Community Fundraising Ideas & Events

Great Fundraising Ideas For Your Nonprofit Organization

This summer & fall, try these six community fundraising ideas that any group or organization like the 4-H Clubs,The Boy and Girl Scouts, school fundraisers, neighborhood groups could do. Some are a little more involved, but if you create a Call to Action on this website we could help organize and raise funds for it!

fundraising ideas nonprofit organization

A Great Fundraising IdeaDo you have a lot of fishermen in your organization? Consider a Worm Grunting Contest. You need a moist meadow or lawn. You also need two short sticks and a bucket with moist compost per entrant. Contestants push the first stick into the ground, bang on it with the second stick and collect the worms which rise up to escape the vibrations. No digging is allowed. The one collecting the most worms wins.

Another fundraiser could be Cow Pat Bingo. The general idea is to mark off a grid in a fenced meadow and add a happy cow. You then sell tickets to the squares of the grid. Ticket holders wait for the cow to produce a ‘pie’. The ticket holder of the square chosen by the cow is the winner of a prize.

Cow Bingo

The above requires fenced land and a contented cow, not something every non-profit can round up. Easier to arrange is Chicken Splat Bingo which works well in more urban areas. Another advantage is that chickens splat more often than a cow makes a pie. You can also switch chickens more easily. You can hold several rounds in an afternoon.

If you’re looking for even more fun fundraising ideas for kids, just click here to get started!

More Fundraising Ideas & Suggestions For Your Non-Profit Organization

Consider setting up a booth at a street fair, harvest festival or flea market to let the community know more about your non-profit. Think beyond just selling tee-shirts. Pull people in by having a silent auction or raffle of donated goodies. Approach merchants and members for donations — a fishing rod. , a pizza dinner for four, a crate of heirloom tomatoes, etc.

Your booth might specialize in used books donated by members. Avid readers and people who resell books on Amazon and EBay flock to these sales. Be sure to let them know by posting your sale in libraries, on community bulletin boards and online at Book Sale Finder. Book Sale Manager.

Could you set up a healthy, gluten-free booth for all the people who have taken up low sugar, low carb diets these days? Sell watermelon slices or fruit salad, make gazpacho from fresh vegetables or sell the latest coconut water coolers to those who are looking for something refreshing but not a soda.

You don’t even need a booth for Map Donkey, a knock off of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. This game gives you the opportunity to talk about your project. If it is a river restoration project, for example, use a map of the river instead of that old donkey. Use cutouts of fish, frogs or trees for the tail. Select something on your river as the bullseye. It might be a heap of old tires you are raising funds to remove or a section of the river you want to encourage people to visit, for example.

Be sure to check out some of our other really fun fundraising ideas.