40+ Virtual and Hybrid Fundraising Ideas for Your Nonprofit

2020 introduced philanthropists and donors to the wonders of virtual fundraising, and today, most supporters of nonprofits and charities are familiar with virtual galas, Zoom conferences, and online donation forms. It’s gotten to the point where some nonprofit organizations struggle to come up with new virtual or hybrid fundraising activities to attract supporters.

Fortunately, virtual and hybrid fundraising is a growing field and nonprofits are constantly coming up with innovative ways to appeal to their base. If you’re ready to take your fundraising activities to the next level, read on. We’re about to offer you over 40 different activities and campaigns to engage your supporters and increase your donations. 

Fun Fundraising Activities

Virtual Luncheons and Dinners

There’s nothing like a good meal to unite a community, and many nonprofits and charities have created wonderful social events online by hosting virtual luncheons and dinners. These virtual galas are held via Zoom or through a reliable virtual fundraising platform like PayBee’s. Donors who purchase tickets receive catered meals from nearby restaurants, meaning you get to support your local economy as well. 

To add to the festive atmosphere, you can have your diners adopt a uniform dinner décor with identical tablecloths and centerpieces. Your guests can even get dressed up and chat with friends online as you eat. And as we move into hybrid fundraising, you can expand your dinner parties to include both in-person and virtual guests.

Virtual Cooking Classes

Cooking classes are a fun variation on the usual fundraising gala that let the cooking enthusiasts in your base make a meal with delivered ingredients and online instructions from a professional chef. Once the meals are prepared, everyone can share them in a virtual luncheon or dinner.

Be sure to allow for plenty of prep time to handle all the logistics of this activity. It’s also a good idea to ensure that most of your supporters like to cook (and have adequate culinary skills) before making this an event.

Virtual Happy Hour and Wine Tastings

Wine tastings are a popular activity at in-person fundraising events and everyone loves a good happy hour. Guess what? Both of these activities translate well to a virtual event. Just create a simple campaign with a virtual conferencing platform like PayBee’s and charge a small fee (or request a donation) to attend. You can create a ticketing campaign for donors to purchase mystery bottles of wine and other drinks they can sample at home during the virtual party.

Offer a list of conversation topics to turn this into an active social gathering. If it proves popular, you might be able to host regular monthly happy hours and virtual wine tastings.

Fun Online Classes

Virtual cooking classes are popular at many nonprofit fundraisers, but if your supporters aren’t that enthusiastic about cooking, why not offer some online classes they do want to take — and will pay to attend?

Being stuck at home for over a year has reawakened a desire in many people to learn new skills and develop additional talents. So, if you know a large percentage of your donors and supporters are enthusiastic (or curious about) yoga, painting, or folding origami, arrange for a professional instructor to offer a class online. Such classes also make great raffle prizes and auction items for your other virtual and hybrid fundraising galas.  

Virtual Craft Nights

If your nonprofit or charity is related to the arts or art therapy, hosting a virtual craft night can be a fun and relaxing way to create works of art from home. This virtual event can be presented as an online class that teaches crafting or painting skills or a social activity that allows your supporters to exercise their natural artistic talents. 

If any of these pieces turns out particularly well, your supporters may be willing to display or even donate their artwork or craft project to be auctioned off. That’s a great way to build goodwill among your supporters! 

Virtual Silent and Live Auctions

Of all the traditional nonprofit fundraising activities, charity auctions are one of the most popular events to host online. Virtual fundraising platforms like PayBee’s are specially equipped to make it easy to host either a silent auction (that can last for days and raise plenty of funds) or live auctions with a professional auctioneer who can ramp up the energy levels of your virtual gala.

Highly desirable auction items can be provided by your sponsors and with hybrid auctions becoming more popular (and increasing the number of participants), the bidding at these events will only become fiercer.

Virtual Shopping

If your donors and supporters are shopping enthusiasts, you may just want to skip the auction and go directly to a virtual shopping sale. With all of the merchants, gardeners, and artists in your community ready and willing to sell their physical products, now is a great time to build an online store to view these items and arrange for a special event where supporters can buy online and pick up their items safely. It’s a great way to direct traffic to your website and increase awareness of your nonprofit. 

Silent auctions hosted on PayBee’s online platform also offer a “Buy it Now” option where you can set a price for a desirable auction item. This is a great option for people who love to shop but don’t have the time to get into a lengthy bidding war.

Virtual Raffles

Raffles are an excellent addition to a fundraiser because they can be used in virtual costume parties, talent shows, auctions, and other virtual and hybrid events. Creating a virtual raffle is also very easy when using PayBee’s ticketing campaign, and you can even use virtual raffle drawings as a way to refocus your audience’s attention during your virtual gala.

Digital Download Donation Rewards

These days, it’s easier than ever for people to be rewarded instantly for donating, thanks to digital downloads. You can offer anything on your donation page from eBooks, video downloads, and audio files to discount codes and access to exclusive webinars. As it’s often cheaper and easier to give digital downloads instead of physical items, this is a very cost-effective way to create incentive for donations. Just be sure to offer enticing images and descriptions of the items and promote your donation forms and prizes through email campaigns and social media.  

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Virtual Film Screenings

Movie theaters may still be empty in many cities, but that’s no reason why your community of supporters can’t get together to enjoy a virtual film screening together. Even better, screen movies and documentaries related to your nonprofit or charity’s mission to raise interest in your cause. 

For example, the Global Fund for Women has a documentary film series on feminist leaders standing up for fundamental human rights, making it an excellent video to share for nonprofits dealing with multiple social issues.

To make sure this event isn’t just a passive screening, use a virtual platform that allows a chat room facilitator to answer questions and start discussions about the movie during and after the screening. This can turn a simple movie night into a very stimulating experience.     

Hybrid Concerts

Virtual concerts have been a popular draw for online fundraisers, especially for supporters eager to see a live concert in 2020. Today, lowered COVID-19 restrictions allow small groups of people to attend live concerts in person. To expand this audience, many nonprofits and charities are allowing people to attend the concert virtually as well, making hybrid concerts the next big event in fundraising.

When planning a hybrid concert, it’s best to have two teams — one to handle the virtual experience and another to manage the in-person activity. Make sure live audiences follow safety protocols and enable virtual audiences to enjoy their own perks — like a backstage tour or unique vantage point courtesy of a professional videographer.

Virtual Live Entertainment

Virtual concerts might have been one of the more popular online fundraising events in 2020, but the truth is you can host a variety of live entertainment events on a virtual fundraising platform. By employing an easy-to-use online platform like PayBee’s along with a good live-streaming service such as YouTube, and a reliable Content Distribution Network (CDN), your supporters can enjoy everything from a stand-up comedy routine to a personal chat with your favorite celebrity actor, singer, or philanthropist.

Plus, since these celebrity personalities only need to appear virtually, you can save a lot of money on travel and hotel costs — meaning the celebrity may be able to offer you substantial savings on an appearance fee. Many fundraising planners have also reported that people who get to interact with celebrities in virtual galas find the event a more intimate affair since the celebrity isn’t isolated on the stage but gets to chat on an equal playing field with everyone else. 

Virtual Tours

One great thing about online events is that they allow people to travel practically anywhere virtually — including places that aren’t easily accessible even in pre-pandemic times. If your nonprofit or charity happens to be connected to a fun place to explore such as a museum, art gallery, or aquarium, a virtual behind-the-scenes tour would be an excellent way to connect with new supporters and volunteers.

Even if your organization isn’t a typical place to stage a tour, allowing your donors to see how their contributions are being used to do good work will foster plenty of trust and goodwill and make your supporters feel more involved. Offer an online Q&A session to let your supporters learn even more about your mission and to show how transparent you are with donors.

Virtual Scavenger Hunts

Virtual scavenger hunts aren’t just a fun way to liven up your fundraiser — they also provide an amazing opportunity to increase brand awareness of your nonprofit’s mission and increase donations. By temporarily altering your website to showcase hidden messages and signs (for instance, by including clues in your “Our Mission” page), you can direct your supporters to web pages that will keep your nonprofit or charity fresh in their minds. You can even direct them to donation pages — just make sure you also offer a nice prize to the person or team who finds all of your clues.

An additional way to enhance awareness of your mission is to expand your virtual scavenger hunt to the entire Internet — by instructing the players to find and take screenshots of web pages that deal with the social issues your nonprofit or charity is combating. By getting your donors to find the current statistics for illiteracy and food insecurity, they’ll be much more motivated to contribute to your efforts to end these problems.

Online Gaming Tournaments

The online gaming community is vast — and has probably grown even bigger during the pandemic — but did you know gamers have raised millions of dollars for charity by live-streaming their gameplay and encouraging viewers to donate? If you have a lot of gaming enthusiasts in your support base, hosting online gaming tournaments could be a fun and lucrative way to fundraise for your community.

You can require that participants pay an entry fee or create a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign that requires each gamer to raise money for your nonprofit or charity. Be sure to create and promote effective donation pages on social media to get support — and consider offering prizes for participants like game cards or even cash rewards.       

Brand Design Contests

A good nonprofit or charity needs a group identity, and one of the best ways to showcase yours is through an eye-catching logo and branded merchandise. Sure, your supporters might be wearing some decent-looking T-shirts and badges, but makeovers are always fun — so why not use one as a fundraising event?

Offer participants with artistic and/or design abilities to craft new logos, clothing designs, and additional merchandise for your next generation of custom items. Once you receive several good entries, have your donors and staff vote on the winner via social media. 

This is a great way to keep your supporters engaged in your nonprofit and get them to visit your donation pages — and of course selling or giving out the new merchandise will only improve your brand awareness and help raise funds. 

Virtual Walks and Runs

Many people still see virtual galas as passive events where people just sit at their desks and look at a screen. However, many nonprofits and charities have merged physical activity with virtual fundraisers to great effect. 

Virtual walks and runs allow your donors to compete in sporting events with other supporters by participating in physical events alone or in small groups and then comparing their performance to others. Some of these virtual events let you download special apps to record your performance time.

You can also take photos and share videos on social media to make this more of a community event. Some participants really enjoy these events since they can literally compete with people from around the world.

Virtual Hikes

This is one activity that can be accomplished in multiple ways. YouTube and other streaming services currently offer multiple popular “virtual hiking” videos that take audiences through several scenic locations, including the Baker River Trail and Canadian forests. These 4K videos can be incorporated into your virtual walks and marathons, allowing participants to view them as they walk on a treadmill and record their progress.

However, if you happen to live near some stunning hiking trails, why not take this virtual event into the real world by having small groups of supporters enjoy a day hike? They can share their progress through photos and videos on social media and create unique online challenges such as length of the trail walked or key objects found, allowing them to raise money through pledge drives and online donations.    

Virtual Marathons

Virtual marathons aren’t limited to long runs. Some of the most enjoyable (and profitable) fundraising marathons have centered around how long a person can watch movies, listen to music, dance, cook, sing, or play guitar. These “performance marathons” can be livestreamed and are surprisingly entertaining for audiences who like seeing people display their talents (or react to films and music). And there’s also the fun of seeing people break endurance records and reaching a personal best.

Make sure to tailor your virtual marathons to the strengths and unique abilities of your participants (and their ability to hold people’s attention). Promote your event with a unique landing page on your fundraising platform and be very clear on what your marathon challenge is, how much money you want to raise, and how people can support you (usually through donations, pledges, or even joining you in the virtual marathon).

Virtual Dog-walk-a-thons

By now it should be clear that virtual walks, runs, hikes, and marathons can take many different forms — and one of the most unique is the virtual dog-walk-a-thon. Ideal for nonprofits and charities that focus on animal welfare and shelters, this virtual challenge has participants sign up to walk as many dogs as they can in a certain time period using trackers. It’s a great way to support animal shelters, show love to dogs, and take photos to share on social media that improve your nonprofit’s brand.

Like virtual marathons and walks, a virtual dog-walk-a-thon can help fundraise through pledge campaigns, entry fees, and other donation campaigns. Few things motivate people to donate like seeing happy animals, so be sure to promote this event with plenty of good pictures!   

Hybrid Costume Party

As small gatherings become more of a reality, people will be eager to attend fun parties. Why not celebrate this by offering themed events like a costume party? You could arrange for everyone to dress up in clothes from the disco or flapper era and host the event at a similarly themed event venue.

Even better, why not expand your audience by making this a hybrid gala with a virtual experience? Online guests can dress up and post photos on social media to be entered in costume contests. As long as you keep this event interactive by allowing both in-person and online supporters to participate, everyone will have a good time.

Virtual Talent Shows

Talent shows are fun events that let people showcase their special skills (as well as any new talents they may have picked up during the pandemic). Many of these performances can be shared online in a virtual event. 

Just make sure you have a good online platform, live streaming service, and content distribution network, and supporters from around the world can showcase their singing, dancing, magic, and contortionist skills, letting you sell plenty of tickets. Promoting your virtual talent show via social media and email is also a must, so use an online platform that lets you market your galas with just a few clicks.

Virtual Karaoke Night

Okay, maybe not everyone likes karaoke, but if your organization has fond memories of belting out some favorite tunes at a local karaoke bar, there’s no reason why you can’t bring back this event via a virtual platform with excellent sound. Just be sure to create online registration forms that allow you to know everyone’s songs in advance so you can have their karaoke tracks tested and ready.

You’ll also need a chat room facilitator to serve as a “karaoke jockey” (KJ) to alert the singers and start their tracks. Oh, and be sure everyone’s mikes are muted while the singer serenades everyone in front of his or her computer. 

Hybrid Trivia Night

People love a good trivia night, especially when the questions are adapted to fit the unique interests of your audience. And now that hybrid events are more popular, you can ramp up the competition by opening up the game to a live and virtual audience. Just make sure to use a reliable online platform, a good streaming service, and an effective Content Distribution Network that ensures everyone can participate easily. Promote your event on social media and email, offer prizes to the winning participants or teams, and you’ve got a fun virtual night out that everyone will remember.

To use your trivia night as a fundraiser, you can charge a trivia night entry fee or request a donation. Even better, you can merge your trivia night with peer-to-peer fundraising. This allows your supporters to organize and host multiple trivia nights, effectively raising more money than you could on your own since they’ll reach out to networks you don’t have.

PayBee makes it simple to create a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign and build fundraising pages. Our platform can be adapted to fit different types of virtual trivia nights as well.

Virtual Book Club

The pandemic has given many people plenty of time to catch up on their reading, and many of your supporters are probably eager to share their thoughts on a favorite book at a social gathering. This can make hosting regular virtual book club meetings an excellent way of keeping your support-network engaged and connected.

When choosing a book to read and share, it can be useful to pick something related to your nonprofit that will help you achieve your organization’s goals. For instance, Melinda Billings of Peacehaven Community Farm decided to form a book club for volunteers and other staff members to discuss sections from Kivi Leroux Miller’s Content Marketing for Nonprofits. This lead to some great conversations and dialogues on how they could apply the book’s ideas to their own organization.

Depending on the needs of your nonprofit or charity, you may find it more helpful to use a virtual book club to discuss and plan fundraising ideas rather than as a fundraising activity in itself. These gatherings can yield many positive results in promoting teamwork, identifying future goals, and recognizing the accomplishments of your group.

Virtual “TED Talks,” Webinars, and Conferences

TED Talks are famous for allowing people to share their knowledge and inspire others — something your nonprofit does all the time. So, why not create a TED Talk-style virtual event by having one of your speakers record a presentation on a topic related to your nonprofit’s mission? The talks can be on a variety of important subjects — art therapy, healing from domestic abuse, protecting animals — and can take the form of webinars and online conferences depending on your needs.

When hosting such a virtual event, make sure you recruit someone who’s comfortable presenting on camera and can hold an online audience’s attention. It’s also a good idea to host a Q&A session at the end to encourage people to attend the live event and not just view later recordings. To raise funds, charge a small admission fee or request donations.

One nice thing about these online presentations is that you can later offer admission to the live event as a prize in your online auctions or raffles. You can also post the video on your website after the event to attract traffic and build up your brand awareness. 

Hybrid Conferences

Conferences are a great way to help build and re-establish ties with your supporters — and now that small gatherings are becoming more possible, hosting a hybrid conference is a great way to entice people to attend your fundraisers both virtually and in-person. To attract an in-person audience, hold your conference at a nice location — such as a place with beautiful scenery or fun activities — to encourage people to buy tickets for the in-person event.

Conversely, you can attract a sizable online audience by making the conference convenient for virtual attendees. Offer audio-only content for people suffering from virtual fatigue. Use an intuitive online platform like PayBee’s to host the virtual segments of your conference. PayBee’s marketing features also make it easy to promote your hybrid conference on social media channels, helping you attract both live and virtual supporters. 

Virtual Awards Ceremony

One of the best ways to retain your supporters and increase enthusiasm among your volunteers is to recognize their efforts — so why not turn this into an entire event? Virtual awards ceremonies enable you to put the spotlight on your best donors and volunteers. People who’ve been with you for years will appreciate being thanked for their service — and it’s always a nice idea to offer physical tokens of appreciation like gifts or plaques to your top supporters.

And of course, since these ceremonies bring a lot of people together in a virtual space, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to request donations and direct people to your donation forms. Make sure this event isn’t just about fundraising though — while these virtual galas can be elaborate or casual, they’re ultimately about making sure your support network feels validated.

Virtual Bingo

To add some variety to your virtual bingo night, offer games where people have to come up with different bingo patterns to win — like arrows, diamonds or letters of the alphabet. You can even come up with custom bingo cards online that have more than just letters of numbers — offering a bingo card with different pictures in the spaces or catch phrases might catch your participants’ attention better and keep them on their toes while playing. The cards can also be sent via email as PDFs.

To make your bingo night a fundraiser, you can suggest a minimum donation to play or require people to buy tickets to play. You can also offer a raffle during your bingo nights as well as prizes for the winning participant or group. 

Virtual Toy Drive

Toy drives are always fun fundraising events to hold at Christmas and other holidays — and now online shopping makes it simple to participate in a virtual toy drive. Just build a fundraising page showing the toys you need to provide along with links to let your supporters buy toys online. You can also arrange for donors and supporters to be emailed a tax receipt for their records.

Be aware that virtual toy drives need to be promoted well in advance, especially if you’re collecting toys for the holidays. Take advantage of your online fundraising platform’s marketing tools by promoting your drive through email and social media marketing campaigns. Since holiday drives usually run from early November to early/mid-December, you should promote yours at least a month in advance.

Virtual Food Drive

Virtual food drives are a nice fundraising event to run in tandem with virtual toy drives. With these drives, you can accept food items from people who feel comfortable dropping off non-perishable items at your donation sites and offer a donation page that allows others to simply donate money to purchase groceries for the community. To emphasize the impact your donors are making, include donation tiers on your fundraising page showing how much food your supporters’ donations are buying or how many families they’re helping to feed.

Another nice way you can show donors their impact is to make videos of grocery drops to the beneficiaries of your food drive and then share them on social media. The videos may be shared online, but the real-life impact your supporters are making will be very apparent.

Virtual Community Business Fair

A lot of businesses suffered — and continue to suffer — thanks to the 2020 pandemic. To help them out, why not organize a virtual business fair for local businesses that will help promote the organizations within your community as well as your own nonprofit or charity? This is a great way to build goodwill with local businesses and helps show that your nonprofit is focused on strengthening your community as a whole.

A virtual local business fair should offer local businesses and professionals a chance to showcase their goods and services to an online audience. Tell your participants this is an excellent opportunity to educate the public on how their business practices may have changed — and that they’re still active and able to service the community. Naturally, this is also a great time to promote your nonprofit’s mission, sell your merchandise, and request donations from attendees. 

TikTok Fundraiser

While TikTok might not be everyone’s thing, one can’t deny all the people this social network attracts. If you’d like to bring millennials, Generation Z, and older generations together, why not host a TikTok fundraiser?

How you do this can vary. Some nonprofits find that pairing emotional songs with short videos of their mission helps generate a lot of views, likes, and comments, which creates plenty of brand awareness and buzz around your mission. You can also use TikTok’s donation sticker option (for nonprofits) and pair them with a popular TikTok dance challenge. And many nonprofits have found that TikTok is an effective place to share their beneficiaries’ success stories.

Ultimately, the best thing nonprofits can do with TikTok is to be creative. This social network can connect you with thousands of brand-new supporters, so build something that truly shows how special and important your mission is.

Virtual Business Networking

Depending on your nonprofit or charity, business networking might be a big draw for your fundraising campaigns. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made it difficult to impossible for people to meet face-to-face in 2020. However, that’s no reason why you can’t keep your networking events alive — or even enhance them through virtual networking galas.

When hosting a virtual business networking event, make sure to choose an online fundraising platform that can accommodate large groups of people. Choosing a platform that’s easy to use and offers an intuitive design is also important, especially if your audience is still unfamiliar with some of the more complex features of networking software. And you’ll want to make sure your audio and video features make it easy for people to chat online — so make sure you hire a technical support staff to deal with any unforeseen issues.

Social Media Challenge

Social media is useful for promoting your fundraisers and online events, but these channels can also be effective fundraisers in and of themselves — as well as powerful ways to recruit new supporters. You’ve likely heard of the ice bucket challenge from 2014-2015 and other fun video events that gained plenty of traction on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Why not create a social media challenge of your own that people can circulate across different channels?

When creating a successful social media challenge, one of the most important things to remember is to make them easy to share. Include social media sharing links on your donation pages and website (PayBee makes this easy) and create an original hashtag that people can use to share social media posts related to your event and organization.

Effective Fundraising Programs and Campaigns

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

The best nonprofit achievements are group efforts — and that applies to fundraising too. Thanks to peer-to-peer fundraising, you can organize a campaign that lets your supporters reach out to their contacts and ask for donations. This is a fantastic strategy that works well with any fundraising event, from game nights to fun runs, and ensures everyone in your nonprofit or charity gets involved.

Best of all, thanks to peer-to-peer fundraising platforms like PayBee’s, it’s easier than ever to not only collect donations online but also let your supporters promote your campaign through social media. This strategy lets you reach hundreds of new donors and often lets you surpass your fundraising goals with minimal effort and cost.

Tribute Giving Programs

You can enhance your peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns by turning them into tribute giving programs. This is when people donate in honor or in memory of someone else, like a mentor or loved one. For instance, if your campaign is raising money to benefit cancer patients, people may be motivated to give more if they can donate in memory of friends and family members who died of cancer.

Consider using your online fundraising platform to let donors share the names and stories of those whom they donate in tribute of. Doing this makes your campaign more powerful and meaningful for your supporters.  

Matching Gift Drive Campaigns

If you can partner with corporations and generous businesses, creating a matching gift drive is an effective way of building a sense of community among your supporters. These drives allow donors to match the donations of others, enabling your supporters’ efforts to count for much more in a campaign. And if you do end up partnering with a generous business, be sure to keep in contact for future sponsorship or donor opportunities.

Be aware that for these donation drives to be successful, you need to create promotional campaigns on social media and through email marketing to let your donors know they have matching gift opportunities. Allow for plenty of time to run your campaign and choose an online platform that supports your promotional efforts.       

Monthly Giving Program Fundraisers

Good fundraising campaigns raise a lot of money for your cause, but great fundraising campaigns ensure that money keeps coming in month after month. To promote greater sustainability in your programs, be sure to offer a monthly giving option on your donation pages and forms. Be sure to highlight the benefits of giving monthly (listing the number of animals adopted or the children who receive meals thanks to regular donations is very effective). 

And be sure to promote this donation campaign on social media — a big percentage of donors who learn about this option are willing to enroll in a monthly giving program.

Giving Day Campaigns

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Giving Tuesday are all excellent days to arrange a fundraising campaign around, since people are motivated to donate more during that time of year. However, with a little effort and a virtual fundraising platform with excellent social media marketing options, you can create your own giving day campaign. 

Make sure to start promoting this event a month in advance (or more) by building hype on social media, launching an email campaign, and creating multiple virtual activities like the ones suggested above to give your supporters something to look forward to.

Keep in mind that birthdays are also excellent giving days for your supporters. With the right platform, creating donation pages and online promotions should be easy for those days as well.

Pledge Drives

Many of the virtual fundraising activities listed in this article, particularly the virtual runs and marathons, can be paired with pledge drives that get donors to pledge future donations in response to a campaign or activity. For instance, you can offer different pledge “tiers” in your donation campaign that donors will pay depending on how far your participants get in their virtual marathons and show campaign goals. 

As with all fundraising efforts, when hosting a pledge drive, it’s important to appeal to your donors’ emotions by showing them the impact of their donations. Make sure to use an online platform like PayBee’s that lets you create and promote a simple donation process that makes it easy to collect donations from people who pledge.

Social Media Campaign

When promoting your event or fundraiser on social media, it’s best to focus on the social media channels where you already have a strong following. If your nonprofit’s Instagram channel has a lot of subscribers or if you have plenty of people following you on Facebook or Twitter, concentrate your efforts in these places. Not only will more people see your social media posts, they’ll be more likely to share them with their own friends and followers.

Effective social media posts also tend to make use of visual content. This can include eye-catching photos or even short Facebook Live videos or Instagram stories. And make sure to include links to your event landing page and donation forms!

To make it easier for people to share and promote your events, choose an online fundraising platform that makes it easy for visitors to share your event on social media with just a few clicks. PayBee’s virtual platform is designed to do just that.

Email Campaign

Email continues to be one of the most cost-effective and affordable ways to promote events and raise awareness of your nonprofit or charity. As with social media marketing, email campaigns are most effective if you already have a sizable email list — so if yours is looking a bit sparse, it’s a good idea to start sending out regular email newsletters full of useful tips and stories on your mission and upcoming events.

As more people sign up for your email list, promoting your virtual fundraisers will become much easier. It’s also worth noting that many people decide to donate and regularly support a nonprofit organization or charity after reading emails about the impact they could be making.

PayBee’s online fundraising platform also collects email addresses from your fundraiser attendees, making it easier for you to build your email list. A lot of these people will welcome the donation receipts and thank you messages you send them after the event, so this will be a great time to ask them to subscribe to your newsletter.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a very effective fundraising strategy where multiple donors contribute small donations to support your nonprofit or charity’s mission. It differs from a pledge drive in that all the donations made to the crowdfunding campaign are sent to the beneficiary regardless of whether any donation goal is met or not.

These campaigns have raised thousands of dollars for many nonprofits. According to Crowd101, February to late May is the “sweet spot” for launching a crowdfunding campaign, likely due to the tax refunds people receive at this time. It’s also a great idea to promote your crowdfunding campaign on social media and make sure your donors and supporters share this campaign with their networks to maximize your returns.

Creating Effective Fundraising Activities and Campaigns

No matter what your nonprofit or charity’s mission is, the options listed here can help raise more money for your cause. Be sure to take the interests of your donors in mind when selecting your fundraising activities, and spend time modifying them to give your supporters an enjoyable experience. Catering to the needs and desires of your audience will result in a more successful virtual or hybrid fundraiser and a much more loyal network of supporters.

To see how you can best use online tools to create, promote, and facilitate your fundraising activities and campaigns, sign up for a free demo of PayBee’s virtual fundraising platform. You’ll get to learn how this easy-to-use resource lets you create auctions, raffles, and ticketing campaigns in minutes, and how it can be used to host a variety of other popular virtual fundraising events.