Fundraising Authority Logo Stacked Transparent
  • Home
  • About
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Basics
  • Archives
  • Webinars
  • Books
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Basics
  • Archives
  • Webinars
  • Books

Fundraising Ideas

  • Home
  • Fundraising Ideas
  • Creative Fundraising Ideas for Non Profit Organizations

Creative Fundraising Ideas for Non Profit Organizations

  • Posted by The Fundraising Authority
  • Comments 19 comments

Every school, church, and charity should be using the tried and true methods of raising money: individual giving, events, direct mail, grants, etc.  But what happens when those fundraising sources run dry?  What happens when your group is trying to raise more money for new initiatives, or trying to fill in the gaps where some old methods have started to fail you?

The answer is creativity – stepping outside the box and testing new methods of raising money for your organization.  Not every tactic will work for every group, so testing is key, but every charity should be constantly expanding its fundraising repertoire and testing new tactics.  In this article, we present three creative fundraising ideas for non profit organizations:

1.  Minor Donor Groups

Almost everyone involved in fundraising has heard of major donor groups… but have you heard of minor donor groups?  Minor donor groups target smaller givers—those who normally give $50-$500 per year.  Obviously, what qualifies as major giving will vary for each organization.  Use minor donor groups to target smaller givers with the goal of motivating them to stay supportive of your organization and give at a consistent level each year.

Much like major donor groups, minor donor groups should have a catchy name and a small list of membership benefits (such as an e-newsletter just for the group, a bumper sticker, etc.)  The two groups differ, however, in the amount of time and resources you want to spend on group organization.  For example, where a major donor group might meet once per month or once per quarter, you may decide to hold only one minor donor group meeting each year (an “annual meeting.”)

2.  Affinity Fundraising

Building affinity fundraising groups is similar to building major and minor donor groups: you are putting together a network of people who will support your organization and raise money on your behalf.    The difference is that with affinity fundraising, you are putting together a group of people who have something in common with each other (an “affinity,”) which forms part of the foundation of the group’s  efforts.  For example, you may have a lawyers group, a young professionals group, or a Cleveland group.

Because affinity fundraising group members share something in common, they often grow virally, with members inviting new people who share the group’s common interest to join, your efforts are multiplied beyond the time and other resources you spend on the group.  For this reason, affinity fundraising networks are one of my favorite fundraising ideas for non profit organizations.

3.  Super Events

O.K. – you’re already holding events, aren’t you?  But are you holding “super events?”  Probably not! Super events are a fundraising tactic that some non-profits have started borrowing from political fundraisers.  With these events, you recruit lots of event hosts to hold a small fundraising event on behalf of your charity on the same night, and all around the same theme.  The events are often tied together by a conference call with the non-profit’s key supporters, board chair, or executive director, or by a live Internet event or video call.

Super events work because they leverage your efforts… in many cases, the amount of time you would spend on supporting hosts who want to hold small ($500-$5,000 net) fundraising events may not be worth the return.  However, using super events, you can support a network of hosts who are each raising money for your group, with much higher returns.

For example, you may hold a super event to launch your new fundraising campaign where 10 event hosts each hold an event and raise an average of $2,000 for your organization.  If each host held a separate event scattered throughout the year, your staff may spend a total of 30 hours supporting these events (3 hours spent X 10 events).  With a super event, your staff may only spend 10 hours supporting the whole effort, and raise the same amount.  In fact, super events normally raise more money than individual events, because of the increased buzz around the effort.

Well, there you have it… three creative fundraising ideas for your non profit organization.  Now it’s time to go out, get outside your comfort zone, and see what works for your school, church, or charity.

FacebooktwitterredditlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Tag:Fundraising Ideas

  • Share:
author avatar
The Fundraising Authority

Previous post

What to Look for in a Fundraising Database
November 16, 2009

Next post

How to Increase Your Charity's Fundraising Profit
November 17, 2009

You may also like

A 10 Step Guide to a Throwing a Successful Fundraising Event
30 December, 2020

Charity events are a popular form of fundraising. While they can be great money makers for an organization, they can also be time consuming and expensive. The success of charity …

Why Your Non-Profit Should Avoid #GivingTuesday Like the Plague
23 November, 2020

Have you heard about Giving Tuesday (or, as most people write it, #GivingTuesday)?  It’s a noble effort by those in our profession to transform the holiday season from take, take, …

3 Great Unusual Fundraising Ideas
20 November, 2020

When small and midsized non-profits are looking for new fundraising ideas, they are usually given ideas that require a lot of work for only a little return.  Things like carwashes, …

    19 Comments

  1. sally carmean
    November 28, 2012

    Hi
    just starting out with the fundraising sideof a non=profit org.{homeless shelter for Animals}. Thanks for the free booklet . I am at ground O about the fundraising side of this org. in hopes that this will be a fun experince and learning one at the same time!!!! Glad your out here with information.
    Sincerely Sally

  2. The Fundraising Authority
    November 28, 2012

    Sally,

    Glad you are enjoying the resources on our site. Be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter as well as check out our “Fundraising Basics” tab.

    Best of luck with your fundraising career!

    Joe

  3. SuzieDee Pardue
    August 20, 2013

    Thank you! Thank You! THANK YOU! This gives me an idea of where to begin. We are lucky enough to have started a ministry that has grown exponentially in a very short time and we are scrambling to fill a need and continue on helping each month. We weren’t sure how to tap into the resources in our community and desperately needed this information in an organized and concise manner. We so appreciate you guys…continue to do your great work…Thank you! Thank You! THANK YOU!!!!

    SuzieDee

  4. The Fundraising Authority
    August 20, 2013

    You’re welcome! Thanks for your comments!

  5. Peter
    March 27, 2014

    I am with a non profit that sells products made by people living with disabilities. We are interested in finding companies that would carry our products and in turn make them available for sale by school age children like sally foster, the girl scouts, boy scouts, etc.have done over the years.

    thank you very much,

    peter

  6. The Fundraising Authority
    March 27, 2014

    Peter,

    In my experience, the only way to create partnerships like this is through “boots on the ground” work – getting out and making presentations to companies (including showing them the business case for carrying products like this) until you find one that fits.

    Joe

  7. Susan
    July 9, 2014

    Hi, Joe. I would love to know more about affinity circles. We are eyeing this as a fundraising strategy for our board. Do you have any supporting documents that you are willing to share to help us get started? Or any other resources you can point us to? We’d like to launch our own version of Affinity Circles by August’s end.

    Any help you can provide would be much appreciated!

    Thanks!

  8. The Fundraising Authority
    July 10, 2014

    Susan,

    Thanks for your comment. Affinity groups are run much like donor clubs and giving societies. You can find a 2 part series we did on donor clubs here: https://thefundraisingauthority.com/donor-cultivation/donor-clubs-part1/

    Thanks again!
    Joe

  9. Thomas
    September 28, 2014

    Joe,

    I wanted to know if you had any advice for getting larger donations for a community based youth mentoring program that offers services and programs to youth 10-19 years old. We are two years old and received our 501c a few months ago. Funding is slow right now and the donations that come in are very slow as well. Thanks in advance

  10. The Fundraising Authority
    September 30, 2014

    Thomas,

    The best way to raise start-up funds is from your friends, family, colleagues, business partners, clients, vendors, etc. and from the friends, family and colleagues of your board of directors, early donors, staff and volunteers. There’s no easy path to larger donations. You need to start with your inner circle and work out from there. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it — these folks will become your biggest supporters and lifelong donors!

    Good luck –
    Joe

  11. Debbie
    January 13, 2015

    We are holding a fundraiser and I am looking for a name and some ideas on what will bring in the $$$ and the people. The theme is something like (Magical, pull a rabbit out of your hat) etc…This is event is to raise money for Meals-on-Wheels, feeding our senior citizens.

  12. The Fundraising Authority
    January 15, 2015

    Debbie,

    Thanks for your comments. Honestly, what will raise the most money for the event is (a) finding sponsors who will write large checks for the event, and (b) selling lots of tickets and getting people to the event. The name isn’t nearly as important for those two goals as putting a team together to get on the phone and call donors, and to get out and do meetings and ask people to sponsor the event or sell tickets.

    Joe

  13. Judy
    February 8, 2016

    I am with a hospital auxiliary that raises funds for patient care in the hospital. Hospitals are a very unique venue. It’s very hard to hold certain fundraisers at the hospital in our big, cold auditorium. We do have a massive book sale every year that seems to work well. Do you have any tips or advice on how we can raise money and awareness of our fundraisers? Thanks.

  14. The Fundraising Authority
    February 8, 2016

    Hi Judy,

    Hospitals normally raise a significant amount from personal fundraising – meaning cultivating and asking for gifts from those who have benefited from your services, whether they are former patients, family members of patients, etc. That’s the best way to raise money for most hospitals.

    That being said, if you are going to run a fundraising event for the hospital, I agree that you will normally want to hold the event offsite, not in the cafeteria or hospital auditorium (if you have one). Your should be reaching out to your current donors and former patients to serve on the host committee for the event as well as to sponsor the event with significant gifts.

    Best of luck with your fundraising efforts!

    Joe

  15. Judy Hunt
    February 8, 2016

    Thanks for your quick response. We do have a Foundation that does the type of fundraising that you refer to. We actually have to come up with different donors from the corporate sector. Also, we are not allowed to reach out to patients and donors. All the money that the Auxiliary raises strictly goes to patient care at the hospital. It’s a unique challenge.

  16. The Fundraising Authority
    February 8, 2016

    Judy,

    Yes, not being able to reach out to donors and patients is a significant challenge. In that case, you will need to rely on the members of the auxiliary to start spreading the word – you’ll want to make sure that (1) each member makes a donation, and (2) that each member is willing to serve as an ambassador for the hospital/auxiliary, and goes out and starts to bring in their friends to learn about your work. You can hold non-ask events or other cultivation events and ask members to bring 2-3 people each, and start building a fundraising network that way. Then, once someone comes and hears about your work, you can eventually ask them to donate, and then later ask them to bring their friends to an event or to a meeting to hear about your work. It’s a slow and deliberate process, but it does tend to generate loyal donors.

    Joe

  17. Judy Hunt
    February 9, 2016

    Excellent advice. Thank you so much.

Fundraising Authority Logo
  • Home
  • About
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Basics
  • Archives
  • Webinars
  • Books
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Basics
  • Archives
  • Webinars
  • Books
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
Envelope

Copyright © The Fundraising Authority 2021

Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy