Smaller organizations have more creative fundraising options, such as special events, volunteer involvement, and product sales. Larger nonprofits rely on donations and long-term relationships with donors, making single-event fundraising less valuable. Creative fundraising is most important for specific purposes or modest goals. The three categories of creative fundraising ideas for limited scope projects are special events, volunteer involvement, and product sales. The internet allows for virtual participation and e-commerce options.
Fundraising comes in a wide variety of options. Fundraising by major institutions, such as national nonprofits, universities, and museums, has strict parameters that leave little room for creative fundraising. Schools, churches, student groups, and voluntary associations, by contrast, raise funds on a smaller scale and have more scope for creative fundraising ideas. In this smaller context, the different types of creative fundraising ideas tend to involve special events, volunteer involvement, and product sales.
Larger nonprofit organizations rely on donations to support their operating budgets and raise funds to build long-lasting relationships that will generate consistent and growing support from donors, year after year. Creative fundraising ideas that can raise money from a single event or activity are less valuable in this context. These ideas spend resources on activities that are time consuming but limited, as the activities will only seem creative the first time they are done. Creativity is most important in situations where you need to raise money for a specific purpose, such as to support a class trip or put a new roof on a church, or where your fundraising goal is relatively modest.
There are usually three categories of creative fundraising ideas for nonprofit projects with a limited scope. The first category involves special events. Events can be designed and reviewed around a variety of themes and can use new technology to increase participation. The theme of the event can draw on experiences from either the organizers of the event or from popular culture. Events can also emphasize a particular mission.
For example, a special fundraiser might take advantage of a person’s recent vacation, use the cultural popularity of zombies, or ask attendees to bring canned goods to emphasize the mission of ending hunger. The Internet may allow virtual participation or broadcast the event live. Web-based event management software can help manage invitations and responses, and allow organizers to spread the word through social media.
Another category of creative fundraising ideas involves volunteer involvement. The Internet has made it easy to introduce strangers relating to a worthy cause. Through concepts like crowdsourcing, the need for funds can be introduced to a network of people that is expanding exponentially around the world. These people may give small sums, but the number of donors reacting at the same time makes even small donations impactful. Each person engaged in this way can contribute their own creativity to the presentation of the cause by posting photos, testimonials or even making videos.
The final main category for creative fundraising ideas is in the area of product sales. Many organizations sell items, such as candy and cookies, to raise money. This is a type of social enterprise, and there is a lot of room for creativity in the types of items sold and the market engaged. With the accessibility of e-commerce options through the Internet, there are innovative ways to sell products in a wide marketplace and even hold auctions and garage sales online.
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