Raising money for charity is now easier than ever thanks to far-reaching social communities available on the web. Through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and fundraising sites like Just Giving and Crowdrise, putting donors in touch with reciprocates has never been easier.
There are all sorts of ways to raise money for charity, both offline and online. Popular offline ideas include trekking, cycling and wedding present donations. According to Just Giving, the world’s first online fundraising business, the amount raised by the average trekking site on its community totalled £1,266, which is more than double the amount raised on other types of fundraising pages.
Cycling is rapidly growing in popularity as a fundraising method with the number of cycle focused fundraising pages growing by 6% between 2009 and 2010. Wedding donations are also becoming more prevalent, particularly as couples now live together before they get married so don’t really need new towels and bed linen. Individual donations were high in this category, averaging £68 each.
But there are other ways to utilise online communities and raise funds without resorting to heroic displays of fitness or getting married. Here are three of the best.
Online bingo
Every woman’s favourite online game can be turned into a fundraising tool. With jackpots on most online bingo sites reaching into the thousands the potential donation can be huge. Additionally, you can make use of bingo chat rooms to rally up the troops and encourage other women to give all or part of their winnings to a designated charity. You could choose to support a different charity every month and give it anywhere between 10% and 100% of your monthly winnings.
Sell, sell, sell
A cake sale probably won’t transfer all that well online – your cakes may go a bite stale before your punters take delivery – but you can do a virtual garage sale. Clothes, shoes and furniture are particularly well suited to online sales. Clothes and shoes come in standardised sizes and furniture is easy to photograph and describe. Be sure to clearly state what percentage of the funds is going to charity – the higher the better and the more likely you are to make a sale. eBay offers loads of tips and advice about how to fundraise through charity sales on its site. Additionally, you even stand a chance of having your charity sale supported by eBay promotional activity and its social media pages. You should contact eBay directly to inquire.
Fancy dress
Jeans for Genes day is one of the most popular clothes-themed fundraising events in the UK with schools, colleges, universities and work places all taking part. You can do this on your own small scale with a fancy dress party. You can document the whole thing online on your social media page or blog and get your followers to pick the best-dressed partygoer. You can raise money in two ways: charging an entry fee to the party and running a sweepstakes for correctly predicting the ‘best dressed’ winner.
Veronika Taylor Bio
Veronika, a financial Journalist, has been a financial buff for decades. She has published articles in VRL Financial News and Euro Money and is a member of the Financial News Society. She loves to write about news, finance and travel.
