Thank you to the attendees of the Fall into Fundraising Seminar! They each shared some great fundraising ideas with us, and I have attempted to encapsulate them here for you!
Creative Events:
Hold a Limousine Scavenger Hunt: (sort of like The Amazing Race) www.coderedcaper.com
Car Rally Have luxury and vintage car owners and dealers and rental companies donate their vehicles for a car rally. Sell tickets to participate and drive or ride in the cars. Have a live auction and dinner associated with it.
Sports Tournament: Hold Volleyball or 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament: Moms vs. Moms, or have people of all ages sign up and pay as a team. Sell refreshments during the tournament to make additional money.
Festival: Create a festival with a theme that reflects your nonprofit such as a Train Festival at the Carrollton Depot Foundation. Model train groups set up displays, hold a carnival and provide booths with food vendors at the festival. Give out conductor hats and sell train whistles and model trains as well. Rent the booth space to vendors and/or ask for a donation from each vendor as a percentage of sales.
Food Truck Festival: The WT White High School community holds an annual homecoming parade. Students, parents, community members attend (1000 + people). We have invited 8 food trucks to attend this year and they have agreed to donate 10% of the proceeds to the class of 2015. The “1st annual Longhorn Food truck Festival” is sure to be a big hit!
Another way to create a Food Truck Festival: Call it A Taste of (your nonprofit’s name). Food trucks donate tastings. Local Breweries donate tastings. The charity charges admission and holds raffles etc to raise funds
Home Tour: Hold a Home Tour and sell tickets to allow people to tour local homes and take donations at each house. Some home tours also include a luncheon and hold a silent auction or a Holiday Market to raise even more money!
Sewing and Fashion Crafters can donate handmade items to be sold in the auction or sell them at a vendor booth. Some of these items can be donated to foster homes and domestic shelters.
Singing Waiter Dinner: Idea from a local Choral Group: As a chorus there are very few opportunities for our donors to interact directly with the singers. I would love to have an event where our singers serve as singing waiters at a donor appreciation dinner. Sell tickets based on the notion of dinner and a private concert and seat one singing member at each table after they have served the guests. Donors get a private show and dinner. Singing members get to meet their funders.