11 Halloween Fundraising Ideas That Work
Running a little low on creativity this spooky season? We have you covered with 11 Halloween fundraising ideas to make your creepy fundraiser a success!
Running a little low on creativity this spooky season? We have you covered with 11 Halloween fundraising ideas to make your creepy fundraiser a success!
Join the fundraising movement! Join the fundraising movement!Halloween is the time of the year when you can really get creative and go all out with entertaining activities for donors and supporters ahead of the giving season. In this article, we share 11 creative Halloween fundraising ideas to bring in additional funds for your organization.
This fundraising idea is perfect for Halloween, but also for fall and Thanksgiving fundraising.
To go the extra mile, turn your pumpkin sale into a proper pumpkin patch where you will offer pumpkin carving (see below), fun activities for families, warm beverages, and more. You can also have a concession stand selling candy apples, popcorn, and other fall favorites!
Pro tip: Promote your sale and pumpkin patch online. Create collages and creative graphics to showcase and promote your pumpkin patch amongst family, friends, and communities.
Another traditional Halloween activity, pumpkin carving can bring in a lot of funds to your nonprofit. Organize pumpkin carving as an event within a pumpkin patch (see Idea 1) or as a separate event.
You could also offer pumpkin painting for a fun twist!
Your volunteers should be present at all times to help families and other visitors with their designs and carving efforts.
Charge an entry fee (reasonably high) since you’re providing all the implements to make a jack-o-lantern on the spot. Simplify the process by selling tickets using an online event ticketing tool like Donorbox Events.
Pro tip #1: Download free pumpkin carving patterns online.
Pro tip #2: To reach a wider community, take your pumpkin carving virtual! To enter your online pumpkin carving contest, get supporters to donate a small amount through your online donation form (e.g. $5). Host a Zoom Halloween party and display all the entries. At the end of the party, pick a winner and award them an attractive prize.
The example below is a great inspiration for online pumpkin carving campaigns. Use a donation page like this to raise money with your virtual, as well as hybrid and in-person Thanksgiving events.
Create an Online Fundraising Page
This unique and creative low-cost Halloween fundraising idea is sure to create interest and buzz amongst your supporters or within your local community. It’s best-suited for community organizations, schools, and small local nonprofits, but nonprofits of all sizes can try it.
This Halloween fundraising idea can also be turned into a social media campaign. Create a specific campaign hashtag to drive awareness of your brand and your cause.
Everyone loves a good scare on Halloween, and creating a Haunted House is the perfect way to achieve that and boost donations to your nonprofit!
If you want to make your Haunted House less scary and more fun, have your actors act silly, hit walls, or organize activities like Musical Zombies or bobbing for apples.
Charge admission fees and set cauldrons across the Haunted House (especially at the exit of the tour) in case guests want to donate more.
Since most guests are unlikely to have cash, set up a donation kiosk using the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app. This app turns your tablet and card reader into a powerful donation magnet for accepting cashless donations via credit/debit cards and digital wallets. Or, get volunteers to collect funds throughout the evening using our Tap to Pay feature available for Android smartphones (coming soon to iOS).
Raise More With A Donation Kiosk
A Halloween party is a great way to organize a fundraiser catering for adults during a holiday that can sometimes seem “childish” – and the theme is already picked out for you!
Use our handy event planning checklist to help you make your spooky party a success.
To take your event to the next level, organize a VIP Halloween-themed gala and invite prominent guests. Sell tickets to your event online and include different tiers for added exclusivity (the more exclusive, the higher the fee).
For inspiration, check out the New York Restoration Project’s annual gala, “Hulaween 2025,” which doubles up as their 30th anniversary celebration. They’ve set up a donation form powered by Donorbox to inspire even more generosity, in addition to creating different tiers for exclusive tickets and tables to their event:
Raise Funds For Your Halloween Party With Donorbox
To make a run or race Halloween-appropriate and add a fun twist to it, consider a Zombie Race. Alternatively, you can organize a walk instead of a run.
Have all participants come dressed up as zombies and race to the finish line. Bonus points for zombie moves!
This is also a fundraising event that can generate a lot of buzz. As word of mouth spreads around, you’ll have registrations pouring in.
Tips to make your zombie fundraising event a success:
To make it even more interesting, organize the run/walk at night and have your volunteers come out at certain times to scare participants.
Alternatives to consider:
Here’s an example of a virtual zombie run to raise donations for Street Homeless Animal Project:
Start an Online Fundraising Campaign
It’s the season of warm beverages, and a pumpkin spice latte workshop is perfect for this time of year.
Use Donorbox Text-to-Give to get more donations during your pumpkin spice latte workshop. All your donors have to do is text your unique campaign ID to the toll-free text-to-give number. Then they’ll receive a link to your donation form, where they can quickly checkout. Plus, when you enable UltraSwift™ Pay, you give them the option to check out 4x faster with their preferred digital wallet, like Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Pro tip: Make this idea bigger by partnering with a local coffee shop or a coffee shop chain. Create a special Halloween warm drink with them and have the proceeds (or part of them) go to your nonprofit.
As the days get colder and Halloween approaches, organize a big, cozy horror movie night and charge admission fees to raise funds.
Note: Any showing of a film for profit will put you in violation of copyright laws. To book a film for public showing, contact an independent film broker who will get you the film, charge a fee for the process, and report your box office receipts to the owner of the film.
Since these fees can sometimes be steep, you’ll need to raise money to cover the costs and meet your fundraising goals. You’ll raise money primarily by selling tickets to your movie night. Donorbox Events makes selling tickets online easy. Create as many ticket tiers as you need (for example, you can include a higher ticket level with admission, candy, and drinks), ask for donations on top of ticket sales, and show the tax-deductible amount for each ticket tier to drive more sales.
Here’s an example of an online event page with a ticketing form selling movie tickets.
Sell Tickets with Donorbox Events
We can’t forget about the witches when talking about Halloween! Organize an entirely witch-themed event.
You could also sell customized potions and spells to participants (of course, it’s all just for fun – so make sure everyone knows that!).
Pro tip: In addition to the parade and the party, organize a spooky witch workshop for broom-making and wand-decorating.
Selling Halloween treats is a simple and popular way to raise money while spreading awareness for your nonprofit.
Packaged chocolate bars are by far the most popular fundraising candy. However, put a little research into fundraising candy sale options.
Pro tip: Review previous fundraising statistics to determine what the bestsellers were in the past.
Happy candy fundraising!
Trivia is very popular, can be tailored to most audiences, and is relatively simple to organize.
Consider adding some of the following to your trivia night:
Sell tickets using Donorbox Events, the way Up With Trees did for their fun trivia night:
For more ideas, check out this mega guide of 100+ fundraising ideas for nonprofits.
Halloween is a great time to connect with your audience virtually through fun, seasonal activities that will help spread brand and mission awareness before the end-of-the-year giving season. Here are some Halloween fundraising ideas to grow your audience and connect with new donors.
This is a classic fundraising event done simply online.
Pro tip: Consider conducting the contest as a social media campaign. Let the campaign run for a few days for increased participation, maybe your art contest goes viral! Announce a winner at the end of the contest and give them a prize or a percentage of the amount raised.
Host an online spooky story contest.
Host a Halloween costume contest to engage and connect with your donors.
When it comes to securing funds for your organization, don’t be afraid to get creative with these Halloween fundraising ideas! Remember to think about what your donors and supporters would appreciate and enjoy.
Donorbox has the intuitive and powerful fundraising features to scale your organization’s growth – and take the fear out of fundraising!
Check out our Nonprofit Blog for more fundraising resources and tips – and subscribe to our monthly newsletter for fresh fundraising know-how delivered right to your inbox.
Raviraj heads the sales and marketing team at Donorbox. His growth-hacking abilities have helped Donorbox boost fundraising efforts for thousands of nonprofit organizations.
Join the fundraising movement! Join the fundraising movement!
Subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive the latest blogs, news, and more in your inbox.
