5 Easy fundraising ideas for small groups and charities

Your charity may be small, but your impact doesn’t have to be! Try these five easy fundraising ideas for small groups to make a big difference.

Good things come in small packages. It’s true … even when it comes to fundraising!

Small charities and groups of fundraisers or supporters are filled to the brim with power and passion. Even if your nonprofit organisation consists of just four or five people, there are plenty of fundraisers you can run to achieve your goals or support a cause you’re passionate about.

As a small group, you can channel authenticity into your nonprofit fundraising events — and bring unique talents and skills to the table. With a smaller scope, your group can be well-rounded, well-organised, and well on your way to making waves!

If you’ve got a team ready to get donors, pull up a chair! Here are our favourite easy fundraising ideas for small groups and charities.

1. Get Your Thinking Cap on in a Virtual Escape Room

Lookin’ for a Covid-free, unique fundraiser idea? A virtual escape room might tickle your fancy.

A virtual escape room experience requires virtually (🥁) no preparation or planning — all you need to do is create an account and get your thinking cap on!

You can ask a virtual escape room if they’ll donate a portion of the ticket costs to your cause. Here are a few sites to consider:

• Escapely
• The Escape Game
• Virtual Escape — Our team tried them out for a virtual retreat and we LOVED it!

When someone signs up for the escape room, you can collect additional donor information and briefly mention your cause, mission, and an invitation to donate more. You can also create a link to your fundraising page where teams can sign up for the event and donate more if they’d like. Escape room events typically charge a fee to play, but many of them will donate a portion to your cause.

Then, put your problem-solving pants on and compete against others in your fundraising crew or donor list. You and your team members will need to work closely together to succeed — but you’ve got that in the bag, right?

You’ll have an hour to get creative and resourceful — did we mention you can use Google or any other website to find answers?

Virtual escape rooms put the “fun” in online fundraising, and they‘re perfect for high school fundraisers, sports teams, and any club where communication and problem-solving are top of mind.

Bonus: If your team comes out on top, you’ll nab a spot on the acclaimed leaderboard.

2. Take a Big Bite With a Bake-Off

We all love a good piece of cake, so why not invite your fellow fundraisers ‘round and host a baking challenge?

It’s the perfect spin on the old-school bake sale — and an easy fundraising idea for small groups!

Take inspiration from “The Great British Bake Off” with a challenge to bake through the recipes in an episode, or you pull a few crowd favourites from your grandma’s recipe book, this is a great fundraising idea that can get community members chatting about your cause.

Prefer a little meditative baking on your own? Give the people what they want with some pre-made homemade goodies!

Even if your baking skills wouldn’t land you on a reality TV baking competition, you can still partake and post your hilarious mishaps on social media and the event fundraising page.

You can also turn up the heat and get local restaurants and coffee shops involved. You can even make T-shirts to commemorate the occasion!

Before you get started, set some fundraising goals and create a donation page for participants to sign up and pay a small entry fee. Raisely makes setting up an effective fundraising campaign super easy.

Bonus tip: Make sure to get on top of your community’s dietary requirements beforehand — considering the coeliacs and vegans of the crowd can go a long way in showing you care.

3. Bookworm It Up

Sometimes we all need a break from the screens and the hustle and bustle of technology.

Mute your iPhones and dive into the classics with your fundraising team or nonprofit organisation! You can also get family members, friends, and your local community involved.

Whether you create a book club, set a reading challenge, or gather your nearest and dearest for a public reading, we think this is an amazing, easy fundraising idea for small groups.

Book clubs are accessible for adults, kids, couples, and families — it’s an ageless, timeless treat.

You may think it’s just words on a page, but there’s so much you can do with a book club. Instead of a walk-a-thon, you can create a read-a-thon. Or, create a fun scavenger hunt where readers must find key objects mentioned in the book you’re reading.

Invite your friends, family, followers, and fellow book lovers to make an optional donation to your cause, or charge a small fee to join the book club.

Do you need a little pick-me-up while getting lost between pages? Turn it into an ice cream social, where all proceeds go to your cause.

If you find yourself missing technology and the book you’re reading has a TV or movie version, why not bring it to the big screen? Plan a movie night, where a small fee covers popcorn, candy, water bottles, and other refreshments.

Want to make reading time even better? Nab a couple of signed copies of a great book to auction off — they make the perfect fundraiser freebie!

4. Sing Your Hearts Out With a Karaoke Night

Does your group love to sing? Plan a karaoke night and let team members or fellow fundraisers hit (and miss) a few high notes.

Karaoke nights make for fantastic fundraising ideas, because they’re easy to plan. Local businesses like coffee shops and bars are often happy to host these fundraising events if you can guarantee a minimum number of people — especially when it’s for a good cause. Sometimes, the business will even be willing to donate some of its proceeds for the evening. You’ll never know unless you ask!

With Raisely, you can create a fundraising page and share the event through your social channels. By requesting a small fee, donors can pay online or via a QR code in advance while they think about their song choice.

Your small group can make a lot of money during a karaoke night. Dial your fundraising efforts up to 11 by also selling refreshments, T-shirts, and other goodies.

Turn karaoke night into a competition by offering a prize to the best singer. Their pipes earned it!

5. Decaf, Thanks

It might send shivers down your spine, but why not challenge yourself to a week without caffeine?

Ask your community to donate their daily or weekly caffeine allowance to support you, and watch the love pour in!

But don’t stop at just your cup. Keep the whole crowd off cold brew by turning your challenge into a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Encourage friends, followers, and family members to create their fundraising pages that link to your main page — Raisely makes doing this easy.

This is a really approachable fundraising idea for people to get involved in. Your peers will feel your pain and want to ease the jitters when you can’t join their daily coffee run.

Coffee not your cup of tea? Choose an alternative that sits close to your heart to go without.

More Easy Fundraising Ideas for Small Groups to Consider

With so many great fundraising ideas for small groups in tow, it’s never been easier to rally around a good cause.

There are plenty of other easy fundraising ideas for small groups you can take advantage of, including:

• Garage sales
• Chilli cook-offs
• Obstacle courses
• Bowl-a-thons
• Recycling drives

Still looking for more fundraising ideas? Our blog has some nifty school fundraising ideas, PTA fundraiser ideas, and summer fundraising ideas.

Create Your Next Small-Group Fundraiser with Raisely

With Raisely, your small group can make a huge impact with your next fundraiser.

We have a selection of free templates you can optimise to include your brand colours, fonts, styles, and messaging. Our flexible features make creating mobile-friendly campaign websites and adding donation forms a breeze. You can also create team and individual fundraising pages for peer-to-peer campaigns.

In fact, you can be ready to launch in just a few minutes!

Small groups will get everything they need, including donation reports, progress bars, triggered messages, and more!