Fundraise in your community

What is a community fundraiser?

Community fundraising is a way of bringing the community together to raise money for a specific cause or charity. There are a whole host of different types of community fundraisers, from bakes sales and raffles, to walks and obstacle courses. In general, community fundraising is carried out by volunteers who support the aims of the charity within the community.

What makes a good community fundraiser?

A successful community fundraiser is one that brings people together, with the aim of putting smiles on people’s faces, raising funds and increasing awareness of the selected charity or cause. To ensure your fundraiser is successful, you need to plan in advance and spread the word about what you’re doing.

How to organise a community fundraiser?

When it comes to organising a community fundraiser, you need to set a goal and a purpose, as well as deciding who your target audience is. For example, is your fundraiser aimed at business owners, families, young people or a group within your community?

Once you’ve decided the basis of your fundraiser and who you want to attend, you need to assign roles and responsibilities within your organisational team, giving everyone an idea of how the event will run. This is a chance to work together with the contributors, volunteers, staff and vendors who will all help to make your fundraiser a success.

How to promote a community fundraiser?

If you want people to know about your fundraiser and more importantly, attend, it’s essential you promote it. Whether that be through flyer distribution, social media posts or through the local press, you want to share a consistent message that will build excitement up for the event.

When you promote your event, you need to remember to include all the key details – who, what, when, where and how.

What are the most successful community fundraisers?

The most successful fundraisers come down to a range of factors, from the event itself, to the promotion and the execution. In general, sports events, auctions and bakes sales perform well. However, the success of your community fundraiser will come down to the planning, promotion and fulfilment from all involved.

Easy Fundraising Ideas for the Community

Raffle
The raffle is a classic fundraising technique, offering those taking part the chance to win a prize for just a small contribution. If you can collect together some good prizes, it’s sure to be a hit and will help raise money for your chosen charity.

Community Bake Sale
Everyone loves eating cake and treats. Make some enticing and delightful delicacies and hold a bake sale in a local community centre or shopping area. Make sure to include crowd favourites like brownies, cupcakes and cookies!

Clothes Collection and Sell
Many charity shops sell clothes and you can find some fantastic items for a fraction of the price you’d find at designer or high street stores. Selling clothing that you or others in the local community no longer want and putting it towards the charity fund would be a great way to raise money. It’s also a great way to bring people together.

Games Night
Competitions can be a fantastic way to get people involved and interactive for a cause. This could be a quiz night, a board game evening or even an eSports tournament. Getting people to buy tickets for a games night where there’s a prize to be won will encourage them to learn about the cause and have fun, while giving you the opportunity to raise money.

Lemonade Stand
During the summer, cool refreshing drinks are in high demand. Selling a cup of lemonade or chilled water in a popular location will not only help you to raise money, but it will also keep your community cool and hydrated.

Gift wrapping
Gift-wrapping Christmas presents can be a very time-consuming and fiddly process, so many might welcome the opportunity to pass the task on to someone else. Offer to wrap presents within stores to save time. The best time to strike is during the final fortnight before Christmas when last minute shoppers will welcome the help!

Event Style Ideas

Film Friday
Hosting a weekly cinema night could be a regular way of raising money, while bringing the whole community together. Find a local community room or even a room at someone’s house and play a popular film. You can sell tickets at a small price and also provide popcorn and snacks for attendees to buy.

Charity Car Wash
Cleaning a car isn’t most people’s idea of fun, that’s why car washes are so popular. Why not set up a car wash stall so local car owners can get their car cleaned and contribute to a charity at the same time?

Yard Sale Sunday
As the saying goes, ‘one person’s garbage is another’s gold’. So why not bring together all the unwanted items within the local community and give others the opportunity to buy them? All money raised can then be donated to your chosen charity.

Break-a-World-Record Party
There is always excitement around breaking a world record. Making it into the Guinness Book of World Record is an honour to hold high! So, find the record you want to break, gather together your local community, and raise money for charity while you support them.

Photo Exhibition
We’re living in a snapshot world – 3.3 billion pictures are taken every day across the world. Getting people to donate their pictures for a photo exhibition and selling tickets for others to see them would be a fantastic way to raise money. You could also consider selling prints of the images used to raise additional funds.

Community Carnival
A community carnival is always an exciting and exhilarating way to raise funds while bringing everyone together. Have a parade, play music and get some dancers to entertain the crowds. See if any local businesses are willing to sponsor the event and raise money by having space for local business stalls and advertising.