20+ Best Holiday Fundraising Ideas

Organize a Yoga Workshop or Series

Another unique holiday fundraising idea is to host a yoga workshop or series. Yoga classes will spark an interest in many of your supporters and donors, and almost everyone could stand a little extra mindfulness and exercise during the holidays. Plan a day of varied yoga classes at all fitness levels and practice (Yoga Basics, Yoga for Children, Iyengar, Hatha Flow, Vinyasa, Restorative). Teach your children and community that yoga is for everyone by including something for everyone. Sell tickets at the door and on your fundraising event website. Invite food vendors and sponsors that promote healthy eating to advocate the importance of eating well for ourselves and our planet. Consider including a holiday bazaar of yoga and healthy lifestyle gifts.

A discount shopping card is a wallet-sized card with a selection of prearranged discounts at local businesses and national merchants. Each card sells for around $10-$25 and provides unlimited usage of special offers for one year. Your organization can set a card price or allow buyers to select a donation amount in exchange for a discount card. Be sure to require a minimum donation that covers expenses and a small donation.

If your organization wants to create a sales competition among its supporters, our P2P crowdfunding platform can do just that. Each seller registers online and creates a fundraising page. Participants send emails to friends and family and post their pages on social media. Administrators easily track the top fundraising sellers. The added incentive of prizes and awards for the top fundraisers will allow your organization to raise more money this holiday season.

Throw a Christmas or Holiday Gala with a Silent Auction

Hosting an annual holiday fundraising gala can make a great signature event for a nonprofit. People are generally feeling giving and ready to celebrate. You will need a great location that can be beautifully decorated for the season. Sell tickets and sponsorships online with our event ticketing software and use the event to kick off your year-end giving campaign.

A Christmas Gala is also a great place to launch a charity auction. Holiday auctions can draw a lot of bids, as people are looking for gifts and ways to give back. Ask local businesses to donate items that can be auctioned off to the highest bidder and showcase their organization. Offer one-of-a-kind travel packages, and someone may bid on that perfect Christmas gift.

Host a Serve-a-thon or Offer Services During the Busy Holiday Season

‘Tis the season to be jolly… but it may also be the season to be stressed! All the fun activities we’ve added to our calendars (traveling to see friends and family, attending Christmas parties, shopping trips, finding time to bake cookies, and decorating your home and tree) take time! And often, people have difficulty fitting these new plans into their busy schedules. Why not create a fundraising campaign that offers various holiday services? Not only will you be helping people check things off their to-do list during the busiest time of year, but you’ll also raise extra funds for your cause.

Create a holiday service with a fun name, such as Helpful Holiday Elves. Then, promote your service throughout the community. Perhaps you’d like to provide childcare services so parents can do their holiday shopping or attend company Christmas parties? Another idea would be to offer actual shopping or gift-wrapping stations where people drop off their shopping lists or pre-purchased gifts and pick them up later wrapped, labeled, and looking beautiful. You’ll raise money by charging a fee for your services or by nonprofit crowdfunding and offering services to those in need with a serve-a-thon and with an additional explanation about the reason for your fundraiser. Your supporters may be willing to donate a few extra dollars to support a worthy cause.

Hold a Christmas Raffle

A raffle fundraiser can be combined with virtually any special event or run as a stand-alone Christmas fundraiser. If your organization wants to raise $5,000 or more on a fundraising raffle, you can certainly do so by making some smart investments in your raffle. Though you always want to ask for in-kind donations first, don’t limit your fundraising raffle to donated items. This is a mistake that many organizations make, as they want to keep all of the raffle proceeds. Yet organizations can raise far more money with desirable, high-value items. We’re not talking about $1 raffles here. In this case, donated prizes are fine and necessary to raise money. But if your organization wants to raise $10,000 or even more on a fundraising raffle, you will likely need to purchase the grand prize or run a 50/50 cash pot.

Our great auction travel packages can be reserved and do not need to be purchased until after the raffle when you have made enough money to cover the cost of these unique experiences. This also allows your organization to host a popular Winner’s Choice raffle, where the winner chooses from a list of vacation package options.

Our online raffle platform includes a peer-to-peer component where sellers create and manage fundraising sales pages and invite friends and family to make secure raffle donations on the page. Each donation of a certain amount qualifies the donor for a raffle ticket. An online tool like this makes it easy for your supporters to promote the raffle fundraiser and for the organization to track which participants or groups (classes, clubs) raise the most money. Your P2P raffle website template includes fundraising thermometers and leaderboards so everyone can track fundraising progress. Ticket sellers can set up a link to their fundraising page on Facebook or other social media pages or email neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and anyone in their address book. The added incentive of offering prizes to the top fundraisers will help your organization raise more money on your next raffle.

Start a Raffle Fundraiser

Organize Christmas Decorations Workshops

People love getting into the spirit with holiday decorations, and parents love just about anything their children make. So why not offer a children’s ornament-making workshop? This works well for a church fundraising idea. Provide the workshop after Sunday services and charge a small fee for children to participate. Host a church bazaar to sell decorated ornaments along with food and beverages (donated from a local restaurant). Not only do ornaments make a perfect addition to your family Christmas tree, but they make great gifts for grandparents.

For adults, you may consider a Christmas wreath-making workshop or a Christmas cookie-baking party where people can learn creative decorating techniques and new recipes. Consider online workshop registration to manage your registration fees and participant lists. Ask local shops and bakeries to donate decorations, ingredients, and instructors for the workshop in exchange for sponsorship visibility on your registration website. Whatever Christmas or holiday fundraiser you choose, don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the holiday season.