It’s only September, but we can already feel the Christmas spirit in the air. Christmas is all about love, family, kindness, and giving. But for fundraisers… it’s also about thinking of and executing creative and effective Christmas fundraising ideas. In our Thanksgiving Fundraising Ideas blog post, we talked about the importance of fundraising during November…
It’s only September, but we can already feel the Christmas spirit in the air. Christmas is all about love, family, kindness, and giving. But for fundraisers… it’s also about thinking of and executing creative and effective Christmas fundraising ideas.
In our Thanksgiving Fundraising Ideas blog post, we talked about the importance of fundraising during November and December. These two months make up what is commonly called the Giving Season for the nonprofit community. As the holidays near, people feel encouraged to give more generously than during the rest of the year.
Nearly 31% of all annual giving in the U.S. occurs in December. Also, December is said to be one of the most popular months for making year-end asks.
With this in mind, we’ve assembled a list of our 20 favorite Christmas fundraising ideas.
The thought of coming up with fresh Christmas fundraising ideas, that too every year, sometimes leaves you on edge. These 20 ideas will surely help you overcome that. But first, give this Donorbox video a watch – we’ve curated 3 amazing Christmas fundraising plans for you. They’re unique, feel-good, and will get you started right away!
Christmas is the ideal time to ensure your donors’ gifts are matched. By using this idea, you can increase the size of your donations significantly!
Large corporations often have matching programs set up. This means they will donate the same amount of money that you raise on your own. Contact various Human Resources departments of these corporations and see if you can get a corporate partner to match donations you receive during holidays.
It’s unfortunate that many nonprofits miss out on this amazing fundraising opportunity, so make sure that you don’t! Ensure that your marketing efforts highlight the donation matching program to your supporters and donors.
Example: For The Martyrs is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that raises awareness about Christian persecution and provides support to suffering Christians around the globe. They set up an online donation campaign to help persecuted and displaced children during Christmas. It was the simplest donation page with a highly intuitive donation form. The embedded matching gift widget in their form ensures donors can type in their companies’ names and instantly check whether the companies would match their donations.
This is an excellent Christmas fundraising idea, especially if you’re a local nonprofit, a faith-based organization, or a school. Many people enjoy wrapping gifts for holidays, but there are also many people who would gladly pay to have someone else do it!
How to Organize a Christmas Gift Wrapping Party (Actionable Tips):
Pro tip: In light of covid-19, you can consider having a gift wrapping party over a video conference call. Make sure to inform your volunteers of safety guidelines, create a list of errands and let the volunteers collect gifts to be wrapped or offer to wrap gifts at their doorstep.
Christmas fundraising ideas can be fun.
Organizing a soup-themed fundraiser is a great way to get everyone together while the weather is chilly. Get volunteers or individual members of your community to contribute with pots of homemade soup, and then charge attendees for samples. Try to get your volunteers to cook soups in as many different flavors as possible.
This is amongst the best Christmas fundraising ideas for small groups and schools.
Very few things say Christmas like ugly Christmas sweaters!
A lot of people have a Christmas sweater lying around, so this is a fun and easy Christmas fundraising idea.
Make it a contest that participants pay to enter into – and may the ugliest sweater win!
Pro tip: The best way to do this would be online! Get your social media followers on board and have them donate to the campaign.
The “Ugly Sweater Campaign” invites supporters to sport their unbecoming tops to raise funds and awareness for Stand Up To Cancer, a nonprofit that raises funds for new treatments and therapies.
Take the fun with Christmas fundraising ideas to the next level with this one. Many Polar Plunge event organizers have discovered that people love the daring aspect of doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do, especially if it’s for a good cause.
Polar plunges can help raise funds for your nonprofit in the following ways:
– Participants pay a flat entrance fee.
or
– Participants solicit donations through pledges. The pledges will often pay for the amount of time (in minutes or seconds) the plunger lasts in the water.
We recommend the second way as it generally gathers a larger amount of donations.
Start recruiting participants at least several weeks in advance, and if possible, get a couple of local celebrities to participate.
Due to the nature of this particular Christmas fundraising idea, mobilizing medical volunteers in addition to marketing, finance, and logistics volunteers.
Make sure to heavily publicize your event with flyers, press releases, and a social media campaign.
A holiday soiree sounds fancy. The truth is, you can make it as fancy as you wish. It can be a small get-together or a full-blown gala dinner.
Host a nice dinner party and invite all of your closest supporters, your board, volunteers, donors, local businesses, etc.
People expect to attend at least several dinners and dinner parties during holidays, and many prefer this atmosphere to the Santa Village or Polar Plunge, so this idea is great for nonprofits of all sizes.
Work with local restaurants, museums, galleries, and orchestras, to secure the space, food, and entertainment. Charge per person/plate to keep costs manageable on your end. You can pair this soiree with an auction or a raffle, but you can also organize it as a stand-alone event.
Also… eggnog, hot chocolate, mulled cider, and wine – who wouldn’t want to attend?
Don’t forget! Gratitude matters, so make sure you express it during this dinner.
Example: Elite Etiquette School of Protocol created their 5th annual Christmas gala in honor of Queen Esther Debutantes and King Josiah Beaux. We love this page for its minimalistic look and the smart choice of tools like goal meter, social media buttons, and recurring intervals.
A winter or Christmas-themed fundraising day is a fun and simple Christmas fundraising idea. Organize a “Bobble Hat Day”, a “Christmas Sweater Day”, or a “Christmas Mug Day”. People can wear/bring these to work, raise awareness about your cause, donate, and fundraise. You can offer different levels of involvement.
You can incorporate a lot of the fundraising techniques we talked about before: from ‘text to give‘ to peer-to-peer fundraising and online campaigns. Remember to spread the word via social media. You can also run a crowdfunding campaign specifically for Christmas fundraising.
Food can be a great addition to your Christmas fundraising ideas.
Organize a bake-off, a bake sale, or even a Christmas Cookies Swap fundraising event.
Christmas Cookies Swap is a very interesting way to make everyone’s life easier during the holiday season. The idea is to have people bring in several dozens of their favorite homemade Christmas cookies. Everyone takes one of each, and then every participant leaves with a box of a dozen of each cookie to take home.
This is another Christmas holiday fundraising idea that is particularly useful for smaller nonprofits, churches, or schools. If your nonprofit is bigger, and you have access to a large network of volunteers, you can organize several of these events across a couple of days in multiple cities.
This event can be combined with a lot of other fundraising activities: selling warm winter drinks, a gingerbread house decorating contest for kids, selling baking supplies, etc. These will give your fundraising efforts a significant boost.
You could even partner with local businesses such as specialty wine shops, delis, bakeries, and trendy hot spots to offer even more food-related items for sale. You should charge an entry fee or get a percentage of the profits.
We talked a bit about the importance of storytelling in our How to Turn Your Social Media Followers into Donors blog post.
Compelling stories, especially ones accompanied by videos and photos, can really set your Christmas fundraising efforts into motion.
Design a Christmas campaign using stories of people your nonprofit organization helps. Whether you pick 7, 10, or 12 stories, the important thing is to use compelling stories and share them widely.
What makes a particular storytelling campaign so successful?
This Christmas fundraising idea is great for nonprofits of all sizes! This idea does not encourage physical interaction and it is likely to attract more participants in the current times of social distancing!
Ski-a-thons are an amazing holiday fundraising idea for winter sports lovers and snow enthusiasts out there. Organize a one-day-long ski-a-thon event. They are a perfect wintertime alternative to marathons. Charge an entry fee for participants and offer discounts if they’re bringing their friends and family. Use peer-to-peer fundraising to allow your participants to collect donations and give your fundraising efforts a boost.
This Christmas fundraising idea is a great way to attract the ever-increasing conscious consumer. More and more individuals are worried about the environmental footprint of Christmas: the Christmas tree, wasted food, excessive shopping, just to name a few big issues.
An interesting version of Christmas fundraising popped up in London, UK. A store had just opened, and in this store, every single purchase made went towards an item for a refugee. The items were delivered via one of the 80+ projects Help Refugees work with across the world. The cheapest item cost only a couple of dollars, but there was also an option to buy the entire store for $500.
You leave the shop with empty bags, but a full heart!
Your Christmas fundraising ideas must include cards and carols to give it a touch and feel of the holiday season. People and kids will be buying Christmas cards this holiday season. This can be your best chance to raise funds with a simple idea that doesn’t require a lot of effort.
As a nonprofit, you can opt for:
Christmas carols can be another effective Christmas fundraising idea. This type of fundraising event is perfect for religious group choirs, high school clubs, local music talent, and family and friends. Rally your supporters, then empower them to do more than just sing for a cause by making them fundraise on your behalf. Set up a crowdfunding campaign that will allow them to share their personal fundraising pages with friends and family.
Let the members of your community know they can text a keyword to receive a message with a mobile-friendly form they can use to add their song of choice for the caroling. You can either have the caroling at a fundraising event or have your choir(s) go door-to-door.
Example: Planet Rehab is a grassroots nonprofit organization striving to protect and restore Earth’s natural resources, ecosystems, and species. Their crowdfunding campaign is quite simple yet highly meaningful and closely tied to their mission.
What’s a Christmas without Christmas decorations? There’s a lot you can do with Christmas decorations when it comes to fundraising.
This simple idea can boost holiday cheer among adults and kids. Add raffles and other challenging games for them. Sell raffle tickets online and discover a simple way to raise more funds with your fundraising events. You can encourage kids to use colorful wrapping paper to serve the community by wrapping gifts for them. Fundraising events can greatly benefit from such engaging activities.
This Christmas donation idea has enormous potential! Donating one’s birthday has been quite popular, so encourage your supporters to donate their Christmas this year!
Mobilize a network of fundraisers who will, through peer-to-peer fundraising, fundraise for your nonprofit. They can ask their friends, family, and their wider network to donate to your charity instead of purchasing a Christmas gift.
You could also link Christmas to New Year’s Resolutions. Design a campaign that gives people an opportunity to donate their Christmas gift in order to help someone achieve their New Year’s Resolution.
Finally, we can’t possibly conclude this list without Santa Claus. Consider creating a “Santa’s Village” where, after paying a fee, children can get a picture with Santa. You can also have two different fees: one for a photo with Santa, and one that also includes a gift from Santa.
In Santa’s Village, you can also sell hot chocolate, hot cider, and other Christmas treats and drinks. Also, selling wreaths, candles, and decorations can make the entire experience more enticing and help you collect more funds.
If you’re looking for work-appropriate Christmas fundraising ideas and you’re struggling to imagine your co-workers painting baubles or baking – this one is for you!
As a gesture of generosity, ask your colleagues or have your fundraisers ask their colleagues at work if they’ll be kind enough to donate their last hour’s pay before Christmas to your nonprofit.
This allows for simple and straightforward giving – which many appreciate during the hectic holiday months. Whether you want to go all out and dive into peer-to-peer fundraising – where each one of your fundraisers has its own donation page and/or a campaign, or you want to do it more low-key – the range is wide and the opportunities are plenty!
When holidays start coming to an end, after countless family dinners, gifts, and events, people usually want to dispose of their Christmas trees. Since this is generally a ‘pain point’ for so many individuals, this Christmas fundraising idea guarantees success.
To raise funds, offer a Christmas tree disposal/recycling service. You will need a truck/van and a way to recycle the trees. Charge a fee for the disposal of the trees. Not only is this service very affordable and convenient for those looking to dispose of their trees, but it’s also very environmentally friendly.
Instead of picking up the trees, you can also set up collection points. A good location could be a community park accessible to most residents of your local community. This tends to draw in high participation rates. At each collection point, mobilize volunteers to collect and sort discarded trees. From there, you can run the trees through an industrial chipper and transform them into mulch.
Everyone will appreciate the opportunity to solve a problem while at the same time doing good and ending the holiday season on a positive note!
Selling Christmas treats, albeit not a new idea, can definitely bring in a lot of funds during the holiday season.
Especially if you’re a local nonprofit, arranging to set up a stall in a mall or at your town square/shopping street shouldn’t be an issue.
Sell roasted chestnuts, mince pies, hot chocolate, Christmas pudding, or other Christmas/cold weather treats to people passing by. This will enrich the experience of the passers, as well as add to the overall Christmas feel.
Finally, you can set up an additional donation box for anyone who’s feeling a little bit more generous that evening. Simple fundraising events like this often work wonders in the community, with kids and adults.
Pro tip: You can sell your Christmas treats online as well, but remember to spread the to among your friends and peers- many might prefer to be delivered their treats during the holiday week, to make your sale more attractive, ask them about their food preferences and offer to cook treats on request!
Christmas is a special time of the year, but it’s arguably the most magical for children. There are as many Christmas traditions as there are families, but writing letters to Santa is one of the most popular ones.
You can really get creative with this Christmas fundraising idea. You can create 4-5 letters that people can choose from (prices usually vary from $5-$10). Naturally, those ordering the letters should be able to customize the name the letter is addressed to.
If you’re running a stall at a fair or at a Christmas market, you can also set up some tables and a box so that kids can write a letter to Santa and post it. Parents or guardians can pay (either ahead of time or on the day) to have their child receive a personalized return letter from Santa.
Have the children write their name and address clearly to make sure that Santa knows where to send a letter back! If you opt for this idea, make sure that you charge more since this service is more time-consuming.
Exceptionally suited to schools, colleges, and community organizations, this Christmas fundraising idea is one of the most fun ones out there.
Think of a prize (perhaps one per age group – depending on the target audience of your nonprofit). Consider charging $3 per entry if everyone is bringing their bauble from home or $6 if you’re going to provide the bauble. Ensure that the baubles are plain (white, solid color, or transparent) to allow the participant to express themselves creatively. Make sure each entrant has a name tag for their bauble.
Choose your judges – it could be the principal, a professor, parents, captains of the local high school, or a local celebrity.
Each entrant can take their bauble home after the competition and put it on their own tree or, if you want to win extra community points, you can use all the baubles from the competition to decorate your school/library/community tree.
Alternatively, you could get a couple of your volunteers to offer ‘personalized baubles’ service at malls/fairs/markets. Charge donors per bauble to have the baubles personalized by the volunteers.
If you are looking for more fundraising ideas, we have compiled a list of 100+ fundraising ideas for everyone.
An entertaining Christmas fundraising idea will help generate more donations for your cause, especially during November and December. If you want to make the most out of your fundraising this holiday season, try a combination of two or more of the ideas presented above. We hope we’ve inspired you to come up with an idea of your own as well.
You should also check these Christian fundraising ideas to inspire more creativity in your team.
Get working, enjoy the holidays, and don’t forget your Donate page! Carry through the emotional impact of these events and campaigns to your website and make sure your supporters can donate online. Make that donation system straightforward and effective. Check out Donorbox.
Donorbox is a powerful fundraising software that is super simple to setup and attracts more recurring donors. Start fundraising with a fast, optimized donation payment system in 15 mins. Over 50,000 nonprofit organizations uses Donorbox fundraising software. They include charities, schools, churches, political campaigns, and medical research organizations.
Ilma Ibrisevic is a content creator and nonprofit writer. She’s passionate about meaningful work, sustainability, and social movements. If she’s not working, she’s obsessing over coffee or cooking. You can connect with her on Linkedin.
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