![\"5](\"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/app\/uploads\/simple-fundraising-ideas-title-min.jpg\")
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Many people make the mistake of thinking that fundraising is all about the money. Of course it\u2019s partly that, but it’s certainly not the full story. Sure, you can implement simple fundraising ideas, but if you forget about people \u2013 your volunteers, your donors, your sponsors \u2013 it\u2019s not going to work out in the short term or long term.<\/p>\n
People drive everything. It\u2019s the reason so many others become sympathetic to your cause or organisation and it\u2019s the reason they\u2019re attracted to your fundraiser in the first place. Even our own super simple Big Hearted Canvas fundraising opportunity<\/a> requires people power.<\/p>\n But often your cause \u2013 whether it\u2019s cancer, disability or animal welfare \u2013 can be tough for people to cope with, particularly if they\u2019re completely immersed in the struggle.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to keep your volunteers inspired, motivated and excited with creative, fun ideas.<\/p>\n But how do we design a simple idea that\u2019s also going to lift spirits? Here\u2019s a few basics:<\/p>\n 1. Low cost of start-up. It shouldn\u2019t require a massive investment just to get it off the ground.<\/p>\n 2. Simplicity of organisation. It has to be within the grasp of the talents you have at your disposal.<\/p>\n 3. Creative influence. It has to attract not just your existing supporters who probably would donate anyway, but also a wider audience.<\/p>\n Here are a few simple ideas that are sure to excite and motivate\u00a0everyone involved in raising money for your cause. Any individual or organisation should be able to implement one of these right away \u2013 with little to no planning or up-front cost.<\/p>\n People love to go behind the scenes and get the VIP treatment. Offer up \u2018backstage passes\u2019 to your organisation and give donors\u00a0the VIP treatment.. This could include:<\/p>\n This makes people feel special, so it will attract those who might otherwise ignore your pleas, and it\u2019s super-easy to organise, since all you have to do is ask your own organisation to provide access \u2013 and your own people can act as tour guides.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have anything extra special to offer by way of a tour, ask a local community organisation, business sponsor or government department to give your donors a similar VIP treatment.<\/p>\n Sometimes the oldest tricks are the best ones: Throw a party!<\/p>\n If you have a hall, school gym or, in a pinch, a volunteer\u2019s large house, organise a party and act like you\u2019re back in university and collect donations at the door.<\/p>\n All you need is the space and donated food and drink. Music can be someone\u2019s MP3 player plugged into the stereo or, for something more above board, hire a DJ (or find a volunteer).<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in a hall, bring in people\u2019s spare couches and rugs to make the space feel more like someone\u2019s living room. Then send out personal invitations to key members of the\u00a0community and make it a Friday night they won\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n Some options include:<\/p>\n Again \u2013 this can be organised in a month or less with almost zero resources. It all comes down to the enthusiasm and energy of your volunteers.<\/p>\n The larger the prize the more people happily purchase a ticket or three, but other reasons aside from the prize draw people to lotteries.<\/p>\n For one, it\u2019s a form of light gambling that people enjoy. For another, the possibility that every ticket is a winner is exciting.<\/p>\n What really makes lotteries worth emulating is the question of what happens when no one wins. Unlike a drawing or a raffle, no winner is guaranteed and the pot keeps getting bigger. This builds excitement.<\/p>\n Holding a lottery as a fundraiser for your cause, school, club or church means that each time no one has the winning ticket, another round of ticket sales grows the pot.<\/p>\n As the pot gets bigger, buzz builds, which drives more ticket sales. It\u2019s easy to see how this can quickly become a big deal \u2013 a lot of fun and a successful fundraising season for you.<\/p>\n No one likes getting traffic tickets, but you can turn the simple idea of issuing traffic fines into a fun event by declaring a \u2018Fun Week\u2019 or something similar.<\/p>\n Participants sign up and get badges they agree to wear all week and you appoint volunteer \u2018Fun Officers\u2019 who have ticket books. When they observe any non-fun behaviour, they issue a \u2018summons\u2019 and the participant has to pay a fine to the organisation.<\/p>\n The success of the ticket system depends on getting everyone to participate and designing the rules to be enjoyable and relaxed, not annoying and fussy. And of course, the most fun is when everyone starts competing to get the \u2018worst\u2019 fine possible by breaking as many of the rules as possible.<\/p>\n You can easily see infinite variations on this idea \u2013 an idea where the only way to win is to play very, very badly!<\/p>\n Take this basic concept \u2013 borrowing ideas from money-making systems in the real world \u2013 and see where it leads you.<\/p>\n Every time you see a local government raking in funds, think about how it works and how you might be able to reinvent it for your own organisation.<\/p>\n The humble car wash is another super simple, fun option. All you need is a driveway or a local street where you don\u2019t need a permit then gather up some volunteers, a bit of soap, a hose, access to water\u00a0and some towels.<\/p>\n Put up some hand-made signs and have a few volunteers posted at the intersections to flag down cars and pitch them a nice clean car.<\/p>\n You can pop these up as often as you like through the good weather and spend next to nothing on supplies.<\/p>\n The simpler an idea is, the less that\u2019s required to set it into motion. If your idea is easy enough that it can implemented tomorrow, with little prep and a skeleton staff of volunteers, that probably means you won\u2019t need to invest any funds in equipment or space.<\/p>\n You also won\u2019t need to spend weeks convincing people to donate time or services to the cause and you won\u2019t need to work up complicated budgets or spreadsheets that look like you\u2019re planning to invade Europe.<\/p>\n The end result? The money starts coming in immediately, not a month from now, and you get to keep more of that money for your organisation. That alone should inspire you to keep it simple.<\/p>\n As with anything else, there\u2019s always a danger of making fundraising more complex than it needs to be. The moment we start trying to be clever, we get lost in the weeds and can easily lose sight of the real goal, which isn\u2019t to be clever, but to raise\u00a0money.<\/p>\n And don’t forget, while nothing lifts spirits more than raising money for your cause, it may as well be fun in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many people make the mistake of thinking that fundraising is all about the money. Of course it\u2019s partly that, but it’s certainly not the full story. Sure, you can implement simple fundraising ideas, but if you forget about people \u2013 your volunteers, your donors, your sponsors \u2013 it\u2019s not going to work out in the … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas-for-fundraising"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5796,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions\/5796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Open house<\/h2>\n
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![\"Simple](\"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/app\/uploads\/simple-fundraising-ideas-vip-tour-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\n2. House party<\/h2>\n
![\"Simple](\"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/app\/uploads\/simple-fundraising-ideas-house-party-min.jpg\")
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3. Lottery<\/h2>\n
![\"Simple](\"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/app\/uploads\/simple-fundraising-ideas-lottery-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\n4. Fun fines<\/h2>\n
![\"Simple](\"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/app\/uploads\/simple-fundraising-ideas-fine-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\n5. Car wash<\/h2>\n
![\"Simple](\"https:\/\/www.thecanvasfactory.com.au\/blog\/app\/uploads\/simple-fundraising-ideas-car-wash-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPut the fun back into fundraising<\/h2>\n