Fundraising Ideas
Healthy Fundraising Ideas
Activity based fundraisers
Hold an event
Creative products and raffles
Leisure activity fundraising
Service-based fundraisers
Loyalty schemes
Food for fundraising
Commercial Product Fundraisers
Not only can activity-based fundraisers raise money for your organisation, but they can also be a fun, low-pressure way of encouraging people to try activities they normally wouldn’t and make new friends in the process! Activity-based fundraising ideas include:
- Car washes and car rallies
- Skip, walk, run, bike, swim or dance-a-thons
- Aerobics workout, backward walk, badminton tournament, touch tournament, five-a-side tournament, golf tournament
- Sponsored “shoot-out” – sponsorship is obtained for the number of successful soccer goals, rugby conversions, netball goals or basketball hoops out of 100.
- Students can hire themselves out for household chores – all proceeds to the team/school.
- Walking treasure hunt – participants walk a route and collect information along the way
- Ball, barn dance, cabaret night, disco party, fifties rock and roll night, gig (school or local bands play at the school)
- Duck race, gumboot throwing competition, teddy bear’s picnic, treasure hunt, tug-of-war, midwinter swim (polar dip), pedometer challenge.
Companies who can help organise activity based fundraisers
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Holding an event can provide a great day or evening out for the community as well as showcasing the talents of your organisation or group. Event ideas are almost endless – here’s some to start you off:
- Cultural evening, fashion show, quiz night, celebrity debate, talent quest, bingo night or movie night at a local cinema– include a healthy supper in the ticket price (or sell healthy snacks as extras!).
- Sponsored knowledge-a-thon – general knowledge, spell-a-thon or maths-athon etc.
- GST auction – goods, services and talents – where volunteers provide a service of their choice for the winning bidder.
- Have a market day – sell healthy food, produce, plants and crafts
- Art auction – as well as volunteers’ amateur efforts you could involve local and national artists to gain greater exposure for the event. Alternatively, hold an art sale – either set up a stall or sell through local cafes.
- Garden tour or craft show.
- Garage sale, car boot sale, book/comic fair, bring and buy sale, nearly new sale or jumble sale – don’t forget to sell healthy snacks and beverages.
- GST Auction.
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Creative fundraising products can be appealing, artistic and attractive. Raffles are also a great way to fundraise and at the same time encouraging local businesses and retailers to become involved.
- Put together a healthy food hamper as a raffle prize – approach local businesses to get their support.
- Service-related raffle – raffle several hours of volunteers’ time gardening, painting or doing general chores.
- Greeting Cards – have you got budding artists willing to volunteer their talents? Ask them to design and handmake cards to sell. If they’re particularly good, consider getting them professionally printed in a larger print run.
- Make your own healthy recipe book with input from the community; a chance to share all those family cooking secrets! Or how about making a calendar with a different healthy recipe featured each month. Get volunteers to provide the artwork (see above).
- Christmas Carol CD – if your group has vocal talents, think about recording a Christmas carol for sale at the end of the year.
- Grow your own olive trees and press the oil – hand decorate bottles to increase sales appeal
- Propagate and sell potted seedlings
- Sell sunhats, scarves, beanies and gloves
- Collect and sell firewood and pinecones, flower bulbs or fertiliser.
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Local leisure activities can sometimes offer fundraising opportunities for organisations who can supply volunteers to sell vouchers or concession books. For example:
- your local movie theatre
- ten pin bowling centre
- local aquatic centre.
Look at what leisure activities are available in your area and how you might be able to work with them to benefit both organisations.
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Local businesses are often happy to consider taking on temporary workers for a good cause. You could volunteer to:
- stocktake at your local supermarket
- stuff envelopes for a local business
- deliver advertising flyers
- insert advertising into your local newspaper .
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- Some businesses run loyalty schemes where they donate a percentage of every sale or service to a local organisation, ECE centre or school.
Examples of organisations that currently offer loyalty schemes involving donations are:
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If you’re keen to hold a food-based fundraiser, there are a number of ways you can make the food you’re selling better for your community.
Tips for a healthier sausage sizzle
- Use wholegrain/wholemeal bread
- Don’t spread the bread with margarine or butter – this saves time and money as well as being better for you!
- Choose lower-fat sausages
- Pre-boil sausages to remove some of the fat
- Don’t add fat during the cooking process
- Offer toppings like salad, onion, mushrooms, lite tomato sauce, mustard, relish or salsa.
Other healthy food fundraising ideas
- American-style hot dogs – boil saveloys or frankfurters so there is no fat added during the cooking process. Stick to low fat sauces and toppings like a sprinkle of edam cheese, onion or relish.
- Baked potatoes filled with coleslaw and a little edam cheese or low-fat sour cream
- Vegetable soup with a wholemeal bread roll – great for the cooler months
- Chicken/lamb/vege kebabs – use lean meat and cut off any fat. Add assorted vegetables and even pineapple. Don’t forget to pre-soak wooden skewers to avoid splinters!
- Fruit kebabs – in the summer, try frozen fruit kebabs.
- Corn on the cob – grilled or boiled and served with toothpicks.
- Delicious fruit smoothies are great refreshments, especially in summer. The combinations are almost limitless. Try cutting up bits of melon, banana, strawberry, carrot, apple and use low fat milk and yoghurt.
- Healthy hangi – a great way to cook as you steam the food. Make sure there are lots of vegetables and lean meat (cut off the skin and fat).
- Filled rolls - set up a production line like Subway and use wholegrain rolls and lots of salad and vegetables. No need to add butter or other spreads. Or try filling pita pockets for something different.
- Home made pizzas - split English muffins or use pita bread as a base and add vegetable toppings and a sprinkle of cheese.
- Hot chocolate – use low fat milk and skip the marshmallows
- Hot cross buns.
- Lean burgers - fish, chicken, hamburger or ‘vege-burger’. – for example falafel burgers (bake the falafel). Use wholemeal or wholegrain buns, stick to low fat sauces and toppings and add lots of salad. For smaller children, offer mini burgers.
- Pikelets with no spread and a smidgen of jam.
- Plain popcorn – try not to add salt or butter.
- Fruit and/or vegetable boxes.
- Sushi.
- ‘Toastie pies’ (using a toasted sandwich maker) – add lots of veges and only use a smidgen of spread on the outside of the bread to stop them sticking.
Food-related fundraising activities
- Healthy burger or sandwich-making competition – entries assessed on presentation, speed, hygiene, taste, innovative salad ingredients etc. Approach local supermarkets, bakeries for donation of healthy breads and fillings. Afterwards, you can sell the entries for $2 or $3 each.
- Community breakfast – approach local supermarkets, bakeries, produce stores for donation of healthy breakfast foods.
- Sell fruit and/or vege boxes.
Following are some organisations who offer products to sell as fundraisers.
Bags and Accessories
Books
Calendars and Cards
Clothing
Educational
Food and Drink
Labels and Tags
Other Ideas
Photos
Sunscreen
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Updated | 29 Jan 2008.
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