With schools closing & social distancing requirements going into place, many organizations are going to feel the effects of cancelled fundraisers. Here are some ideas that can help you still reach your fundraising goals while helping your community stay safe and healthy. These fundraising ideas can also be great solutions for setting up family assistant funds in the light of COVID-19.
1. Gift card sale to a local restaurant
Just like our schools, restaurants are being affected as well. You could organize an online sale of gift cards to be used for takeout/delivery or after restrictions are lifted.
2. Online Market
Set up an online marketplace and have a sale online. You can either work with a vendor that does direct shipping or coordinate designated pick up times.
3. Virtual Runs
Are you having to cancel a 5k or fun run? Consider hosting it as a virtual run! A virtual race is a race that can be run (or walked) from any location. Participants get to run their own race, at their own pace, and time it themselves.You could even send them a medal for participating!
4. Online tournaments
Host an online games tournament. You can use video games, or board game simulators. Set up an event page for online registration to collect fees and donations. Pick a time and get playing!
5. Letter writing campaigns using promoter pages
Bring your team together with a letter writing campaign. Send emails and social media blasts that connect to individual promoter pages to increase donor participation. Set a goal for each member of your team/ club to send 10 emails or to hit a certain goal for funds raised.
6. Email or Social Media Flash Fundraiser
Communicate with your community that you may need to cancel your upcoming event. In your communication include information that you are creating a “flash” fundraiser that will run until the end time/date of your original event.
7. Host a Virtual Movie Night
Does your organization have a relevant documentary to share, or have a different movie in mind? Coordinate a time to start watching the movie together, set up a place for online discussion or chat for your community to use while watching the movie. Just make sure you have the rights to stream it if you do a group showing.
8. Reschedule your event as a webinar/virtual event
If possible, you can consider moving events such as plays to a webinar or live streaming event. You can use free webinar tools or live streaming functions to share your event with your community.
Create sharable content for people to use on their social media to show that they are participating in your fundraiser. You could set up a profile photo badge, snapchat filters, or simple graphics about your event to help people spread the word online.
It may be awhile before you can host in-person events again. This is the time to build relationships with your donors. Successful fundraisers during this time with focus on donor engagement and retention. It is important to show them the impact that their donations have during this uncertain time. Classmunity makes it easy to find your donors when it comes time to thank them, you can find step-by-step directions in this Dear Willow.
Our team is here to help. We are available for online support and consultation. Please let us know if you need assistance setting up any of the fundraiser ideas listed above.
If your district is not currently a Classmunity partner, please reach out to our team. Due to COVID-19 we are making trial platforms available for new districts through the end of the school year to help adapt your fundraising.
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