10 Ideas to Effectively Kickstart Your New Year Fundraising
Take your new year fundraising to new heights! Here are 10 creative ways to kickstart the new year and bring in more funds for your cause.
Kristine Ensor
Take your new year fundraising to new heights! Here are 10 creative ways to kickstart the new year and bring in more funds for your cause.
Nonprofits may appreciate the downtime after the busy giving season, but the start of the new year is the perfect time to think of ways to keep the momentum going! Keep reading to explore our 10 creative and fun new year fundraising ideas to help kickstart your fundraising calendar.
Many donors are happy to continue contributing to a good cause after the holiday season – as long as you keep things interesting! Take a unique approach to your new year fundraising event or appeal, like hosting a party or a celebration.
Remember, creativity is key with any competitions you may have planned to help you engage attendees at your event.
Advertise your event well in advance to give yourself enough time to plan and attract more donors! You can choose to include ticket sales with your end-of-year campaign – just remember to keep your budget in mind.
Your fundraising event doesn’t have to be a grand affair. Simply ask supporters or volunteers to host smaller events in their homes with virtual fundraising activities, like trivia contests, auctions, or raffles. Add some activities for kids, too, making this event engaging and entertaining for all. Encourage people to donate and keep a small entry fee for each family.
Add your personal touch and make your online fundraising event pages pop with Donorbox Events. You can add unlimited ticket levels to your event page and set ticket-buying deadlines, ticket availability, and tax-deductible information under each ticket level. You can even embed the event ticketing form on your website, refund ticket amounts in full, and accept Apple Pay payments.
Create a Nonprofit Event on Donorbox
Your first campaign of the year should focus on thanking donors and building relationships – crucial to keeping those precious donations flowing! One way to do this is with a membership campaign.
Develop a membership program that shares specific ways these donations help beneficiaries. Once you’ve created a webpage with this information, thank your donors for participating in previous campaigns by sending emails or mailed appeals and introducing this giving option.
Remember to share donor benefits for becoming a member. A few benefit examples include:
Membership campaigns can be held entirely online, so it costs less than other fundraisers – an ideal option for many nonprofits in January or February.
With Donorbox Memberships, you can:
Here’s a great example of a customized membership campaign page created on Donorbox.
New year, new resolutions!
This year, your nonprofit can encourage donors to resolve to make another person’s year brighter than before. Create an online peer-to-peer campaign and reach out to a few supporters with a solid online presence to fundraise for you. These campaigns have great potential for boosting your outreach and donations.
Donorbox Peer-to-Peer makes this process a breeze for your nonprofit and supporters! You can quickly create a peer-to-peer fundraising page and invite supporters right from the tool. They’ll receive email invites and be guided to create their own fundraising pages. You can also add an “I want to fundraise” button to your main campaign page to let anyone interested opt to fundraise for you.
22STARS Foundation uses this Donorbox feature to give supporters a chance to raise funds for children’s educational needs in Uganda.
January is when everyone starts thinking of ways to get healthier. Walking your dog is an easy way to stick to this New Year’s resolution.
Animal rescue nonprofits can host a walk-a-thon in January and encourage supporters to join in person or online with a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
You can also make additional funds by offering vendors a table at your event or selling t-shirts for people and pups in person or online.
Want to save further with even less effort and costs? Read this guide we’ve prepared for hosting successful virtual walk-a-thons.
After the holiday season, most people feel discouraged about getting back to the old, mundane routine. Inspire your donors to take up new hobbies and stick to them every day for the entire month!
Rally your supporters to create their own fundraising pages and share this challenge with their networks. People who want to support can donate to your organization. In exchange, they’ll receive regular updates on how the new hobby is going.
After one month, host an event to appreciate their efforts. Ask them to bring their supporters along. This can be a day for these people to share their inspiring stories of starting the new year in a fresh and meaningful way!
This also provides you with the perfect platform to share about your organization, its impact, and its beneficiaries with the attendees. Don’t forget to provide ways for people to give easily through text-to-give or QR codes.
It’s a new year, and your organization may have won several new supporters over the giving season! Now is the time to get to know these donors and allow them to check out your facility in person.
Remember, your goal with this type of campaign is to build lasting relationships and give supporters a memorable experience – great for raising significant amounts of money in the long run. Encourage supporters to get involved, become members or volunteers, ask questions, and share feedback.
Sell tickets and send tour passes to drive engagement. Below is an example of how Peace Ridge Sanctuary promotes its guided sanctuary tour.
For many, the start of a new year calls for a new calendar. Capitalize on this trend by kicking off a calendar sale during your year-end campaign, or wait until January begins. Either way, it makes for easy donations!
Come up with a theme and include images of beneficiaries or donor activities from the last year. Remember to include your organization’s logo and mission statement to share your unique branding and purpose with new supporters.
You can hire a professional designer or use an online tool like Canva to create a calendar on your own. Once printed, your nonprofit can sell them at your location, during events, and online. Check how this nonprofit offered New Year calendars in return for donations through an on-brand donation page.
Create Unlimited Fundraising Pages on Donorbox
Raffle ticket sales are another fundraising activity that doesn’t require much planning or effort. It’s also a fun and easy way for supporters to help their favorite charity.
Create a raffle basket with attractive items donated by your sponsors. If you hope to build a relationship with a new sponsor, this can be an excellent way to start. Ask for an item you can auction and promote the company to supporters who purchase raffle tickets.
If you can’t find an item to raffle, you can always hold a 50/50 or reverse raffle where ticket purchasers can win cash. Set up an online raffle event page and sell tickets to your supporters, as shown in the example below.
Raffles can take place in person or online, but online raffles have the potential to reach more people. Be sure to familiarize yourself with relevant raffle laws in all ticket sale locations before holding an in-person or online raffle.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a national day of service in the United States. Falling on the third Monday of January every year, this holiday is the perfect opportunity to invite donors to give their time in service to your organization.
Make this day a fun and meaningful opportunity for your top supporters to get hands-on experience working toward your mission while celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. You can even apply for a grant through AmeriCorps if your organization hosts a day of service!
While this day shouldn’t be about fundraising, engaging your donors with a different kind of ask can help them feel more connected with your cause – and more likely to support you financially again in the future.
Winter is incomplete without sports and activities like ice skating, skiing, tubing, the Polar Bear Plunge, and snowman contests. Nonprofits can join in on the fun and host winter events with one or many of these activities.
Winter sports and outdoor activities are exciting options for families and younger supporters who don’t regularly attend nonprofit galas. Nonprofits can find sponsors, sell tickets, hold raffles, and more.
You can even turn this into a virtual or hybrid event and ask people to record and share their winter activity online and raise funds with peer-to-peer campaigns.
January and February can be exciting fundraising times for your nonprofit. There are many opportunities to get creative and start your new year off right. Develop a full-scale gala or outdoor event, or hold a smaller online campaign that reaches out to a specific donor type.
While New Year celebrations are great for strengthening relationships with donors, your nonprofit should also raise funds with event tickets, raffles, and peer-to-peer campaigns. Donorbox helps streamline the process with powerful fundraising tools and insightful resources so you can focus more on the all-important work of your cause.
Learn about our features, such as Recurring Donations, Fundraising Pages, Text-to-Give, QuickDonate™, Donor Management, and more on the website.
If you’re looking for more free articles, guides, checklists, samples, and other resources that help maximize your outreach, visit our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop, with our best resources sent straight to your inbox every month!
Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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