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Top 8 Ideas for Fun in the Summer Month’s Fundraisers

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summer fundraisersTop 8 Ideas for Fun in the Summer Month’s Fundraisers

By Dr. Thomas R. Reich

Summer is here, and the sun is back to make us feel great, feeling good makes us feel in a charitable mood.  Here are some fun in the summer month’s fundraiser ideas with little or no cost to help your organization have fun in the summer month’s fundraisers and raise some money for a good cause at the same time.summer fundraisers

Always remember, members of your organization work hard as volunteers or as employees for very little because they believe in the cause and in your mission.  If you can make the process of getting donations fun and a little different, everyone wins.  Make this summer fun for all. Set a goal that is attainable and beat that goal. A good team likes to exceed their goals, not just meet them.

So before you jump in the pool, dive into some fun in the summer months fundraisers!  When you make it fun, the vacation never ends.

fundraising1)      High Tech Recycling Drive:  First do your research and find online and local recycling companies willing to buy certain high tech items from a nonprofit running a recycling drive.  You will find cell phones which can be a big money generator. They are sold to foreign countries and the recyclers are willing to pay nicely for used phones.  Empty printer cartridges and old computers are favorites as well.  Next, go to local businesses and ask for donations of obsolete tech items they may have.  Make sure to have a professional image and a well thought out program; this will enable you to be very successful.

2)      Guided Tours:  You may be in a small town or a large city, it is summer; family and friends are summer fundraiservisiting your hamlet.  Who knows the area better than you and your organization? Brainstorm and find the places of interest that have not been totally exploited.  Now put together a walking tour and market it to local government as well as local hotels and business.  You get your volunteers out in the open air and the visitors get a view of your fair city or town they would never have seen or a part of history they would never have heard of otherwise.  One suggestion that works well, a garden tour of the best gardens of a historic neighborhood, giving you the chance to show off beautiful gardens and a bit of history as well.  Another suggestion; hold a best garden competition to select the gardens on the tour!

summer fundraiser3)      Chili Cook-off:  With this fun in the summer month’s fundraiser, you can piggy back onto a local fair or other summer event to make that event even more fun.  Everyone has something they are best at and you will find many think they have the best chili recipe.   Now that it is summer many are growing peppers in their garden and want to show off.  Organize the event with prizes and two sources of donations.  There should be an entry fee and a fee for spectators to taste and judge the event as well as official judges.  Make sure to try for corporate sponsors for the signage around the event, table rental, etc.  Suggested prizes include best overall, best sweet chili, hottest chili, audience pick and best looking chili.  Also, have a competition for chili peppers themselves, best pepper, most unusual and strangest.  Fun in the summer months Fundraisers in summer don’t get better than this one!

4)      Summer Fun Pet Pageant:  I remember as a kid winning a blue ribbon for my dog KoKo in a kid’ssummer fundraising dog show. It made my summer and I still remember it.  Pet pageants are easy and fun for all concerned, make sure to have lots of first and second place ribbons and many categories so everyone goes home with something.  It is not about close judging but more about the entry fees and making the participants feel good about themselves and their pets.  Have lots of categories; if you have hamsters and only one shows up, well, you have a winner.  If 10 participants show up, you have best in show, first, second, and then best coat, largest, and so on; you get the picture.  Make the entry something reasonable like $10, get the ribbons wholesale, and you will make funds for your organization. All will enjoy a day in the sun and everyone goes home a winner!

fundraising in summer5)      Local Celebrity Sporting Event:  Before you say, “But mayor so and so can’t play baseball and such and such a club is doing a golf tournament”, remember we are thinking out of the box.  Think of a fun sport that is enjoyed by all in your local community. Things like miniature golf, bowling, or croquet.  Make arrangements with the bowling alley or if it is croquet, with a local mansion or public building with a destination lawn that will attract people.  Then comes the interesting part. Get local celebrities to join in the fun. Individuals like local TV and radio personalities, town officials and local CEOs are the usual fair.  You then charge for entry to the event and get sponsored teams to compete against the celebrities.  Spice it up by allowing betting with play money on various parts of the game and the biggest winners get to bid on prizes.

6)      Local Artist Silent Auction:  This is an event to add another activity to an existing event fun in thesummer fundraiser summer months fundraiser.  Fundraisers need to be fun and this one lets artists feel good about themselves, donate their art to a good cause and donors to walk away with something for their donation.  You get artists from all ages and types of art, kids, teens, adults and the elderly in any media they work.  Set up the art in a well displayed area; allow the silent auction to go on for at least a full day, encouraging the donors that it is not the art but the donation to the cause.  Artists get to have their art displayed to the public and possibly to have a piece of art actually sold for the first time, donors bid the art up in private, and everyone wins!

fundraising in summer7)      Host a Series of Films:  Find a great group of films like early James Bond or Hitchcock and show them one per week, or as a 1 week festival and maybe get some shorts to begin the show.  If you have a local film historian, ask them give the intro of each film.  Charge admission and sell gourmet treats as concessions.  This fun in the summer months fundraiser includes doing quirky things, and seeing old movies on a big screen is a summer favorite.  For even more of summer flair, see if you can get the city to let you set up the whole thing outdoors in a park or on the grounds of a local museum.

8)      Outside Adult Spelling Bee:  Here is a fun in the summer month’s fundraiser that is sure to be a summer fundraiserdelight for the kids.  Organize a spelling bee for adults and the kids will make up the audience, and then have a spelling bee for the kids.  Finally pick the best of each event for a show down between the kids and adults for a spelling bee champion.  Donations for entry or do a sponsorship arrangement. You can also charge for audience seats in the big event between kids and adults.

 

fundraiser for summerLet this summer be a big fundraising opportunity for your organization. Use innovative thinking and creative strategies to make the most out of fun in the summer month’s fundraisers the most effective they can be in the coming months.

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CharityNet USA can help, call them at 407 857.9002 or click the image for more information

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    11 Easy Nonprofit Fundraisers, New Ideas for Great Results!

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    easy nonprofit fundraiser11 Easy Nonprofit Fundraisers, New Ideas for Great Results!

    by Thomas R. Reich PhD

    1)      Super Healthy Smoothie Event – Get a table or stand at the local fair, farmers market, church bazaar or flea market and sell fresh in-season fruit smoothies.  Have the fruit and other ingredients donated and have all your members and volunteers bring blenders.  You can even have local celebrities volunteer as super smoothie makers for an easy nonprofit fundraiser!

    2)      Embarrass the Director Event! – Have donors and staff pay a dollar a vote, with no limit on the number of votes they can buy, to decide from a list of 5 embarrassing fates for your good natured director.  Their fate could be shaving all facial hair, die hair an embarrassing color, wear a clown suit for a day, trade jobs for a day with volunteers, clean the floor of the local city hall, etc.  The easy nonprofit fundraiserpossibilities are endless for this easy nonprofit fundraiser and only you know what can bring in the most votes.

    3)      50/50 Raffle – This is a no brainier  You get a local printer to donate professional looking raffle tickets and sell chances to win for, say $1 each, with no limit to the number of tickets that can be purchased.  Here is the hook, the prize is ½ the total intake of funds on this easy nonprofit fundraiser.  This way you can periodically announce the size of the prize as it grows, and there is no chance of your organization losing money or insulting a donor because of low ticket sales for the prize they donated!

    easy nonprofit fundraiser4)      A Seasonal Gift Wrap – The hook here is to set up gift wrapping tables for events other than Christmas in local high traffic shopping centers and malls.  Examples of events for this easy nonprofit fundraiser are Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Secretary’s Day.  Again, the possibilities are endless and the free advertising you may get from the mall or shopping center could be stellar!

    5)      Holiday Email Fun! – In the past, Western Union would send special messages for a fee to loved ones at various events and holidays.  This elegant luxury is mostly lost today, but with this easy nonprofit fundraiser you can sell donors the chance for a personalized card to be sent to a loved one with an added gift that the donation made to send the E-card is credited to the recipient as a donation to your organization made by the sender in the receivers name.

    6)      Mystery Admirer- This event can be a lot of fun. Each donor has a personal note delivered to someone they secretly admire, or someone they openly admire.  Here is the catch in this easy nonprofit fundraiser, the one who is delivered the anonymous note must make a set donation to find out who the admirer is, this donation includes a return message; it could go on all day!easy nonprofit fundraiser

    7)      Mile of Change – In this vary easy nonprofit fundraiser, the organization buys many roles of masking tape and presents the tape in varying lengths to local businesses.  The idea is to stick coins of 1 cent up to 50 cents to the tape – end to end.  The business that makes the longest strip of tape full of coins wins a nice donated prize. As an added option, have 3 or 4 prizes available, but only if the prizes are donated.

    8)      Skip a Meal for Hunger – Donors agree to donate at least the value of 1 nice meal and in exchange they skip the meal to demonstrate their solidarity to stamp out hunger in this easy nonprofit easy nonprofit fundraiserfundraiser.

    9)      Sell Casual Day! – Work with local businesses to get donations from their employees and get the sponsor companies involved to make it a competition for the highest level of donations.  The winning companies get an unscheduled casual day, possibly all participating sponsor companies will win if a high enough funds are gathered.  This easy nonprofit fundraiser costs nothing, encourages friendly competition, and gets the most dedicated employees a fun cost free brake; win/win!

    10)  Give to Give it up! – Sponsors donate a minimum amount that can be put up to encourage the victim to participate, to have a friend or boss give up an annoying habit. In this easy nonprofit fundraiser, easy nonprofit fundraiserwives can donate to have husbands agree to not smoke, employees to have a boss shave or weir a T-shirt, the possibilities are endless.

    11)  Helicopter golf! –  Sell Golf balls for $10 each with a unique number, then, send them all up in a helicopter which will then hover over a hole on a local golf course.  All the balls are dropped from 500 ft and the one closest to the whole wins. Alternatively, have 3 or even 10 prizes, but all prizes must be donated.  If you don’t have access to a helicopter, you can get the local fire department to hover the tall cage over the hole, it is all just good fun after all.  This may not be a really easy nonprofit fundraiser, but remember, this kind of event does not happen every day, milk as much publicity for your cause and the donor golf course as possible, maybe even organize a golf tournament around it, but that is a different blog!easy nonprofit fundraiser

    easy nonprofit fundraiserCome back in a few days for part 2: 9 Ways to Improve Results from Fundraising Events!tp://troblinreich.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/367324913327263807_bRwwGjiW_c.jpg”>11 Easy Nonprofit Fundraisers, New Ideas for Great Results!

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