It’s the middle of summer and it’s a great time to be thinking about fun community fundraisers that you can plan while the weather is on your side! Summer is the season of socializing, vacationing, and really doing anything fun while the kids aren’t in school. In other words, it’s the perfect time to host a fundraiser to help support your favorite GoAbroad Foundation cause. To help you out, we’ve put together our favorite ideas for a summer fundraiser:
Movie Night
What better way to get your network interested in a summer fundraiser than to organize an outdoor movie showing!? Everybody loves the drive-in or snuggling up in a blanket under the stars to watch a film in the great outdoors — and summer is the perfect time to organize it! Great places to host include an actual drive-in theater (get them to donate a portion of tickets or rent out the place!), community park, your backyard, outside your local library, or perhaps an existing outdoor amphitheater. Sell tickets, drinks, and snacks!
Car Wash
This traditional warm weather fundraising technique has been working for years! You know the drill — get some hoses, soap, sponges, volunteers, and signs and before you know it, you’ll be in business. Tips for charging a little extra: offer to vacuum, polish with wax, top off fluids, hand-dry, etc.
Field Day or Sports Tournament
Remember when your elementary school class had field day? It was so much fun! Recreate this childhood staple for adults and children alike by inviting your friends and family to participate in several stations or activities outdoors. Think flag football, kickball, and potato sack races! Sell tickets, snacks, and drinks, or take donations for each activity.
Happy Hour!
Guess what most adults love to do in the summer evenings? Drink. On a patio. With happy hour specials! Try partnering with a local restaurant, pub, or bar for your fundraiser or host it on your own patio. We recommend getting creative and having a signature drink or two to help communicate the theme or cause behind the event.
Community Garage Sale
Let’s face it, we all could stand to get rid of some things! Get your community to donate their unwanted items to a yard sale fundraiser. You and a few friends can run the sale and use the proceeds to work towards your fundraising goal. Expert garage sale tips: try to host on Friday and Saturday morning, open early, put up lots of clearly marked signs, post in the classifieds, and have paper/plastic bags for your shoppers!
Ice Cream Social
Summer gets hot and (almost) nobody will turn down a delicious ice cream sundae! Whether you host this event at a local park, church, business, or in your neighborhood, we’re certain you’ll get more than a few people turning out for a sweet treat. We suggest heading to your local wholesale retailer like Costco or Sam’s Club and getting sundae ingredients in bulk — then charge your guests a flat fee to peruse the ice cream sundae buffet!
To learn more about which causes you can support, click here.
Have other ideas to add to the list? Tell us in the comments!
This blog was contributed by Kayla Patterson:
Kayla graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Colorado State University while working for GoAbroad.com, and has been there ever since. Kayla is often referred to as GoAbroad’s resident social media nerd, as the company’s Marketing Director. She also lends her time to fundraising and implementing online marketing strategies for the GoAbroad Foundation. When she’s not pouring over the latest social media and international education news, she enjoys movies, country music, dessert, shopping, and traveling the world!