How to Raise Money for Your Church, Charity, or Non-profit

In hard times, it can be difficult to find the much-needed funds to operate your non-profit organization. Below is a list of several ideas of things your organization can do to raise money.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Hold a car and dog wash. You can usually do this in a parking lot, and a lot of businesses will allow you to use your parking lot. Rather than set an exact amount, let people donate whatever they can---be it 50 cents or $10. Including the pooch will get dog-lovers over as well.

2. Hold a bake sale. A lot of small businesses won't mind if you stand outside their doors with baked goods---just make sure to get permission, first! Make entire pies to sell whole and also make sure to bring baggies in case someone wants to buy smaller items.

3. Createspace.com allows you to create your own t-shirts, mugs, canvas tote bags, magnets, and other items customized with your logo, pictures, or graphics. You don't need any capital to start, and you get a commission from anything you sell. Make a logoed shirt for members to buy, or if you have an artist in the group, design and sell other items, as well!

4. Register at missionfish.org through ebay as a non-profit. People from around the world can select you as a designated organization to donate money to. If members of your organization are selling something on ebay, they can select a certain percentage of the selling price to go to your organization.

5. Hold a member-based "garage sale" at a member's house, barn, or in your organization's designated meeting place. Either have people donate items or have a certain percentage of sales go directly to your cause. Some places do this annually; others do it weekly.

6. Set up a website online with a donate button. Paypal is a fast, easy way to donate and they have buttons you can put on your website just for donating.

7. Silent auctions are fun ways to involve the community in your organization and raise money. Ask around at local stores for new donations; a lot of times, places will be willing to donate very nice items for your silent auction (when I worked at a toy store, we would donate up to $100 worth of merchandise, and it was to anyone who asked, whether the fundraising was going toward a child with great medical needs or a soccer team that wanted to take a trip to Colorado just for fun). You might get restaurant gift certificates, gift baskets, or other items. It never hurts to ask. Set up your silent auction at a local restaurant, if possible, or if not, someplace where you can serve refreshments (for a fee, of course!)

8. Hold a raffle at a charity event or even at your monthly meetings. Let the winner get half of the money, and the other half goes toward your organization. The more money that people put up, the more likely other people are to put up an even greater sum.

[daniel1414]

on 9/29/2009 Great article. A site you should also be aware of is www.donationharbor.com which donates a few cents to charity every time you do a google search. My friends and I use it to donate to ASCPA, but anyone can request to have their own non-profit added to their site as well. check it out.