Fundraising Ideas
Fundraising Ideas
Fundraising Ideas
Putting the Fun in Fundraising – Fundraising ideas you might want to consider.
1. Stop buying one thing you can give up for a week (coffee, soda, fast food, candy, etc.) and donate the money you saved to DITB.
2. Organize a bake sale, yard sale or car wash.
3. Set up a jar or bucket at your school cafeteria and encourage everyone to “round off” their purchase by placing the change they receive in the container. Within a few weeks, a whole school can raise a surprising amount of money.
4. Hold a swim-a-thon, dance-a-thon, bowl-a-thon, jumprope-a-thon or similar event. Set a duration time that will make your friends, neighbors and relatives want to sponsor your efforts. The money you collect can then be donated to DITB.
5. Set up a lemonade stand or, alternately, set up a no-lemonade stand that sells tap water to create awareness about DITB’s work and to collect funds for donation.
6. Hold a game competition. It could be chess, Scrabble, or even a spelling bee. If someone brings in a Wii, you could pick an activity, like dance or tennis, and have everyone play. A local restaurant might be willing to donate a meal for the winner and a friend. Donations could come from entry fees or tickets sold to spectators.
7. Involve the local media in what you are doing. The local newspaper, TV channel or radio station would probably love to do a story on local kids raising money for water in Africa. A story like this can generate donations from lots of people, even those you don’t know.
8. Plan a “Water Cup” sporting competition: soccer, football, baseball, basketball or volleyball, for example. Have people sponsor entrants; the winning team wins a special cup, filled with water, and gets to save lives by donating the proceeds to DITB.
9. Hold an “Our School’s Got Talent” contest in which the audience buys tickets to watch the performances (and, perhaps also vote on a winner). Revenue from ticket sales will go to DITB.
10. Recycle collected bottles and cans. If a whole school, church or club is involved, they will not only be helping provide donations to DITB, they will be protecting the environment.
11. Challenge other classes to see who can raise the most money. One way of doing this is to give points for pennies, but take points away for other coins. This means you can place higher-value coins in the jars of competing classes to help your class win. If enough money is raised, the winning class would get to name a well.
12. Set up a challenge between schools, churches, scout groups or clubs to see who can raise the most money. If enough money is raised, the winner gets to have a well named after them.
13. Go to a hardware store and buy a large plastic container that will hold 20-40 lbs. of water. Set up a relay race in which the filled container is carried by each team to raise awareness of what children in Africa experience. Supporters pay to sponsor the runners, and spectators pay to watch.
14. Ask a local fast-food restaurant if you can help wait tables for a day. Collect donations in the form of “tips.” Do the same thing at other businesses by volunteering as a grocery bagger, gas-pump jockey or windshield washer.
15. Hold a Karaoke competition with an audience that has to purchase tickets to attend or pay a fee to vote.
16. Make your own bottled water and have everyone bring in their own plastic or stainless-steel water bottle to be filled each day, for a week. Charge for the water or ask them to donate what they saved on sodas or bottled water.
17. Pick something up from our Cafepress online store:
http://www.cafepress.com/dropinthebucket
18. Become our Facebook, Twitter or Myspace friend. You can even make a donation using our Causes app. at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/86742?m=c5265bc0
19. Read our blog or Twitter feed, where you can also donate.
20. Get your principal to volunteer for a school-wide auction to let someone become Principal-for-a-day. Everyone votes except the people running. Whoever is elected can make special rules; maybe everyone can wear jeans or shorts that day, or have ice cream at the end of the day. This kind of auction works for other positions at the school. The P.E. teacher-for-a-day may decide to order the other teachers to play dodgeball, for example. Charge for each vote, and donate the proceeds to DITB.
21. Ask a teacher to volunteer for a “Teacher Payback” auction. Each collection jar or bucket represents a particular sacrifice the teacher will make if that jar/bucket gets the most donations. Sacrifices might include shaving a beard, wearing pajamas to school, or singing in front of the whole class or school.
22. Organize a “Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes.” Everyone brings a gift-wrapped package; some hold silly prizes and some hold nice items donated by local merchants. Participants bid on the boxes without knowing what’s inside. Proceeds go to DITB.
23. Stage a “Services Auction.” Volunteers agree to perform certain tasks: raking, shoveling, dishwashing, housecleaning, babysitting. Money collected from winning bidders is donated to DITB.
If anyone has more ideas, please sign up as a member of this site and submit them for posting here. Who knows, your idea may inspire others to start funding wells. You can sign up by going to “Stories from Africa” and creating a username and password. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas. Also, once you have signed up, you can post on our message board.