Raising money for charity is a very fulfilling experience, but doing so can be pretty challenging. Not only do you have to think of fun and creative ways to get people to donate, but you also have to figure out the best ways to accept donations.
But don’t worry; everyone who runs or manages a charity or non-profit goes through the same struggles, so, to help you out, let’s look at five unique, fun, and effective Event fundraising ideas that you can use to raise money for charity. And after that, we’ll take a look at the different ways you can accept donations.
Read on to learn more.
5 Fun Fundraising Event Ideas
While it’s much easier to attract an audience when it’s done for charity, you still need to make sure it’s fun and worthy of the people’s time and attention. Below, we’ll take a look at 5 fun ways to raise money for charities that are effective and will attract eyeballs.
Shoe Drives
A shoe drive is a great way to raise funds or collect donations for charity. You can set up a shoe drive within a community by creating collection centers where people can donate their gently worn or new shoes. From there, you can either decide to sell the shoes to raise money for the charity, or you can donate them straight out if that’s the cause you’re supporting.
Matching Gift Drives
This is a unique type of fundraising idea that requires you to speak and partner up with different companies. This setup involves companies matching a percentage or fully matching their employees’ donations. Not only does this allow charities to build funds, but it encourages more people to donate money to a charitable cause.
Online Shopping Fundraisers
Nearly 80% of the western population shops online, meaning that the internet is a fantastic place to raise money towards your cause. For instance, if you’re selling products to raise money for a cause, you can set up an online event where you invite people to buy your products from your online store.
T-Shirt Fundraisers
People love their clothes. So, if you can find a good T-shirt design with a great message or a design that people will wear that also raises awareness for a cause, you can start a T-shirt fundraiser. During these events, people show up at the booth and purchase t-shirts for themselves, and the money collected can be used for charity. You can also open up an eCommerce store on the internet and sell those t-shirts online.
Talent Shows
If you and the people behind the charitable cause have a particular talent, running a talent show would be a great way to both entertain an audience and get donations for your charitable cause. And besides that, you can also invite people to participate in the talent show, which will make the whole event a whole lot more interesting.
Best Ways to Collect Donations for Charities
Okay, so now that you have a couple of ideas on how you can raise money for your charity, you may be wondering how to collect the donations. For most organizations, it’s easiest when benefactors donate in cash. However, most people are going cashless, so you have to find alternative ways to accept donations. Here are a couple of ways to raise money and accept donations digitally.
GoFundMe
With GoFundMe, you can create a page for your specific cause or organization. People on the internet can send donations to you through GoFundMe using various payment methods. This can be convenient as you can accept donations and explain your cause on the same page.
With that said, there are many causes on GoFundMe, and standing can be hard. Additionally, GoFundMe also charges a transaction fee, meaning the charity won’t receive all the donations people send their way.
PayPal
Another option for charities looking to accept donations is PayPal. PayPal is one of the most popular digital wallets on the internet today, and because of that, many people have an account already and can donate to your cause in a matter of seconds.
Venmo (And Other Digital Wallets)
Though PayPal is a pretty popular option, it’s not the only digital wallet available. Another very popular option is Venmo, which is currently used by over 52 million people. Besides that, you can also make use of Neteller, Wise, and other digital wallets, which may suit your cause better.
Tapeeno
While the above methods are great to raise funds and accept donations to your charitable cause, they do require the donator to put in the effort to send across the funds that they want to contribute with. From making an account on a particular platform to entering their bank details and the bank details of your charity, it can easily become too much to ask for, which could push away certain donors.
That’s why apps like tapeeno are perfect for taking card payments. Donating using tapeeno is very easy and convenient as you can accept card payments using your mobile phone. All you need to do is input the amount that the person wants to donate and then they can tap their card on your phone to process the transaction. From there, you will receive the funds almost instantly.
Conclusion
It would be a real shame if after all the effort you have put in to organise a charitable event, some people ready to donate don’t end up doing so because you haven’t provided them with a platform that they can donate the money through.
It’s important to remember that different people use different types of payment methods, and while some are happy to donate the funds in cash, others may prefer to pay digitally. That’s why you should set up various different payment methods like PayPal and tapeeno to ensure that everyone who wants to donate towards your charitable cause can do that easily and without any problems.
