Fundraising ideas

Build community and explore your city with a themed art, food, or experience crawl. Collect registrations on your fundraising event page, and partner with the featured venues to benefit from a percentage of ticket or food sales at each stop. 

Who has the cutest pet in your community? Host a photo contest to find out! Invite participants to submit a photo of their four-legged (or feathered or scaly!) friend for a set donation amount. Then, open up voting to the public—each vote can be a small donation. Crown a winner, raise funds, and flood everyone’s feed with cuteness.

Invite food trucks to a big game or event and ask them in return to donate a portion of all food sales to your team. To really sweeten thesponsorshipopportunity, offer benefits for these small businesses, like free marketing and publicity.

Invite student-run bands to rock out for a prize! Charge entry fees and offer rad, donated prizes for the winners. Have each band create a team fundraising page, and encourage attendees to cast their votes for their favorites bands with a donation! 

Host a pasta party where you serve spaghetti, salad, breadsticks, and dessert to attendees for a ticket price. Make your event even better by partnering with a local restaurant to sponsor the meal.

Organize a friendly competition between grades or classes to collect the most pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Just grab a few jars and encourage students to find some loose change to get started! 

Host a virtual family movie night using Teleparty (formerly Netflix Party) on your favorite streaming platform. Collect donations before or during your fundraising event, and make it more interactive and fun with movie trivia questions throughout the evening. 

Partner with local eateries and provide tasting kits for participants to enjoy at home for a small fee. Then, host a livestream tasting experience.

Launch a trap-neuter-return fundraising campaign to help reduce the number of stray cats and kittens in your community. 

Make your fundraising goal visible with a fundraising thermometer, so supporters can see how their contributions are moving you one step closer to your goal. 

Turn kids’ finger paintings and drawings into custom calendars—or transform them into keepsakes like photo books, mugs, or t-shirts. Sell the merch using a fun, eye-catching auction or fundraising page.

For National Pet Week, host a pet competition! Ask people to send in photos of their pets to be judged in categories like Funniest Pet or Most Adorable. Charge an entry fee and partner with local businesses to sponsor prizes.

Invite supporters to submit their entries via your supporter feed for an engaging way to send in photos alongside their donations.

Organize a jump-a-thon where participants collect pledges for every jump—or every minute they keep jumping. It’s a fun, high-energy way to raise money while fostering community and a little friendly competition.

Grab your walking shoes and show cancer who’s boss with a charity walk or hike. Charge a small entry fee and encourage teams to raise additional funds through peer-to-peer fundraising.

Invite a local restaurant to contribute or have volunteers create a menu for a tailgate. Sell entry tickets and offer some fun merch or special treats at an additional price to bring in extra dollars.

Ask supporters to “give up” a small indulgence—like their morning coffee—for a set amount of time and donate those funds to your campaign instead. 

Create a fundraising page to share challenge ideas, set suggested donation amounts, and post updates or donor shout-outs to keep momentum going. 

With text-to-donate, raising funds is as easy as sending a text. Display your shortcode at fundraising events, share it on social media, or add it to signs so your supporters give using their mobile devices right on the spot—no matter where they are.

See for yourself how easy it is! Text “DEMO” to 53-555.

This fundraising event can be a fun gathering for parents—or a chance for grownups to drop off their kids for a few hours in exchange for a donation to your cause. Charge an hourly rate or flat “entrance fee” and give caregivers some priceless peace and quiet.

Branded t-shirts, hoodies, totes, or water bottles are a tried-and-true way to raise money and spread the word about your organization. Set up an online store and sell merch at community events to increase visibility and donations.  

Create individual pages for the animals you care for and invite your supporters to donate to become a “Zookeeper” for a group or specific animal. Zookeepers receive regular updates on their animals and special access to events and volunteer opportunities. 

Take part in Giving Tuesday or create your own giving day in which you mobilize your community to reach your fundraising goal in one day.

Keep your supporters invested in your progress with a goal bar and campaign updates that highlight milestones, matching gifts, and special shout-outs throughout the day.

Host a tournament featuring the most popular video games. Charge entry fees for participants and offer donated prizes for winners. To make it digital, livestream the event so participants can play—and cheer each other on—from home.

Add some extra competition to your golf tournament by awarding a prize to the longest drive. You could even ask a company to sponsor the award to bring in even more funds for your cause.

Incentivize supporters to invite friends and family to sign up for a membership during a specific period of time. Offer discounted rates or additional perks, and accept recurring donations on a monthly or annual basis.