Step Up To Help
Plan a Fundraiser
STEP-A-THON Join the theme of the Square Foot campaign and step up to help the homeless. Host the step-a-thon a park, local track or in a neighborhood. Ask participants to seek pledges for each step they take toward ending homelessness. If your group is small, make it simple and set up step machines in a public area. Accept pledges for each step taken on the machine. Get your office involved and invite the boss to step up to help the homeless. DIVINE DESSERTS NIGHT Host a decadent dessert night at your church, club or local hall. Invite a local comedian or comedy troop to perform for the crowd. Dessert may be homemade by local residents. CHILLI COOK-OFF Everyone has a great chili recipe. Gather together businesses in a complex or residents on a block and have a chili cook-off. Allow voting for best chili and have prizes for best chili in town. Great for a western theme! FINE ARTS SHOW Everybody loves art to some degree. Even small communities have artists of one form or another. sometimes crafts can count as art, but try limiting your art show to the fine arts, oil or acrylic paintings, watercolor paintings, pen and ink, charcoal drawings, clay or bronze sculptures, stone or wood busts, or even computer generated. Have a category for each. BISCUIT AND BAGEL BREAKFAST BONANZA Best planned for a church, club or large office. EVENT ATTENDANT SERVICE A rare but effective way of raising funds is to hire your group out as attendants for parking lots or to sell parking spaces at a regional event. If there is a special event or sporting game that is coming up, the organizers will need plenty of help to accommodate all the visitors. Ask the organizers, if their parking fees could be donated to The Gateway of Hope for one day or one week. THE GREAT GARBAGE GRAB-A-THON Walk down the street and pick up garbage for residents by collecting donations for The Gateway of Hope. With this fundraiser your group will not only be helping clean up the community, but they will also be making a positive difference to the environment. By promoting a trash pickup like the Great Garbage Grab-A-Thon, you will get many that will want to be a part of your efforts. You will get individuals that could help you pick up trash and you will get individuals that will sponsor you by making a pledge for each piece of garbage picked up. Businesses that support you will know it's good for publicity. Just make sure that you let them know that you will be putting their business name on promotional materials and in the newspaper after the event is over. TALENT SHOW Get together some good acts, ensuring they are suitable for the general audience, and sell tickets to a talent show at a school or hall. Hold a bake sale during the intermission and ask businesses to donate various items for a raffle. Talent shows are especially appropriate for children and young teens, because parents enjoy watching their children compete. LIP SYNC CONTEST This usually works best at a club (or at a hall so that children can participate). People pay to enter and lip-sync to their favourite song. Prizes are awarded for different age groups, which can be donated by individuals or businesses. It's an opportunity to hear music, and is appropriate for people of all ages. GOODS, SERVICES & TALENT AUCTION Ask local businesses and individuals to donate goods, services or talents. This may include a large array of items, such as a week at a cottage, legal assistance in writing a will, handcrafted art, restaurant gift certificates, cooking a meal, free rounds of golf, plumbing or carpentry services, or dance lessons. Ask a local auctioneer or celebrity to donate his/her time. 3 ON 3 BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT Host a 3 on 3 basketball tournament at a local gymnasium or school, and advertise the event. Charge a team of 3-4 players $20 - $40 and find local sponsors to donate prizes. During the tournament you can hold a shooting competition for an extra $2 per participant. If there is sufficient interest, print t-shirts as part of the registration. CULINARY CARNIVAL Chefs and restaurants donate their services and create an incredible dining experience. Obtain sponsors and give each of them credit inside a program, which is placed on each table setting. A small silent auction can also be held for a few items. PLANT SALE Volunteers dig through their gardens and separate bulbs and perennials that have spread since the previous year. These, along with other plants, can be sold in the spring months. This event can be particularly successful if participants are avid gardeners and have a wide variety of items from which buyers can choose. MATHEMATICS MARATHON Host a mathematics marathon. Students gather after school to answer 100 challenging math questions in sixty minutes. Parents and other audience members pay an attendance fee. TENNIS BALL RACING This is a different twist to "down the river duck races.” Obtain a large number of tennis balls and write consecutive numbers on them. The balls are all sold for a fee, and on “race day” those that have been paid for are placed into the scoop of a front-end loader. The balls are dumped down a hill in the community, and the first ball to enter the home stretch trough wins a prize or a predetermined portion of sales money. NON-EVENTS Hold a "non-event.” Send out invitations that say, for example: " XYZ Organization is holding its first annual Black Tie Non-Event. The event will NOT take place on June 1, 2008. Appetizers will NOT be served at 6 p.m., and dinner will NOT be served at 7 p.m. NO program will be held at 8 p.m.” Then you itemize the money they will save by not having to attend your event, such as tuxedo rental, buying a dress, babysitting, parking, cost of the dinner, having your hair done, etc. Ask for a donation equaling that amount. If you're looking for smaller donations, make the non-event more casual (no tuxedo rental, for example). SPECIAL MOVIE SCREENING Present children’s movies shown during special morning screenings at a neighbourhood theatre, with profits going to the organization and snack bar proceeds accruing to the theatre LEMONADE STAND FUNDRAISER On a sunny, warm day set up a lemonade stand near a busy pool, beach or park. |
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