Summer has begun! Your donors are likely dreaming more about long days at the beach and less about another zoom meeting.
Is that a problem for your fundraising goals? Not one bit! While summer is not commonly thought of as a banner fundraising season, we think we’ve unlocked some tips and tricks to get people to attend your fundraising events and start donating.
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Two Questions to Ask When Planning a Summer Fundraiser
It can be tempting to prepare your summer fundraiser in the same fashion as your other year round fundraising drives. However, when you apply this method you can miss some key donor interactions.
After a careful observation of your donor audience you’ll notice that donors are motivated to do different things in each season. Therefore, we recommend asking yourself these two questions before you start planning your next summer drive:
- What does your audience want?
- How can your cause intersect with their wants or needs?
In our summer fundraising ideas below, we’ll unpack how each of these questions are answered by a different nonprofit.
5 Great Summer Fundraising Ideas
While this is by no means an exhaustive list, we rounded up 5 great summer fundraising ideas to get your creative juices flowing as you plan your summer fundraising events schedule.
1. Petting zoo or animal meet-and-greet
Kids love animals. Parents love kid-friendly activities to keep everyone active throughout the summer months. The SPCA loves animals and wants people to treat them with kindness and care. Knowing these three things, a Virginia based SPCA chapter developed a petting zoo on their property and used the animals to educate their visitors about treatment and care. Then, they decided to offer summer camps which allow parents to find reliable childcare for the summer months.
By creating a space where adults and kids can have fun and learn about different animals--for a small fee (and requests for donations), this SPCA chapter was able to raise awareness and funds for their cause and parents were excited to find a fun, educational activity for the whole family. Everyone wins!
Even if you don’t have animals, you could coordinate with local shelters and sanctuaries to set up an animal meet-and-greet area or small petting zoo. Sometimes partnering with other nonprofits and splitting the proceeds can be a great avenue for success when planning fun, engaging summer fundraising events.
2. Host a community party
A lot of summer events include a goal of building community relations between nonprofits and the town.
With longer days in the summertime, people are itching to be outdoors enjoying the good weather with friends and snacks. Knowing this, National Night Out plans a national annual community party on the First Tuesday in August. The nonprofit’s goal is to increase relationships between law enforcement and the community.
Their event has a mix of activities and things that bring people together in the summer: block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and various other community events. During these fun, family-friendly gatherings, National Night Out highlights things that are specific to their cause: safety demonstrations, visits from emergency personnel, and youth focused events.
National Night Out and community parties are all about bringing positivity and activity to your local community while creating a platform to spread awareness about the mission. While they might not have donation buckets out on the National Night Out itself, they’re still connecting with people, raising awareness, and preparing to follow up afterward to ask for support, donations, and volunteers for the cause year-round.
And if you have the Soapbox Engage Forms App, you can easily get people to sign up at your event to connect with them and see how they’d like to engage with your organization in the future.
You might not be ready to plan a national evening of fun, but you can certainly plan something for your local community! Who knows--it just might catch on and go national, too!
3. Field day or sports tournament
Maybe your audience is a bit more active and competitive. If your donors have a lot of energy (or they have small humans with a lot of energy), you can host a field day fundraiser with an assortment of activities to help burn off some of that summer steam.
Bring people out with the excitement of water balloon fights, a dunk tank, three legged race, tug of war and more! All the things that summer nostalgia is made of!
One Virginia organization even found a way to host a field day during the onset of the pandemic! ForKids Suffolk saw how restless everyone was getting in 2020 and planned a COVID-19 conscious field day fundraiser for adults. They converted their annual golf event to host activities like pickleball, tennis, walks, and others which took into consideration safety guidelines and allowed people to still have a good time. People were eager to continue supporting a great cause in a COVID-safe way.
One of the great things about this kind of summer fundraiser is that it’s incredibly versatile! You could go the “field day” route and plan some great games and activities the whole family will enjoy. Or, you can go the sports tournament route and attract your athletic donors with a competitive streak!
If you go the tournament route, any sport will work. But events like 3-on-3 basketball, cornhole, horseshoes, or even fishing make great summer tournament activities.
No matter what kind of field day or sporting fundraiser you choose, the Soapbox Engage Events app will make registration a breeze! These days, most people are used to signing up or buying tickets online. With the Events app, you can offer that option with custom registration forms that collect only the information you actually need!
4. Host a bake sale
Ok, we hear you. Not everyone has a donor base that’s keen to sign up for a sports tournament fundraiser. But do they have a bit of a sweet tooth? We think it’s time to break down what makes a Girl Scout Cookie sale so irresistible so you can have the same fundraising success.
The Girl Scouts’ mission is dedicated to building girls’ confidence and skills. They connect their fundraiser to their cause by encouraging scouts to sell cookies to the general public every year around the same time. They raise funds by giving the people what they want, delicious sugary confections. And in the case of one resourceful fundraiser, they pay attention to their audience too.
How can your bake sale be just as legendary? Consider making your bake sale an annual event and let your local donors know well in advance. Encourage participation from your donors through email or social media by asking for their favorite cookies ahead of time so they know what to expect from your cookie stand. Look for high traffic areas with (hungry) people who are willing to make an impulse buy. (It’s like those Thin Mints just jump into our baskets!)
Finally, have your donors interact with your cause directly through the people or pictures that represent your mission. It’s not JUST the cookies that make Girl Scout cookie fundraisers successful. Deep down, people love knowing their purchase is helping little girls everywhere develop confidence, communication skills, and even a little business savvy. So, make sure to connect the dots and help people understand that their cookie purchase really does make a difference in the world.
With these tips, your sale will be irresistible! Just, save some of those cookies for us, ok?
5. Outdoor concert
Planning an outdoor concert fundraiser is a great way to bring people together who want to have a good time with some live music and maybe even a little dancing. This was the idea of Willie Nelson, John Mellancamp, and Neil Young in 1985. They started Farm Aid, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers farming.
Every September they throw an annual concert to raise funds for farmers and raise awareness about family farming. Big name bands like Dave Matthews’, Willie Nelson, and Jon Batiste use their influence to draw in crowds for a great night of music and to support a good cause.
You may not have access to famous bands, but don’t let that stop you! Local bands and summer weather are enough to draw a crowd. Along the way, you can use the platform to educate people about your mission and raise some funds, either through ticket sales or asking for donations.
Another way to boost summer concert revenue is to rent comfortable lawn chairs on-site. Advertise this little perk in advance and have people reserve their comfy chairs. Make sure they’re set up in a prime viewing and listening location. Some people will gladly pay a few extra dollars for this service! If you want to really go all out, you can offer a “luxury” option with drink service or other perks you can think of.
Or consider putting together a small concession stand to sell drinks and treats during the concert to bring in a little extra cash.
The bottom line is, summer doesn’t have to be a dry season for your fundraising. With some clever study of nonprofit fundraising tactics, you can both give the people what they want and get what you want at the same time. And that, my friends, is a win win!
As you plan your summer fundraisers, make sure to check out the Soapbox Engage suite of apps that can help make the planning, execution, and follow up on these events a breeze.
Now that you’ve got your summer fundraisers all planned, here are three more resources to help you boost your fundraising efforts.
- 5 Tasty and Effective Food Fundraisers for Nonprofits: Eating is such a social activity that brings people together, helps them make fond memories, and so much more. So, fundraisers that involve food are usually very popular and successful. Head over to this blog post to gather some great ideas for your next food fundraiser!
- The Nonprofit Fundraising Guide for Every Development Professional: Great fundraising is actually a learned skill. Sure, many fundraisers are naturally skilled at communication or asking for money, but excellent fundraisers take the time to really hone their craft--and they back their skills with a strong fundraising plan. So, really, nothing happens naturally or by accident in great fundraising. This nonprofit fundraising guide will help you build a fundraising plan that highlights your organization’s strengths and mission.
- Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit: An Introductory Guide: For all the incredible contributions of nonprofits and charities, mission-driven organizations often struggle to find the resources, funding, and technology they need to maintain and grow their work. Have no fear! Microsoft announced the soon arrival of Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit, an accessible tech solution specifically for you! Head over to this blog to get all the details about why this is a great tool for nonprofits.
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