Fundraising Ideas

Stop buying one thing you can give up for a week (coffee, soda, fast food, candy, etc.) and donate the money you saved to DROP. You can start your own fundraising page and use it to track your progress. Organize a bake sale, yard sale or car wash. Or even set up a waterless car wash where you hand wax peoples cars without using any water. How about a virtual carwash where the car owner donates the money but skips the wash?
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. 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. Then donate what you raise to DROP.
Set up a lemonade stand or, alternately, set up a no-lemonade stand that sells tap water to create awareness about DROP’s work and to collect funds for donation. Hold a game competition. Chess, Scrabble, a spelling bee, or if someone brings in a Wii, 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. Raise money with entry fees or by selling tickets.
Involve the local media in what you are doing. The local newspaper, TV  or radio station would love to do a story on locals raising money for water in Africa. A story like this can generate lots of donations even from people you don’t know. Plan a “Water Cup”, a sporting competition: soccer, football, baseball, basketball or volleyball etc. Have people sponsor entrants; the winning team wins a special cup, filled with water, and gets to save lives by donating the proceeds.
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). Donate the proceeds of the event to build wells in Africa. Recycle collected bottles and cans. If a whole school, church or club is involved, they will not only be helping provide donations to DROP, they will be protecting the environment.
Start a penny war. Pennies, dimes and nickels count for their value, quarters count as  minus their 25c. Each class collects change in a large jar or bottle. Put money in your class jar or put your quarters in another class’ jar. The class with the most money wins. Set up a savings or fundraising 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.
Buy a large plastic container from a hardware store that holds 20-40 lbs. of water. Set up a relay race where teams carry the filled containers to raise awareness of what children in Africa experience. Get friends to sponsor the runners, and charge spectators. 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.
Organize a “Mystery gift Sweepstakes.” Everyone brings a gift-wrapped package, some with cool gifts, & some funny gifts. Without knowing what is inside you bid on the packages. The participants have to bid on the boxes without knowing what’s inside. 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.
Like us on on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. You can even make a donation using our Causes app or start a Drop in the Bucket related page on Causes,  Crowdrise or StayClassy. Stage a “Services Auction.” Volunteers agree to perform certain tasks: raking, shoveling, dishwashing, housecleaning, babysitting. Money collected from winning bidders is donated to DROP.
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. Read our founder Stacey Travis’ blog read about our work on the ground and then if you feel supportive you can always donate.
Hold a Karaoke competition with an audience that has to purchase tickets to attend or pay a fee to vote. Ask a teacher to volunteer for a “Teacher Payback” auction. Collect money to dare a teacher to do something unusual, . like shaving a beard, wearing pajamas to school, or singing in front of the whole class or school.
Start a stainless steel or glass water bottle fundraiser, or pick something up from our Cafepress online store. If you end up doing 10 or more of the ideas about and have photos, please post them on our Facebook page. We may even send you a little prize to thank you for your support!
 

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