People often ask us how they can get involved, or what ways other people have used to raise funds, so we put together this list. Because why shouldn’t fundraising be fun?

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 DROP. You can start your own fundraising page and use it to track your progress.

2. 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. You could even do a virtual carwash where the car owner gets to donate the money they would have spent washing their car and the car stays unwashed for the time being.

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 DROP.

5. 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.

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 DROP.

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 DROP.

10. 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.

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. Start a stainless steel water bottle fundraiser, or pick something up from our Cafepress online store

18. 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.

19. Read our founder Stacey Travis’ blog read about our work on the ground and then if you feel supportive you can always 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 DROP.

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 DROP.

23. Stage a “Services Auction.” Volunteers agree to perform certain tasks: raking, shoveling, dishwashing, housecleaning, babysitting. Money collected from winning bidders is donated to DROP.

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 creating a username and password for this site. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas.