How to Raise Funds for Your Favorite Charity

Raising money for charity is always a good idea because the charity can use the money to get what it needs. There are several ways you can raise money. Choose the methods that you feel are the best for you and the members of your community.

You will need the following items to raise money for your favorite charity:

1. Raffle tickets
2. Baked goods
3. Auction items
4. Coffee can

Follow these steps to start collecting money for your charity:

Step 1:
Hold a raffle. This is one of the easier methods of raising money because the winning ticket gets half of the money collected. You sell each ticket for a certain amount of money, say $1, $2 or $5. Then multiply the number of tickets sold by the price, and you have your total figure. One hundred tickets sold times $5 equals $500. That means when you pick a winning ticket, the winner gets $250 and your charity gets $250.

Step 2:
Sell baked goods. It will be hard to raise a lot of money by yourself, but if you recruit others to donate baked goods you can make a lot. Take all of the baked goods and put up a table at a school function, craft fair or church get together. Give the money collected to your charity.

Step 3:
Hold a silent auction. Go around to your local businesses and ask them to donate items for your auction. Take anything they are willing to give you. They may give you a coupon for a free dinner, or they may give you a big gift basket. Lay each item out along with a sheet of paper. Number the paper from 1-20. Throughout the night the people will place their name and the amount they are willing to pay for the item. If someone wants to bid higher he will write his name under the previous one. The last entry at the end of the night wins the prize. Collect the money and then give it to your charity.

Step 4:
Use FirstGiving.org (see Resources). This website allows you to set up a page to raise money for anything you want. Your page can have pictures, stories and other information. You can then email a link to your page to all of your friends, coworkers and family members. Ask them to email their friends and their friends. This can be done in a matter of minutes, and within two weeks you could potentially raise quite a bit of money for your charity.

Step 5:
Decorate a coffee can with information on your charity. Cut a hole in the lid big enough to fit coins and a dollar bill through. Find a high-traffic area where you would want to leave the can. Make sure an area business owner allows you to do this first. You may want to make several cans and leave them in businesses around town.

Step 6:
Hold a Walk-a-thon. Find people who will be willing to walk and get sponsors. Each sponsor will agree to pay a certain amount for each mile walked. This could be $.25-$1. Schedule a day to walk and keep track of how many miles each participant walks. Then have walkers collect the money from their pledges, and hand the money over to your charity.

Tips:
Raising money takes weeks of your time. Make sure you are committed for the specific time frame or you charity will lose out.

Warning:
Don't get upset if someone doesn't want to contribute. Some people don't part with their money easily.