14 Creative Christmas Fundraising Ideas To Boost Donations This Holiday Season

14 Creative Christmas Fundraising Ideas To Boost Donations This Holiday Season

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and with the festive season on our doorsteps, what better time to spread some seasonal joy with your fundraising! In order to give you a little inspiration, we’ve put together a list of 10+ creative Christmas fundraising ideas for your organization, school, nonprofit, college club, sports team and more.

Merry Christmas Sign

Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.

Christmas is not only about decorations or pockets full of snow; it is about giving and spreading joy. For fundraisers, the holiday season is when everyone is in the spirit of giving, which makes it one of the best times to raise funds for your nonprofit. 

With creative and well-executed ideas, you can raise all the funds you need for a successful year! 

Host a Christmas Fundraiser For Your Cause

It’s never too early, or too late, to start planning and promoting your Christmas fundraisers. The holiday and winter season is the perfect time to raise money in anticipation of the coming year.‌

Whether you’re fundraising at school, for a team, at work, or with family and friends, we’ve put together a great selection of unique Christmas fundraising ideas to inspire you to do something a bit different. Keep reading to learn more!

Heartwarming Christmas Fundraising Ideas

Need to add some heat to your Christmas fundraising celebrations? We’ve compiled a list of the most heartwarming Christmas fundraisers just for you.

1. Cookie Or Ornament Decorating Party

Warm your ovens up or get your paints and glitter ready for a fun decorating party. Supporters with a sweet tooth will love the opportunity to dive into personalizing their festive cookies  while others will appreciate the opportunity to put their creative skills to use by creating customized ornaments they can add to their trees.

Charge participants when they register for your event to cover material costs and a donation, then get to decorating! It’s a classic Christmas fundraiser idea for a reason!

person putting bauble on top of Christmas Tree

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash.

2. Holiday Decor Sales

Help your supporters get into the holiday spirit by selling festive pieces they can adorn their homes with. From wreath and tree sales, to personalized holiday cards, menorahs and  commemorative ornaments, there’s no shortage of holiday items your organization can provide for your supporters. 

Set up an online store and offer delivery services to make decorating for the holidays simple and painless for your local community. 

3. Christmas Cards

This Christmas fundraising ideas list would be a miss if it didn’t include making Christmas cards. A lot of people will be buying Christmas cards, so turn that into a charitable act. Purchase plain cards from a craft store and turn them into holiday treasures with trees, elves and other Christmas scenes using stamps, glitter, colored pens and more. Wrap the cards in a beautiful bow for easy, ready-made gifts. This can be your best chance to raise funds with a simple idea that doesn’t require a lot of effort.

Happy Christmas to you card

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

4. Christmas Carols

Christmas carols can be another effective holiday fundraising idea. This type of fundraising event is perfect for choirs, high school clubs, local music talent, and family and friends. Select five or six holiday songs everyone knows and loves, schedule a few practice sessions then head out into the neighborhood and give the gift of song! After each live performance, pass the hat for donations.

5. Host a Restaurant Fundraiser 

A restaurant fundraiser is the ideal holiday fundraiser event for every nonprofit group. Share great food with friends and supporters while raising for your chosen cause, simply by eating out! 

With GroupRaise, you can choose from hundreds of local restaurants to find the best location to host your fundraiser.

Find a restaurant and book a day for your event, then a set percentage of all sales will be donated back to your cause! It’s easy to set up, fun for everyone who takes part, and a great Christmas fundraising idea.

Creative Christmas Fundraisers For Schools 

Christmas is a time of year when you can really get creative and go all out with entertaining fundraising activities. Below are 3 effective ways to fundraise for your school this December.

6. Breakfast With Santa

It’s one of the easiest and most fun Christmas fundraising ideas for schools. Host an event where kids can come have breakfast with Santa! This is a great opportunity to combine a bunch of smaller events together to make one big fundraising event, or you can keep this event small to just breakfast and visiting with THE Santa Claus. 

7. Snowman Competition

Christmas fundraisers are always more fun in the snow! If you’re lucky enough to live in Winter Wonderland, take advantage of all the snow on the ground and hold a snowman competition! For a registration fee, patrons will get a set amount of snow to work with plus any hand held tools they’ll need to sculpt their masterpiece. The person with the best snowman wins a prize and the rest goes back to your organization!

man in black jacket and blue pants sitting on white snow covered ground

Photo by Dea Andreea on Unsplash.

8. Gift Wrapping Station

Accept donations to wrap presents for busy parents. Make sure to put a system in place to keep all of the presents labeled so there won’t be any confusion on christmas day. It’s one of the most effective and entertaining Christmas fundraising ideas as the  kids are sure to have fun while doing it, let them get creative!

Unique Christmas Fundraiser Ideas

Holiday fundraising is a blast! To give you a little inspiration we’ve put together a list of unique Christmas fundraising ideas.

9. Festive Fancy Dress

Wearing a Christmas jumper or bobble hat at work or at school is one of the simplest and most unique holiday fundraising ideas. Set an official date and ask everyone to make a small donation to take part. You could also hold a competition for the best festive dress.

10. Christmas Crackers

This holiday fundraiser idea couldn’t be easier. Buy some crackers and insert a golden ticket into one of them. Ask for a donation for each cracker and people then buy and pull a cracker. Whatever happens they get to keep the contents of their cracker. If theirs says Winner they get an extra prize. It’s a fantastic but simple idea to add to your list of Christmas fundraising ideas.

white red and green floral gift wrapper

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash.

11. Krispy Kreme Digital Dozens

A Krispy Kreme Digital Dozens campaign is a great Christmas fundraiser that is so easy to put together and raises a lot of funds for your cause. It’s also enjoyable for all!

With Digital Dozens, individuals are invited to purchase a box of Original Glazed donuts to enjoy these holidays, and a percentage of each sale is donated back to your cause. This could be as much as 70% – a huge donation!

The best part, it is a super simple process, redeemable nationwide and you can gift your loved ones with a dozen too! All you’ll have to do is launch your fundraiser on the link below.

For a full rundown on the Digital Dozens campaign, check out this article here.

Bonus Holiday Fundraising Ideas

12. Ugly sweater party

Very few things scream Christmas like an ugly Christmas sweater does! Encourage your supporters to don their ugliest sweaters for a night out while they raise money for a good cause. Make it a contest that participants pay to enter into – and may the ugliest sweater win!

Bonus Tip: Combine your ugly sweater party with a restaurant fundraiser! Partner with a local restaurant for a fundraiser meal and raise funds with great food shared with friends and family.

13. Holiday Soiree

Host a festive dinner party and invite all of your closest supporters, volunteers, donors, local businesses, your board etc. People expect to attend at least several dinners and dinner parties during holidays, so this idea is great for nonprofits of all sizes.

Book a date for your dinner through GroupRaise, and a percentage of all sales made that day will be donated back to your cause!

Don’t forget! Gratitude matters, so make sure you express it during this dinner.

Clear Long Stem Drinking Glass

Photo by picjumbo.com on Pexels.

14. Ski-a-Thon

Ski-a-thons are an amazing holiday fundraising idea for winter sports lovers and the snow enthusiasts out there — a perfect wintertime alternative to marathons and fun runs. Charge an entry fee for participants and offer discounts if they’re bringing their friends and family.

Man Using Ski

Photo by Mati Mango on Pexels.

What a bright time, it’s the right time… to set up your own Christmas fundraiser! Now that you’ve seen all these effective and festive Christmas fundraising ideas, simply choose the one that best fits your organization’s needs and get the ball rolling.

Make sure to check out the local restaurants on GroupRaise where you could hold your holiday event – there’s lots to choose from!

And of course, don’t hesitate to check out the Krispy Kreme Digital Dozens campaign for the one of the sweetest Christmas fundraising ideas out there! Huge donations for each delicious box of donuts purchased – too good to miss.

If you need more inspiration or additional fundraising advice, explore the GroupRaise blog for all the best fundraising information.

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