Fundraisers for Animal Welfare

Animal welfare nonprofits have always been a favorite charity, which is why it’s not surprising for such groups to be well-received and supported by philanthropic people. In fact, a nonprofit blog found that pet rescues and animal rights groups were the most popular on social media in a 2011 study. Causes like protecting either wildlife or domestic animals surely compel people to act and take a stand.

Of course, even if animal welfare groups are popular, they still need to raise ample funds for their projects and operations. Here are some charity fundraiser ideas you can take inspiration from:

Fashion for Your Furry Friends Sale

Find (donated) stylish pet clothes and chic accessories, and sell them through a popular online charity platform. If you have valuable items like apparel or carriers with designer labels, auction them off for larger proceeds.

Send-a-Snuggle Program

Take your cute and sweet pets to offices as instant pick-me-ups for employees and executives. The allotted snuggle time can be based on their donation, such as $100 for 30 minutes, $200 for an hour, etc.

Makeover a Shelter Fundraiser

Allot your proceeds to renovating a local animal shelter or clinic by selling donated items or letting your supporters buy construction materials and decorations. You can hold the sale on eBay Giving Works’ platform, so aside from buying, supporters can also donate additional money at checkout.

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Top 2 Sources for Auction Items

Our eBay Giving Works program provides a great opportunity for you to auction great items at great prices and support a noble cause along the way. That being said, it can be a bit tricky to choose items that are guaranteed to get good bids. If you have no idea where to get your auction items, we recommend that you start with these places:

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3 Health-Related Fundraisers

Donations to medical and health nonprofits, like Children's Miracle Network Hospitals or Doctors Without Borders USA, help bring relief to those in need, as well as fund research for a cure for difficult diseases. As such, every little bit donated to these causes truly makes a huge difference.

You can do your part to support these efforts by organizing fundraisers that promote good health. Some ideas you can try include:

Healthy Breakfast Fair

Eating healthy is the best way to prevent cardiovascular conditions or diet-related problems, like insulin resistance. With that in mind, what better way to help people make the transition to a healthy diet than by starting with the most important meal of the day?

Host a “Healthy Breakfast Fair” at a local park. You can then have families pay a small entrance fee. They can then choose from a variety of healthy breakfast options, such as wholegrain pancakes and jam made from locally sourced fruits.

Cold Turkey

Heavy smoking and/or drinking substantially increases the risk of contracting a variety of diseases, including cancer and organ damage. Fortunately, people can quit these vices as long as they have enough support, encouragement, and willpower.

Promote healthy choices by asking people to go cold turkey and quit their vices, where people sponsor them for each day they go without their vice. You can also enforce a “penalty” on participants who do not clear past a certain amount of time.

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Tips in Choosing a Charity

It appears that people are becoming more generous every year. Statistics show that Americans gave about $335.17 billion to charities, foundations, and other nonprofit groups in 2013, which is a 4.4 percent improvement over 2011’s numbers. If you’re interested in supporting a particular cause, choosing eBay Giving Works as your intermediary can yield even better results.

Through our auctions, you can rest easy knowing that the money you donate to charity is guaranteed to reach the right people. If you have problems deciding which nonprofit to support, though, consider some of these tips:

First, do a little soul-searching and become clear on your beliefs and advocacies. Do you care about the environment more than economic development? Have you lost a loved one from a rare, presently-incurable disease? There are plenty of groups who truly believe in these causes and could certainly use your support.

Second, be absolutely sure that the nonprofit in question is legitimate. Visit their website or check with your local business agencies to see if the charities or foundations you’re about to donate to are indeed what they say they are.

Lastly, review the non-profit’s programs, goals, and achievements so that you’ll know how you can help them in the future. If they’ve hosted fundraising marathons before, you can help further by participating in the next run. 

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Give Annual Funds another Look

As fundraisers, we’re often on the lookout for strategies we can implement that can help us achieve our organization’s goals. Having the cash on hand to pay the overhead necessary to push work on these goals forward naturally goes a long way to ensuring success, and a recent survey by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative has found annual funds to be highly effective in this regard.

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3 Humorous Fundraising Ideas

Get ready to tickle more than a few funny bones as National Tell a Joke Day falls on August 16. To help get the ball rolling, here are three quick fundraising ideas to help you put a smile on the face of both your donors and the people you help:

I bet I can make you laugh…

Walk up to people and tell them you can make them laugh within 3 attempts. If you succeed, they give a donation to your cause. Be sure to stock up on more than a handful of jokes.

You can increase the amount you raise by videoing your attempts to make others laugh and posting the video on YouTube. Don’t forget to add donation details in the description box!

Reverse raffle

Put a clever twist to a classic fundraising event. Hand out raffle tickets for free at the start of the event. Instead of giving away prizes, however, you raffle out funny yet embarrassing penalties! Should the “winner” choose not to accept the penalty, he or she can return the ticket along with a donation.

Beard art contest

Have several friends grow their facial hair and participate as models. Contestants then channel their inner stylist and try to make the funniest look. They can choose to braid the beards, shave opposing halves off, dye the hair, and other silly things they can think of.

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3 Social Media Fundraisers

Social media is the “in thing” today. Many people have a Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube account—which makes using social media as a fundraising platform a fantastic idea. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Facebook

Create a Facebook page detailing your cause and your fundraising goal. You can then start accepting odd jobs from other people to help raise money. By using Facebook, you can easily reach a wider audience in a shorter amount of time.

Twitter/Instagram

Do you remember “Blue’s Clues”? Take a page out of the hit children’s show and hide clues all over town. Then, have participants take a selfie next to the clues and upload it on their Twitter and/or Instagram accounts. Once they find all the clues, they can guess what the clues represent and win a prize if they guess correctly. This takes thorough planning, but it’s sure to be a hit with children and adults alike.

YouTube

Stage a city-wide recipe contest, but instead of asking them to simply send in recipes, have contestants channel their inner-Rachel Ray and present the recipe through a “cooking show”. Raise even more funds by having local food producers sponsor your fundraiser. You can then collect the recipes and fashion them into a cookbook you can sell.

Although we mentioned these 3 platforms, don’t limit yourself to these options. There are hundreds of other social media sites you can use to stage your fundraiser. Have fun coming up with your own unique ideas!

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