Charity Fundraising Ideas

Charitable organizations are constantly faced with the hardship of raising money for their cause. The poor economic state in the past few years has effected charity fundraising events like never before. Many charities have been forced to shut down, and others have lost the ability to help the community around them.

The dwindling donations have forced many organizations to come up with new fundraising ideas for charity than the traditional bake sales or auction fundraising.

While many have failed, there are still many great fundraising ideas that charitable organizations can use to receive donations.

Following are some great ideas that many organizations are using for charity fundraising.

Selling scratch cards has always been a successful charity fundraising idea. Scratch cards are like coupon books. Inside each book, buyers will find coupons that offer great savings at local restaurants, retail stores, and businesses. The coupons in the book are more expensive than the scratch cards themselves making them an easy sale.

The only downside to selling scratch cards is the investment required to get started. Organizations are required to buy the scratch cards before they sell them. If a charity buys too many scratch cards and is unable to sell them, they may have to take a loss. This can be prevented through careful planning and even pre-selling.

When planned and executed the right way, selling scratch cards can be a great charity fundraising idea. Scratch cards are very common among high school fundraisers, but their effectiveness can be seen in all charity fundraisers.

Here's one that will bring back some memories. Lollipop sales! You'll find that this isn't the most effective charity fundraising idea, but it sure is a great way to involve everyone in your organization in earning money.

Don't be surprised if your small children are looking to help, because this fundraising idea will work better when kids do the selling!

Take two lollipops, which cost around fifty cents, and tie them together with a ribbon. Now get your kids to go out there and sell them for $1.00. There some profits in each transaction. A small amount obviously, but every little bit counts. And what a great way to involve your children in charity fundraising.

Bake sales bring in an incredible amount of charity donations each year. This also gives your organization the opportunity to involve everybody in your fundraising event.

There will need to be people to setup, cleanup, promote the bake sale, handle payments, and of course bake!

The most important part of a bake sale is the pre-sale promotion. Make sure your neighbors and friends know about the event. It's hard for people with a sweet tooth to say no to a local bake sale especially if it's for a good cause!

Be sure to bake anything you can think of to have a wide variety. Muffins, cakes, cookies, brownies, pie and more! The more your charity bakes, the more there is to sell increasing your charities donations. This is a simple charity fundraising event that will bring in great success.

Fundraising via the Internet has grown substantially over the years due to the dwindling economy and new technology. Organizations have the opportunity to receive charity donations each time their members make purchases online.

There is no extra price to this service. Each time someone makes a purchase online, they have the option to have a percentage of the total price be donated to a charity of their choice. These charity donations do not come directly from online merchants, but rather third party companies that offer this service.

The unique aspect of online fundraising is that people can support their favorite charities when they make their normal, everyday purchases. The only difference is that part of their purchase is being given back to the charity. There is no charge to using a service like this, charities are simply to sign up, inform their supporters, and receive donations.

GivingJOE.com is one of the leading fundraising companies in this market, and is one of the few companies offering this service for free. Their unique service offers over 400 different online merchants to shop from. These are big name merchants such as Wal-Mart, Expedia, Fandango, iTunes and more.

This is a great charity fundraising idea, so next time you shop online, be sure to sign your favorite charity organization up so they can start receiving donations.

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Magazine sales have become a very popular idea for charity fundraising. The goal is to sell as many magazine subscriptions as possible.

Each time someone purchases a magazine subscription through your charity, the organization receives a small donation.

This is a great fundraising idea for your charity, because people spend so much money on magazine subscriptions annually. The trick is to get people to buy their subscriptions that they would normally buy from you, greatly benefiting your charity. Selling magazines is an effective fundraising event with almost zero startup costs.

Church fundraising has always been a very high priority in religious establishments. The majority of all religious institutions operate on charity donations throughout the year. The economic state has caused many church fundraising ideas to go down in flames.

Churches finance their mission work, community help, and other programs solely through charity fundraising, whether through tithes or charity donations. Their inability to collect funds as they have in the past is causes churches to cut costs, forcing them to cancel mission trips, community service, and other beneficial actions the church is known for.

For churches already struggling, it is important that these organizations choose charity fundraisers with no startup costs. The best way for churches to earn these donations may be to simply ask their constituents for charity donations.

When churches explain to members and those in the community of their efforts to serve the community around them, support people in need, build shelters for the homeless, or other great goals, people are willing to support the cause. When people can no longer support their church by giving donations, online fundraising becomes a great way to raise money.

Charity fundraising events are incredibly important, especially with the way charity donations have decreased in recent years.

In order to plan a successful fundraising event, there are five important aspects to follow after you decide on your charity fundraising idea.

1. Plan - Set your goals for your fundraising event. How much are you trying to earn and how much are you willing to spend to earn that. Don't forget, your charity is trying to earn money not spend it so be wise in your planning!
2. Organize - This is the most important part of a charity fundraising event. Do you have a backup plan if things go unexpected, such as bad weather. Be sure to sign up enough volunteers to run the fundraiser and make sure they know what they're doing before they arrive to the fundraiser. Communication is a key step to organization and your charity fundraiser running smooth.
   
3. Respect - Be sure to set high expectation for all volunteers. They should treat everyone with respect, whether or not they are making donations. Donors are willing to give more when they're happy!
4. Advertise - Be sure that people in your area know there is a charity fundraiser going on. Your organization won't bring in very many donations if nobody shows up.
5. Motivate - Motivate everyone working the fundraiser event. When people are motivated they tend to perform better. One successful fundraiser could be enough to fund your charities entire year!