14 Holiday Fundraising Ideas 2022
We have put together a list of the top fundraising ideas that anyone can host for Christmas or any celebration during the holiday season! Keep in mind your typical donors or audiences, many celebrate Christmas, but many do not, so continue to be aware and inclusive to everyone.
Gift Wrapping
This is an excellent Christmas fundraising idea, especially if you're running a local nonprofit, a church, or a school. Many people enjoy wrapping presents for holidays, but many people would happily pay to have someone else wrap their gifts. Especially if it's for a good cause!Get several volunteers on board. Schedule a day during the holiday season during which people from your neighborhood can come and get their presents wrapped. Try and get wrapping supplies donated from a local store within your community or community members (e.g., by Target or a local church) to maximize the donation amount. Find volunteers who enjoy wrapping presents to donate their time to help wrap gifts. This is a very simple fundraiser that has the potential to raise a good amount of funds with the proper advertising.
Polar Plunge
The Polar Plunge is a winter fundraiser that involves participants jumping into freezing cold waters. This unique event raises money for charities such as the American Cancer Society, Special Olympics, and others.
Many Polar Plunge event planners have discovered that people love participating because they are willing to take risks. They want to see how far they can go. And they're willing to donate to a worthy cause. Participants pay a flat entrance fee, and they solicit donations through pledges. The pledges will often pay the amount of time (usually in minutes or seconds) the participant stays underwater. Not only are you raising funds from participants but their sponsors as well. Encourage participants to get as many sponsors as possible, even if they pledge $5 per minute. No donation is too small!
Wreath Auction
Hold a fundraiser where people can bid on wreaths donated by the community. All proceeds can go to whatever you would like, for example, providing Christmas gifts for children in need.
To get more creative, ask your donors to donate different types of wreaths. For example, four different categories of wreaths you can ask your donors to create are: traditional, contemporary, modern, and rustic. This way, there is one for everyone. Add different price ranges for wreaths so everyone can participate and have them start at $25 and go up from there.
Pictures with Santa
Pictures with Santa are a must for many families. Charge families a flat fee for a photo with Santa.For this fundraiser, set it up at a local library, school, or any small business, so it is central to the community. Once you have a location, recruit a Santa. Having someone willing to volunteer to be Santa will help ensure everything raised will go right to your cause, and nothing will be taken away. To entice more people to come as well as raise more funds. Consider having hot chocolate and cookies for purchase as well.
Poinsettia Sales
Poinsettias are one of the most popular holiday plants. They are a staple in many families' homes during the holidays. Consider fundraising by selling them! Many already will be purchasing these beautiful plants during the holiday season, so if they have the choice to buy them and have a portion of their funds go to a good cause, they will definitely be more inclined to purchase from you rather than a store.
You can find poinsettias at local garden centers and even online retailers like Amazon. You can also partner with a local plant nursery to help you source your poinsettias. Many nurseries offer discounts on bulk purchases. This way, you can ensure you’re getting quality plants and know exactly what you’re paying for! Poinsettia sales can be held anywhere. You may also send out emails or letters for pre-orders to help make sure you do not over-purchase and lose money.
Traditional Holiday Gala
If you’re looking for Christmas fundraisers that can be held both online and in person, why not host a holiday gala with an online component? This way, people who want to attend the gala can, but if they would just like to participate in the auction, they can do so from the comfort of their own homes and bid through iBid.The items for sale can be only Christmas-themed, or they can be extended to Hannukah, Kwanza, and similar cultural holidays. Make sure it is inclusive to all your guests attending.
First, be sure to send out invitations in plenty of time for your guests to mark the date on their calendars. The holiday season is busy for everyone. Include all the important details, including the dress code, the organization's information, groups benefiting from the auction proceeds, and the event's location.
In terms of the logistics of organizing the fundraiser, you'll want to collect donations for the silent online auction, so be sure to get a wide range of items so everyone can find something they like and bid on it!
Holiday Movie Night
Holiday movie nights are always a huge hit! Especially for the younger crowd. Charge an admission fee for the movie and have popcorn and drinks for purchase to maximize funds. Hosting the movie night in local gyms, auditoriums, or even libraries will allow students to gather around and enjoy the experience together. You could even set a "cinema" schedule with a movie each weekend or even twice a week, allowing families to choose something different every time. Popular family-friendly holiday movies to show include The Grinches, Klaus, The Nutcracker, The Polar Express, and Frozen.
Consider advertising them as a night where parents can drop off their children and enjoy a quiet night at home. This will definitely bring in more guests!
Holiday Themed Trivia Night
Who doesn't love a trivia night? Especially holiday themed! Adapt this idea to fit parents, teachers, or both. It doesn't matter; everyone can get behind a little friendly competition around the holidays. To get started with this holiday fundraising idea, just think about what kinds of trivia questions people might ask during the season. For example, what are some things kids love about the holidays? What do families like to eat? How many days are there in December? Who wrote "Jingle Bell Rock"? These types of questions could lead to a great evening of entertainment.Once you've got your questions ready, send invitations to friends and family members. On the night of the party, divide your guests into groups and let the games begin. Charge a fee to participate as well as provide snacks and drinks for purchase.
Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest
Ugly Christmas sweater contests are easy to set up and require little to no preparation. They also provide a great opportunity to engage students and parents alike. Create a night where everyone can come and compete to show off their ugliest sweater, charge an entree fee, and have refreshments available as well.
To make sure your ugly sweater contest raises funds, here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Choose a location. Host it somewhere local, like a school or business within your community.
2. Create a prize. A cash prize is always nice, but you don’t necessarily have to give out anything tangible. Instead, consider giving away gift cards, certificates, or tickets to local events.
3. Involve everyone. Create a community event out of it!
4. Promote it. Make sure everyone knows about it. You can't raise funds if you do not promote it properly!
Holiday Cookbook
A great way to raise money creatively is to put together a holiday cookbook of people's favorite holiday dishes and then ask children how to make them. Put each recipe side by side, showing the traditional way and how the children think they should make it. This is simple to put together and does not cost much, so most of the funds earned can go directly to your cause.This is something different from your typical holiday cookbook by adding humor and memories for families. If you are selling these at a school and have the parents purchase them, they can see what their child or children said about each recipe and have a good laugh.
Bake Sale
If you haven’t already done so, now is a perfect time to plan a bake sale. These types of fundraisers are easy to organize, inexpensive, fun, and often successful. Here are some tips to help you plan a successful bake sale:
• Set up a table outside where people can drop off donations.
• Have a sign-up sheet to track how much each person contributes.
• Provide samples of the baked goods you intend to sell.
• Make sure you have enough baked goods to meet demand.
• Don’t forget to take pictures of the event and post them online to show how people who baked the goods and purchased them helped your cause.
Breakfast with Santa
Breakfast with Santa - Pancakes with Santa - Donuts with Santa!Putting together a breakfast with Santa fundraiser definitely has the potential to raise a lot of money.
If you are looking for ideas to make your next breakfast with Santa fundraiser successful, here are some tips to help you out.
Sell tickets and offer a donation link or bin at your event to encourage donations. Decide who will cater your event and where it will be held. You can either choose to have your breakfast with Santa event catered by a local restaurant, or you can choose to cook it yourself. There are many benefits to cooking your own food, including saving money and being able to control what goes into your meal. However, there are also several disadvantages to cooking your own food, such as the fact that you must prepare everything ahead of time and have many volunteers. If you can find volunteers to cook and provide ingredients for your event, that would be the best and most cost-effective way. This can be held anywhere local, even at a donor's house, to save costs. Lastly, have someone volunteer to be Santa, and you are all set!
Angel Tree
You can host an angel tree at your local school or organization. Kids can decorate the angels with stickers, paint, glitter glue, colored markers, ribbon, etc. They can write messages on the wings too.Guests can participate by taking an angel off the tree with someone else in need. For example, you could make an angel for a child whose parents lost everything in a house fire, and someone can come and pick their angel off the tree and see what they need this holiday season to donate to them.
Don't forget to include a donation box for guests to make donations for anyone. You can ask guests to donate money, food, gifts, clothes, toys, etc. A great holiday fundraising event for your school PTA or PTO to display the true meaning and spirit of the Christmas season.
Toy Drive
A toy drive is a classic, simple fundraising event that benefits children and families tremendously. They are easy to set up as well as easy to find ways to get donations to the right people in need.
To host a toy drive, all you need to do is advertise either a certain drop-off day and time or, to maximize donations, set up a drop box that will be open to donations at any time of the day for a certain time period. Once you have your donations, you can either reach out to your city or town and find families in need, or you can s a day to give away all your donations and have families come stop by and take what they need for their children.
Overall hosting a holiday fundraiser is a great way to raise money during the holiday season. Typically, people are more willing to give during this time, so take advantage of that and do everything you can to get donations or raise funds for people or organizations in need this holiday. Fundraising
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