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 Fundraising Ideas
Whether you want to raise money to help the environment, animals, homeless children, or hungry families, here are a number of creative ideas for you and your friends and classmates.
Creative Ways to Raise Money for Charity
What Creative Kids are Doing
Creative Ways to Raise Money for Charity
Bake Sale - Everyone loves sweets!
Neighborhood Flea-market - Get neighborhood families to gather their old books and used clothes and household items to sell.
Costume Ball - Hold this event around Halloween or New Year’s. Sell tickets or charge admission at the door.
Read-a-thon, Dance-a-thon or Walk-a-thon - Collect pledges from family, friends, and neighbors for each book you read, each hour you dance, or every mile you walk.
Student-Faculty Play-off - Sponsor a charity sports event (volleyball, baseball or soccer) between students and teachers. Sell tickets or charge admission at the door.
Talent Show - Hold a talent show at your school. Sell tickets or charge admission at the door.
Art Contest - Hold an art contest at school and with local artists as judges. Sell tickets or charge admission at the door. You could also sell this artwork and donate the proceeds to your favorite cause.
Poetry Reading - Hold a poetry reading in your favorite cafe. Get students or friends to read their own or published poems related to hunger & poverty, discrimination or environmental issues. Pass the hat and ask for contributions.
Fasting - Give up one meal a week or give up junk food for one week and donate the money to a charity that feeds the homeless. Place large containers in each classroom in which students and teachers can place their change.
Seasonal Celebration - Hold a seasonal pot-luck dinner. For instance, in autumn ask participants to bring a seasonal dish. Eat outside under colorful trees. Organize simple games and activities to attract children to the event - leaf rubbings, scavenger hunt and story-tellings. Charge admission.
Car Wash - Hold a weekend car-wash to raise money or make yourself (and friends) available to run errands, do yard work, or walk dogs. Make up fliers to advertise your services and explain where the money will go that is earned.
Birthday Donations - On birthdays students can ask parents, friends and grand-parents to make a donation to a special organization instead of buying a gift. Students can do the same for other people's birthdays. Make up a card for the birthday person explaining that a donation was made in honor of his/her birthday to a local organization.
Community Auction - Ask families, friends and community businesses to donate their specialties - including skills - to be auctioned off. Be creative! Some teachers and students have had themselves auctioned for a day of baby-sitting, or a day of museum-gazing with a small child, etc. Teachers have made videos of their classroom over the course of the year and auctioned them off to parents. Restaurant and theater owners can donate dinners and seats to shows. This takes some organizing but can raise lots of money for your cause and will alert the community and get everyone involved as well. Students can create posters, canvas the neighborhood for donations, etc.
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What Creative Kids are Doing
Two Sixth grade students in Concord, New Hampshire wrote to all 100 U.S. Senators about a bill the Senate was discussing dealing with the homeless. They had done their "homework" and presented their arguments in a highly professional manner. They received responses from nearly every Senator (or a member of his/her staff) explaining the Senator's position.
Twelve year-olds in Sandwich, Massachusetts testified at their state capitol to help pass a law that would ban smoking on public school grounds. The law was passed and several other states adopted similar laws.
A twelve-year old in Chelmsford, Massachusetts started a petition and testified with friends at a town meeting to protect a wooded area from being destroyed by a condominium development project. The woods are still there.
Seventh grade students in South Portland, Maine conducted a program at the Portland Museum of Art entitled "Celebrating The Arts In Honor of World Hunger Education." This same class "adopted" a single parent family living in a local shelter and provided them "with a Christmas they will never forget."
Fourth Grade students in Kittery, Maine ran a canned food drive at their school and donated the food to the local food pantry. Representatives of the classes helped prepare the food for distribution to the clients of the food pantry.
Another group of Fourth Graders in Eliot, Maine conducted a fund raising event at the school and presented the money they raised to their local food pantry.
Students from the sixth grade in New York City gave up a weekend to help raise funds for World Hunger Year. Some of them were on the phone bank during the annual Hunger-a-thon radio show.
Students in Concord, New Hampshire hosted a "hunger banquet" for their parents. Everyone was required to bring canned food for the local food pantry.
A Sixth Grade class in Bellingham, Massachusetts developed and produced an award winning video. The students were responsible for the choreography, costumes, scenery and every member of the class performed.
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