11 Online fundraising ideas you can set up right now

Save yourself the stress of in-person events with these easy and effective online fundraising ideas for a variety of organisations and causes.

Is your nonprofit bringing back a favourite in-person event this year? After over two years in quarantine, it‘s understandable if your supporters are excited to get back to annual traditions. But there are a few reasons why it‘s still important to create plenty of opportunities for online giving.

Until the pandemic is completely over, there’ll always be some concern about COVID safety at events, especially for immunocompromised people. Now that we’ve gotten used to doing so many things online — work, shopping, socialising, you name it! — a lot of people have found they actually prefer to have virtual options.

Creating an online donation page to go along with any fundraising you do in person will make your campaign more accessible, which is always a good thing.

We predict that holding online fundraising campaigns alongside or in between in-person events will continue to be a best practice for years to come. There are endless ways to incorporate online giving with your fundraising strategy, but we’ve gathered some of our favourites in this blog.

Keep reading to find out about the best online fundraising ideas you can set up right now with a free Raisely account.

Online Event Ideas

Virtual fundraising events can be just as exciting and interactive as the events you host in person — don’t let anyone tell you differently! Plus, you don’t have to worry about social distancing.

Raisely’s campaign templates make it easy to collect donations and track your progress toward a goal within a specific time frame. Check out our list of online fundraising ideas for summer and keep an eye out for a new fundraising event ticketing feature we‘re releasing soon.

1. Active Events 🏃🏾‍♀️

If your community likes to get out and run, bike, or play for a cause, using an active event template to host a fundraiser online can save you a ton of planning and volunteer hours. Instead of organising big crowds at a walk-a-thon or fun run, you can mail T-shirts and finisher medals to participants and let them track their activity on their own time.

Taking an active event online opens up more possibilities for people who would rather bike, skate, or swim than run or walk, and you’ll never have to worry about a sudden heat wave or thunderstorm!

As participants get outside and active, make sure that sharing their journey in social media posts is part of the experience. SurfAid took this approach and blew their fundraising goal out of the water, making seven times their original goal in 30 days!

2. Livestream Anything 🖥

Events with entertainment or performances can be turned into online fundraising ideas with a basic livestream setup. Use Facebook Live, Zoom, or another streaming software to host a talent show, virtual concert, virtual tour, or a combination of ideas in your own virtual telethon. Watch as donations come in and thank donors in real-time for a more interactive experience.

3. Hold a Virtual Gala 🍸

Sure, it’s not exactly a red carpet, but you can invite your biggest supporters to get dressed up and attend your virtual gala from home! Instead of purchasing tickets by the table, invite sponsors to throw a themed cocktail party, dress it down with a cookout in their backyard, or deck out their dinner table in your organisation’s brand colours.

Livestream speeches and entertainment from anywhere and show attendees participating from different locations. Ask them to vote on the best table decor or gala attire and present an award to the winner at the end of the night.

4. Teach Virtual Classes 🧑🏻‍🍳

Teaching a useful skill in exchange for donations is a low-cost online fundraising idea and a great way to create a memorable experience. Partner with a chef from a local restaurant to offer a cooking class, or for the active crowd, a fitness class like Zumba or yoga.

Make sure you provide a list of exactly what supplies are needed or mail out everything participants will need in a kit. You can run virtual classes all summer long or hold just a few to give your audience the opportunity to try something new.

5. Virtual Scavenger Hunt 🔎

Kids and adults can get in the competitive spirit with a challenging scavenger hunt! Choose a location and set specific boundaries to keep things fair: For instance, you might limit the hunt to anything participants can find in their house, in your city, or in a specific neighbourhood. Teams might get one hour to complete the hunt within a two-week event window.

Once you know when and where your scavenger hunt will take place, you can create trivia questions, challenges, photo ops, or a classic string of clues leading to treasure. Ask for a specific donation amount to access the scavenger hunt and, of course, offer an enticing grand prize.

6. Online Gaming Tournament 🕹

Thanks to online gaming services like Steam and Twitch, gamers can play together from anywhere or watch as competitive players go head to head. If your community is into video games, they’ll love using their favourite hobby to raise funds for a good cause!

Fighting games like Super Smash Bros. make for a simple and fun tournament, or you can invite participants to test their skill with sports games, racing games, and even Minecraft mini-games.

Gaming for Charity is a Raisely fundraiser that aims to unite the video gaming and streaming community across New Zealand and Australia to do what they are passionate about and raise funds in support of charitable causes. Gaming for Charity 2021 runs till the end of August and will benefit Starship Foundation, Heart Kids NZ, Spirit of Adventure NZ and Heart Kids Aus allowing these important children’s charities to continue with their great work supporting children and their families around New Zealand and Australia.

Fundraising Appeal Ideas

A special or timely fundraising appeal can be a great way to bring in money fast. You can harness the power of social media with shareable content or challenges anyone can participate in to get the most exposure to potential donors. Fundraising appeals use one central fundraising page, so this online fundraising idea is easy to set up and manage yourself.

7. Giving Days Campaign 📅

Giving Tuesday may be the most well-known giving day on the calendar, but you can turn any awareness day or hashtag holiday into a 24-hour fundraising frenzy. Be sure to start promoting well in advance and make donation forms as simple as possible so giving is easy. Send emails and social media posts throughout the day with updates on your progress — people are more likely to donate when they see you’re getting close to your goal.

8. Social Media Challenge 🤳

Kids and families love a social media challenge they can participate in on TikTok or Instagram! Come up with a safe and, well, challenging activity that symbolises something about your nonprofit organisation and get your donation page ready.

It could be a funky dance move, a specific phrase to say after eating a habañero pepper, or a quick experiment to try in 30 seconds or less. Try to make it outrageous, but keep it accessible, and watch the donations come in!

9. Social Media Takeover 📢

While your special fundraising appeal is running, ask businesses and organisations in your area if you can take over their social media accounts to get the word out. Prepare some sample posts that show what kind of content you’ll be sharing and ask if they’re interested in matching donations during your takeover.

The extra social media activity and partnership with a great cause will give them a nice marketing boost, and you‘ll get your campaign in front of a new audience. Just make sure you do your homework and approach partners with a large following for the best results.

More Online Fundraising Ideas

Virtual events and social media aren’t the only ways to take your online fundraising strategy to the next level. We’ve got a couple more creative virtual fundraising ideas that work especially well on the Raisely platform.

10. Online Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaign 🎂

Some of the online fundraising ideas we’ve already discussed, like active events and gaming tournaments, make great peer-to-peer campaigns. You can leverage your supporters’ networks of friends and family to collect donations.

Raisely’s online fundraising platform has all the features you need to let users create their own fundraising pages and start raising funds on your behalf. Set up a community hub so your supporters can create birthday fundraisers all year round. You can also plan a more focused peer-to-peer initiative around a specific event or challenge.

11. Virtual Member Drive 👩🏼‍💼

Finally, one underestimated and often forgotten online fundraising strategy is the classic recurring giving campaign. Donors that set up recurring donations give 42% more annually, compared to one-time donations.

Offer an incentive for donors to pledge a certain amount in recurring donations, and create an email campaign targeted at subscribers who haven’t given in a while. Don’t forget to include an email opt-in at sign-up so your new members will get notified about future fundraising efforts! The virtual member drive asks a bit more of your audience, but it continues to pay off for much longer than other fundraising methods.

Bring Your Online Fundraising Ideas to Life

You don’t have to be a tech genius to pull off an impressive online fundraising idea for your nonprofit organisation! We’ve created easy-to-use templates with an extensive library of tutorials to get your virtual fundraising campaign up and running without having to learn a bunch of new software or hire an expensive designer.