Soapbox Engage Blog

Does your club or team feeling the financial squeeze, and needs to raise money with a small budget? Whether you’re raising funds to buy new sporting equipment for your club or for a charitable cause, there are plenty of fun, inexpensive, and effective fundraising events and activities.

We’ve gathered 5 fundraising ideas that just about any club or team can organize, even with a small budget.

Coffee Bar

Who doesn’t love a great cup of coffee, and maybe a muffin or pastry! Many businesses and workplaces have coffee machines available, but let’s be honest, that boring cup of Folgers gets old when you drink it day after day.

Raise some much-needed money for your cause by asking local businesses to allow you to set up a coffee bar. In the morning, your team can serve hot coffee with a variety of creamer options, some whipped cream, and maybe some flavor syrups. For about $10, you can buy a milk frother to make a few basic specialty drinks.

In the afternoon, break out the blender to make some iced-coffee drinks! Offer some cookies, pastries, muffins or other baked goods throughout the day, because what’s a cup of coffee without a croissant!

There are plenty of simple, tasty hot and iced coffee drink recipes online that anyone can learn to make. Most ingredients are easy to find at your local grocery store.

Whether you charge for each drink and pastry or take donations, this fundraiser has the potential to bring in some fast cash. It’s also portable, so you can take your coffee bar to as many office spaces, businesses, and locations that will have you!

Tips to increase your revenue:

• Do the math to figure out how much it costs you to make each drink so you can charge enough to make money. It’s not a fundraiser if you break even!
• If you decide to take donations instead of setting a price for each drink, consider making a sign with a suggested donation amount.
• Create flyers with all the essential information about your club or cause and include a link to donate online.
• Can you process online donations? Some people don’t carry cash, so think of ways to make it easy for everyone to buy a coffee and pastry from you.

Pancake Breakfast

The beauty of pancakes is that everyone loves them, they’re cheap, and they work any time of day! This fundraiser works as a traditional pancake breakfast, "breakfast for dinner" event, and any other creative format you can think of!

Many clubs and organizations sell tickets to the pancake fundraiser meal to make sure they purchase enough food to serve everyone. One way to increase your revenue is to find sponsors to donate the food and materials so you can enjoy a 100% profit on your ticket sales.

This fundraiser is probably a little easier to pull off with more volunteers, but if you have a small team, you can easily serve food buffet-style.

Be sure to put all the information about your cause or organization on flyers at each seat, so everyone has an opportunity to learn more and perhaps make a donation. Don’t forget to provide details about how to make online donations.

Tips to increase your revenue:

• Take the pancake party to the next level with a pancake-eating contest! Invite people to sign up for the competition in advance. Challenge each contestant to raise money for your cause by either taking donations based on how many pancakes they can eat or have people make bets on who will win. There are plenty of ways to be creative with a pancake eating contest.
• Put a donation jar at the start of each buffet bar to encourage guests to make additional donations, especially if you sold tickets for the event.
• Arrange for someone in your club or organization to make a short presentation during the meal to explain why you are raising money and what you plan to accomplish.

Sports or Workout Event

This idea can take on any shape or form you dream up! If you’re raising money for a sports club or team, consider hosting a skills camp or fun event. For example, if your volleyball team is raising money for new kits, your team can host a mud volleyball tournament.

The rise of workout centers like Crossfit gyms, Orangetheory, Bootcamp programs, and similar workout options is actually an excellent fundraising resource. Partner with a local gym or workout center to host some sort of fundraising event.

For example, your organization can partner with a local Crossfit "box" to host a charity workout where people make donations to participate in the workout. Crossfit Radford partnered with their local police department to raise money for the Police Benevolent Foundation.

This type of fundraiser requires some coordination and collaboration, so you’ll probably need a little more time to plan, organize, and advertise, but there’s potential to raise significant amounts of money. Don’t be afraid to be creative and have fun with the event!

Tips to increase your revenue:

• If you plan to partner with a local gym or athletic facility, collaborate, so both organizations advertise the event to their networks. The benefit to the gym is that they invite new people into their facility who might be interested in signing up for a class. Your nonprofit receives money from the fundraiser and, hopefully, new potential donors.
• If it’s practical, consider selling food or drinks at the event to add another revenue stream. Spectators might not be interested in participating in the contest, but they’ll probably enjoy a hot dog and cold drink while they watch and cheer.
• Ask businesses to donate a few items to raffle off throughout the event. This keeps the crowd engaged and gives you another revenue stream. All you’ll need are a few donated prizes and some raffle tickets).

Spelling Bee

Ok, we get it, spelling was such a boring subject in elementary school. But when was the last time you actually participated in a spelling bee? (It was probably grade school, right?) Host a fun, festive, spelling bee to raise money for your organization or club!

If you need more convincing that this is a great idea, journalists and lawmakers face off each year for an annual "Press vs. Politicians Spelling Bee." The event raises money for the Journalism Institute.

This fundraiser works in practically every setting. College club? Do a themed spelling bee! Youth organization? Make the parents be the contestants! Does your nonprofit work with school-aged children? Perfect! Invite all your donors to participate or spectate. You can even turn it into a team event and challenge other clubs, organizations, and businesses to participate.

Many organizations charge admission, and some clubs raise additional money by allowing contestants to pay for extra guesses. Be creative and think outside the box about how to maximize the fundraising potential.

Ideas to increase your revenue:

• Invite celebrity contestants to participate. People will be excited to go head-to-head with a local celebrity.
• Don’t be afraid to add your own flair to the traditional spelling bee. Come up with ways for contestants and the audience to pay a little more. Allow contestants to pay for easier words. Let audience members pay for certain contestants to have to spell harder or funny words. You get the idea. It’s time to be creative!
• Turn the Spelling Bee into a "dinner and a show" event. Either make dinner available for purchase or make it part of the price of the ticket. You can partner with a local restaurant or food truck to alleviate some of the food planning, especially if you’re working with a minimal event budget.

"Fill The Barrow" Fundraiser

We’ve all seen the traditional penny drives where clubs or nonprofits put a container somewhere and encourage people to contribute their spare change to the cause. Take it up a notch with a "Fill the Barrow" fundraiser!

Break your group into teams and provide each team with a wheelbarrow. The objective is to fill the wheelbarrow with change! How each team does that is up to them. Wheel it through neighborhoods, park in front of high-traffic areas, whatever each team thinks will help them fill the barrow first!

Print half-sheets that introduce your cause and directs people to your website and encourage people to give a copy to everyone who donates. Never pass up on the opportunity to get the word out about your nonprofit or club.

Depending on how competitive your teams are, this can be a very lucrative fundraiser! One way to up the ante a little is to partner with other clubs and organizations and offer an extra prize for the team that brings in the most money.

You don’t have to fill wheelbarrows. If your nonprofit or club serve school children, you can fill backpacks. Be creative and don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things.

If filling a wheelbarrow or other container feels too daunting, you can always opt for a rousing "penny war." Typically, in a penny war, pennies count as positive points for your team, and other coins count as negative points. So, your team will try to gather as many pennies as possible in your jar and add silver coins to other teams’ jars to subtract points. The team with the most points at the end of the "war" wins.

Ideas to increase your revenue:

• Add team fundraising pages and turn the event into a peer-to-peer fundraising challenge. Whichever team raises the most money (in their wheelbarrow and on their fundraising page combined) wins the challenge.
• Incentivize teams with a fun prize for the winners. You can even have the prize donated to avoid spending any of the money you raised.
• Ask local businesses to match what you raise. Don’t forget to add any partnering businesses to your advertisements and flyers, so people know about their generosity.

There are countless creative fundraising ideas for organizations and clubs of any size to raise much-needed money. Fundraisers also give your group the chance to connect with new potential donors! Don’t overlook this secondary benefit.

Collect the contact information of as many as possible at your fundraising events. After your fundraiser is over, email the new contacts and thank them for attending and connecting with your organization. Share the results of the fundraiser and what you will accomplish with the money.

Don’t just thank them for supporting you once, then let that be the end! Come up with a "next step" for them to take with your organization. The service industries call this "inviting yourself back." Their attendance at your pancake breakfast could be the start of a beautiful donor relationship!

Here are three more resources to help your nonprofit achieve its fundraising goals.

• Is Your Nonprofit Making These Common Crowdfunding Mistakes?: Crowdfunding is a beneficial and low-cost fundraising strategy. Still, there are some common mistakes organizations make that hamper their success. Here’s how you can avoid these mistakes and increase your fundraising revenue.
• 6 Great Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Events: Peer-to-Peer fundraising is an excellent and low-cost way to raise money. It’s a great way to mobilize your current donors and connect with new supporters.
• 5 Simple Tips to Improve Donor Relations: Improving your donor care is one of the most effective and affordable ways to increase your donor retention and even raise more money. If you increase your donor retention rate by just 10%, that can increase the lifetime value of your donor database by 200%!

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