisers?

Shoe drive fundraising is a great choice for practically any group or organization that heavily interacts with its members, constituents, or other stakeholders at the ground level.

This means that shoe drive fundraisers are especially well-suited for community-based organizations, particularly schools, school-based clubs, and youth organizations.

Shoe drive fundraisers are perfect for schools!

Schools of all sizes can host extremely successful shoe drive fundraisers!

Kids outgrow shoes so quickly! Families tend to have plenty of gently used pairs of shoes lying around that no longer fit. A shoe drive fundraiser is not only an easy fundraising idea, it also lets parents cut out some clutter while helping support their local school.

Shoe drive fundraisers are a perfect choice for your club!

Clubs can also hit their fundraising targets with shoe drive fundraisers!

A shoe drive fundraiser will generate interest all around your school, but, depending on your club’s focus, these fundraisers also offer wonderful opportunities to raise awareness about a number of social and environmental issues!

During a time when both public and private schools around the country face budgetary struggles like never before, it’s important that schools remain aware of all their fundraising options. Shoe drive fundraisers are among the easiest fundraisers for schools to conduct, as facilitator services will typically provide schools with the materials they need and then collect the donated shoes.

Plus, this stress-free fundraising model makes shoe drive fundraisers and ideal choice for any small organization:

  • PTA groups
  • Parent-led booster clubs
  • Student-led organizations in schools
  • School or community athletic clubs
  • Small community-based associations
Learn more about shoe drive fundraisers for educational organizations and schools!

Check out the steps to conducting a shoe drive fundraiser!

How does shoe drive fundraising work?

With the right shoe drive fundraiser facilitator, the entire process is incredibly simple. They’ll help you set some realistic (but ambitious) fundraising plans. You’ll start reaching your shoe collection goals in no time!

Collect your donated shoes to hand over to your shoe drive fundraiser facilitator.

  • 1. Recruit some volunteers.

    Find the individuals in your school or club willing to help lead your shoe drive fundraiser, and invite them to get involved! They’ll mostly be needed for collecting shoes, identifying partners, and promoting the campaign.

  • 2. Promote your shoe drive fundraiser.

    Explain the shoe drive fundraiser to your school or club members, then ask them to bring their spare pairs soon. Share your campaign on your social media page and in your newsletter emails. Shoe drive facilitators like Funds2Orgs will even provide you with free marketing and fundraising tools for the length of your fundraiser.

  • 3. Collect shoes.

    Provide your donors with easy opportunities to donate their pairs of shoes. Set up a dedicated donation bin in an open location, or provide each classroom or chapter meeting with its own donation bin. As you collect the shoes, fill the special bags or containers provided by the facilitator.

  • 4. Reach your goal and contact your facilitator.

    After you’ve reached your shoe collection goal, contact your shoe drive fundraiser facilitator to arrange a time for them to collect all your shoes. The process is simple and stress-free!

  • 5. Receive your check!

    The shoe drive fundraiser facilitator will calculate the value of your collected shoes and issue a check for the funds you raised. Shoe drives can raise some major funds! For example, some schools and organizations have raised thousands of dollars after just six weeks!

There are several major benefits to shoe drive fundraising.

What are the benefits of a shoe drive fundraiser?

Shoe drive fundraisers are an ideal fundraising solution for schools, school-based clubs, and community organizations for a number of reasons, mainly these 4 key benefits:


Minimal Costs

It takes very little money to host and promote a shoe drive fundraiser. With Funds2Orgs, there are zero out of pocket costs!


Fast Funds

Receive a check for your raised funds in as little at 2 days after your shoe drive fundraiser facilitator collects them!


Global Philanthropy

Your donated shoes will be provided to entrepreneurs to re-purpose and resell in developing economies, stimulating organic growth.


Environmental Stewardship

Discarded shoes are notoriously hard on the environment. Recycling them in a shoe drive fundraiser is a productive way to be responsible!

Shoe drive fundraisers represent a low-cost, high-impact fundraising option for schools and organizations of all sizes! Plus, the most engaged shoe drive fundraiser facilitator services offer great learning opportunities on the environment and the global economics of philanthropy.

There are tons of ways to incorporate shoe drive fundraising into your fundraising goals.

What are some ways to conduct a shoe drive fundraiser?

Shoe drive fundraising is an extremely versatile fundraising method!

They work great as standalone fundraising campaigns. It’s easy to organize a campaign and set some goals with your shoe drive fundraiser facilitator, who will then provide you with some marketing ideas and tools.

Promote your shoe collection drive to your classes, chapters, or anyone else. Then be sure to provide collection bins or bags to your volunteers or classrooms. You might be surprised how quickly you can reach your collection goal!

Shoe drive fundraisers also make an effective additional component to any of your other campaigns or events!

If students or parents will be gathering for an event to benefit your school or club anyway, it’s easy to incorporate shoe drive fundraising into your planning and promotions.

If you host any of the following types of school fundraising events, think about the ways that a shoe drive could be integrated into your fundraising:

  • Game Nights or Tournaments

    Maybe two pairs of donated shoes could replace a registration fee for your casual competition events!

  • Raffles

    Offer free raffle or auction tickets as an incentive to encourage shoe donations!

  • Online Fundraising Campaigns

    Your crowdfunding or peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are perfect opportunities to add shoe drive fundraising as additional challenge elements.

  • Service or Product Sales

    Think car washes and bake sales. Why not offer shoe donations as a payment option?

  • Fairs or Festivals

    Larger festival events are perfect for promoting or incorporating your shoe drive fundraiser!

Explore more school fundraising ideas!

Shoe drive fundraisers are easy to promote to your community and members!

How can I promote my shoe drive fundraiser?

If you’re conducting a shoe drive fundraiser as either a standalone fundraising project or alongside a larger campaign, it’s crucial that you spread the word and encourage your students, members, and community stakeholders to make donations!

As a unique fundraising concept, shoe drive fundraisers are fairly easy to promote.

There are a number of key promotion strategies that work great for shoe drive fundraising:

1. Printed Materials

Creating printed materials to explain and promote your shoe drive fundraiser is essential, especially for schools! Flyers, letters, collection tracking charts, and door hangers are necessary tools for clearly labeling and explaining your fundraiser to students and their parents.

Some shoe drive fundraiser facilitators will even provide you with handy templates to quickly create your own printed promotional materials.

2. Social Media Promotions

Your school or club probably already relies on at least one social media platform to promote events or stay in touch with parents or members.

Be sure to promote your shoe drive fundraiser on your social media pages, especially Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Upload some pictures of your volunteers collecting shoes, or maybe even record a video to explain how the fundraiser works!

3. Promote with Your Other Events

If you choose to incorporate your shoe drive fundraiser into other events that you host, it’s important to clearly communicate this in all your promotions!

Invite attendees at your sporting events, sales, community service projects, and festivals to bring some pairs of shoes to donate. Be sure to offer some creative incentives, too!

4. Promote with Your Partners

Reach out to any community partners who might want to get involved! Local businesses and other community-based organizations make great partners for shoe drive fundraisers.

Similarly, if you’re a school considering a shoe drive fundraiser, be sure to get your PTA involved (and vice versa)! The more volunteers and donors, the easier it’ll be to promote your fundraiser and reach your goals.

Additional Fundraising Resources

When beginning a new fundraising project or setting new goals for your school or club, it’s important to do your research! Start with these resources to find the best options and strategies to help you succeed.

15+ Best Crowdfunding Websites

Check out these top crowdfunding websites!

Crowdfunding has quickly become one of the best ways to raise funds online.

Be sure to find the platform best suited to your needs by using this handy guide from Double the Donation!


15+ Best Crowdfunding Websites

Free Fundraising Guides from Funds2Orgs

Free fundraising guides from Funds2Orgs!

Check out these free fundraising guides from leading shoe drive fundraiser service, Funds2Orgs!

They offer free resources that can help any type of nonprofit or fundraising project, so be sure to explore.


Free Fundraising Guides from Funds2Orgs

21 Effective Fundraising Ideas for Kids

Check out these great fundraising ideas for kids!

If you’re fundraising with kids, your strategies can’t just be engaging — they have to be fun!

Check out this helpful list of some effective fundraising ideas from Bonfire for some ways to get started.


21 Effective Fundraising Ideas for Kids

Improve your fundraising plan with these 6 tips.

6 Simple Fundraising Plan Tips [With Free Templates!]

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Your nonprofit’s fundraising plan is the backbone of your success as an organization.

Without a solid fundraising plan in place, there would be nothing to guide your fundraising efforts and no way to tell if your nonprofit is on track to meet your goals.

Before implementing any change in fundraising strategy, you need to have an official fundraising plan in place. To get you started, here are 6 simple tips to consider:

  1. Gain fundraising plan input from key stakeholders.
  2. Develop goals (and challenges)!
  3. Set a fundraising plan timeline.
  4. Determine your fundraising methods.
  5. Build corporate partnerships into your fundraising plan.
  6. Tailor your case for support.

Bonus! Once your fundraising plan is in place, you should periodically assess your strategy. Check out Double the Donation’s ultimate fundraising strategy assessment to stay ahead of the curve!

Ready to get started on your fundraising plan? Let us break these tips down into a bit more detail.

You can improve your fundraising plan by gaining input from key stakeholders.

1. Gain fundraising plan input from key stakeholders.

Stakeholders are an important part of your nonprofit’s team. Not only do they help fund your organization’s philanthropy, but they typically have final say over big-picture fundraising decisions.

Since a fundraising plan outlines a nonprofit’s key activities, it is important to get support from these board members and other key stakeholders.

There are a couple of ways you can gain input from your stakeholders:

  • Experiential input. You can ask stakeholders directly about what fundraising strategies have worked well for your nonprofit in the past. Inquire about past fundraising activities, strengths and weaknesses. Take their feedback into consideration and be sure to demonstrate to them how you address their input.
  • Consultant interviews. You might find it helpful to bring in a fundraising consultant. They can conduct stakeholder interviews to determine what is most important to your board and how to get everyone on the same page when designing your fundraising plan.

Remember: Your nonprofit’s board members are just as passionate about your organization’s mission as you are. Do not think of their approval as a bureaucratic hurdle to overcome, but rather an important step towards improving your fundraising plan.

You can improve your fundraising plan by developing goals and challenges.

2. Develop goals (and challenges)!

When designing your fundraising plan, your final product should reflect your nonprofit’s primary goals above all else.

It is easy to fall into the trap of vaguely fundraising without an endpoint in sight, but to stay on track your nonprofit needs to actively work toward a defined set of central goals.

Before designing your fundraising plan, your nonprofit needs to sit down and agree upon what goals to prioritize across all levels of your organization. Your goals should be:

  • Specific, actionable, and measurable. Do not just decide to increase fundraising revenue, or plan to retain more donors. Set numeric benchmarks and timelines, and decide how you will tackle these goals.
  • Evaluated against metrics. You cannot accurately assess your progress towards achieving a goal without having metrics in place to track your success. Diligently monitor consistent metrics so you can see how well you are improving and when you need to make changes to your fundraising plan.

(Bonus tip! Be sure to collect valuable data when carrying out your fundraising plan to help evaluate these metrics and shape your future fundraising plans. Check out Fundly’s guide to nonprofit CRMs for an idea of how your nonprofit can maximize the power of your donor database to improve your fundraising strategy.)

Additionally, one way to help your nonprofit stay on track is to identify upfront what potential challenges or obstacles you will face in the process of achieving your goals.

Some obstacles you might encounter could be:

  • Seasonal fundraising dry spells
  • Low donor retention
  • Failure to obtain major gifts
  • Poor fundraising event attendance
  • Inadequate online engagement

For example, an animal shelter that wants to increase donor retention by X% over the summer months might identify the challenge of supporters being less engaged during this season since they may be traveling or caring for children on summer vacation. To reach their goal, they’ll need to recognize this challenge and develop strategies to overcome it.

Remember: Use your nonprofit’s history to guide you in identifying roadblocks and deciding on goals. Every nonprofit has its unique strengths and weaknesses and when designing a fundraising plan, it is important to know going in what is reasonable to expect from your organization.

You can improve your fundraising plan by setting a fundraising plan timeline.

3. Set a fundraising plan timeline.

Staying on top of your goals also means staying on top of your fundraising plan’s timeline.

Fundraising plans typically plot out a 3-5 year timeline for your nonprofit, with the first year being very detailed and the following years becoming less defined.

Your fundraising plan’s timeline should be developed into an annual fundraising calendar that details the year’s worth of activities for your organization.

Set a fundraising plan timeline.

When developing your timeline, keep a few things in mind:

  • Milestones. Structure your timeline around a set of core milestones. These will both guide your progress and help you regularly assess your fundraising strategy.
  • Accountability. Your timeline (and subsequently, your fundraising calendar) should clearly identify what departments are responsible for individual fundraising activities. This will help keep the different arms of your nonprofit on track and help your departments prioritize tasks throughout the year.
  • Accessibility. Your timeline and calendar should be easily accessible to all members of your team, regardless of their department or role. Every team member should be aware of what other departments are up to; this way, they will have a better sense of the big picture of your organization and how your core fundraising goals are being achieved.

Not sure where to start when designing your fundraising plan timeline? Consider enlisting the help of a fundraising consulting firm. If you need a recommendation, DonorSearch has got you covered with their list of the top 11 fundraising consulting firms in the field!

Remember: During the design process, your fundraising timeline should be as specific as possible and you should hold yourself to the timeline as much as you can. However, if you find you are not progressing as quickly as you had planned, identify the roadblock and always give yourself room to edit the timeline if necessary.

You can improve your fundraising plan by determining your fundraising methods.

4. Determine your fundraising methods.

A common thread among these tips has been specificity and when plotting out your fundraising plan, it is doubly important to specifically determine your fundraising methods.

It is not sufficient to simply say you will raise $XXX by such-and-such date. You need to plan out how you will raise that money and from whom you will solicit donations.

Fundraising is not a one size fits all process, and you should curate your fundraising methods with your prospects in mind. For example, consider these fundraising methods and how they serve prospects:

  • Online donation pages. If your donors cannot all come to you, meet them where they are. Online donation is simply convenient; for nonprofits interested in prospects in varying geographical locations, utilizing optimized online donation tools is a must.
  • P2P fundraising. For nonprofits seeking to grow their network of donors, P2P fundraising is a great way to engage constituents online and leverage the power of their social network to help your organization reach a broader audience.
  • Text-to-give. Mobile giving is a fundraising style that has been growing in popularity over the last several years. Like online donation pages, text-to-give fundraising makes it convenient for donors to give. Additionally, because donors are not tied to a desktop, they may consider donating more frequently.
  • Fundraising events. A strategic fundraising event help you engage donors and bring in major donations, too! Just make sure you plan out your fundraiser well in advance so you have plenty of time to consider important elements, such as the type of event, when and where to host it, and what technology you’ll need to pull it off.

Remember: You should consult your nonprofit’s existing data when determining which prospects to pursue and which fundraising methods best serve your prospect pool. Consider past data and metrics when determining fundraising methods, as well as what has worked for other nonprofits of a similar donor makeup and mission as yours.

You can improve your fundraising plan by building corporate partnerships into your fundraising plan.

5. Build corporate partnerships into your fundraising plan.

Corporate partnerships can be important sources of revenue and support for nonprofits.

When designing your fundraising plan, develop a strategy that will help you achieve corporate partnership so that you do not bypass such a valuable asset.

If you already are partnered with a corporation, consider these ways to leverage that relationship during the fundraising plan design process:

  • Event sponsorship. Your corporate partner could agree to sponsor a fundraising event for your nonprofit. With their name and notoriety attached, prospects may be more inclined to participate in your fundraiser.
  • Challenge grants. Your corporate partner might be amenable to offering your nonprofit a challenge grant. With a challenge grant, your organization and your partner agree upon a specific fundraising goal. If the goal is met, they might match the amount of funding raised or commit to donating an agreed-upon sum.
  • Matching gifts. One of the simplest ways to incorporate corporate philanthropy into your fundraising strategy is to seek out a matching gift tool. In a matching gifts program, a corporation agrees to match the donations of their employees either to a certain percentage of the donation or to a consistent maximum value. With a tool like this one offered by Double the Donation, donors can quickly determine whether their donation might be matched by their employer.

Take a look at DTD’s matching gift tool in action! The donor simply types the name of their company into the tool, and then DTD searches their database to see if they are matching gift-eligible.

Partnering with a corporation for a matching gifts program is an effective way to boost fundraising efforts.

Remember: Every nonprofit has unique needs and that extends to any relationship you have with corporate sponsors. You do not have to go after a partnership with a multi-million dollar company if that does not suit the scope of your organization. Partnering with small local businesses can get the job done, especially for regionally-focused nonprofits.

You can improve your fundraising plan by tailoring your case for support.

6. Tailor your case for support.

Your case for support underpins the success of your nonprofit, but it is often taken for granted when designing fundraising strategy.

Organizations and hospitals often create cases for support when they launch a capital campaign. These documents outline every detail of the campaign from how the funds will be used to the ways supporters can contribute.

Moreover, the case for support acts as an effective promotional tool to help educate potential donors on the importance of your cause. The content in your case for support can easily be posted on your website or published in a brochure.

While they’re common practice for capital campaigns, organizations should create a case for support as a part of any fundraising strategy.

Donors will not give to your organization unless you have a compelling case for support, so you need to take the time to thoughtfully develop your case.

Your case for support should answer these important questions:

  • What is our mission?
  • Why should donors give to this cause?
  • Why should they give to our organization in particular?
  • How much should donors give?
  • What specifically will our nonprofit do to achieve our mission?

At all levels of engagement, your nonprofit should actively communicate with donors the ways that your fundraising strategy addresses your case for support. The more compelling your case, the more likely it is that donors will give to your organization.

Remember: Your case for support should govern your fundraising strategy. Just as you should choose fundraising methods that target your prospects, you should similarly design your fundraising plan with your case for support as a foundation.

Your fundraising plan is the single most important tool in your arsenal when enacting a new fundraising strategy. Get closer to achieving your nonprofit’s fundraising goals by designing a detailed fundraising plan today!

Additional Resources

  • Conduct a Fundraising Feasibility Study: 6 Steps to Success. Capital campaigns can help your nonprofit reach larger goals as part of an effective fundraising plan. But first, you need to conduct a capital campaign feasibility study before your campaign can begin. With our step-by-step guide, your feasibility study is sure to give you the information you need to succeed!
  • Top 5 GoFundMe Alternatives. After developing a fundraising plan, your nonprofit may decide to pursue crowdfunding as a way to meet your fundraising goals. You might initially consider GoFundMe as a crowdfunding host, but don’t make your choice so quickly. There are many other crowdfunding sites just like GoFundMe (but better)! Check out our guide for some awesome alternatives.
  • 14 Charity Auction Tools. Similarly, your nonprofit might choose to hold a charity auction as a fundraising event. Not only are auctions great ways to raise funding, but they’re also useful events to strengthen your donor relations. Be sure to consult our guide to the 14 best charity auction tools that are perfect for nonprofits of any size!
In this guide, you’ll discover more than 10 online fundraising ideas to bring in revenue for your nonprofit.

10+ Online Fundraising Ideas: Raise Money in the Digital Age

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We all know that online fundraising is quickly taking the nonprofit world by storm. More people than ever are making their charitable contributions via online avenues. That’s why we’ve compiled 11 of the best online fundraising ideas that can help your nonprofit raise more money in the digital age!

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

  1. Crowdfunding
  2. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
  3. Matching Gift Drive
  4. T-Shirt Fundraising
  5. Gift Card Fundraisers
  6. Online Donation Forms [Free or Paid]
  7. Online Giving Days
  8. Text-to-Give Campaign
  9. Online Auctions/a>
  10. Viral Fundraising Campaign
  11. Online Cashback Websites
  12. Donation for a Vote

Tools mentioned:

Let’s take a look at each of these online fundraising ideas in more detail.

Online Fundraising Idea #1: Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is proving to be one of the most popular ways for nonprofits and individuals alike to raise money for causes, projects, or events that they care about.

For those new to the term, crowdfunding essentially makes use of a nonprofit’s or individual’s existing network of supporters, friends, family members, coworkers, peers, and even acquaintances.

Nonprofits and individuals can set up crowdfunding pages and then share those pages on social media sites and via email.

A typical nonprofit crowdfunding page looks like this:

Fundly's crowdfunding pages make online fundraising quick and simple.

Most crowdfunding platforms allow nonprofits to:

  • Upload images and videos.
  • Write a detailed description.
  • Post updates and comments.
  • Share the campaign across social media sites and email.
  • Set up giving levels or tiers.
  • Send out automatic acknowledgements to donors.
  • Track metrics like number of donors, average donation amount, and total amount raised.

If you want to make the most of your nonprofit’s crowdfunding campaign, follow these best practices:

  1. Interact with your supporters: Your donors want to know how your online fundraising campaign is going! Keep them in the loop by posting updates and responding to their comments on your crowdfunding page.
  2. Post at least 4 photos or videos: Media gives your donors some context and allows them to see exactly what they’re donating to. Make sure that your photos look professional and highlight the people, animals, or communities that your nonprofit serves.
  3. Set up giving levels: Including donation tiers or giving levels on your campaign page allows donors to select the one that they prefer. To create an even bigger impact, you can list out the specific actions that your nonprofit can accomplish with each donation amount.

Main Takeaway: Crowdfunding is one of the best online fundraising ideas for nonprofits. Most crowdfunding platforms enable you to get up and running in just a few minutes, and you can start raising money from your supporters in no time!

Bonus: Start your crowdfunding campaign today!

Online Fundraising Idea #2: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Peer-to-peer fundraising or virtual events are a type of fundraising that many nonprofits pair with fundraising events like walkathons, marathons, and in-person events that need to be transitioned to virtual.

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns typically follow this structure:

  1. A nonprofit sets a goal, determines a timeline, and plans a peer-to-peer event.
  2. The nonprofit reaches out to loyal supporters and asks them if they want to participate in the fundraiser.
  3. If supporters are willing to participate, they then set up their own online fundraising pages (with the nonprofit’s help). These individual pages link up to the nonprofit’s main peer-to-peer fundraising page.
  4. Individuals reach out to their networks to ask for donations on the nonprofit’s behalf.
  5. Supporters’ friends and family members make donations via the individual’s peer-to-peer fundraising page.
  6. The nonprofit collects the donations, acknowledges and thanks supporters and donors, and hosts the (typically active) event.

This individual peer-to-peer fundraising page is linked to the nonprofit’s primary fundraising page.

This peer-to-peer campaign follows a few best practices that we’re a huge fan of:

  1. They include several images: Both the nonprofit’s main page and the individual’s campaign page have images and videos that allow supporters to see exactly what their donations are going toward.
  2. They describe what the contributions will help accomplish: Each page highlights the need for homes and volunteer time in Austin. Both pages have giving tiers that describe what a donation amount will be able to buy. For example, $300 will buy a stove, while $500 will buy a roof.
  3. Each description is detailed: A good peer-to-peer campaign description is the key to encouraging people to donate to your cause. Without it, people won’t know why you’re raising money! This campaign has listed out the reasons for fundraising and lets people know why building homes in Austin is important.

Main Takeaway: Peer-to-peer fundraising is a type of online fundraising that enables your nonprofit to raise more money and acquire more donors. As your supporters reach out to their networks, your nonprofit can introduce more people to your cause and mission.

Bonus: Check out the top priorities you should be looking at as you evaluate the various peer-to-peer fundraising platforms!

Online Fundraising Idea #3: Matching Gift Drive

Take online giving one step further by encouraging your donors to search for the matching gift programs for which they might be eligible. Companies of all sizes will often match (or more than match) their employees’ donations to nonprofit organizations!

There are even useful tools you can embed directly onto your websites or campaign emails. Here’s how the National Audobon Society incorporated a user-friendly search tools directly into their ways to give page:

Check out how the National Audobon Society incorporated matching gifts tools into their site.

For a fundraising campaign, create some buzz by asking a local company or major donor to match donations made on a particular day. Time sensitive drive campaigns work well because they create urgency, a good motivator for supporters. Plus, since each donation goes twice as far, donors will be more likely to participate.

Best of all, and unlike ongoing corporate matching gift programs that apply to eligible employees, matching gift drives don’t have restrictions on who can participate!

The key to a prosperous matching gift drive is promotion. Get the most people to participate by sending emails to your donors on the days leading up to the event. 

Social media is also an effective place to promote your online fundraiser. If your museum is running a matching gift drive, for example, you can publish posts on Facebook and Twitter that tell donors any tickets purchased or contributions made during your drive will be doubled by your sponsor.

Also, let donors know about the many ways they can contribute. Provide your donors convenient ways to give, such as:

  • Donation pages.
  • Text-to-give.
  • Mobile-responsive forms.
  • Crowdfunding pages.

The more fundraising options donors have, the more likely they are to make a donation.

Additionally, if you’re hosting a giving day, but only accept donations through a form on your website, this limits the number of people that can contribute to your cause. 

Always ensure that you have a variety of ways to collect donations before launching your matching gift drive.

Main Takeaway: Knowing that their gifts will double for a limited time is a great motivator for donors. Use that knowledge to your advantage and host a matching gift drive.

Bonus:  For matching gifts year-round, check out another example of how Mercy Corps helps their supporters determine if their employer matches donations on their branded matching gifts page from Double the Donation.

Online Fundraising Idea #4: T-Shirt Fundraising

Another effective way for nonprofits to fundraise online is by selling t-shirts. Your nonprofit can deisgn t-shirts as merchandise for your organization and sell them online to your supporters.

T-shirt fundraisers are a fun, engaging way to raise money for your nonprofit because they allow supporters to show their love for your organization while still getting something back in return.

For supporters who many not be able to donate as much as they would like due to financial limitations, t-shirt fundraisers offer them the opportunity to contribute to your cause without breaking the bank.

Your nonprofit can get started by promoting t-shirt sales in conjunction with different fundraising campaigns. For example, you might sell holiday-themed t-shirts during year-end giving to capitalize on the seasonal spirit.

Even further, the t-shirts you sell can double as marketing materials for your nonprofit’s brand. When people see their friends wearing your organization’s shirts, they may get inspired to start contributing to your nonprofit.

T-shirt fundraising is a great way to raise money quickly.

When choosing an online host for your t-shirt fundraising initiative, select one that:

  • Offers plenty of t-shirt customization options.
  • Allows you to upload original designs for your shirts.
  • Gives you the freedom to set your own t-shirt prices.
  • Charges a low-overhead fee so you can keep more of your profits.
  • Gives you the ability to customize your nonprofit’s t-shirt sales page.

As your organization starts selling t-shirts, remember that customization is key! Supporters are more likely to buy your organization’s shirts if they feel the product (and sales process) reflects the brand they have come to know and love.

Bonus: Learn more about selling t-shirts to raise money for your nonprofit with Bonfire!

Online Fundraising Idea #5: Gift Card Fundraisers

What if you could raise money by having supporters do something they were probably going to do anyway? Gift card fundraising is an innovative way to bring in revenue online, and it’s convenient for supporters because they get to contribute to your cause simply by buying a gift card for a friend or family member.

Digital gift cards tend to work best for these types of fundraisers, as they can be delivered to supporters’ inboxes within minutes of their purchase. Then, supporters can forward their email to the loved one they want to give the card to as a gift.

Every time someone buys a gift card through your fundraiser, a percentage of the sale automatically goes back to your nonprofit. The exact amount varies depending on the retailer who provided the gift card, but it’s often around 5.5%. However, these contributions add up over time to make a major difference for your organization!

To launch a gift card fundraiser through a gift card fundraising platform (like ShopRaise), follow these three easy steps:

This is a screenshot of the landing page for ShopRaise's gift card fundraiser, a convenient online fundraising idea.

  1. Register your organization. The experts who run your fundraising platform will walk you through a simple onboarding process, answer any questions you may have, and provide the app your supporters will use to purchase their gift cards.
  2. Spread the word. Marketing is essential to a successful gift card fundraiser. Leverage all of the communication channels your nonprofit uses to make supporters aware of your fundraiser and provide instructions for getting started. The platform you partner with may be able to provide some marketing materials to help you with this step.
  3. Track results. Your organization’s dashboard will display real-time fundraising data to help you thank your top supporters individually and encourage them to continue buying gift cards to support your cause.

Consider starting your gift card fundraiser at a time of year when people are likely to be buying a lot of gifts. For instance, you could launch in November to prepare for the holiday season or in April as your supporters start thinking about Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, peak wedding season, and upcoming graduations. Just make sure to leave your fundraiser open year-round so supporters can buy gift cards for their loved ones’ birthdays in between these busy seasons.

Main takeaway: Gift card fundraisers are an easy virtual idea that can be run year-round. They’re free for your organization to launch and convenient for supporters as they can contribute to your cause by buying gift cards they were going to purchase anyway.

Bonus: Explore the ins and outs of gift card fundraising with ShopRaise!

Online Fundraising Idea #6: Online Donation Forms

One of the most traditional ways to raise money online is through the tried-and-true online donation form. In many cases, donation forms allow you to brand your page and create special fields to capture specific, related information.

Best of all, online donation forms can be mobile-friendly so even more of your supporters have access. 

Since there are many customization capabilities available, your organization can create a form that is completely unique to your brand.

There are many vendors available that offer both free donation forms and paid donation forms.

Here is an example of what your online donation form could look like:

Optimized online donation forms are key to success in digital fundraising.

As you can see, the Water Project does a lot of great things with their donation form:

  • First, the donation form has preset giving buttons, making it easy for the donor to choose a gift amount.
  • Secondly, donors have the option to set recurring gifts.
  • Last, the option to share contributions on Facebook and Twitter is predominantly displayed.

All these features not only help boost your awareness and funds, but they also make the giving process convenient for your donors.

Of course, if your organization wants all of these features (and more!), you’ll have to choose an excellent fundraising software provider.

Look for a vendor that has a responsive technical support team and an easy-to-use interface; you shouldn’t have to be an expert in CSS and HTML to create a professional-looking form. With a simple donation form builder, your organization should be able to drag and drop the elements you want to use and customize them to fit your needs.

If you’re using a fully customizable platform, you’ll be able to create a form that is unique to your organization or recruit a technology consultant who can design a form catered to your needs.

When creating your online donation forms, be considerate of your donors’ time and keep your donations quick and simple.

Main Takeaway: Creating a convenient and beautifully designed donation page starts with finding the right software. Find a provider that offers the features that will make donating quick and easy.

Online Fundraising Idea #7: Online Giving Days

The most common online giving day is #GivingTuesday, a national day of charitable giving started a few years ago by the 92nd Street Y in New York.

While your nonprofit might already participate in #GivingTuesday, that doesn’t mean that you can’t organize your own online giving day for your supporters!

Just so we’re clear, an online giving day is a 24-hour period where a nonprofit tries to raise as much money as possible from its supporters.

An online giving day has to have a lot of digital promotion and advertising to make it effective. Reach out to your supporters:

  • With emails.
  • Over social media.
  • Via text message.
  • On your website.
  • With videos.

These digital outreach methods should contain information about your giving day such as the time, ways to donate, what the funds will go toward, and how supporters can get more involved.

Here’s an example of an animal nonprofit that promotes #GivingTuesday on Twitter:

Of course, Twitter has character limitations, so this tweet had to be short and sweet. Your other digital promotions for your giving day can go a bit more in-depth and include more specific information about your online fundraiser.

Whatever route you take, make sure that you explain what the funds are going toward and provide supporters with a link to your online donation page.

Main Takeaway: An online giving day can be an energetic and fast-paced way to raise money for your cause. Electrify your donor base with lots of digital promotions and encourage them to give as much as they can in just 24 hours!

Bonus: Take a look at these #GivingTuesday promotional resources.

Online Fundraising Idea 7: Text-to-Give Campaign

Text-to-give came on the scene as a digital fundraising method in 2010 when millions of dollars were donated to the American Red Cross to support victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Since then, text-to-give (or text-to-tithe for churches) has become a mainstream way to raise money for any organization or cause!

Today, text-to-give tends to work like this:

  1. A donor will text a keyword to a specific number that has been assigned to a nonprofit.
  2. The donor will receive a link as a text message.
  3. The link takes the donors to a mobile-responsive donation page where they can make a contribution.

It’s that easy!

When choosing a text-to-give tool, look for a provider that is PCI-compliant, which means the company follows strict rules to ensure a high level of security.

Ease of use and integration are also vital characteristics to look for in a text-to-give tool. You want the giving process to be quick and simple for donors as well as have a way to export data to your CRM.

Many nonprofits, schools, and churches use text-to-give technology as an online fundraising avenue throughout the year, but it’s also a popular donation method during fundraising events. One of your speakers can make a live appeal and ask people to give with their cellphones (all of your attendees will likely have their phones in their pockets or purses!).

Main Takeaway: Text-to-give is quickly becoming one of the most popular online fundraising ideas. Don’t get left behind by this fundraising trend!

Bonus: Check out the ultimate guide to text-to-give.

Online Fundraising Idea #9: Online Auctions

Online auctions are essentially digital silent auctions that are more cost-effective and are open to all your supporters, increasing fundraising potential even more.

For your digital venue, you can opt to use auction software or an online marketplace like eBay to host your online auction. 

Just like with any charity auction, you’ll need to procure items and experiences that excite your guests and encourage them to place bids.

Look for unique items that your guests won’t be able to find anywhere else. Look at the following suggestions to help you get started:

    • Sports memorabilia.
    • Backstage passes to a concert.
    • Tickets to an exclusive museum exhibit.
    • And so much more!

Generate excitement before your event by creating an auction catalog with images and a description of each item (or experience) and teach registered guests how to place bids to prepare them for the big day. Plus, with dedicated auction software (like OneCause) you can track the progress of your online auctions in real time:

Online charity auctions make it easy to engage your donors and raise funds.

Main Takeaway: Online auctions make it possible for supporters from all over the world to participate and are cost-effective so that you can raise the most money from your event.

Online Fundraising Idea #10: Viral Fundraising Campaign

You’ve likely heard of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, but you may not know just how successful that particular viral fundraising campaign was.

In just a month and a half, the ALS Association was able to raise $115 million (and tons of awareness!) for ALS research by asking people to pour cold water on their heads.

Another example of a viral fundraising campaign is “Movember.” For this viral campaign, men grow out their facial hair during the month of November and make donations in support of men’s health.

These are just two of the many viral fundraising campaigns that nonprofits have started. Why not start your own?

Keep these tips in mind before trying to launch a viral fundraising campaign. And remember, it might take a few months or even more than a year for your campaign to go truly viral.

  1. Don’t ask for too much. You aren’t going to receive a ton of donations if you ask for $500 every time. Instead, ask people for small contributions like $5, $10, or $20. Once a campaign goes viral, all of those little donations will add up!
  2. Create a memorable hashtag. Hashtags help group your social media posts and make your nonprofit’s message easier to find on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Create a memorable and punchy hashtag. Use it in all of your social media posts and encourage your supporters to use it, as well!
  3. Get to the point. A viral campaign has to be focused and targeted. It’s not the time to explain every single detail of your nonprofit’s mission. Instead, boil down your vision to a few key points and use them interchangeably throughout the duration of your campaign.
  4. Make use of all of your digital channels. Post on Facebook. Tweet out a promotional message. Snap a picture and post it to Instagram. Start a Pinterest board. Send out emails. Use every digital communications channel at your disposal!

Main Takeaway: It might take time to get a viral fundraising campaign off the ground, but if you can do it, your nonprofit’s mission and vision will be made known to supporters across the country and even around the world!

Online Fundraising Idea #11: Online Cashback Websites

Online cashback sites can be used by nonprofits as well as individuals who are looking to raise a little extra money while doing something that nearly everyone loves: shopping online!

Let’s break down how most online cashback websites work:

  1. Someone in your nonprofit needs to buy office supplies or something else online.
  2. The staff member begins their search for office supplies at an online cashback site.
  3. Once the items have been purchased, a percentage of the total amount is deposited into a cashback account.
  4. Your nonprofit can withdraw the cashback amount at regular intervals (typically monthly or quarterly).

Common cashback sites include:

 

While cashback sites aren’t going to help your nonprofit break any fundraising records, they are an easy way to raise more money from online shopping. Signing up for most of these cashback sites is easy, and everyone in your nonprofit can participate!

Main Takeaway: Online cashback sites can supplement your existing fundraising efforts. If your staff does a lot of online shopping, sites like Ebates and Amazon can be an easy way to raise extra funds!

Online Fundraising Idea #12: Donation for a Vote

The donation for a vote online fundraising idea gets your supporters engaged in a silly challenge in return for their contributions.

Here’s how this fundraiser works:

  1. Create a list of silly challenges that your staff or volunteers are willing to complete.
  2. Create a poll, asking your supporters to vote (with a donation) for the challenge they’d like to see your team complete.
  3. At the end of the poll, record your team completing whatever challenge received the most votes and post it on social media.

The challenges you pick should be interesting and if possible, related to your cause in some way.

In the video, thank your supporters for their contributions, and mention how the funds will be used to further your cause.

Supporters will get a kick out of seeing you do a silly task, and you’ll raise more money for your cause!

Not only will donors like seeing a hilarious video, but they’ll also appreciate that you want their opinion and input. Plus, supporters will encourage their peers to vote so they can see their favorite challenge win. 

Main Takeaway: Donation for a vote is a fun (and potentially viral) way to raise money for your cause. Makes sure to choose your challenges and continue to encourage your supporters to vote.

We hope that these online fundraising ideas have inspired you to go out and try some different fundraising techniques.

For more ideas and tips, check out these helpful resources:

  • 80+ Fundraising Ideas. Couldn’t find what you were looking for with our online fundraising ideas? Check out our full list of ideas. You’re sure to find the perfect fundraiser for your cause!
  • Church Fundraising Ideas. If you’re looking for ways to raise money for churches and other faith-based organizations, we’ve got a list of ideas that will help you reach your goals.
  • School Fundraising Ideas. Schools need to find family-friendly ways to raise money and engage their students. Check out this list of top ideas from Fundly to get started!
  • Top Online Donation Tools. If you want to start fundraising online, you’ll need software to accept donations. Use this list of top tools to find online donation software for your organization!