Thanks for visiting our suggestions for fundraising event ideas for charity – we’d love to hear your ideas for additions to our list of over 101 ideas for raising money!
If you’re aiming to raise a specific amount of money – then it may be possible that a single fundraiser could help you come up with the necessary funds.
The choice of ideas is wide and will very much depend on your organisation, volunteers or staff, and target audience – clearly a Museum would aiming at a rather different client base than say a high school – and you’ll need to bear in mind what sorts of events people are likely to pay for and enjoy.
Here’s a few suggestions:-
Art auction or exhibition – for a school this could be students artwork, for professional organisations organise either one artist or a group of artists to come and show their work in your venue.
Commission can be up to 25%, possibly more, so if the works are going for thousands of dollars (or pounds) you could make good money. Of course, you’ll be taking money on the bar as well and that can be nice little earner too.
Christmas events – concerts, fashion shows, musicals and plays – this is the season to be jolly and to make a lot of lolly!
Dinner dance or ball – this can be a high priced ticket item. Organised well with a good venue and professional organisation, you can raise plenty of funds to donate to your chosen charity or non-profit group.
Garden party – you may have to be English to appreciate this – but you don’t have to be English to arrange it! Why not have your own imitation of the Queens annual party with a marquee or tent, cocktail dresses for the ladies and suits or DJ’s for the men.
Lay on some jazz, classical music or anything the audience are likely to appreciate, splash out a little on the refreshments and pray for sunshine!
Hawaiian Luau – people love to do something different and this can be a great event for a warm summers evening.
Jazz evening – ideal for those long summer evenings, sitting in the warmth of the sunshine, listening to jaz and enjoying drinks and conversation with friends.
Sponsored events – these can be sane or outrageous.
From a sponsored run, swim, race, eat or famine – from sky diving to abseiling – or some event which highlights your cause.
These are just a handful of our suggestions – for more ideas, download over 101 fundraising ideas.
How to Plan for your Event
One of the biggest concerns, apart from raising money is how to plan a professional and successful occasion which people enjoy that also makes money for your organisation.
It’s worth getting together a team to work at planning – this will also help as different team members will have different skills to offer.
Charity Events – A Checklist
Whilst this may not be 100% comprehensive, here’s an idea of the steps you’ll need to take:-
- Get a team together
- Brainstorm ideas and come up with a shortlist of suggestions
- Using your shortlist of three – look at the money side of things and see which has a potential to make the most money
- Get a calendar and work out three to six possible dates that may work
- Choose one event
- Create a budget – financial management will be crucial to having a successful fundraiser
- Select a venue
- Allocate tasks to team members – publicity, money management, on the day organizing, venue location, tickets, etc
- Arrange the next meeting date to check up on progress
Charity Golf Days, Awards and Tournaments
If you’re a golf fanatic, one of the most popular events can be to run a charity fundraiser based around golf.
Although this requires a significant amount of organization and management, running an annual event like this can contribute significantly to your coffers as well as raising the profile of your cause.
Whether it’s a serious tournament or a fun day – having prizes, shields and awards is a fun way of celebrating at the end of your day.
Using a Fundraising Event to Bond a Group
A fundraising event is a great way to bond a group of people. You obviously are doing it for a good cause and that is a very good thing, as well. Fundraisers are great ways to make your team or business stronger.
One of the reasons why fundraisers help bond a group of people is because you have to work together, in order to, achieve a common goal.
That goal is to raise as much money as possible, for a good cause. It is building a teamwork environment and that is very important for both teams and businesses.
I used to play sports and my coaches would always preach teamwork. You can some really talented individuals, but you won’t win just because of individuals.
You will win when you play as a team and everyone on the team is pulling their weight and buys into the team concept. After many years of playing and watching sports, I have found that to be so true.
I’ve also worked for plenty of different businesses and they always seem to preach teamwork. Teamwork is also vitally important to the success of a business.
Everyone must be on board and working together towards a common goal. You just can’t have some people doing their job and working hard and have some people not doing their job and slacking off.
Another reason why fundraising is great for team building is because the results can come so fast. When you are a team, you have to practice and practice and then you have to play many games. When you work at a job, it takes many, many days to build that teamwork and see results.
When it comes to a fundraiser, you can run an event in a weekend or even a day and see results, right away. At a fundraiser, you don’t have to worry about losing a game or losing your job. All you have to worry about is working as a team, in order to, raise money for a good cause.
More and more teams and businesses are using fundraisers to build team unity and I think that you will continue to see more of this, in the future.
It is just a great way to build up confidence for your group members and a great way to do something great for your community, at the same time.