60+ Fundraising Event Ideas for Nonprofit Organizations

Community potluck

Community building is a key benefit that comes with hosting a fundraising event. Bring your community together to bond over a common cause—and good food—with a potluck.

To pull off this event, you’ll encourage everyone to contribute their best dishes and then gather to share a meal. Make sure to give everyone plenty of time to sign up to bring something so you secure a variety of main dishes, sides, desserts, and beverages.

When the big day arrives, your community will come to your venue (a park or other spacious area works well). Then, everyone can fill up their plates with an array of food and chat about your organization’s cause while eating.

Attendees will cover the bulk of the costs by providing the food for you. All you have to do is find a suitable venue, secure tables and chairs, and potentially line up some activities or music. With low overhead costs and a highly engaging atmosphere, a community potluck can easily become an annual fundraiser for your nonprofit.

Travel raffle

You’ll need some great contacts to pull off a travel raffle. But if you do, one or more lucky supporters will experience the vacation of a lifetime. 

Get your staff together to brainstorm some popular getaways. For the prize packages,  you should at least secure airfare and accommodations, but it’s also recommended to plan activities and experiences to fill out the winner’s travel itinerary.

Then, work with your team to secure the various trip items as in-kind donations. If your organization has connections to a travel company or airline, you could start looking for flights and accommodations through them. There are also organizations that specialize in providing travel packages for nonprofit fundraisers that you can research.

Once the package is finished, set your raffle ticket price and start advertising. You can host a reveal party to pick the winners’ names or combine the raffle with another fundraising event. Either way, make sure the winners have a way to finalize the details of their vacations as easily as possible through your nonprofit or your sponsors.

Golf tournament

Charity golf tournaments put the fun in fundraising. Your organization can enjoy sunny weather, beautiful scenery, and bountiful funding.

For your golf tournament, you’ll need:

• A course to play on.
• A tournament date, plus one or two backup dates in case of inclement weather.
• An event planning team to help attract sponsors and participants.
• In-kind donations for event day needs, like golf balls and beverages.
• A plan for the closing ceremony and awards.

When the big day arrives, make sure you have systems in place to handle registration efficiently and get everyone out on the course as smoothly as possible. Wrap up the tournament with an awards ceremony for the top performers and a brief presentation about how the event funding will advance your nonprofit’s purpose.

5K walk/run

5Ks are easy to promote, easy to secure supplies for, and therefore often have a high ROI. They appeal to many supporters, as well as those in the community who might never have heard of your cause. Casual joggers, road race enthusiasts, and mall walkers all have a place at this event. 

In addition to entrance fees and merchandise sales, you can also raise funds through a peer-to-peer campaign. Through your campaign site, participants can create their own pages and solicit donations from friends and family members. Participants will raise extra money for your cause in addition to spreading awareness. Even if those they reach out to don’t donate to or attend your current race, they might participate in the future.

One-of-a-kind events

Stand out from the crowd by hosting an annual one-of-a-kind event. These events often play off of your cause in some way and are unique to your nonprofit, which makes them especially memorable. Plus, with your cause at the center, you have a built-in strategy for raising awareness.

Some one-of-a-kind events that have worked well include:

• Car smash fundraisers
• Kiss-a-pig opportunities
• Sleep-in-a-box nights

With these events, you can be as creative as you want. The only requirements are that the event has something to do with your cause and that it provides you with some method of raising money, of course.

Trivia tournament

Many people enjoy a good trivia competition, so chances are, your school’s students will as well! Pick a night and host a tournament for teams of students to compete in. Charge an admission fee, and consider raising extra funds by selling concessions or event t-shirts.

You can develop your own rules for the event, but it will need some structure. Ask your event team the following questions as you plan:

• How many rounds should we have?
• How many students should there be per team?
• What topics will trivia questions cover?
• How will students answer the questions?
• Who will write and ask the questions?

If you’re hosting a tournament for elementary school students, it’s best to divide up the competition by grade to ensure fairness. However, middle schoolers will likely be fine competing against all other middle schoolers, and the same goes for high school. Offer prizes for the top finishers in each division—appealing rewards often make more students want to participate.

School-wide yard sale

In most cases, the larger a yard sale is, the more likely visitors are to find items they want to purchase. Take this principle and run with it by hosting a school-wide yard sale! Ask students, parents, faculty, and staff to donate their gently used items for the sale, then set up tables outdoors or in the gym and invite the local community.

See if you can get some refreshments and snacks donated and sell them to increase your revenue. Whatever doesn’t sell from the day can then be given to a local charity that accepts the kinds of used items that you have.

"I won't come down until..."

Talent show

School lock-in

Haunted house

Alumni happy hour

Casino night

Alumni networking dinner

Student variety show

Couch raffle

Throwback Thursday dance

If there’s one thing college students love, it’s reminiscing about the recent past, whether they lived through it or not. Tap into the popularity of the Throwback Thursday concept and hold a dance themed around the 90s or early 2000s. Fundraise by charging an admission fee and collecting additional donations on-site.

Campus carnival

Pub crawl

Speed dating

Date night auction

Fashion show

Jail and bail

Virtual road race

Virtual bake sale

Viral video challenge

Custom eCard campaign

Skills clinic

Have your players coach a skills clinic for younger athletes in the area. Parents will gladly donate to your team if it means a healthy and active day for their kids.

Group the kids and have them rotate through mini lessons for each position. Each mini lesson should focus on fundamentals, in addition to position specifics. Have everyone play in scrimmages for the second half of the day, with the clinicians partly coaching and partly playing alongside the kids.

The plan for each clinic will vary according to the sport at hand, but they’ll all roughly follow that format—skill-based lessons and then practical applications, all while fundraising for your team.

Obstacle course

Heavy lifter helpers

Bowl-a-thon

Bowl-a-thons work well as sports team fundraisers because they’re active events that appeal to all skill levels, from competitive experts who have their own bowling balls to those that prefer to bowl with bumpers and everyone in between.

Have competitors in your bowl-a-thon collect donations and pledges leading up to the event using peer-to-peer fundraising. Participants can set up their own campaign pages to keep track of all of their donations in one singular location that easily feeds back into the main fundraising pool for your club. The page is shareable via social media and email, maximizing your event promotion capabilities.

Donors can give a set amount prior to the event, pledge a certain amount per game, or pledge based on a participant’s score. You can also fundraise by charging an admission fee, selling concessions, and collecting additional donations on-site.

Wacky sports tournament

If you’re an athletic organization, it’s a given that your members and supporters are into sports. Why not capitalize on that passion for your fundraising efforts?

Provide donors with a unique opportunity to play a sport they likely haven’t before, like Quidditch or canoe jousting. The event will appeal to their competitive natures and allow them to use their athletic abilities in a novel way.

The first step to pulling this one off is to make sure you have all the right equipment to play the game. For example, if you were hosting a Quidditch match, you would need broomsticks and athletic balls of varying types and sizes.

Charge individual participants an entry fee and pick teams the day of, or have full teams sign up and raise money through a peer-to-peer campaign. At the end of the tournament, present the winning team with a prize.

Hoops for hope

With hoops for hope, your supporters can show off their basketball skills all while raising money for a good cause!

This event is best held as part of a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. In the two or three weeks leading up to the event, individuals can share their personal donation pages on their social media sites. Friends, families, and other peers will donate by pledging a monetary amount for each basket made. 

For the actual event to work, you’ll need:

• Lots of basketballs.
• An available basketball court
• A buzzer.
• Volunteers to keep the time, record the number of baskets made, and collect balls for the participants.
• The help of excellent peer-to-peer fundraising software.

During the event, each supporter will have a set time limit to make as many baskets as possible. The more baskets they make, the more money they’ll raise! If you want to heighten the (friendly) competition and incentivize your participants even further, offer a prize to the person who makes the most baskets.

Work-a-thon

Have youth from your organization offer to help finish odd jobs for those in the community. For example, volunteers could:

• Mow lawns.
• Rake leaves.
• Walk dogs.
• Help cook meals.
• Clean swimming pools.
• And complete any other odd jobs donors can think of.

You can host the event as a one-time only day where all the volunteers are available, or make it a fundraising event series and offer up workers every Saturday for a month. Ensure that those outside of your organization’s network learn about the event as well, so you have the largest donor pool possible. 

Have your volunteering workers collect donations on behalf of their services or seek out pledges for hours worked. You’ll be creating a wonderful cycle of community service.

Pop-up restaurant

What if you could pick up a home cooked meal and help your organization raise money at the same time? You can with a pop-up restaurant fundraiser! 

Pick a busy weeknight, like Thursday when there is more work the next day and people are already tired from the first half of the week, and cook a meal to sell for an affordable price. Your biggest cost is going to be the ingredients, but if you buy in bulk you can easily make up the costs.

The meals can either be premade and easy-to-heat like roasts and casseroles, or freshly made and ready for serving like a barbecue buffet. Once you successfully execute one pop-up restaurant, you can host them again and again with a different food option each time.

Wreaths and wrapping

Set up shop outside popular stores during the holiday season and offer your wrapping services. Offer wreaths as well to spread even more cheer.

People will be thrilled to get their gift wrapped before they even leave the parking lot, but they’re going to expect quality, so recruit your most gifted cutters, folders, and tapers. Gather an assortment of paper options and ribbons for your customers to choose from. Either charge a minor fee for the wrapping or wrap for free with a prominent donation jar.

As far as the wreaths go, try to get them partially donated or buy in bulk to cut costs. Sell them on the day of your wrapping station event and continue until you’re out of stock. When the holidays finally arrive, your wreaths will be on doors, your wrapped gifts will be under trees, and your donations will already be working toward more great things in the new year.

Caroling for a cause

Your church probably already has groups that sing carols each December, so it’s easy to incorporate fundraising into the mix. To step outside of the traditional door-to-door caroling model, offer up your singers for carol-grams. Interested parties can send your carolers to various friends and family with specific song requests, and you’ll charge according to how many songs they want you to sing.

Promote the fundraiser to the neighborhoods that you’ll be visiting beforehand so that residents can be prepared. Once it’s underway, your group will get sent to offices, restaurants, schools, and other community spaces, spreading holiday cheer wherever you go.

Pictures with Santa

Pictures with Santa is the perfect fundraiser for parents and kids alike. Kids will enjoy getting to meet their favorite holiday character, while adults will love not having to wait in long mall lines to capture their holiday memories.

Have a volunteer from your organization dress up in a white beard, red suit, and Santa hat. You’ll also need the volunteer services of a photographer with a good camera to provide high-quality, professional-level photos.

Schedule the event for a weekend near the beginning of December, and find a good place to set up a photo booth. For maximum authenticity, decorate the booth with faux snow, candy canes, and a Christmas tree.

Set a donation amount that each family must pay to get their picture taken with Santa. To raise even more funds, you can also offer to print and frame photos. Additionally, make sure you have a way to accept credit card donations and payments from mobile devices in the likely event that congregation members won’t be carrying cash.

Night at the museum

A night at the museum event is a special after-hours fundraiser that you can adapt to whatever level of formality you want, from a black tie event with a sit-down meal to a family-friendly sleepover with carnival games and movies.

Take advantage of your Night at the Museum fundraiser to reward museum members. You can offer special perks to participants in your membership program, like early registration access or discounted tickets.

This kind of fundraiser relies mostly on the cost of admission, but it’s also helpful to set up donation boxes and solicit donations in person during the course of the event.

Local artists auction

An art auction consisting of work donated entirely by local artists is great for the art museum hosting the event and the surrounding community as well. The event will foster relationships between local artists and the museum, showcase new talents, teach the public about what is happening culturally in the area, and promote the museum itself, all while raising money.

Curate the event and display the pieces like you would a new exhibit. Invite members of the community, including your museum patrons. Your patrons can even help promote the auction themselves through their social media pages, especially if you create a Facebook event or a hashtag for the event.

At the auction itself, highlight the artists’ stories when discussing each piece of art. People will be more inclined to bid if they feel connected to the work. Have museum staff on hand to guide thoughtful discussion and provide talking points about the work on display.

Ensure the event appeals to a museum regular while still being accessible to a first-time patron. The auction is there to raise money, but the event is about promoting local artists and building long-term relationships with community members.

Family fun day

Once a month, host a family fun day fundraiser. Aim for a day like the second Saturday of every month so that parents and children can attend together.

These are family fun days, but they’re geared towards the kids, so make them both fun and educational. If your museum is an art museum, teach painting classes. If your museum is about the history of your state, have the kids complete a scavenger hunt for different state landmarks.

Additionally, design tours geared towards children. If you handle field trips, your tour guides will already have the script.

Happy parents who discover your museum through this fundraiser could be high-quality donation prospects that you might not have otherwise found. Once a few families find out and attend, word will spread, and your monthly program will be packed. Use the family day to initiate relationships with the parents while the kids are playing.

Galas

Galas are a museum staple. People host everything from weddings to proms in museums, so if you already have the location, you can take advantage of the venue to fundraise.

Most galas are formal events with food, entertainment, and socializing. Your event can be themed around one of your permanent or visiting exhibits, but make sure that the people in attendance know what cultural efforts their money is funding.

Begin planning early and form a staff and volunteer committee to get everything that you need accomplished. Be careful with your budget, as the fundraising component has to be your first concern. Try to keep expenses low by securing in-kind donations and tiered corporate sponsorships. You’re already ahead of the curve with your venue!

You'll also need to plan how you're going to raise money during the event. Many fundraising galas incorporate silent auctions for this purpose, in addition to selling tickets and collecting donations on-site. However you decide to raise money during your event, make sure your volunteers and guest speakers can show guests just how easy it is to give!

In-house competitions

Who doesn’t love a little healthy competition? Capitalize on employees’ desire to have fun and compete against each other by turning it into a fundraiser.

Allocate a set amount of time for the fundraising period and divide your office into teams. 

Depending on your office’s current makeup, you can split the teams according to departments, or try mixing and matching staff to create groups that don’t get to work together as often or know each other as well.

As far as donating the funds, you’ll have some flexibility. You can:

• Pick a charity beforehand.
• Have each team fundraise for their own charity.
• Let the winning team choose where the funds should be donated.

The event can be anything from an in-kind donation drive to a peer-to-peer campaign, and it can take place over a week, a month, or even a few months. You can also piggyback onto a larger event at the close of the competition, like a local charity walk or run. No matter what idea you choose, employee engagement in this type of fundraising event will be high!

Recycling drive

If your office wants to raise money for environmental organizations, like land trusts or conservancies, a recycling drive is the perfect event for you. This fundraiser is as much about cause awareness as it is about the money brought in.

Have employees work to gather as many recyclable items as possible from friends, family, neighbors, and the like. If you want to broaden the scope of the event, you can even advertise the drive and hold a collection day for those in the community to drop off their items.

At the end of the drive, bring all the cans and goods to your local recycling center and exchange them for a cash reward. Then, donate the funds to an environmental organization of your office’s choosing. Can drives combine a volunteer spirit with the practicality of straightforward donations, all to benefit the environment.

Leadership challenge

Candy jar guessing game

Give it up challenge

Dollars for dares

Flash mob

50/50 raffle

Online petition

Tree planting party

Pet de-stress day

The non-event event

Cause week