Winter Fundraising Ideas
Top 3 Winter Fundraising Ideas - Quick, Scalable, Affordable!
Rahul Razdan
Dec 2021
The Winter season is an important time for non-profit organizations to raise funds and meet their annual fundraising goals.
With over 20-30% of the annual fundraising activity happening during this period, it is critical that organizations get their strategies right to maximize fundraising and new donor recruitment.
Traditionally, we’ve seen lots of holiday-themed events - from ugly sweater parties to black tie events, from polar plunges to new year’s eve midnight runs, and from direct mail solicitation to silent auctions. These events however, are labor and budget intensive and leave out a lot of patrons who aren’t interested in such events. Here in this blog post, we’re sharing three fresh and exciting virtual fundraisers to do during the winter that all organizations can (read should) leverage to reach more donors, grow their contact lists for next year and rejuvenate their fundraising efforts.
7 days
Did you know that your next virtual race can be started in under
one week with minimal staff time requirements?
Interested in starting a virtual race?
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Holiday Season Health Contest
Virtual walks, runs, rides, and other step challenges - a.k.a. Virtual Races have taken the world by a storm in the last few years.
These virtual race events are extremely affordable from the host organization, and we at Charity Footprints take care of the setup and management. What you’d need to do? Promote, promote, and promote your fundraiser.
What better than a Virtual Race challenge centered around the holiday season that incorporates holiday-themed ebibs, ecertificates, emedals, etc.?
Spread the holiday spirit while encouraging your community to get fit and give back. Allow participants to choose their own fitness & fundraising goals to maximize engagement and compliance.
You can also encourage registered participants to create teams for their friends and family to join. Here are a few awesome contest fundraisers you should check out: Taking Steps Together! YRF Walk Run 21!; #JoinTheFight For Kids; Special Olympics Washington’s CommUNITY Challenge.
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Holiday Traditions & Chores Around The House Competition
The holiday season also brings along several household traditions like putting up the holiday lights with the kids, decorating a gingerbread house, sending out holiday cards, writing letters to Santa, etc.
This holiday season, consider monetizing these activities and running a competition for all your volunteers irrespective of their geographical location.
Simply create a list of such activities or other chores around the house and challenge all volunteers to complete these tasks to earn points and get higher up on the competition leaderboard.
Get creative here and add activities to this list that resonate with the work that your organization does. Check out this competition that Heroes To Heroes Foundation ran recently.
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Physical & Mental Health Focused Challenge
The essence of the holiday season is to take care of and help others, but at the same time, it is important for all of us to take care of ourselves during this time as well. Get your community to not just give back but also get fit - both physically and mentally, by participating in a challenge that focuses on holistic wellness.
From self-care activities to getting a massage, from meditation to focused breathing exercises - Charity Footprints can support all types of wellness activities and gamify your challenge by allowing participants to earn points by staying committed to their well-being. Check out some of our campaigns that have done a fantastic job in spreading wellness while raising awareness and funds: Taking Steps Together! YRF Walk Run 21!; The Y Seattle’s Step Up with Y; Move Together Challenge by MM+M.
Virtual walks, runs, rides, and other step challenges - a.k.a. Virtual Races have taken the world by a storm in the last few years. These virtual race events are extremely affordable from the host organization, and we at Charity Footprints take care of the setup and management. What you’d need to do? Promote, promote, and promote your fundraiser.
What better than a Virtual Race challenge centered around the holiday season that incorporates holiday-themed ebibs, ecertificates, emedals, etc.? Spread the holiday spirit while encouraging your community to get fit and give back. Allow participants to choose their own fitness & fundraising goals to maximize engagement and compliance.
You can also encourage registered participants to create teams for their friends and family to join. Here are a few awesome contest fundraisers you should check out: Taking Steps Together! YRF Walk Run 21!; #JoinTheFight For Kids; Special Olympics Washington’s CommUNITY Challenge.
The holiday season also brings along several household traditions like putting up the holiday lights with the kids, decorating a gingerbread house, sending out holiday cards, writing letters to Santa, etc. This holiday season, consider monetizing these activities and running a competition for all your volunteers irrespective of their geographical location.
Simply create a list of such activities or other chores around the house and challenge all volunteers to complete these tasks to earn points and get higher up on the competition leaderboard. Get creative here and add activities to this list that resonate with the work that your organization does. Check out this competition that Heroes To Heroes Foundation ran recently.
The essence of the holiday season is to take care of and help others, but at the same time, it is important for all of us to take care of ourselves during this time as well. Get your community to not just give back but also get fit - both physically and mentally, by participating in a challenge that focuses on holistic wellness.
From self-care activities to getting a massage, from meditation to focused breathing exercises - Charity Footprints can support all types of wellness activities and gamify your challenge by allowing participants to earn points by staying committed to their well-being. Check out some of our campaigns that have done a fantastic job in spreading wellness while raising awareness and funds: Taking Steps Together! YRF Walk Run 21!; The Y Seattle’s Step Up with Y; Move Together Challenge by MM+M.
TAKEAWAY
During the holiday season, donors get inundated with donation solicitations, gala invitations, auction participation requests, etc. You can stand out during this time by making sure that your winter fundraising events strategy is fun, engaging, and allows potential donors to join virtually from anywhere and at any time of their choosing.
Lastly, after the 5th “last slice of pie” and grandma’s awesome pudding, and the stuffing, and the turkey, and the eggnogs, and the cookies, and the mulled wines, and ….. a lot more... year-end holidays are THE PERFECT TIME to run virtual race fundraising challenges - Get Fit. Give Back.
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