Mother’s Day is a special opportunity to thank your mom for being there and helping you grow. Nonprofits can show their own appreciation for mothers within their organizations and around the world with a fun event, meaningful stories, or a simple gift. Check out these nine simple Mother’s Day fundraising ideas to add to your calendar.
Mother’s Day is a time for recognizing all the work mothers do – for their children, their families, and in their communities. And it’s widely celebrated, with over 100 different countries recognizing the day on different dates and in different ways.
While you may not immediately connect this day of gratitude with fundraising, Mother’s Day fundraisers can be incredibly successful. They work particularly well for nonprofits serving children, women, and other causes related to women and families. But with a little creativity, almost any organization can fundraise on Mother’s Day!
In this article, we’ll showcase nine creative Mother’s Day fundraisers and ideas for you to try out this year.
Nonprofits may be missing out on a unique opportunity to bring in some extra funds while also celebrating incredible women that are mothers and models of character to those in their lives.
So, here are 9 simple fundraisers for your nonprofit to try this year!
Wine revenues on Mother’s Day far exceed wine sales on other major holidays, such as Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve.
Reach out to a local winery or brewery and ask if they can assist you in creating some featured Mother’s Day drinks. Also, ask if they would donate 30%-35% of specialty drink revenues to your nonprofit on Mother’s Day.
You and the local brewery or winery can market the event together, both of your logos can feature on all marketing content.
Once guests of the event arrive, make sure you have taken some extra steps to make the day memorable, with a wall in the venue dedicated to sticky notes where people can write down the names of their mothers and other women who have made a difference in their life.
Ask some donors to gift you some decor such as flowers for the event and recruit some volunteers to help you set up.
Pro tip: Add some extra appeal and revenue to the event. Reach out to the local food trucks and ask if they will park outside the venue on the day of the event. Ask if they can donate a percentage of their earnings from the day toward your fundraiser.
There is likely a Facebook page or group dedicated to food trucks in your area. Or, to find food trucks to partner with, use #footruck, and then type in your location to the Instagram or Facebook search as well.
Make sure to reach out to local breweries and wineries (and food trucks, if you choose to have those) months in advance as they will probably be preparing for Mother’s Day early.
Wine, beer, and mimosas are not for everyone, which is totally understandable. Some mothers would prefer to stay in the comfort of their own homes on a day intended to give them a break.
So, instead of asking them to put on makeup and their brunch best, bring the party to them with a coffee fundraiser.
Using an organization like Grounds For Change or Giving Bean, share about coffee for moms and earning up to 40% of a profit!
Via social media, market this fundraiser to help people bring their mothers, grandmas, and wives quality coffee for breakfast in bed.
You can customize coffee labels so they are branded with your logo, mission, and vision. You can include a QR code on your coffee label to ask for extra donations!
Also, with Giving Bean specifically, you can even have a virtual coffee shop that is open “year-round” if your Mother’s Day coffee fundraiser is a success.
Mother’s Day is the 3rd largest holiday for greeting card sales, only behind Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
With this much opportunity for profit, your nonprofit’s Marketing and Development team should work together to create special greeting cards to sell to your followers.
If you have a graphic designer or someone with graphic design skills on your team, ask them to create a special card that ties in your logo but also features a meaningful message for mothers when the card is opened.
On the back of the card, you can include your mission and vision statement, and even a QR code.
If you do not have someone with graphic design skills on your team, Canva is a great alternative, with pre-designed templates that you can use to plug in your message, brand colors, and other special elements with ease.
Canva also has a built-in opportunity to order, print, and ship your designs at a minimal cost.
If you want to edit and create something more personalized, do check out Colorcinch. An awesome photo editing tool that you can use to make your greeting card more beautiful.
Pro tip: Start selling early, and remind your followers not to wait until the last minute to purchase a $5 card at a big retailer. Make sure you are constantly reminding people that your cards are special. Remind them how the money they are spending on these cards is making an impact.
Are there board members, donors, volunteers, or employees at your nonprofit that are women-identifying and have strong stories?
Ask them to tell their story on video for a marketing campaign designed to feature strong women who are doing the work of your nonprofit and why they are doing it.
Stories are the bread and butter of your nonprofit, so to speak. To raise funds, it’s vital that you share constant updates, impact stories, and nonprofit news with your followers.
Along with videos, consider using Pinterest to add some creativity to make your virtual campaign successful. For example, Opportunity International created a board for every person their Mother’s Day Marketing campaign featured, and they asked followers to add a pin to each person’s board with something that is reminiscent of that individual. Through these pins, “virtual quilts” were created.
Through this campaign, ask your donors for a specific amount of money, and be clear about why you have chosen this goal. Is it to meet a lack of funds in a specific program? Is it to bring on a new employee? Be specific.
Also, make sure to choose a versatile, safe donation option for your followers.
Lastly, make sure to provide constant updates.
Floral sales are through the roof on Mother’s Day, and this–behind greeting cards–is one of the top sellers for those buying gifts for important women in their lives, generating over $71 million on Mother’s Day.
Do you have connections to a local floral shop through an employee or a board member? Ask anyone who has connections with a local florist to reach out with an ask to partner on Mother’s Day.
Asking for proceeds from all the flowers sold on Mother’s Day may be a bit much. Alternatively, choose a flower that matches your organization’s color or a color that is important to you. For example, purple is the color for domestic violence survivors. If your nonprofit serves survivors, ask that proceeds from purple flowers help benefit your organization.
Set up a table outside the floral shop on Mother’s Day and the day before Mother’s Day, and speak to those going to the shop about your nonprofit’s vision.
Is there a certain flower you have arranged to reap profits from? Tell customers about this and encourage them to include your flower(s) in a bouquet for the special women in their life.
Parents love to talk about their kids, to show friends pictures, to display their kid’s art on refrigerators and other places at home.
Give moms an opportunity to brag about their kids through a t-shirt design competition with interactive social media elements.
Ask people to submit a t-shirt design for your nonprofit. Let them know you will use these shirts at events, to give to employees and board members, and that you will sell t-shirts at events, and include an entry fee.
Create a t-shirt design campaign with a list of comprehensive rules with items like age required to enter, how many designs can be submitted, and what designs can and cannot include. Here is an example of some guidelines for a nonprofit t-shirt design competition.
After you have told followers about these rules, set a clear date for submission and the cut-off for submissions.
To create some interaction with this campaign, narrow down your favorite designs and have virtual fans vote on which is their favorite.
Ultimately, you decide, but fan feedback is never a bad thing!
Announce the winner on Mother’s Day, and start printing and selling the t-shirts through Bonfire or a similar organization.
For all the parents who do not want to submit their kid’s art to a design challenge but still want to have their art displayed in other forms, help moms convert their children’s art to gifts.
Using a platform like Kids Kreations, create a page on your website with options for Mother’s Day gifts. For example, you could do necklaces, pillows, stuffed animals, or large canvases. Include descriptions and prices.
Have a link for submissions and sell these items, customizing the art!
If you do not want to ship items or deliver them, have volunteers sign up for time slots to stand outside of your nonprofit with gift bags, having people drop by within certain time slots to collect their unique Mother’s Day gifts that also contribute to your cause.
89 percent of stay-at-home mothers felt overwhelmed by work, home, and parenting responsibilities.
While not all mothers are stay-at-home moms, there are still many responsibilities to juggle as a parent.
What better gift to give on Mother’s Day than to take some work off of mothers in your community?
The week before Mother’s Day, do a drive-through donation collection, asking kids, husbands, and partners of mothers in your community to clean out their closets and donate all of their unneeded items to your organization.
Then, on Mother’s Day, you can host a community garage or yard sale in honor of mothers in your community. Complete it with donuts and coffee provided by a donor.
By now, hopefully, your organization has some good connections with restaurants in the community. Perhaps you have worked with them for fundraising events or for internal staff events.
Either way, capitalize on those connections and provide some Mother’s Day breakfast in bed boxes.
Ask a restaurant in your locality to provide a limited number of breakfast or brunch boxes, complete with all the fixings.
Using social media, sell these boxes to people in your community, offering to hand-deliver them to add a special charm.
Recruit volunteers and board members to help you drive breakfast boxes to their desired locations on Mother’s Day. Be sure to have some extra breakfast boxes for your volunteers as a thank you.
This Mother’s Day, use these simple fundraising ideas to inspire people to help the world while also celebrating their mothers.
Don’t wait for the last moment. This is the perfect time to start planning your Mother’s Day fundraiser and spread the word about it. With the right timing, tool, and ideas, you can make your fundraiser a definite success.
Best of luck!
Head over to our nonprofit blog for more such essential and helpful tips on fundraising, related tools, and resources.
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Megan Koontz