Here’s a real-life question I was asked about solo fundraising, plus my best answer 🙂 xMandy
Q:Â I am doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer this year (200k’s over 2 days) and I need to raise $2,500 for the pleasure! I need some unique fundraising ideas please.
The best fundraiser for you will depend on many things – what sort of immediate support group you have (do you have to organise everything on your own), what capacity those around you have to support you (do your mates have spare cash), how much time you have etc.
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I’m also a huge fan of what I call ‘connected fundraising’, which is where the fundraiser inherently connects people to your cause.
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In coming up with ideas, I would normally start by asking questions, in particular… why this charity? What motivates you – are you honouring somebody? This would normally be my starting point. I’ll give you an example.
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I’m needing to raise $2,500 for the ride to conquer cancer which I am doing in honour of my Aunty Betty. Aunty Betty was full of life and was famous for her salted caramel fudge.
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Here’s what I would do:
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I’m going to run an event, complete with a raffle and auction, but I’m also going to run it in conjunction with a gofundme page. I’m also going to sell tea towels with Aunty Betty’s famous salted caramel fudge recipe on it.
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On that page, I tell everyone a bit about my Aunty Betty – the things she taught me and how much I miss her.
I want to kick cancer’s butt because nobody else should have to lose someone that special.
I am completing a mega challenge in her honour and I need everybody’s support. I am aiming for $2,500 in X time frame.
I am hosting an X event (eg trivia night) but also collecting any pledges via my gofundme page.
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For every $20 donated, I will email Aunty Betty’s famous salted caramel fudge recipe. For every $50 donated, I will send the recipe PLUS a tea towel! (within Australia only obviously)
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Also, all donations of $50 or over get you a free ticket to my X event.
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I then circulate this link to everyone you know, hold a morning tea at work where you have small samples of salted caramel fudge and a big picture of Aunty Betty, to drum up donations. I make sure I have a collection tin as well, in case people just want to drop in some coins rather than just relying on gofundme.
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For my event, I collect donations from anyone I know. I ask everyone what they are famous for. My mum, for example, always donates a mega Malteser cake that is auctioned off, and usually raises around $50 or so.
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To get prizes donated for my raffle, I have to hustle. I ask around at my local shops, get friends to donate a little something. A little idea for this is to keep one prize aside as a ‘book buyers prize’. Make it something nice like a fun cushion or something. You can then make the raffle tickets $5, or 4 for $20, and anyone who buys a book for $20 also gets a ticket in the book buyers draw. There are clever ways of organising this – you can pre-staple one book of tickets into lots of 4 with the book buyers ticket pre-stapled onto it. That way, it’s easy to sell books.
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When you’re promoting your event, let everyone know what the prizes are for the raffle and let them know how much the tickets will be so they can bring $$$. No matter how fancy the gathering, not everyone will be able to afford them so make sure your tickets sellers aren’t too pushy.
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There are heaps of games and activities you can run to raise extra little bits of $$ for your team fundraising or individual ‘entry fee’ fundraising.
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Here are a few articles with little ideas that can help you:
