The era of social fundraising is here and we big puffy heart all the creative ways nonprofits are getting their community members to try it out. Social fundraising allows your nonprofit to tap into the power of your community members’ networks to acquire new donors and raise more money.

In outlying situations, fundraisers magically take initiative and start their own social fundraisers out of the blue. But more often than not, community members need ideas and inspiration pushing them to contribute! Here are a few of our favorite social fundraising ideas to help your community get started.

Birthday Fundraiser

Birthday fundraisers are a classic peer-to-peer fundraising idea. But really it was charity: water who catapulted this idea to popular heights by encouraging people to donate their birthday to the cause. Their supporters raised millions of dollars by doing this.

Your nonprofit can encourage community members to do something similar! If you use a peer-to-peer platform already, you can encourage people to run their campaigns on that, or that they try creating a Facebook Fundraiser (connect 'em through Funraise's Facebook integration!) Suggest that your fundraisers ask their networks for a donation amount that’s the same as the age they are—$31 for a 31st birthday. ‍

Holiday Season Fundraiser

Some people host holiday parties, others host holiday fundraisers for their fav nonprofit. Social fundraising is perfect for these folks. Your social good community members can set up a holiday season fundraiser to raise money for your nonprofit during holiday high seasons for any religion or values system. This could piggyback on a campaign that you’re already running (think: Giving Tuesday) or it could be a fundraiser of their own making. ‍

Anniversary Fundraiser

There are all kinds of anniversaries your community members can celebrate with a fundraiser. The first one that may come to mind is a wedding anniversary. They could ask friends and family to donate the same amount as the years they’ve been together. $10 to honor 10 years of marriage—sounds like a reason to celebrate to us!
Other anniversaries, both happy or somber, such as an important milestone, work anniversary, or passing of a loved one can also work for this kind of social fundraiser. ‍

Awareness Day Fundraiser

Awareness days are an awesome opportunity for fundraising! If there isn’t already an awareness day that works for your nonprofit, who says you can't create your own? You’re cool like that.
To get your community to try social fundraising on an awareness day, plan a mini-marketing campaign getting the word out and encouraging them to participate. Think: sending an email (or two) to your list, social media posts, and reaching out to influencers.‍

Physical Challenge Fundraiser

You’ve probably got a fitness buff or two in your community who'd be down to do a physical challenge fundraiser. This could be something like making a pledge for every push up or donating to someone’s self-organized 5K run. Because social distancing is our new normal, physical challenges allow people to fundraise on their own from the comfort of their homes.
For an added layer of interaction, your community members can livestream their physical challenge to get their friends pumped. ‍

Read-A-Thon or Book-A-Thon

Readers unite for this social fundraising idea! Like a physical challenge, your community members ask their friends and family to pledge support for the number of books or pages they read or length of time they read. We think this is the perfect summer fundraiser for adults because #BeachReads. It’s also a great summer fundraiser for kids!  

Building a running list of social fundraising ideas is a great way to continuously promote social fundraising to your community. Get creative and come up with a few unique ideas that'll work perfectly for your cause!