In the world we live in, college fundraising is now more important than ever. But solely handing out fliers for the same type of events is not going to cut it. To increase your donations, you need to be more creative than that. To inspire and help you, we’ve gathered creative college fundraising ideas.
5 Steps to Get Started Starting Process
Before any type of fundraiser, certain administrative tasks need to be handled. Let’s check them out in detail:
1-Assemble a Committee
Regardless of the type of fundraiser you do, for it to go smoothly, you are going to need a fundraising committee. To form your committee, you can start by asking interested members of your college to volunteer and show their support to your committee to raise donations. Each person on your committee can be a good fit for a different area. One person’s interest and resources can make them a good fit for the organization whereas another person can make them a proper fit for advertisement.
2-Stick to a Budget
After building your committee, it is time to think about your budget. You should be able to work on a tight budget since it is a college fundraising group consisting of a college area. For that reason, seeking out and finding what free resources you can use for your college fundraisers and determining exactly how much you can spend on each fundraiser is essential for your committee.
3-Brainstorm Event Ideas
College fundraisers should be both fun and affordable. Therefore, brainstorming fundraising event ideas for events that will interest your target audience (who in this case are college students and professors) and are also affordable is the goal here. Whilst coming up with event ideas, remember to keep in mind that the attention span of students is not that large and they are busy people, meaning an event idea that takes too much of their time may not be a good idea.
4-Come up with a Plan
After coming up with many ideas, it is time to start turning them into realities. Your committee should carefully organize each step of the event whilst handling details like determining the costs and assigning duties to people on the committee at the time of the event. Then, set a date for your event, start getting the materials you will need, and create decorations.
5-Advertise
When you are done with the planning phase of your event, you need to spread the word around. You can do this by handing out flyers, posting announcements on your social media accounts, etc. The goal here is to make others feel excited and eager to join your event and let them know about the specific date, place, and cause of your event.
5 Simple College Fundraising Tips
Once you’ve decided what you want to raise money for, you need to decide how you’re going to do it. Simple suggestions for college fundraisers include:
Create a calendar and schedule.
Your schedule will assist you in developing your framework, a campaign schedule, and inspiring contributors with a feeling of urgency. Consider how much of your time you can devote to this effort as well. It takes various structures and concepts varying lengths of time. Consider extending your timeframe if you and your team have a lot of additional things to complete in order to lighten the workload each week.
Be consistent
A successful college fundraising campaign will include a variety of tactics and media, but all of the platforms should share the same language, theme, and images.
Make sure everyone knows why they should donate, what you’re raising money for, where it’s going, and what your objectives are. A succinct tagline that is both descriptive and memorable, together with a hero picture, are excellent ways to connect your outreach strategies.
Be kind and sympathetic in your language
It’s crucial to pay attention to the words you employ in your fundraising efforts to raise money. People should be informed of who and how they are assisting. Additionally, you want them to understand the impact they will have. In order for people to want to donate again when they can, you want them to feel good about themselves and their choice as they leave.
Boost the feeling of urgency
When you get someone’s attention with a request for money, they are more likely to comply if they act right away. One strategy for getting people to give when they first think about it is easy, but another is urgency.
Use inquiries like: Why should someone give right now? Do you believe there is an urgent need, such as a relief effort? Exists a corporation or person match the deadline?
Keep track of donations
On several levels, keeping track of donations is crucial. You will be better able to provide individualized outreach in the future if you can recall who gave what when, and how much. You may compile an email list of donors to contact in the future by keeping a note of their emails. You may discover which platforms have higher completion rates by keeping track of the platforms that donors used, and you’ll have a better understanding of your audience moving forward. .This will make it easier to raise funds.
10 College Fundraising Ideas
Now that you know how the process of college fundraising works, it is time for us to show you creative college fundraising ideas that you can try in your own college. Let’s see our top 5 college fundraising ideas:
1. College Dance
Organizing a college dance is a really fun way of fundraising. You can ask for an entrance fee and donate the money you collect to your cause. The key here is to get a good DJ and a sound system that your school may already possess and if so, you can simply ask them to use it for a few hours. Your dance party can be a themed one such as 70s disco or millennium techno etc. This way you will both have a fun night and save money to contribute to your cause.
Sports Festival
Do you know what else could be as much fun as a college dance? A sports festival! You can organize a festival with several sports contests such as a football match, a ping pong tournament and so much more! Same as a college dance, you can ask for an entrance fee and maybe also make some of the games ticketed as well. If the ticketed games of your festival have prizes for winners, then they will attract many competitive college students your way. You can also provide food and beverages for this event.
Gaming Marathon
You can also organize a gaming marathon as a fundraiser, by charging a small entry fee. Your marathon can consist of many games such as darts, twister, bingo, or trivia games. The length of your marathon will depend on you as well. It can be a marathon of 3 hours or it can be a 24 hours long marathon. Regardless of its length, it is guaranteed to be a fun and effective fundraiser.
Open Mic Night
Another great fundraiser is to organize an open mic night. Students can join the open mic night and do anything they please on the stage such as reading a poem, singing a song, making a stand-up comedy, or even lip sync and dance! While they perform, their friends will be able to sit and provide a confidence boost to them. This means you should probably consider providing food and beverages for this event as well. You can even sell food and beverages with a small profit and donate that profit to your cause.
Theme Movie Night
Last but not the least, you can organize a theme movie night. Just like a marathon, it can take as many hours as you please, and just like a college dance, it can be themed. Your theme can be anything from “the best romantic comedies of all times’’ to “Star Wars series marathon’’. Either way, it will be a really fun activity for attendees and a good way for fundraising.
Barbecue
For a quick meal or for students on the go, cookouts and barbecues usually work well. Charge attendees an admission or per-plate fee and host the event at your sorority/fraternity home or another collegiate site. Request the assistance of other students or group members by giving dishes, food, and other requirements.
Direct Sales
One of the best college fundraising ideas that might generate a lot of revenue for your college fundraiser is direct sales. Some businesses may “float” you the products with repayment due a week after the fundraising ends. Your organization may decide to pursue catalog sales if you lack the funds to make upfront product purchases. A catalog of available products is available to potential contributors, who may fill out an order form with their selections. The payment is made by customers when they place their order. Then, after paying the wholesale price and keeping the earnings for your organization, you complete the orders with the business that offers the catalog and the products for sale.
Table game competition
Set up a competition for air hockey, pool, or another table game. To compete against other college students, students must pay a fee. College student organizations may also make donations to place a wager on the outcome. Up to the finals, where one winner will get the grand prize, each winner advances to the following round.
Costume Party
Costume charity events are popular for raising money. They also make a lot of money. However, you are not required to host a traditional black-tie affair. Instead, you might have an anime or superhero costume party. A comic book party may also be quite popular, particularly if you include entertaining extras like a costume contest. Even while parties might be expensive, you can charge a modest fee and ask guests to bring food to share or solicit donations from local businesses.
Karaoke Night
College students are often willing to make a little donation for a karaoke night. A karaoke machine and merry individuals are all that are required for this occasion. Making your fundraising event a singing competition is another way to give it more of a competitive edge. A tiny gift that the winner may receive just enhances the enjoyment.
Now You Are Ready!
Now that you’ve gotten a glimpse of what can be done for college fundraising, it is time for you to get your committee and start working on your own events. Of course, creating, promoting and running events can be hard to follow at times. During those times, it would be helpful to have an all-in-one event management software like Raklet, by your side. Check out our features that include secure, online ticket payments, tracking attendance, fundraising and many more! As for pricing, Raklet offers both a free trial and a free version which you can use forever for up to 50 members! To find out more, you can see our pricing page and for any questions you might have, you can schedule a demo with us.
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