Non Profit Fundraising Ideas

Let us share with you our non profit fundraising ideas. We like to "think outside the box" and you should too!

Top 4 Non-Profit Fundraising Ideas

Every single day, non-profit organizations are fighting for survival. No, this is not the same challenge that for-profit businesses are facing. For-profit businesses have a regular source of cash since they’re offering their products or services for a fee.

On the other hand, non-profit organizations are expected to survive, even prosper, even if they don’t have the benefits of having a steady source of income.

I can see a lot of people who own non-profit’s bobbing their heads in acknowledgement while reading this post. Are you one of these people? You understand how it feels because you’re experiencing it. So how can you raise money? Should you just quit? 

Well, you have to remember the fact that your non-profit organization is fighting for an amazing cause. This cause relies on your organization which is also dependent on you.

Accept the challenge and use this list of fundraising ideas as a start. With this list, you’ll find a lot of ideas that have been used for decades. They’re so effective that they still work now. These tips have stood the test of time and that’s comforting.

Of course, you’ll also find several unique fundraising ideas on this website. These ideas are exciting, fun and fresh! These unique ideas can easily capture the attention of people and that can lead to a lot of support for your next fundraising event.

For now, let’s talk about the best fundraising ideas for non-profit organizations:

1. Donate a car 

Donate a car? Why would you donate a car if you’re trying to raise funds? Here’s what you need to do:

·          Find a local car dealer who’s willing to sell a car to you at a discounted price. 

·          Enter into an agreement with him. Ask the dealer that you would like to be loaned the car to put on display. In return, you’ll advertise the dealer’s information.

·          Set up a raffle. Display the car at a high-traffic area in order to entice people to buy raffle tickets. Employ the help of everyone in order to sell more tickets. Make it their responsibility to sell a fixed number of ticket booklets. Make sure to make your calculations beforehand to make sure that you earn substantially more than the selling price of the car. 

·          As soon as the raffle is done, pay for the car and award it to the winner. The dealer’s happy. The winner is happy. The organization is has its money. It’s a classic win-win-win situation.

As an alternative, you can also find people who are willing to donate their old cars for free. Believe me, there are a lot of people out there looking to take back precious garage space. You’re basically doing them a favor by taking their clunkers off of their hands.

2. Pizza fundraiser 

Who doesn’t like pizza? It seems as if everyone loves pizza and this is why this is a sure-hit. Pizza is one of the most popular fundraising ideas. Make it unique by adding a twist to it.

Are you near a big college or university? Every second, hundreds, even thousands of stomachs are growling in the dorms. No hungry college student will say no to pizza.

Here’s what you need to do:

·          Team up with the most popular pizzeria in town. Ask them for special discounts since you’re going to buy in bulk. Tell them that it’s for a good cause and there’s a good chance that they’ll agree to it. Besides, they’ll get a lot of publicity. Just tell them that if someone from the college or university calls them for delivery, they need to tell the caller that someone’s going to knock on their doors and sell pizza.

·          Enter the dorms and knock on dorm rooms. Sell pizza by the slice or by the box. Since they don’t have any time to go out and grab dinner, they’ll be more than happy to buy a box or two.

·          Make sure to do your pizza fundraiser on a weekday. This way, you can be sure that most students are in their dorm rooms.

3. Discount card fundraiser 

This may seem complicated but it’s actually very easy. This works best if you’re part of a large group with many volunteers. Here’s what you need to do:

·          Look for a big business willing to team up with you. Supermarkets are the best choice.

·          Ask them to set up a special discount card fundraiser for you. Basically, you and everyone in your group will support the business. As mentioned, a supermarket is the best choice since everyone needs to do their grocery shopping anyway. Every time you or your colleagues do business in the supermarket, the discount card will be swiped and it will accumulate points. These points will later on be converted to cash.

·          This is one of those fundraising ideas that are win-win. You accumulate points that can be converted to cash and the business gets a lot of customers. 

4. Candy bar fundraiser 

This strategy works all year but it works best before Halloween. Parents are expected to have candy treats at home for all the ghosts, witches, and goblins in costume. Knock on houses and sell the candy bars. Make sure to remind them that Halloween is coming up. You’ll save them the trouble of having to go to a supermarket to buy the candy bars.

This also works right before Valentine’s Day. Every year, countless of men forget to buy gifts for their partner. Save them from a sure fight. You’ll give them a chance to give a gift that supports a good cause. There’s no Valentine’s Day gift better than that.

With these fundraising ideas, it’s really hard not to succeed with your fundraiser. You’ll be able to raise the money that your non-profit organization badly needs. There are a lot of other fundraising ideas on this site so feel free to look around. Take action now!

More Non-Profit Fundraising Ideas

One of the key things to remember is to get funds from several places, rather than just one.

This concept is the key to success.

Apply for grants at local Trusts & Foundations, but also approach local companies for match-funding, as well as the more traditional fundraising routes. This will increase your chances of reaching your funding goals.

Acquiring publicity for your campaign can be the make or break in raising money from larger companies and individuals. If they perceive that this is a large and important project and they feel they will gain publicity for giving to you, they're far more likely to write that check!

It's important to have a strategy - if you can get one small funder on board, this may well make it easier when approaching organizations for larger sums.

This gives you credibility that someone has already been happy to support you. Sometimes success in obtaining a relatively "small" grant of $5000 can help open the door to a larger grant of $100,000 with a larger funding body.

If you don't feel that you can approach a small funding organization, then raising a similar sum yourself can help show others your own commitment.

As a charity or non-profit , gain goodwill and enable people to consider match funding or even sizeable donations .

Creative Non Profit Fundraising Ideas

How an organization raises funds can vary depending on their structure and membership . You'll need to be clear on your charitable objectives - possibly having some kind of mission statement written down for both yourself and potential funders.

Here's a few examples:-

• one large charity which benefits cats has over 50% of it's income from bequests ;
• a local church derives all of it's income from it's congregation
• a small charity that has income from a wide variety of sources including rental , membership, an occasional bequest and government grants

None of these are necessarily right or wrong, it's just how they have developed over the years and shows the emphasis of their fundraising campaigns.

Putting together your own strategy will probably be a team effort - evaluating the strengths, weakness and opportunities in your organization and catchment area.

From this will come ideas and a plan which will grow and develop with each new fundraiser you have in post , whether salaried or volunteer.

Fundraising Companies in the USA & UK

There are thousands of companies that aim to help you with your fund raising efforts. We can't hope to list them all, but here's one or two that we've found interesting and some directories that you can use to find just about anything !

EveryClick.com - an easy to use shopping or web-browsing site that can help raise £££'s for your charitable organisation. It's been successful for big names such as Cancer Research UK , Diabetes UK & Kings College Hospital .

FundraisingWeb - comprehensive directory that allows you to browse by State , Country , fundraising ideas and products

Fundraising Directory - browse through their bank of ideas from A to Z, from Apparel to Trees & Wreaths

Non Profit Recommended Resources

Car donation - people don't only want to donate money, sometimes they genuinely can't, but would like to consider donating items such as their used vehicle , particularly when they've just replaced it with a new car

Golf Tournament Events  - how to create an annual event that will draw crowds and raise funds

Storytelling for Grantseekers: The Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising  - If you've been given the task of writing a grant proposal but haven't been offered any training, this book is aimed at helping you to overcome the hurdles commonly experienced by fundraisers.