How charities can maximise fundraising ideas for kids

As an organisation, here’s a look at some of the creative ways you can help facilitate fundraising ideas for kids and set up campaigns for them.

Kids’ programming is expensive. Whether your nonprofit raises funds for a children’s play, sports team, or schools in general, there are plenty of fundraising ideas available to you.

However, some ideas are definitely better than others, and that’s where we come in!

Fundraising events for kids aren’t only about raising money: They’re a way to strengthen your community and teach kids valuable lessons about teamwork, responsibility, and goal-setting. They’re also incredibly effective. School groups in the U.S. raise $1.5 billion every year selling various items.

With Raisely, you can create fundraising teams, encourage engagement, and develop campaigns that are perfect for kids and their families.

Here are six easy fundraising ideas for kids — and how charities using Raisely can help.

1. Bake Sale … or a No-Bake Sale 🧁

Bake sales are a classic, highly effective fundraising idea — in fact, the Starship Foundation’s Bake It Better campaign has raised more than $50,000 for its paediatric intensive care unit. All you usually need is an event space, tables, signage, and a little social media buzz!

Making and selling baked goods is a fun family-friendly activity. Family members can show off their skills by baking cookies and cupcakes together, then selling them at the event itself. Kids can learn how to cook, pitch their product, and the value of a dollar.

A bake sale isn’t limited to schools or youth groups. They also provide local restaurants with a great opportunity to donate products in exchange for free advertising or get other community members involved.

If your organisation feels like a bake sale is too overdone, there are plenty of other fundraising ideas for kids to try out. For example, you can turn the event on its head and run a no-bake sale instead! Encourage families to sell items like cookie dough or all the ingredients of Grandma's secret banana bread recipe. If you have access to grills or kitchenware, you could also run a competitive cook-off.

Raisely makes running a bake sale as seamless as possible. Your charity can launch your fundraising campaign by choosing from one of our customisable templates.

Also, our fundraising pages are easily shared via email and social media. These pages can help you keep track of who is making what, as well as all your fundraising goals.

2. T-Shirt Fundraising 👕

In a T-shirt fundraiser, nonprofits sell tees to highlight a worthy cause. Whether you’re a sports organisation, a church group, or simply want to commemorate a good cause with something tangible, T-shirts are an excellent addition to almost any kids’ fundraiser.

Another cool thing about T-shirt fundraisers is that they provide free advertising. Anytime someone wears a shirt for your trivia night, shoe drive fundraiser, or school-wide yard sale in public, people will see it.

For extra credit, include the name of the event and a memorable website name that’ll direct someone to your fundraising page, so others can easily find it. You may find yourself raking in additional donations from local community members you wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Turn your T-shirt fundraiser into an ongoing, community effort. With Raisely’s help, you can create a fundraising page that highlights information about the kids’ fundraiser, showcases your T-shirt merch designs, and provides helpful statistics, like how many shirts are purchased and how much money has been raised. Using custom fields with a lead form, you can collect info like sizes and colour preferences from those who want a T-shirt.

3. Car Wash 🚗

Running a car wash is a fun way to boost your fundraising efforts, while also getting the community involved. Whether your nonprofit supports young kids or high school students, everyone loves the chance to splash around during the warm weather months.

All you need is a parking lot, a hose, and a few soapy buckets!

With Raisely’s fundraising platform, you can maximise your money-raising efforts. Create a customisable fundraising page for the event, with all the important information. With our Messages upgrade, you can also send custom email and SMS texts, including a “save the date” and reminders for two weeks, one week, and a day before, as well as the day of the event.

4. Balloon Raffle 🎈

Raffles are always easy fundraising ideas — and they’re incredibly versatile. You can run a raffle around Halloween, Valentine’s Day, or throughout the holiday season.

During a raffle, people buy tickets for the chance to win small prizes. It’s as simple as that!

But we’re encouraging your charity to get creative. Transform your everyday raffle ticket fundraiser into a balloon raffle! You stuff pieces of paper or magic tickets into balloons before blowing them up. Some of these balloons will contain tickets you can exchange for items, and one usually contains a big prize.

Balloon raffles are often incorporated with another event, like a talent show, field day, or game night. People who buy raffle tickets for their balloons are then encouraged to pop them at the end of the night to see what they’ve won. Prizes can be as diverse as the raffles themselves — ask local businesses to donate prizes to your cause.

5. Walk-a-Thon 🚶🏻‍♀️

Walk-a-thons make for perfect fundraising events because most schools already have a track. Your charity can suggest a small fee or pledge, and you can get the whole family involved.

Walk-a-thons are adaptable fundraising ideas for kids. You can turn it into a relay, or while some family members are walking around the track, you can incorporate other fun activities in the track’s centre, including:

• Face painting
• An obstacle course
• Board games

You can also bring camping gear and make a night out of it!

Walk-a-thons are easy to organise. Raisely’s all-in-one event software makes registration management easy. It also allows individuals, teams, or families to create individual pages where they boost their fundraising efforts.

You can also turn the walk-a-thon into a competition, and run a leaderboard that highlights how many laps individuals or teams have completed. Whoever wins can receive a prize.

Not convinced? The Kids’ Cancer Project raised more than $1 million (yes, million) in one month and nearly doubled its base of supporters with a walk-a-thon.

6. Scavenger Hunt 🔎

Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt?

Scavenger hunts allow you to let your imagination run wild. For example, if your nonprofit is an arts program, you can create an entire hunt around a theme, such as music, musicals, or paintings. If it’s sports-related, have participants search for items related to the game you play.

By charging a small donation fee, you can provide kids and their families with a list of items to find, and the team who finds the most wins a small prize.

With this fundraising idea, you can use many of the same strategies you use for a walk-a-thon, including event registration, a leaderboard showcasing how many items each team has found, and more.

Encourage participants to take group photos and share them on social media to show their followers how much fun they’re having!

Make the Most of Your Fundraising Ideas for Kids

Whether you’re running a bake sale, a walk-a-thon, or a fundraising event of your own creation, Raisely can help you create customisable fundraising websites and campaigns, and provide you with the tools you need to maximise your impact.Are you ready to create an amazing, family-friendly campaign to raise money for kids?