Adults, teenagers, and young children all have one thing in common: they love a good, comfortable t-shirt!
Capitalize on the love of this classic wardrobe item by designing and selling stylish t-shirts for your fundraiser.
Search for an online t-shirt fundraising service that makes creating custom apparel simple, even if you’re not a professional graphic designer.
And since you’ll be selling to customers of all ages, make sure to offer a lot of sizes and design options to appeal to everyone.
Kids outgrow shoes by the second. By partnering with a company like Fund2Orgs, you can help free up some closet space and raise money for your cause by hosting a shoe drive fundraiser.
A shoe drive fundraiser is simple: you collect new and gently worn shoes of all styles and sizes and receive a check in the mail for your efforts. Funds2Orgs will send your shoes to a developing nation as a way of providing a hand-up to local entrepreneurs.
Just make sure to place your shoe bin in a high-traffic area so that you can collect as many shoes as possible. A school or church hallway or cafeteria is a great location!
Are you looking for a unique and exciting way to raise money for your cause while getting the whole family involved? Look no further than pledge fundraising!
First, decide on an activity that will be engaging for kids and families alike. Popular choices include running, dancing, reading, or shooting hoops. Then, plan an event around that idea, inviting families and friends to join you for a day of fun.
Set a date and encourage participants to find sponsors. These are people who will give a certain donation per every lap run, song danced, book read, or basket made. It’s a great way to raise money for any cause while promoting community involvement and support.
By sharing a matching gifts database like Double the Donation’s, you can give your constituents all the tools they need to verify their matching gifts eligibility and complete their employer matching gift request.
Remember, matching gifts can only be received by official 501(c)(3) nonprofits, so this idea works best for charities, philanthropic organizations, and advocacy groups.
Matching gifts programs are convenient for families who want to show support for your cause because they let them maximize their fundraising impact without having to make additional gifts or stretch their budget.
Kids grow quickly, so parents spend plenty of time (and money) in the shopping mall. What if you could help out the parents in your community while raising money for your cause?
Encourage families to donate the clothes they’ve outgrown for your consignment fundraiser!
Organize clothes by age group and sell them to members of your community for a discounted price.
You could even go above and beyond by setting up an online store to extend the fundraising window!
The most common way for kids to raise money is to set up a lemonade stand, but don’t let your creativity stop there! You can sell other food, drinks, and products to raise money.
You can either set up an online storefront where parents can use their credit cards to purchase merchandise, or you can go the old fashioned way and set up a table or booth with your food, drinks, or products.
Make sure that you have a sign that explains why you’re raising money and put out a container for tips or donations.
Younger kids usually take part in a field day event in elementary school, but that event tends to get faded out as children move into middle and high school.
Get your older kids involved in an active event by hosting a field day!
You can plan for traditional games like tug o’ war, three-legged race, water balloon toss, and more! But don’t hesitate to make up your own fun and unique field day games.
Charge a small admission fee or charge per game at the event. You can even sell concessions and merchandise, like water bottles, t-shirts, and caps.
Balloon raffles aren’t usually a stand-alone event; they are often paired with other fundraisers like carnivals, field days, and family fun days.
But they’re so easy that you’ll be able to raise money in no time!
The only cost to you is a bag of balloons and some raffle tickets. Place the tickets inside the balloons and sell them to children and adults for a dollar each.
Whoever has the winning ticket gets a small prize at the end of the raffle. Depending on how many people come to your event, you could make quite a bit of money.
Bingo is a fun and easy game that even the youngest children can play. Use a weekend night to host a kids’ bingo night to raise money for your family!
A bingo night can be a great way to educate people about your cause as well.
Throughout the night, remind attendees of what you’re raising money for and encourage them to make contributions during the event.
However, the majority of your proceeds will come from selling admission tickets, concessions, and products (if you have them).
Cupcake contests are great fundraising ideas for families. Cooks can compete for the best dessert chef title. To make this fundraiser a reality, you’ll need several interested bakers, a place to host your event, and a prize for the winner.
The bakers can bring their best cupcakes and pay a fee to enter into the contest. You can have people pay a fee to taste every deliciously sweet cupcake as well.
Then people can vote on their favorite treat with their dollars. Everyone will enjoy tasting all the cupcakes, and you’ll raise a lot of money!
Once the holidays roll around, it feels like everyone is in a mad dash to buy and wrap presents for everyone on their list. Offer this service during all the major holidays as a quick fundraising idea for kids and families.
You can help these frenzied people out and earn a little extra money by offering gift-wrapping services.
Partner with a local department or retail store or offer gift-wrapping services in a well-trafficked (but spacious) area. Offer extras like bows, ribbons, and tags to earn a little extra money.
Do you love to cook? Do you have a lot of delicious family recipes you want to share? Why not create a cookbook? Cookbooks are kid-friendly fundraisers that get the whole family involved.
Create a book with your family’s favorite recipes. You’ll need to find a place that will print your book at a reasonable price.
Once you have your cookbook, you can sell it online or in your community to raise funds for your event, project, or cause.
Bake sales are tried and true fundraisers for kids that bring tasty treats to your community while you raise money and awareness for your cause or project. Get as creative as you want with the confections you create!
Advertise your bake sale in advance and set up your table in a well-trafficked area to attract more customers.
You can sell your tasty treats, but you can also place a tip or donation jar on the table for customers who feel extra generous.
Hosting a karaoke night is a fun way to bring families together for some fun and singing. If you want to host this event, you’ll need to find a venue. Ask local restaurants to see if they’d be willing to host the event for you. In fact, a restaurant is a great place to have the event because there will be food and drinks for everyone!
You’ll also need karaoke equipment, but before you go out and buy your own, see if someone you know will let you borrow what you need. You can charge people a small fee to go up and sing a song.
This event is a great way to bring the community together. Just make sure to explain why you’re raising funds!
Do you have any items collecting dust in your home, garage, or attic? Why not try to sell those items at a yard sale as an easy fundraiser for kids and families?
You don’t just have to sell your stuff, though! Ask your friends and family if they have anything to donate to the yard sale.
Don’t forget to promote the event on social media, via email, and with flyers. Also, make sure you tell people why you’re raising funds.
The more people that know about your event, the more likely they’ll be to show up and support you!
Writing letters is a great way to raise money for your cause, project, or event. You can send out letters asking for general donations, sponsorships, charity auction items, volunteer time, and more!
Your letters should be genuine and personal. Always start with your donor’s preferred name and try to reference any past relationship or donations.
You can use letters to direct people to your online giving pages or crowdfunding campaign, but you should also include a self-addressed envelope within your letter to encourage people to send in checks (make sure you tell donors not to send cash!).
Silent auctions are a fun way to get a little more face time with supporters while they bid on unique and appealing items up for grabs. Plus, if you find the right auction items, you have the potential to raise a lot of money!
Ask local businesses and individuals if they would like to donate items to your silent auction. Common items include gift cards to restaurants, signed memorabilia, lessons from a professional of some kind, gift baskets, and more!
You can enlist the help of a mobile bidding tool to create a tech-enhanced bidding experience for your attendees. Mobile bidding software also makes checking in, checking out, and item monitoring easier on your auction volunteers and staff.
Walkathons are perfect for active supporters who like to show their passion for a cause. Walkathons are well-suited for healthcare-related issues and causes, but they can technically be used for any type of fundraising effort!
You’ll need to determine a location and time for your walkathon. Choose a season that is a good temperature with minimal risk of rain. Make sure you have a backup location just in case!
Then, send out invitations and design some merchandise like t-shirts and water bottles. You can sell these for an extra fee to raise money above any entrance costs you charge. Make sure you have medical and first-aid supplies nearby in the case of an accident.
Your chili cook-off is the solution to it all. It’s a meal to fill everyone and a fundraiser all in one!
Recruit your community’s families to make their stews. Make an event out of it and sell tickets to attendees and tasters while parents make different chilis and kids vote on which chili is the best!
You can give the winner a trophy and everyone will enjoy a great meal. A two-for-one win.
If your community has talent, host a talent show!
Find a venue, the local high school’s auditorium, the park’s bandshell, etc. and invite everyone to participate! You can charge an entry to fee to participants and/or attendees! Organize the event so it’s not too long and flows well from performer to performer.
Don’t forget a concession stand and donation table to collect some extra dough. You can ask the audience to vote on the winner, who’ll win a small trophy!
Host a carnival! Who doesn’t love funnel cake and ring tosses, especially when there are prizes involved?
Set this day of fun and games up to raise money. You can charge an entry fee or a fee per game or activity, just don’t forget to sell concessions to your hungry carnival go-ers!
You can have face-painting and makeover tents for the younger attendees and dunking booths or water gun games for older participants. Don’t worry about renting expensive rides when you can create DIY games and booths!
DIY a Mud Run and create a course to raise money!
You’ll need to scout out a location like a field or park. Ask your town hall about possible locations. You can create your own obstacle course with parking cones, ropes, slip ‘n’ slides, and tires. It’ll be a fun for challenge for kids and families!
You can create an online registration form for convenience and charge an entry fee. You can allow individual teams and group teams, depending on your course. Don’t forget to give the winner a prize and sell concessions!
Add a few tails to your typical car wash. Host an event where you offer to wash people’s pups and their cars at the same time! Who could turn that down?
Of course, you can offer single car washes and single dog washes, too. Promote your event so your customers can leave with clean cars and clean pups (and you can leave with some money raised)!
Plan on a warm sunny day in a location where you can set up the car station and the dog station. Make sure the dog washing setup is on grass or a similar surface–you don’t want any paws burning on blacktop!
A Christmas favorite, anyone with young kids has to get a photo with Santa!
Save your community the trouble of fighting through the crowd at the mall and set up your own pictures-with-Santa booth! All you have to do is rent a Santa suit and set up his station. Plan to run the booth for a few weekends before December 25th to get the most out of your fundraiser.
You can have friends dress as elves to help you run the booth and you can set up a concession stand to sell hot cocoa and candy canes! Don’t forget to find a photographer, too!
Turn a daily chore into a fundraising event! Add some pups to your next walk-a-thon event.
Tell individuals to bring their leashed dogs to the track to walk alongside them. Charge an admission fee and don’t forget to set up concession stands and water stations (for people and pups alike)! Think about selling custom merchandise (t-shirts, water bottles, leashes, etc!) for even more of a profit.
Seeing as walkathons are already popular events, you can raise even more by including man’s best friend!
Host a game night where your community can enjoy a few classic board games! Find a good location, i.e. a church hall, high school gymnasium, etc. Set up a few tables and chairs and invite everyone to come play!
Make sure you have a good array of games like checkers, Sorry, Monopoly, Jenga, etc. You can charge a small fee per game or charge hourly if you think the games will get intense and therefore, take a while to complete.
You can set up a concession stand and a donation table, too!
Looking for a spooky fundraising event? You found it!
A haunted house is the perfect and festive fundraiser for kids and families! In preparation for Halloween, find a good location to set up your haunted house, and recruit some friends to dress as witches and ghosts to help run the event.
Charge a small admission fee for little goblins who think they’re tough enough to make it through your haunted house! You can sell apple cider, pumpkin cookies, and other fall-themed concessions.
Throw a soiree for your furry best friends! Your pet party will be a pet social hour and can be as upscale or casual as you’d like. You can charge a small admission fee and sell dog and cat treats.
Pups, kittens, and other pets can come all dressed up with their humans or just run around the nearby park together. It doesn’t matter how fancy your pet party is, but be sure to set up a donation table and fun activities for people and their pets!
Set up water stations for your animals.
In October, you can have some fun by carving jack-o-lanterns! And then you can make money by selling them!
You can sell as many or few pumpkins as you please, but this creative seasonal fundraiser will always make money.
A jack-o-lantern sale is perfect because they’re the staple of the fall. You can’t have a front step without a pumpkin on it during the fall!
Tack this fundraising event onto another event going on in your community.
Your kids’ face painting is the perfect addition to a carnvial or kids’ party! Make sure you have a lot of designs for kids to choose from and enough paint to put on everyone’s cheeks!
Charge a small fee per design and put out a donation jar on your table as well.
In the spring or around Mother’s Day, sell flowers! You can limit it to tulips or sell roses, sunflowers, daisies, and a whole collection of flowers, too.
As winter fades and the warm weather rolls in, no one can say no to flowers, so a flower sale is a great idea.
Work with a local florist to see if they’ll donate some or all of the flowers needed, and then promote and get to selling!
A backyard barbeque is the perfect way to welcome in summer! Everyone loves a good barbeque.
Cook up some ribs, chicken, burgers, and veggie patties so you have something that appeals to everyone! Your summer barbeque is a great way to bring everyone together and raise money!
You can charge a fee upon entry or for each burger. Set up a general donation jar, too!
This goofy fundraiser is perfect for kids!
All you need are rubber ducks, raffle tickets, and a pond! And the participants will fall in line! Buy some rubber duckies and write numbers on the bottom of them. Then, sell their corresponding tickets to your participants!
When everyone has their tickets and ducks, set the ducks in the pond. The first one to cross the finish line is the winner!
Educational and efficient!
Ask members of your community to donate gently used books, then find a location — a gym, cafeteria, maybe even the lobby of your library — and pick a date to have your sale. Sell your collection of used books to promote smart reading habits and raise money.
You can always donate the books that don’t sell and help out another organization.
An easy fundraiser, the pie throwing contest only requires whipped cream pies in foil plates and a victim!
You can set up your booth at a local carnival or event for the best turn out. Put some pies on the table next to a general donations jar and have your target stand about 10 to 15 feet back.
Then charge a few dollars per pie and let participants try to hit your target.
A fun way to raise money, a lantern release is a great outdoor event. Pick a clear night and good location, i.e. a field or park.
Get some paper lanterns, and then invite your community to your event! You can charge per lantern and have a general donations table.
If you want to make a night out of it, you can set up a concessions stand and invite people to bring blankets to watch as their lanterns float up to the stars.
Get the little ones and families in your area to participate in your very own mock Olympic games!
You can host a series of winter or summer games. This event will take some planning in advance, but it’s sure to please your community and raise money! You can hold events like track and field races, or hockey games, whatever your location can support!
You can sell a small admission fee for attendees and viewers and set up concession stands. Don’t forget to host a medal ceremony at the end!
With the possibility as a standalone event, the hot dog eating contest is a simple fundraiser relying mostly on your promotion!
All you’ll need is to set up a table with multiple chairs for participants and you’ll need a good staff of volunteers to carefully watch the contest. You can set a number of hot dogs and see who can eat them the fastest, or set a time and see how many a participant can eat before the timer dings.
Remember to charge an entry fee. Winner gets a trophy!
Another educational fundraiser, this will encourage reading!
Set up a team of kids in your community to obtain pledges from their friends and family for the number of pages or number of books they can read in your time-frame. Most read-a-thons last three months, roughly the length of a semester. Have the kids log their reading times as time passes.
When the read-a-thon’s time is up, pledgers will fulfill their end of the fundraiser and donate the money pledged. You can offer the child who finished first a prize!
A straw draw fundraiser is a quick and easy fundraiser.
Get a pack of straws and attach different prizes to each straw. Signify which prize correlates to each straw with labels stuck on each straw. You might feature some prizes like a bag of candy, a gift certificate to a local restaurant (donated by the restaurant), or movie tickets! Charge a dollar per straw and if there are enough straws, let participants pick as many times as they pay.
You can set this up at a local event or outside a local business, with the business’ approval.
Get your community together for a pizza night!
Visit a local pizza shop and see if they’ll donate pizzas to you. You might be able to host your event in the pizzeria or you can look into a school cafeteria. Sell slices to attendees and enjoy each other’s company.
No one can turn down a slice of good pizza, so this is your perfect opportunity to bring people together and raise money all in one go!
A penny drive is most likely the least expensive fundraiser out there! All you have to supply are the buckets or jars the pennies will go in.
Your penny drive can last for as long as you’d like and you can organize it in just minutes! Just recruit some fundraisers to carry around your jars and give donors information about why you’re fundraising. You can even set up a change drop off station to simplify the process and form teams to make some competition.
Don’t forget to promote your fundraiser through flyers, social media, word of mouth, and emails!
Bring your whole family out to help your neighbors and community!
Start a lawn service where you mow lawns and trim hedges. You can even water the potted plants on the porch. Spread the word about your new service through social media, emails, and word of mouth, but start with your next-door neighbor to get the ball rolling.
All you need is to pull your mower, hedge trimmers, and hose out of your shed. No new supplies needed, but don’t forget your wagon to pull everything!
A potluck is an easy community activity that turns a meal into something fun and is a great opportunity to raise money!
Invite your friends and family to cook something to bring along. You may want to start a signup sheet so you don’t have too many plates of brownies and no mashed potatoes. Find an area large enough to host your event. You’ll need to set up tables and chairs for eating and to set up the buffet!
You can charge an entry fee or charge per plate.
A 50/50 raffle is the perfect fundraiser to hold at a bigger event and the bigger the raffle, the better.
The more people who get involved in your 50/50 raffle, the more money is donated and the bigger the prize is for the winner! During the event where you decide to conduct your 50/50, you’ll need to go around and sell tickets to attendees. (You can offer discounted bundles of tickets.) Then, the money collected is split in half and the winning ticket holder gets half of the donated money and you get the rest.
All you need to get started is a roll of raffle tickets!
Spark some friendly competition and hold a trivia night!
You’ll start by picking a date and location for your game. Look into hosting it at a local restaurant, and you can ask the business if they’re interested in donating a portion of their proceeds for the night. Then, you’ll need to plan out your game. Figure out the categories, questions, and how you’ll organize the scoring.
Don’t forget to promote your event via social media, emails, and of course, word of mouth. Charge an entry fee and put your community’s know-it-all’s to the test!
Dodgeball is a great and active way to raise money while inspiring competition.
Have individuals form teams and register to compete. The team with the most players left standing at the end of the round progresses to the next and so on, until one team wins the tournament. You can charge teams an entry fee and charge a fee at the door for spectators.
Hold a concession stand at your game and remember to set a time limit for each round of dodgeball so your event doesn’t last longer than an afternoon. Don’t forget to promote your event so you draw in the biggest crowd you can.
A themed party is a simple way to raise money and have fun. Choose whatever theme you want. It can be seasonal, or inspired by a movie, sports team, or recent event. Be sure to pick a family-friendly idea.
You can give attendees a discount on the entry fee if they show up in themed costume. For example, an attendee in pirate garb might only pay $5 for a ticket while someone in jeans and t-shirt might be charged $8. You can also hold a costume contest! You’ll need to find a venue, make a playlist or hire a DJ, and decorate or your themed party!
Don’t forget to promote your event so everyone knows about your party and theme. Make sure you have someone manning the door during the event.
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There’s no need to raise a minimum amount, meet a deadline, or pay penalties if you don’t reach your fundraising goal. You get to keep what you raise, minus any fees.
Reach out to your friends and family members with Fundly’s amazing social integrations. Let your Facebook and Twitter followers know about your family’s campaign and use email to get in touch with even more supporters!
This couple is looking to adopt a child from Thailand. As their campaign’s description explains, adopting internationally can be quite costly. They’re trying to raise $30,000 for adoption-related costs. To date, over 50 donors have helped this couple raise more than half of their financial goal.
The best part of this family’s crowdfunding campaign is the updates that they share. They post photos and in-depth statuses about the progress of their adoption process. This encourages people to stay engaged with their crowdfunding campaign and donate more!
This family’s crowdfunding campaign was set up to help six children after their father suddenly passed away. In just a short amount of time, their community rallied around them and helped raise nearly $3,000 to help them and their mother during their difficult time without their father and husband.
The family set this campaign up and asked people to donate in lieu of sending flowers. Additionally, the organizer is Facebook verified, meaning that the crowdfunding campaign is legitimate.
If you feel comfortable with it, you should upload images and videos of your kids or family to your crowdfunding campaign’s page. This shows supporters exactly what their money is going to and helps them connect to your family’s cause or project even more.
Learn more about shooting and posting great crowdfunding photos.
In addition to photos and videos, you should tell your kids’ or family’s story on your crowdfunding page. Whether you’re raising money for a medical expense or to take your kids to Disney World, let donors know why the campaign is important to you and your children.
Check out these examples of great crowdfunding descriptions.
Once you’ve uploaded images and videos and told your family’s story, it’s time to spread the word! You can easily share your crowdfunding campaign on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and send family and friends the link to your campaign via email.
Learn more about sharing your crowdfunding campaign with your network.
Keep your friends and family members updated on the progress of your kids’ or family’s crowdfunding campaign and don’t forget to thank them for their support once it’s over. Your updates and acknowledgements can even include images and videos!
In just a few months, we were able to raise enough money to send my son to college! I never thought that crowdfunding could work so well so quickly.
After our baby was born two months early, she had to stay in the hospital for a little while longer. The costs were overwhelming, but our friends and family members (and Fundly!) saved the day.
We knew that packing up and moving our family to another country wasn’t going to be cheap. But thankfully, our friends and family members helped us out by contributing to our Fundly campaign.
Every crowdfunding campaign can use a little help every now and then!
Whether you need advice about shooting and uploading crowdfunding photos, writing descriptions and updates, or sharing your fundraiser with your friends and family members, we’ve got your back.
Click below to learn more about the top seven crowdfunding tips that can be used for all types of fundraising efforts and campaigns!
You’ve heard the stories about fundraisers surpassing their goal, but how often does that really happen?
The answer? More frequently than you might think! In fact, individuals and organizations often meet and exceed their goals when they use Fundly to set up a fundraiser and share it with their friends and family members.
Check out these ten crowdfunding campaigns that all exceeded their fundraising goals by sizable margins in just a matter of weeks!
Crowdfunding has been used to raise money for everything from creative projects to medical costs and more!
Why is it so popular? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that a crowdfunding campaign is insanely easy to set up and share with your friends, family members, coworkers, and other peers.
See for yourself! Take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding and learn how you can make the most of this fundraising craze!
Fundly is dedicated to providing you with the tools you need to raise money for whatever your cause may be.