Soapbox Engage Blog

Active duty military members, veterans, and their families sacrifice a lot for our country. Some need a little financial help along the way to cover costs associated with moving or returning from deployment. Many veterans are thankful for help covering medical expenses. Some veterans benefit from service animals, or other forms of support.

There are countless worthy reasons to fundraise on behalf of military service members, veterans, and their families. Often, the challenge isn't finding a great cause to help; it's finding the right fundraiser for the cause! Have no fear; we've gathered some tried-and-tested fundraising strategies to raise money for veterans and military service members.

Table of Contents

1. Crowdfunding for Veteran Fundraisers
2. Host a virtual class or educational event to raise money for veterans
3. Flag Subscription Service Veteran Fundraiser
4. Athletic event fundraiser for veterans
5. Host a BBQ Showdown or Potluck Fundraiser for Veterans

3 Virtual Veteran Fundraising Ideas

Virtual fundraisers are gaining popularity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to following social-distancing rules, these fundraisers tend to be more accessible to a broader audience and are easy to put together. Here are three top-performing virtual fundraising ideas for active-duty military and veterans.

1) Crowdfunding for Veteran Fundraisers

Crowdfunding is cost-effective and easy to manage. The goal is to raise small amounts of money from many people via online avenues like a donation page, social media, and other strategies.

The average donation to a crowdfunding campaign is an impressive $66. That adds up fast and certainly makes crowdfunding a worthy fundraising strategy to consider, especially if your target audience is a bit younger. People under age 45 tend to be more likely to participate in crowdfunding campaigns.

One way to improve the effectiveness of crowdfunding campaigns is to advertise far and wide. The more people who hear about your fundraiser, the more likely you will connect with eager supporters and donors. Leveraging social media is a great way to expand your reach!

Another strategy to improve your crowdfunding campaign is to use a custom donation page rather than rely on popular crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. Using a personal donation page gives you complete control of everything presented on the page. Whether you'd like to keep everyone updated on your fundraising progress or share new highlights and stories, you have the power to do it all!

By contrast, platforms like GoFundMe limit how much you can customize and share on your crowdfunding donation page.

The Soapbox Engage Donations app is the ideal option for custom donation pages for crowdfunding. It's fully customizable and so easy to use! Plus, you'll be able to collect the contact information of all your supporters so you can say "thank you" and invite them to participate in future veteran fundraisers!

2) Host a virtual class or educational event to raise money for veterans

If it's good enough for the Ronald McDonald House of Dayton, OH, then surely it's a great fundraising option for your next event! The charity gathered local chefs and restaurants to put on a virtual cooking class, along with a wine tutorial from a local expert and a pre-dinner cocktail tutorial (and special recipe).

The entire event was virtual! Participants registered and paid online and received all the ingredients needed to make the three-course meal right in their home, along with the link to the private cooking class and other festivities. A bottle of paired wine and the ingredients for the cocktail recipe came with the meal kit. What a fun COVID-friendly date-night!

This virtual class model works for all kinds of activities! Wine and Design offers "Paint It Forward" paint class fundraisers, and many franchises offer virtual painting class options. This is an excellent opportunity for participants to paint their very own patriotic masterpiece.

You can take this event up a notch by offering a way for participants to donate their works of art to an appropriate organization that serves veterans. What better way to thank an active-duty service member or veteran with a beautiful, patriotic painting!

If hands-on classes at home aren't your jam, you can go the educational route! Invite a local military expert or veteran to attend your virtual gathering and share their story or give an educational presentation. Raise money through these kinds of events by either charging an entry fee or encouraging attendees to make a donation to your fundraising efforts.

Whether you're hosting a virtual paint night or educational event, the Soapbox Engage Events app gives you all the tools to make the registration process pain-free. Want to charge a "ticket" fee? Great! You can do that right on the app (and people can pay online). Thinking of going the "free" route and encouraging donations during the event? Awesome! The app can do that, too! Pair it with the Donations app so you can collect online donations before, during, and after your event!

3) Flag Subscription Service Veteran Fundraiser

This fundraiser isn't technically "virtual," but it is socially distanced! If you're looking for a longer-term fundraising opportunity, launch a service where you (and perhaps a few friends) hang holiday-appropriate flags on the porches of paying participants.

All you'll need to do is sign people up for your "flag subscription" and charge a monthly or annual fee. Then, change out their flags for each season or holiday (you get to decide how extensive you'd like to get with this service). For example, hang American Flags for the Fourth of July and Veteran's Day. Swap in a festive Christmas flag around the holidays or a spring-themed flag around Easter. The flag, holiday, and season options are endless!

Concerned about keeping up with all the details of this fundraiser (like who paid for which holidays or each subscriber's address)? Have no fear! The Soapbox Engage Forms app is here to keep everything organized and updated!

2 Hybrid or In-Person Veteran Fundraising Ideas

Not everything will remain virtual forever. Here are a few fundraising ideas that you can organize as a hybrid event (with participants being in-person or virtual) or as in-person fundraising events!

1) Athletic event fundraiser for veterans

Everyone likes a bit of a challenge from time to time, and offering the opportunity for people to make a difference with their athletic pursuits is a win-win!

For example, Ed Kennedy set out to raise $320,000 to rescue and train 10 service dogs for military veterans. How? By completing 26 IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon races in 52 weeks. You read that correctly. That's 26 triathlons in one year to provide service dogs to veterans in need.

Your athletic fundraiser doesn't need to be as ambitious as Ed's. Still, many people enjoy putting a little "sweat equity" toward a good cause. Whether you host a 5K run, a virtual swim challenge, a "yoga-fundraiser," or something entirely different, getting people moving and sweating to raise money for veterans is a very effective fundraising strategy.

If you want to get people active in a creative, less-athletic way, consider a fundraising event like Canoe Battleship, Cornhole Tournament, or even a dodgeball tournament.

2) Host a BBQ Showdown or Potluck Fundraiser for Veterans

Of course, you could just raise money by selling dinner tickets, but why not turn it into a fun, competitive event? Put together a little friendly pit-master showdown or cooking competition! Whether you invite individuals who want to put their BBQ skills on display or challenge local BBQ joints in your area to go head-to-head, everyone's sure to have a great time!

This is a great fundraiser to get the whole community involved, from the BBQ masters themselves to attendees who are there to eat their fill of great food. Make an entire day of it and invite a few local bands to perform, too!

Really, this fundraising event can be as big and bold or laid back and simple as you want it to be. And, if BBQ isn't your thing, it's easy to change it up--who doesn't love a chili-cook-off or a bake-off!

Don't forget to invite local veterans, their families, or local veteran services organizations to attend your event! It's an excellent way to bless them and shine a spotlight on the cause for which you're fundraising.

No matter what kind of food-related fundraising event you choose, spend less time managing the administrative duties with the Events app! Create an unlimited number of fundraising events, sell tickets, use promo codes, and even offer multiple ticket types for each event!

Now that you've got some great fundraising ideas for veterans and active-duty military, here are three more resources to boost your fundraising efforts.

• How To Get Corporate Sponsorships for Your Nonprofit: Corporate sponsorship is when a for-profit company gives money, goods, or services to help a nonprofit (usually in exchange for promotional visibility or other advertising benefits). The goal is that everyone wins with these partnerships, but getting the right corporate sponsorships can be an overwhelming and daunting task. This blog will help you learn the basics of corporate sponsorships and help you find the right sponsors for your upcoming events.
• 7 Great Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Event Ideas: People are more likely to invest financially in a nonprofit or cause if they have a relationship with it. Peer-to-peer fundraising can strengthen your relationships with current donors and develop new relationships with potential supporters! This blog includes seven tried-and-true peer-to-peer fundraising event ideas to help you expand your network!
• 9 Steps to Plan and Host a Virtual Fundraiser: A virtual fundraising event is any event broadcasted through a live-streaming platform like Zoom, Facebook Live, or even YouTube to raise money for your nonprofit or cause. While it's a great way to continue fundraising in the age of COVID-19, it's an effective fundraising strategy overall because it expands your reach and is often more accessible to a broader audience. Head over to this blog to learn how to plan and host your first virtual fundraising event!