Unique Fundraising Events Should Be Fun

By Janet Brooks


Fundraising is not the easiest activity to undertake and indeed it takes a special kind of person to elicit the response that makes people want to donate money to a cause. Often, instead of just asking for money from corporations and people, unique fundraising events are held. This is usually a good way to encourage people to give generously while they, in turn, feel that they have received something in return.

Setting up a golf tournament is a good way to elicit money from players. They find themselves in groups of four, either buying their own entry or doing it as a company donation. The charity will receive the entry fee. Small prizes are donated, with every play receiving something along the route, as well as several drinks! It's a good opportunity for local companies to donate branded merchandise such as caps and pens. At the end of the day, the winning team gets the grand prize, also donated.

Eliciting donations of really nice items such as sports memorabilia, artworks or jewellery from donors is the first step when holding an auction for charity. Tickets to the dinner event are then sold off to tables of ten or twenty participants, depending on the size of the venue and event. For the price of the entry, they will get a nice dinner and participate in the auction held over the course of the evening.

Invite local artists or street artists to participate in an exhibition where their work can be sold off. A roaming artist could do caricatures of attendees with the proceeds of those fun drawings going to the charity as well as the entry fee to the gallery.

Get local sponsors to donate prizes for a Halloween pumpkin festival. Encourage participation from the surrounding community by allowing people to buy entry to show off their pumpkins which would need to start growing from April. The winning pumpkins would get prizes for various categories, being largest, oddest, ugliest etc. Using holidays as an excuse to raise money can make it an annual community event and the chosen charity can benefit.

A really fun and unique way to raise money is through hosting puzzle events such as scavenger hunts, quiz evenings, escape rooms and so on. A skilled planner is needed to set up the scavenger hunt, often more fun if it involves driving a route. If you need to boost the coffers of an animal shelter, make the treasure hunt on site, with challenges along the way such as painting a portion of a wall, repairing woodwork or clearing a garden in order to get another clue.

The whole idea behind fundraising is to motivate companies and individuals to part with their money so that another organization or group of people can benefit. From soliciting funds for a group of students to travel to a sports event, to raising money for an animal shelter or a children's charity.

Just as the reasons for fund raising is unending, so are the ways it can be done. Getting people interested and keeping their attention and support is difficult unless the method used is unique. The aim is to inspire generosity for the selected cause.




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