BlogFundraising 25+ Cheap Fundraising Ideas For Nonprofits On A Budget Fundraising 25+ Cheap Fundraising Ideas For Nonprofits On A Budget Author: WildApricot May 21, 2023 Contents 🕑 12 min read A lot of work goes into nonprofit fundraising. When you’re low on budget, the task is all the more challenging. Whether your nonprofit is just starting out, you’re working with a small team, or whether you’re working with no budget at all, you need cost-saving ideas that will still help you achieve your goals. We’ve put together some tips and tricks for starting a low- to no-cost fundraiser. Read on for our ideas on cheap, cost-saving fundraisers your organization can start running today. How to Start a Fundraiser with Little to No Money It can be daunting to start a fundraiser, especially when you don’t have a lot of money to put toward it. Here are a few tips specific to planning a low-budget fundraiser: Build your (small) team. Planning your fundraiser around manpower is a good way to reduce stress and create realistic workloads. Outline each team member’s responsibilities and set clear expectations to maximize everyone’s time and effort. Ask your community for support. Asking for help is part of any fundraiser, but especially one where resources are at a premium. From volunteers to publicity to in-kind donations, you may be surprised what people might offer to help a good cause. Offer an exchange of services or promotions. This can be a direct trade—”lend volunteers for our event and we’ll lend volunteers for yours”—or a mutually beneficial trade in another way. Partnerships are especially great avenues toward mutual benefit: a local business might be glad to partner with you in exchange for the publicity your campaign offers their business. Work with what you have. There’s no shame in being honest about your resources, but make sure to take account of what you do have at your disposal as well as what you don’t. If you have a venue to host events, or a group of willing volunteers, pick a fundraising idea that makes use of your assets. Keep the fundraiser simple. Especially if you’re just starting out, supporters will understand that you’re not hosting fancy and elaborate events. Don’t overextend or get bogged down in the details. Stick to basics! Other tools that might help you manage your fundraiser include fundraising software and a fundraising calendar. Just because your fundraiser is small, doesn’t mean it can’t be well organized! Now that you have guidelines for how to plan a cheap fundraiser, here are 32 ideas for low-cost options to help kickstart your brainstorming. Looking for more ideas? Check out 130+ Awesome Fundraising Ideas: Contests, Raffles, Challenges & More! 25+ Cheap Fundraising Ideas 11 Sale Fundraising Ideas Any Girl Guide will tell you that sales are fantastic fundraising mechanisms—especially when you’re hawking something as sought-after as Girl Guide Cookies. Here are just a few ideas for types of sales that can rake in fundraising dollars: Used Book Sale. Ask supporters to donate their used books in support of your cause, then use them to hold a book sale! Bake Sale. Pies and cupcakes are especially great sellers! Community Yard Sale / Flea Market. Ask your community to clean out their messy closets and donate anything they don’t need. Plant / Flower Sale. Whether selling individual roses and carnations or entire plants, this is a great idea for Spring. Partner with a local nursery to get stock at wholesale prices! Merch Sale. Use print-on-demand to create branded merchandise for your organization and put profits toward your cause! T-shirts and tote bags both sell great. Clothing Swap. Participants bring in unwanted (but good condition!) clothing and browse other peoples’ offerings, picking what they like! Charge a participation or entry fee for the fundraising component. Sell a Prime Parking Spot. Make sure the spot is saleable, then auction it off to the highest bidder. This works particularly well for a January start—they’ll win it for the year! Gift Card Fundraisers. Partner with a website that specializes in fundraising through gift cards, such as Fundscrip or FlipGive. Supporters buy the card at face value, but you make 10% back when they use the card without another dime spent! Family Ticket to an Afternoon Out. Sell family tickets to a sporting event at a local stadium and take the guesswork out of weekend plans! Design & Sell a Trinket. Design a button, keychain, or piece of jewelry, then sell it at a mark-up—or commission a local artist to design it and support the arts while you’re at it! Charity Calendars. Hire a local photographer to take pictures that speak to your organization’s mission, then print unique and high-quality calendars for the cause! Challenges to Consider Sales need a lot of publicity to pick up interest, so make sure you activate all your marketing channels for the sale well in advance. You’ll also need to plan ahead for how you’ll be accepting payments. Will your needs be met with a simple cash box, will you want to set up a digital point of sale, or will donors pay directly via your campaign’s donation page? The Best Time to Do This Sales are great to host year-round, especially if you can host them indoors. For outdoor sales, choose warmer weather so supporters are encouraged to linger. Extra Tips & Tricks Sales are particularly great fundraising ideas for small clubs, as overhead costs and organizational logistics are both minimal. Sales can benefit organizations of any size, especially when hosted on a regular basis! 6+ Outdoor Event Ideas 1. Host a Local Tour Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 2 Expected Return: $$ What better way to get involved with your community than to introduce its inhabitants to their surroundings? Host and sell tickets to a tour of a local hotspot and inspire locals to learn about their town. Ideas for tours include: Historical / Architectural Walking Tours. If there are buildings with an interesting history in your town, do the research and set up a walking tour—for a fee. VIP tour. Ask a local expert to offer VIP behind-the-scenes tours of special community places like museums, government buildings, or breweries. Ghost tour. Does your town have some haunted places? Set up a ghost tour and show them off—or make up the fables yourself! Nature tour. Recruit an expert on local ecology and set up a hiking tour of a nearly slice of wilderness. Challenges to Consider You’ll need knowledgeable guides—or at least people who are willing to follow a script! You may also have to be willing to approach local businesses and get their permission for tours held inside. Who knows—they may have a lot of extra knowledge to impart! The Best Time to Do This Walking tours work best in fair weather, while indoor tours can be done at any time. Extra Tips & Tricks Ask your guides to wear costumes relevant to the topic for extra pizazz! Partner with a museum or historical society for additional support. 2. Polar Bear Plunge Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 2 Expected Return: $$ This is a chillingly good fundraiser for colder locales! Have donations based on whether or not your participants are brave enough to jump into the water, or charge a small entry fee that goes to support your organization. Challenges to Consider Obviously, this event must be in a cold location or occur during a cold weather month. You’ll definitely need to have a medic on site just in case! The Best Time to Do This Depending on where you live, winter is your best, coldest bet! Extra Tips & Tricks You could also consider selling warm treats like hot chocolate or coffee for participants once they’re out of the water. 3. Community Clean Up Day Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 2 Expected Return: $ Participants ask for pledges to sponsor each bag of litter they collect as they walk around the community. As an incentive for participation, prizes can be offered for the individual or team that collects the most bags of trash. Challenges to Consider Make sure all participants wear gloves. If you are working with children, make sure they understand what sorts of things they should NOT pick up. The Best Time to Do This The ideal time to do this is in spring, once snow has melted and you can see just how much garbage is littered about! Earth Day might be the perfect date. Extra Tips & Tricks Partner with a local ecological organization to see if they can provide any resources or programming to support your event. 4. Relay Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 2 Expected Return: $$ Hold your organization’s own version of the Relay for Life! It can be done though running, biking or even kayaking—whatever fits best with your demographic and your area. Challenges to Consider You’ll need to have a large enough space to host the relay, whether it’s hosted outdoors or a local gymnasium. Hosting outside might mean you’ll need to work with local authorities to block off a road—especially if you want lots of visibility for your relay. The Best Time to Do This Over the summer, when weather permits outdoor activities. Extra Tips & Tricks This is a great event for longer fundraising campaigns. Ask donors to pledge extra amounts for each week of training undertaken by relay participants. 5. Round-Robin Sports Tournament Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 2 Expected Return: $ Cheap, accessible ways to get together for sports are in high demand. Charge admission for teams or individuals to register, and get ready for a day (or a season!) of outdoor fun. Tournaments can be run with any sport, but casual, low-equipment sports like flag football, ultimate frisbee, and casual soccer games are particularly great for the frugal fundraiser. Challenges to Consider You’ll need to thoroughly promote your event to gather enough interest. Try talking to local leagues or your community centre, and get word of mouth going about the tournament. You may also need to book community fields or gyms in advance. The Best Time to Do This Late spring or early summer. Everyone will be raring to go after a long winter cooped up inside! Extra Tips & Tricks Consider providing hydration in the form of water or gatorade free of charge. Not only does this keep players safe, but it’s a good way to foster gratitude and get them coming back! 6. Car Wash Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 1 Expected Return: $ The community car wash is a classic! People love the idea of buckets and sponges for a worthy cause. This is also a great time to talk to participants about your cause, and potentially recruit some new volunteers! Challenges to Consider You’ll need to pick a location with access to a water source. Holding it in a busy parking lot—or along a busy street—can also help you get new supporters. The Best Time to Do This Spring or summer is best for this event. Extra Tips & Tricks You may be able to partner with a local gas station to use a part of the lot. It’s a great place to rope in clientele, and easy clean-up for you! 4 Collection Fundraising Options Run a Raffle Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 1 Expected Return: $$ Invite participants to enter a raffle—either as its own event, or in conjunction with another fundraiser! This is a great opportunity to partner with local businesses to increase their exposure as well as yours. Some ideas for inexpensive raffle prizes include: A day at the spa. This sort of prize is especially enticing around Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. A night at a local Bed & Breakfast. Even a local getaway can be a fun way to break from routine! An escape room experience. These prizes can appeal to families. Challenges to Consider Make sure the prize you choose—and the raffle style—reflects your organization. Your fundraiser should represent your club’s vision! There may also be rules regulating any gaming involving money in your area that includes raffles. Check your local laws before setting up this fundraiser. It may be best to decide before you begin whether you intend to purchase the prize, or whether you want to ask a local business to donate its services. Asking for this donation may feel intimidating, but your raffle works as free advertising for their services! The Best Time to Do This You may have better luck drawing attention to your raffle in areas with high foot traffic—nice weather can help with this. Sports clubs may also be limited to holding raffles during their sports season. Extra Tips & Tricks Different types of raffles—with different kinds of prizes—can appeal to different demographics. Here are a few ways to make your raffle feel exciting and different: Hold a 50/50 raffle. This type of raffle is purely cash-based: the winner and your club split the proceeds 50/50. This type of raffle is best for sporting or other large events, where you have a captive audience to entice with the prize. Hide the winning “golden ticket.” This makes the most sense for sales-based fundraising. Entice people to keep buying chocolate bars (or cupcakes, candies, or any wrapped product) in the hopes of finding the winning ticket inside! Limit the number of tickets for fixed odds. Raffle entrants will know how likely they are to win the prize—and may buy more tickets to help their odds. Can by the Register Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 1 Expected Return: $$ The can by the grocery register is a classic. Partner with local, independent grocers and set up eye-catching cans to encourage customers to give. People are actually more generous with their loose change than you’d think! Challenges to Consider Many grocers already run charitable campaigns. Even once you find grocers willing to partner with you, you’ll need to find a way to make your message stand out from the crowd. In this day of debit, you may also want to provide an alternative method for people to give. Consider adding a link to your website on the can, or a QR code that goes straight to your donation website. The Best Time to Do This Anytime. Extra Tips & Tricks If you’re short on grocers to ask, ask small, local businesses to partner instead—especially those with a cash-only model. 5 Contest Ideas Overhead Cost: $ Complexity to Plan: 1-2 Expected Return: $-$$ A little friendly competition is sure to get your supporters’ hearts racing and get them riled up to support your cause. Charge an entry fee for participants and watch those fundraising dollars roll in. Some ideas for contests include: Cutest Pet Contest. Everyone thinks their own pet is the cutest, so why not offer a chance to show them off? Photography. Invite the amateur and more skilled photographers in your networks to submit photos for a contest to take place during a larger event. Diorama / Craft. Great for kids or adults, host a boutique event where creators can show off their works of art. Crafts to be judged could include posters, miniatures, fiber arts, or even food! Why not host a bake-off? Cornhole Tournament. With its low athletic requirement, cornhole is the perfect game for a no-sweat friendly competition. This is a great opportunity to gain a little extra revenue by setting up a refreshment stand at the event. Paper Plane Building. Host an event to find out who can build the most beautiful—and aerodynamic—plane out of just paper. Challenges to Consider Finding a venue to host these events may be challenging in some cases, especially when animals are involved or if you want to sell alcohol. Consider whether the event can be hosted outside. Bear in mind that photography and pet contests could also be judged online! You may also want to establish clear judging rules for the contest so submitters know what they’re getting into. What criteria are participants being judged on? Will the winner be decided by popular vote or a panel of judges? Will they win a prize, or just bragging rights? The Best Time to Do This Contests hosted inside are great to host year-round, though outdoor events might be best suited to warmer months. You might even come up with seasonal contests—a hunt for the fastest wrapper of presents, for example. Extra Tips & Tricks Consider whether your contest might create unique partnering opportunities. To promote your photography contest, you might approach a community college’s photography classes. Physics or engineering students might get a kick out of a paper plane contest. Final Thoughts Fundraising is never easy. But when you ask for help, plan well, and work with what you have, a cheap fundraiser can go a long way toward helping your organization meet its goals and establish a foothold in the community. No matter your budget, we wish you the best of luck with your fundraiser! 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