All fundraising ideas

Fundraising ideas for teens

While bake sales and car washes are tried and true ways to raise funds, they can start to feel stale over time. These fun fundraising ideas for teenagers will help you raise what you need for your band trip, sports team, or youth group community service project without repeating the same old idea. Plus, they’ll encourage friends and family to take part in reaching your fundraising goals, too.

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Thrifty fashion show

Host a fashion show featuring only second-hand clothes, which will then be on sale after the show! Charge an entrance fee, sell food and drinks, and remember to send a big thank you to everyone when your fundraising event is all over. 
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Restaurant takeover

Find a local restaurant that will host your fundraising event and donate at least 10-20% of the profits from the evening to your campaign. To really sweeten the sponsorship, offer lots of benefits for participating restaurants like free marketing and publicity. 
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Holiday market

Ring in the festive season with your own holiday market. Invite stallholders to participate for a small fee and raise funds through selling refreshments, merch, and game tickets.

Use engaging fundraising event features to make it an enjoyable experience for all—with easy online ticket sales, on-the-spot donations, and more.
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Coach dare

Challenge your coach to do something wild (like shaving their head!) if your team reaches their fundraising goal. Have supporters watch the fundraiser’s progress—and create some exciting anticipation—with an engaging fundraising page that features a live goal bar.
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Water balloon fight

Celebrate the arrival or end of summer with a water balloon fight, all in the aid of a great cause. Invite individuals or teams to pay to enter and encourage them to set up peer-to-peer fundraising pages to raise donations from friends and family members before the big day.

With team fundraising pages, their individual efforts can be tallied up with their teammates’!
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Family photo day

Partner with a local photographer and charge a fee for photo packages with themed backdrops or props. Create custom tickets with time slots for families to sign up to keep the day moving smoothly. 
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Virtual movie night

Use Teleparty (formerly Netflix Party) to host a virtual family movie night fundraising event on the streaming service of your choice. Ask movie trivia questions throughout to make the evening more interactive! 
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Eating contest

Challenge contestants to (safely) stuff their faces in a race to the finish. Sell tickets to watch and offer prizes for the winner! To gamify the experience even more, encourage contestants to create personal peer-to-peer fundraising pages where friends and family can show their support.
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Youth lock-in

Plan a good old-fashioned lock-in for your younger community members. Charge a registration fee and have chaperones on hand to supervise activities like trivia, movie screenings, and video game tournaments.

Set up an online fundraising event page where participants can register and supporters can make donations. 
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Street painting competition

Choose a theme and get permission to secure a paved area where your supporters can register to paint their own parking space or designated square.

Ask a local business to donate painting supplies, and then invite the community to vote for the best-painted square by making a donation ($1 = 1 vote) with an easy scan-to-donate QR code.
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Virtual scavenger hunt

For this totally remote fundraising event, charge a registration fee and ask participants to use their computer or mobile device to complete various challenges. Share instructions and updates and announce winners from a livestream hosted right on your event page. 
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Basketball tournament

Host a basketball tournament between different schools, teams, or departments. Sell event tickets and offer drinks, snacks, and merch using Tap to Pay.

Step things up by challenging each team to see who can raise the most. Encourage them to create team fundraising pages to track their impact and build momentum toward game day.
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Peer-to-peer

Holiday movie marathon

Create a lineup of classic holiday movies for a community movie marathon. Sell tickets, popcorn, hot chocolate, and other treats to create a delightful (and profitable!) experience. 

With user-friendly fundraising event features for online ticket sales and in-person donations, organizing this event can be as easy as hitting play on your favorite festive film.
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Auction your time or skills

Ask supporters to volunteer their special skills, then auction their time and expertise to the highest bidder!

Streamline the whole experience with the help of free auction software. Add and categorize items, manage bids, and your bidders can get real-time updates on what’s happening.
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Auctions

Walkathon

Ask supporters to lace up their shoes and gather pledges or donations for every mile they walk. 

Sell official charity gear, encourage supporters to share updates on their own personal donation pages, and award top fundraisers with exciting prizes.
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Peer-to-peer

Holiday cookie sale

Whip up some sweet treats to sell at your next fundraising event, group gathering, or around town. Consider setting up a station for supporters to decorate their own cookies or create kits for families to bring home in exchange for a donation. 

Streamline the buying process with scan-to-donate—which guest can use to make their payment instantly right from their phones!
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All you can eat buffet

Host an all-you-can-eat buffet or potluck dinner, and charge a small fee to enjoy a meal together with your community.

A free event ticketing platform can help you organize and manage your evening and check people in from your mobile device without any stress. 
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Donation drive

Set up a donation drive to collect valuable in-kind donations or financial gifts for your cause. This can be done by setting up a drop-off zone in person or collecting donations online through a fundraising page. No matter the format—make sure to share your fundraising goal far and wide to keep the momentum going!
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Recycling drive

Ask supporters to collect recyclable materials like cans, bottles, or even old tech, then use a service that helps you turn these items into cash.

Recycling drives work as great long-term fundraising activities. Keep your supporters engaged and remind them where and when they can drop off materials with your email marketing software.
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Summer day out

Raise funds and give your supporters a memorable experience at the same time with an excursion to an exciting attraction, museum, or other destination. 

Use a fundraising event page to make registration and payment easy, and add custom fields to capture important information from each participant, such as t-shirt size or dietary restrictions.
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Desk decorating contest

Choose a theme and invite all of your coworkers to pay a small entry fee to participate in beautifying their workspace. To determine the best “dressed” desk, ask colleagues to submit a $5 donation per vote on each decorator’s peer-to-peer fundraising page. Watch the leaderboard to see who’s in the lead in real time!
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Peer-to-peer

Silent auction

Swap your traditional auction for a silent one, where supporters or live audience members can bid any time before the auction ends. With a silent auction, your supporters are able to bid on items online or with their phones via QR code, making it easy and accessible for all.
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Auctions

Read-a-thon

Students pledge to read a certain number of minutes each day and collect donations for each minute read or a flat rate. To gamify your efforts, use peer-to-peer fundraising to encourage readers to compete to see who reads—and raises—the most. 
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Gift basket showdown

Using peer-to-peer fundraising, participants compete to raise the most money for your campaign. The winner gets the first pick from a selection of gift baskets.  
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Best seat in the house

Auction off tickets to the best seat(s) in the house for an upcoming performance, sports game, gala night, live concert, or other experience your group is hosting.

With Givebutter you can also create unlimited kinds of event tickets—perfect for creating VIP packages.
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Auctions
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Frequently asked questions

Motivating teenagers to participate in fundraising efforts requires tapping into their interests, needs, and desire to make a difference. Peer-to-peer campaigns can add a fun social element to any teen fundraising ideas, plus some friendly competition to keep things exciting.

Good fundraising ideas for teenagers often include activities that are hands-on. Viral social media challenges and in-person competitions like sports events and talent shows are popular choices, providing opportunities to be creative and interact with others.

Easy fundraiser ideas for teens include movie nights, craft sales, and karaoke parties, which require minimal effort and resources, making it simple for high school students—and parents—to be successful at fundraising.

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