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7 Spring Fundraising Ideas You Can Enhance with Technology
Spring is a common favorite season, and it’s not hard to see why. Temperatures start to rise, trees and flowers start to bloom after the cold winter, and the sun begins shining once again. Spring holds a lot of promise, which is why it’s a great season for fundraising.
It’s the perfect time of year to engage donors with fundraising and raise more for your cause. Spring is also a time of new beginnings, so why not try out a new fundraiser or find new ways your nonprofit can embrace technology?
In the spirit of the season, here are a few of our favorite spring fundraising ideas you can try this year. We’ll go over the details of each idea and provide tips for how to improve them using technology.
Nicer weather means people are excited to get outside and get active. This is a great time to host a walk-a-thon to get people outdoors to support your cause. You can use peer-to-peer fundraising to give participants the ability to become a fundraiser for the event on your behalf.
Enhance your walk-a-thon by using online peer-to-peer fundraising software to boost donations. Participants can create their own personal donation pages, collect pledges from their friends and families, and raise funds for your nonprofit based on the distance or duration of time that they walk.
As you set up your online fundraiser, it’s critical to make sure every registration form and donation page is mobile-friendly. According to statistics from 360MatchPro, 33% of donations in 2022 were made on mobile devices, and mobile-friendly donation pages account for up to 34% more overall donations.
At an active event like a walk-a-thon, the only devices your participants will likely have on them are phones. Mobile-friendly donation pages empower your participants to continue fundraising for your cause throughout the event, allowing you to capture as many donations as possible.
Basketball season is here, which makes it the perfect time to gear up and play ball with your supporters. Softball and basketball games are very popular fundraising events that pair well with virtual elements.
Use team crowdfunding software to integrate technology and generate more donations using friendly competition. Set each team up with its own fundraising page and have team members reach out to their personal networks for donations. Give prizes or bonus points to the team that raises the most funds. Teams will work together to meet their own fundraising goal and beat out other teams to win the prize.
You can also livestream your event on social media to generate excitement and involve those who can’t attend in person. Follow these livestreaming best practices to help you raise more:
- Invite supporters to watch the event on Facebook Live or another livestream platform.
- Highlight team stats and performances throughout each of the games.
- Pay attention to the livestream’s chat and respond to comments that virtual attendees make during the event.
- Use a simple call to action like “Donate now” to ask viewers to give online, and have an announcer recognize those who do at the live event.
When you promote your basketball or softball game in the weeks leading up to the event, make sure to highlight the livestream. Include an option on your event registration page to receive a direct link to the livestream.
Scavenger hunts are fun for all ages and easily scaled for larger groups. You can host a general scavenger hunt or an Easter egg hunt to really align with the season. Take your large-scale event to the next level by making your scavenger hunt more interactive with technology. For example, you can:
- Use social media: Social media scavenger hunts ask participants to post photos and tag your nonprofit’s account when they find clues. You can hide clues around town or across pages on your website. This type of scavenger hunt generates additional publicity for your nonprofit and allows you to let more supporters participate remotely.
- Implement text message keywords: Ask supporters to text a keyword to a designated phone number to perform specific actions, such as making a donation. You can expand these capabilities by using text message keywords during a scavenger hunt to have participants text to access the next clue.
As an added bonus, these strategies allow you to grow your mobile and social media marketing lists at the same time. Add everyone who tags your social media account or texts your keyword to a list of supporters you can follow up with. After the event, reach out to them to thank them for participating, keep them updated about the next event, and even make a donation appeal.
It’s the time of year to freshen up homes and clear out unwanted items. Many people have clothes, toys, or other items that they want to get rid of in the spring. They may be happy to make a donation to your cause in exchange for a volunteer to help them.
To increase engagement with your spring cleaning fundraiser, use online signup pages. Follow these registration page tips to make it easy to grow a crew of volunteer spring cleaners:
- Create two different online forms: one to sign up volunteers and one to let supporters make a donation in exchange for volunteers hauling their items away.
- While you ask for volunteers to help, simultaneously promote the other online form where people can purchase their spring cleaning services.
- Make your forms as simple as possible. Keep the number of form fields to the bare minimum to increase submissions and donations.
- Include suggested donation amounts that correlate with different amounts of volunteer time.
You can send these forms out to your supporters by text message, email, and social media. The more volunteers you get, the more houses you can service during the campaign.
For students, spring also means it’s graduation season! You can support your local high school or college seniors and raise funds for your nonprofit by planning an event where students can decorate their graduation caps. This fundraiser is creative, unique, and builds community.
To host a successful graduation cap decorating fundraiser, follow these steps:
- Gather donated art supplies.
- Recruit a few local artists willing to donate their time and services.
- Organize a decorating event and invite local students.
- Charge a small admission fee, sell refreshments and merchandise, and ask for donations throughout the event.
- Give students the option to decorate their own caps or donate a larger amount to get a professional design from a local artist.
- Celebrate students’ accomplishments with them at the event!
To enhance your event with technology, send out engaging eCard invitations to students and let them share them with their friends. Best Fundraising Ideas’ guide to graduation cap fundraisers also suggests adding a social media contest to the event. Along with promoting the event to students on social media, let them get involved by entering their own designs into the contest. You can charge an extra donation for entry, or let anyone join in. Let your artists choose the winner, and offer a prize.
Many nonprofits host traditional charity dinners or lunches every year. Just because it’s a fundraising staple, however, doesn’t mean it has to stay the same year after year.
On top of traditional ways nonprofits raise money like through silent auctions and ticket sales, you can create an exciting moment of giving during your event by using a dynamic fundraising thermometer. Any guest with a mobile device will be able to text in a donation that will show up in the thermometer in real time.
As donations come in, the thermometer rises, visually tracking donations and creating an exciting shared experience as donors contribute to the event goal. No paper forms are required. For maximum participation, the event emcee can thank individual donors from the stage as each name appears on screen.
The Masters Tournament is one of the most well-known golf tournaments in the world, and it happens to take place in the spring of each year. Your nonprofit can capitalize on this excitement (and great weather!) to host a golf tournament of your own.
Everyone knows that golf can be difficult—that is why mulligans were invented. A mulligan is widely known as a “do-over” in the golfing world and comes in handy during golf tournaments. No matter how good your supporters are at golf, they’d likely love to have one or more mulligans during a tournament so they can make their unlucky shots disappear from their score. So, what you can do to give a boost to your fundraising totals is sell mulligans to players before and during the tournament.
Enhance your golf tournament with technology by using text message keywords to sell mulligans. This way, no matter where they are on the golf course, your players can use their mobile device to buy more mulligans. Remind players that they can buy these second chances throughout the game by including a sign with the keyword and your nonprofit’s text-to-give phone number in each golf cart.
