The state of the economy has prompted agencies to become creative with their fundraising campaigns. If your fundraising efforts are on hiatus, rethink your position. You can successfully execute your fundraiser, at a lower cost.

Fundraisers like bake sales, car washes, and yard sales are very successful. But why not think outside the box? What if you’ve already had a bake sale? Or your company has a yard sale every year? What else can you do you do to generate money? Your not so typical fundraisers might be the key to earning money for your charity. Here are a few ideas:

Board Game Tournament

Board games are popular with adults as well as children. Find a venue that has a large room; maybe a local library or community center. People can donate their board games for the event. Entrance fees and raffle tickets are a few ways to generate money. Your community members can donate prizes for the raffle. Remember to include a sponsorship section in the event flyer.

Social Media Training

Do you have community members that are eager to learn a new way of communicating with their customers? If you have a social media guru on staff, or know of a social media maven, ask them to donate an hour, two nights a week, for a month. The payoff for them is it will generate interest in their business services, and they will make new contacts. Also, as a thank you, you can put their business link on your company website. The money you generate from the registration may prompt you to have trainings a few times a year.

Fashion Show

Fashion shows earn money for their charity in several ways: door fees, vendor fees, participant fees, and sponsorship fees. People will come to see the fashion show (fee), local designers will participate in the fashion show (fee), vendors want their display at the fashion show (fee) and companies want their information included in the grab bags (fee). So many people benefit from this type of fundraiser. If it’s successful, there will be requests to have it again, maybe on a yearly basis.

You have to think outside the box of ways to generate money, and how to attract donors to your fundraisers. What are your fundraising ideas? Stop by our forums and share!