52 Ways to Fundraise

Here are 52 ways to fundraise, one for each week of the year!

Of these, which ones do you think yield the most money? Which ones, the least?

If you have any to add, please leave a comment!

1. Quarterly Appeal letter

2. Grants

3. Your Annual Report

4. Sell Fruit

5. Old-time photograph booth for your museum

6. Gala/Dinner with Sponsorships. (How Do You Get Sponsorships?)

7. Sell t-shirts

8. Do a Twitter push for donations

9. Collaborating on grants with another nonprofit

10. Ask people to give in your E-newsletter

11. Ask your most faithful donors to become monthly givers

12. Ask for donations on Facebook

13. Create a planned giving or bequest program How do you start to do that? Christina Attard has answers.

14. Ask for gifts of stock

15. Set up a workplace giving speaking engagement tour and ask your most successful local corporations to give. How to start doing speaking engagements

16. Have a phone-a-thon

17. Hold a yard sale for your nonprofit

18. Ask donors for baked goods to hold a bake sale

19. Ask new local businesses to donate to promote their business in your next newsletter.

20. Ask your local library to donate old books to your nonprofit, sell the books on Amazon.com

21. Get people who are selling their houses to use a broker that will give your nonprofit a percentage of the proceeds.

22. Invest in stocks or CDs for your nonprofit

23. Get people to donate their cars to your nonprofit

24. Get people who are having a bridal shower to have their friends give the money they would have spent to your nonprofit.

25. Get a billboard donated to your nonprofit and ask for donations there.

26. Get a celebrity to come to an event, and sell a pre-event where rich people can hobnob with the celebrity.

27. Ask a scout troop to adopt your nonprofit and raise money with a carwash.

28. Ask a ladies auxiliary committee at your local hospital to consider donating to your nonprofit,

29. Ask your local community foundation if they have any donor advised funds that would be a good fit for your nonprofit. How to find foundations

30. Ask the Moose Lodge or Shriners to donate to your nonprofit

31. Get people who are having a wedding to get their guests to give to your nonprofit instead of getting them gifts.

32. Advocate for state appropriation of funds to your nonprofit. What can Government advocacy do? Ask Barry Silverberg, who does this all the time.

33. Ask churches to give to your nonprofit out of their collections once a month.

34. Make a food cart and sell food for your nonprofit downtown, at festivals, or farmer’s markets.

35. Lease space in your building to other nonprofits or businesses.

36. Hold an arts bazaar in your nonprofit space, partner with community artists, and get lots of people to come in and see what your nonprofit does, and ask them to give.

37. Hold a movie night and ask people to give.

38. Ask your volunteers to give to your nonprofit.

39. Ask your board members to give, and introduce you to their rich friends.

40. Cultivate long term relationships with many different community members that lead to giving.

41. Hold a festival around your nonprofit cause, and ask people to give there.

42. Research people who gave large amounts to other similar nonprofits, and ask them to give to your nonprofit via a long cultivation process. aka Major Gifts. How to start major gifts

43. Hold a community forum about a particular topic and then ask people to give there.

44. Hold a friendraiser for your most loyal and generous donors, secure their support for another year there.

45. Ask sororities and fraternities to organize social gatherings for your nonprofit.

46. Get a group of cyclists to do a long ride for your nonprofit, and get people to sponsor them.

47. Use MGive where people get their own donation page on your website and can direct friends and family there to give.

48. Ask for text donations to your nonprofit. (How to start a text giving program)

49. Send out a paper newsletter or magazine and ask for money for your nonprofit.

50. Ask your own employees if they’d like to start a monthly employee giving program to your nonprofit.

51. Set up a partnership with Credo Mobile so that people can round up their cellphone bill and give that to your nonprofit each month.

52. Ask local restaurants to donate a portion of one night’s profits to your nonprofit.

AND A BONUS ONE! 53. Create Multiple Streams of Income For Your nonprofit

You obviously can’t do one a week, some of these are long term ideas. However, others would only take one phonecall to hear if they want to help you or not. Why not make a list of those phonecalls today? Start with people already in your database. See who you know. Give this list to your board members. See who wants to run with it.

These are my ideas, do you have any you’d like to share?