Once you find a creative way to fundraise, make sure you ask, ask, ASK your family, friends and co-workers to donate to your event. Encourage them to reach out to their networks (through social media and by word-of-mouth) to help support you.
Art Sales: This one is a perfect way to get children under 14 involved. Have students produce great works of art and have a show. Parents and friends buy back their budding artists’ masterpieces.
Auction: Do you know anyone that would be willing to donate items or services to raise funds for your event (Tickets to games, theatre tickets, concerts, premium parking spots for a month, lunch with a Senior Executive, shadow a senior person for a day, coffee with your boss, etc.)?
Baby Photo Competition: Ask all your colleagues to bring in their baby photos. Scan the photos and pin them up or circulate a sheet that includes all of them. Charge your colleagues a fee for a chance to match the photos to the worker. Award a prize for the most correct answers.
Bachelor/Bachelorette Auction: Have local singles auctioned off for a date. Proceeds go to your event fundraiser.
Bad Hair Day: Pay a fee to go to work sporting a crazy hairstyle. The craziest hairstyle wins a prize!
Bad Taste Day: Who can wear the worst outfit to work? All entrants can pay a fee. The winner (or loser!) wins a small cash prize and the rest of the funds are donated.
Bake Sales: Hold a Friday bake sale so employees/friends have treats for the weekend. Ask for items to be wrapped attractively so they could be given as gifts. An alternative to this is to take orders for baked goods. Provide the order form; this ensures that people are getting what they want.
Balloon-o-gram: Hold a Friday bake sale so employees/friends have treats for the weekend. Ask for items to be wrapped attractively so they could be given as gifts. An alternative to this is to take orders for baked goods. Provide the order form; this ensures that people are getting what they want.
Barbeque: Buy buns and meat in bulk and/or on sale, and then charge your neighbours. Be sure to tell them about the cause!
Best/Worst Tie: Charge your colleagues/friends a fee to enter a best or worst tie competition. Offer a prize and have everyone vote. For extra fun, make it a small fashion show. Don’t restrict this competition to guys. Gals, this is a chance to putthe men to shame.
Bingo: Have a Bingo event either at work, or with your friends and family! Charge an entry fee ($10-$25), and then split the money you raise in half, and give one half to the ultimate Bingo winner, and the other half can go towards your event fundraising total! You can even ask the winner to donate their earnings to your fundraising total for a charitable tax receipt.
Birthday/Christmas Gift Pledge: Instead of your family/friends giving you gifts, ask them to pledge towards your fundraiser.
Book Sale: Ask friends to donate used books to sell from $1 to $5, depending on the title and condition.
Bottle Drive: Let people in your neighbourhood know that you will be coming around to collect empty bottles the day after New Year’s Eve, Saint Patrick’s Day, etc. Collect the bottles and turn them in to the bottle depot.
Car Wash: For really simple fundraising ideas, look no further than the parking lot. There’s bound to be someone in the neighborhood who wants their hubcaps
polished!
Change Jar: Keep a change jar in high traffic areas. All change is donated to your team fundraising totals.
Coffee Runs: Get coffee or tea for your co-workers for one week. Charge a fee for the week, agree to delivery times and put the funds you raise toward your goal!
Company Comedy: Have employees/friends bring their favorite jokes, which you then combine into one volume. Sell the books at a comedy-themed party.
Variations: favorite e-mail jokes, recipes, etc.
Cookbook: Ask your friends to bring in their favorite recipe and compile them into a Cookbook. Sell them for $10 -$15 with proceeds going to your event.
Cook-off: Have contestants pay a fee for entering their prized dishes. Have a panel of judges choose the best dish and the winner gets a prize.
Dinner: Have your fellow fundraisers host a theme dinner. Get a hall donated and have each member of your team prepare part of the meal. Sell tickets and get some entertainment donated.
Dog Wash: Everyone wants their dog to be clean, but not everyone has the ability to give their dog a bath at home, and groomers can be expensive. You can offer a low-cost dog wash for the furry, four-footed members of the community!
Donation Matching: See if your place of employment will match donations made by others, up to a set amount.
Elevator Tax: For anyone capable of using the stairs but unwilling to do so; impose an “elevator tax” for a month or so. Donate the proceeds.
E-mail Ban: Ban intra-office e-mails for a day. This can be a great way to improve staff communication, encouraging employees to talk to each other! Charge $2 to participate and impose a fine on anyone who breaks the ban.
Flowers and Plants: Sell your extra house plants or bouquets from your garden; or contact your local florist and ask them to donate a portion of sales during Valentine’s Day or any other holiday to your fundraising event.
Funniest Home Videos: Encourage employees/friends to bring in their funniest home videos or create new ones. Allot a time for showing videos. Establish a small entry fee. Funniest video wins grand prize of a donated DVD player or other appropriate prize.
Gift Wrapping: During the holidays, fundraisers can set up at the local mall or in a particular store. Valentine’s Day is another ideal time for teams to offer a gift wrapping booth. Charge $2 -$5 per gift, depending on the size of the item and number of items being wrapped.
Goodie Basket Silent Auction: Have someone pick a theme for a gift basket and encourage friends/family to donate an item for the basket. Collect the baskets and wrap them in clear plastic or cellophane and a big bow and set them out at a party for a couple hours. Supply paper and pen at each basket so each guest can bid. Highest bidders buy the baskets. Ideas for themes: baby, movie/entertainment, coffee/tea, knitting/sewing, toys, Italian cooking, bathing fragrances.
Going Without Sponsorship: Get people to sponsor every hour you go without something (e.g. coffee).
Guessing Jar: Participants pay $2 for their chance to guess how many jelly beans, etc. are in the jar. Winner gets the jar and all of its contents.
Handyman/Handywoman: Auction off a coworker or friend to perform a certain task for the day.
Heart-o-grams/Candy Grams: Sell hearts for Valentine’s Day or candy at Christmas, and deliver them to your coworker’s desks or friend’s homes.
Holiday Fun: For the holiday falling closest to your campaign, have employees decorate their offices and award a prize to the best-decorated office. Winner is announced at a holiday lunch. Each employee or department pays a fee of $10 to enter the contest.
Home Parties: Home parties are a great opportunity to get all of your friends together! Encourage asking the representative to donation a portion of the proceeds towards your fundraising goals.
Hoops Contest: Gather all your friends/family/co-workers for an elimination basketball shooting match. Make a donation of $5 -$10 to enter the match and the winner receives a prize.
Hot-breakfast Sale: Sell a hot breakfast once a week until your fundraising campaign ends. Organizers bring ingredients, and then cook the orders in the break room/kitchen. Some examples: croissant with egg and cheese for $4; add two strips of bacon for 50 cents more. Or serve pancakes, waffles, sausages, breakfast burrito, etc. For a small price, you not only get a hearty breakfast but help raise funds for a great cause!
Ice Cream Social: Raise funds by collecting donations for delicious ice cream delights. Get creative and decorate your location as an old fashioned ice cream parlor and soda fountain shop. Set up tables with a variety of board games for patrons. Play oldies on a jukebox and charge for song requests.
Inter-departmental Quiz: Choose a quiz master wisely and organize a quiz party. Examples: pop quizzes, sports or TV/film trivia, word games, etc. Vary the contests so that everyone has a chance to win! Charge a participation fee or ask for donations from participants.
International Day: Dress up in the national outfit of another country. For an added twist, ask participants to bring food appropriate to the country they’re representing and maybe even to speak the language. Charge a $10 admission fee and have prizes available for best dressed, most fluent, best food, etc.
Instagram: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words! Use Instagram to tell the story of why you are fundraising. Some of your followers maybe inclined to support your
efforts and make a donation.
Jail & Bail: A classic fundraiser. For a donation, friends can be arrested and for an additional donation can post their own bail; OR friends have a bounty placed on their head, are arrested, and are not set free until the entire bounty is raised (i.e. $100+ per inmate).
Jeans Day/Dress Pink: Send out a company-wide e-mail offering jeans every Friday for a month for $20.00 or unlimited jeans for the month for $40.00 (Be sure to check with your supervisor).
Karaoke Nigh/Competition: Find a karaoke machine and invite a bunch of friends over. Have funny prizes such as worst singer, best dressed, worst song choice, etc. Charge them to enter the competition.
Laugh It Out: Host a comedy event at a local comedy club. You get the cover; they get the drink/food sales.
Lunch-box Auction: Employees supply lunches to be auctioned in the office. Display the lunches and give prizes for the most creative, nutritional, elegant, and humorous lunch. Encourage CEO and management participation.
Mailing List: Add to your return address labels, “I’m doing <insert event name> to support the Alberta Cancer Foundation.” You can change your email signature
line to add a link to your webpage too!
Miniature Golf Classic: Have a pay-to-play miniature golf tournament, with different teams or groups of friends designing each hole. Have prizes for the bestdesigned
hole. For an additional charge, offer pizza and salad (donated by a local eatery).
Monthly Giving: Ask people who are unable to support you right away to sponsor you a set amount monthly, for example $15.00 per month.
Movie and Popcorn: Sell $4 passes for a movie you can show somewhere with a projector or large-screen TV. Provide popcorn.
Murder Mystery Night: Become the life (or the death) of the party! Charge admission and provide food, drinks and atmosphere!
Name Bead Bonanza: Take orders for personalized bracelets, key chains, necklaces, etc. for a donation.
Non-events: Get people to donate the money they would save by not going to an event.
Obstacle Course: Create an obstacle course and have a prize for the winner. Encourage local sports teams, businesses and schools to enter teams and charge an admission fee.
Office Fundraising Challenge: Ask everyone in your office to challenge each other to raise the most money. Give the winner(s) a prize: movie passes, for example, or a dinner gift card.
Office Olympics: Make up office teams and determine sign-up fees. Teams participate in events such as making paper airplanes to see whose flies the longest distance; “dressing for success,” with the best dresser named the winner; shooting crumpled paper into wastebaskets; playing department darts; you get the idea. Encourage competition between departments. Hold finals in the main lobby for all to see. Give out prizes for first, second and third place.
Office Scavenger Hunt: Hide clues around the office or building, leading to a secret prize. Participants pay a fee to enter as an individual or team. Clues are given at each checkpoint pointing to the next checkpoint. Clues can be placed in different orders to avoid teams following/copying one another. Penalties can be issued for unsafe behavior, splitting up or cheating by adding time to total.
Pancake Breakfast: Have a traditional pancake breakfast at work or in your neighborhood and either set a price or ask for donations!
Parking: Auction prime spots in the office parking lot for one-week blocks.
Pedometer Challenge: Wear a pedometer and get people to guess how many steps you will take in a day. Charge $2 per guess and the closest guess wins a prize.
Pet Service: Love pets? Walk someone’s dog for a “convenience” fee of $10 -$20.
Pot Luck Party: Invite all your friends and family over for a pot luck. Encourage everyone to donate $5 to participate and all proceeds can go to your event fundraising total.
Queen of Hearts: Start by selling tickets for $5 (or less depending on circumstance) and choose a day (Friday for instance) to have the draw every week. The winner then has 2 choices. The first choice is to pick a card from a deck of 52. If the Queen of Hearts is drawn, they win half of the money raised. If the Queen of Hearts is not drawn, 3 cards will be removed from the deck, and tickets will be sold again for the following weeks draw until the Queen of Hearts is found.
Quilts: Sell quilt squares made by all your fellow fundraisers themselves. The squares can be sold in honor or in memory of people impacted by cancer. Squares can be 4” x 4” for $10, 8” x 8” for $15, and 12” x 12” for $25, and then raffle or auction off the quilt.
Recyclables: Do a recycling drive in your area. Collect recyclables and cash them in.
Reward Points: Collect reward points and dollars by shopping at stores that offer them. Then use your points to buy a prize and sell tickets on it.
Romance: Cater a romantic dinner for two. Highest donation wins the dinner.
Silent Auction: Once you have collected silent auction items from friends, family members, and co-workers you can auction these items off. Online, over a lunch hour or at a party are all great ways to engage a large crowd.
Sing About It: Lip Sync Contest at a club or community hall. Charge $10 for admission and contestants must pay an additional $5. The winner gets half of the $5 admission paid by contestants. The door cover and the other half of the $5 contestant fee goes toward your fundraising goal.
Skip Birthday Cakes: Does your office usually buy a cake to celebrate a staff birthday? Skip the tradition this year and put the money you would have spent toward your fundraising efforts.
Snack Bar: Sell candy, chips, popcorn, soda, bagels or donuts at the office. Youmay be able to have goodies donated so that all the money raised will be used for the cause.
Spaghetti Dinner: Prepare a great dinner for students, teachers, or community members and charge a fee.
Sporting Event Tickets: Ask sports teams to donate a number of seats for their games and auction off the tickets.
Sports Shorts: You can organize a softball, basketball, touch football or bowling tournament. Teams must pay to play.
Stars in Their Eyes: Hold your own singing/impersonation contest. Spectators pay “entry fees” that can be donated to your team. If you don’t want to organize an evening event, ask each competitor to make a short video recording and load them up onto your staff intranet or YouTube account.
Survivor: Create “tribes” to compete against one another. Hold physical and mental challenges each day for a week in which tribes compete for prizes such as an extra 30 minutes for lunch, show tickets, etc. Challenges can include mini-putt games, puzzles, quizzes, scavenger hunts, etc. Charge a participation fee or ask for donations from participants.
Tailgate: Have a Monday night “tailgate” party during football season. Each person pays $10 to attend. After work, get everyone together. Serve hot dogs, wings, chips, beverages, etc. Rent a large-screen TV, and watch the game as a team while enjoying great food.
Theme Dance or Party: Hold a sock hop, beach party, square dance, or a dance for senior citizens, etc. Charge admission ($10) and have a canteen available.
Tickets on a Basket of Goodies: Create baskets themed for holidays such as Mother’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day or just everyday items for the everyday person! Sell tickets for $2 -$5.
Unique Boutique: Collect or make unique one-of-a kind items for raising funds via an auction.
Vacation Day: If you are on a team with your co-workers, ask your boss if they can offer a bonus day off for the team member that raises the most money.
Volunteer: Ask if your employer will make a donation if you volunteer.
Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Invite friends to your party and encourage them to wear their craziest pair of shoes. Serve items such as FOOT-long subs, CORN chips,
SHOESTRING French fries. Play “Blue Suede Shoes,” Kicking You Out,” “Footloose,” “These Boots Were Made for Walking” and other appropriate tunes. Charge a $5
-$10 admission fee.
Wine Tasting: Have a hall donated for the night and charge a $20 admission for guests to taste wines from around the world. As with any other fundraiser -but especially with this one –the wine must be donated and all liquor liability laws must be followed.
X-Mas Tidings: Make fresh evergreen wreathes and yule logs adorned with festive holiday bows, berries and pinecones to sell. You could also adjust this to other holidays (ex. Valentine’s wreaths).
Yard Sale of Previously Loved Items: Hold the ultimate Yard Sale. To move out the last few items, have a “fill a box for $5” sale during the last half hour of your yard sale.
Zodiac Evening: Invite a guest astrologer for a star-studded fundraiser. Charge admission for guests or receive a personal horoscope reading.