Holiday Fundraising for Nonprofits

Let’s start with the fact that while I am posting this at the end of the year, holiday fundraising can be done around any holiday, any time of the year.

Having a theme to the fundraiser or linking to a larger day is a great way to grab the attention of your community. Make the ask of a larger donor to match whatever is raised in a certain period, on a day, week, or month. Challenge your donors to meet a specified goal and make it interesting for them. Getting press coverage is a great way to connect with the community.

Share Stories

Donors love to hear stories about how the organization has helped someone in the community. Make the donation campaign a time to share these stories. Built a house for a family? Tell us about them. Fed families displaced by high grocery prices? Highlight them. Make connections in the community with media so you can pitch stories about your organization and who you support.

Media Connections

I am a big believer that there are less than six degrees of separation between all of us. Work your network of staff, volunteers, and board to make media connections. Get featured in local magazines, newspapers, and online. Sometimes they will feature stories exclusively online which makes it easy to share on social media, in newsletters, and on blogs.

Fundraising Ideas for Nonprofits

People are motivated by goals so make an achievable fundraising goal. Share what meeting that goal means to your organization. How many people will you serve? How many animals will be fed? How many houses can you build? Donors want to know how their money is used. They’re motivated to support the organization meeting a goal.

Another part of this is to have different ways to donate and challenges for the donor base.

· Make your coffee or lunch at home and donate what you’d spend.

· $X donations get a free t-shirt, sticker, or hat.

· Matching donations. Your donation will be matched up to $X.

· Sell t-shirts as a fundraiser.

· Host a gala. Post-pandemic (ish) people want to see each other in person again. It’s a great time to engage your board and meet donors and their friends.

· Livestream a donation blitz on social media. Ask a past donor to sponsor a matching donation.

· Host a 5K with sponsorship opportunities for community business owners.

Ask your team for their fundraising ideas. One of my friends was raising money for blood cancer research. She asked her friends who owned a bar how they might be able to help. They had kegs donated by one of their vendors. For each pint from those kegs, a donation was made. Kill the Keg resulted in $500 for their fundraising campaign. It was a fun way to engage their friends over the course of a couple of weeks.

Fundraising for nonprofits is a constant effort so make it interesting. Tell stories. Ask your connections to get involved. Utilize social media and traditional media to get the word out about your organization.

Happy Fundraising!