Your nonprofit’s donor development routine is fairly predictable: an annual campaign with monthly appeals and three newsletters. Maybe there’s a year-end campaign, capital campaign or matching gift campaign for that extra donor push.

Even though these standard fundraising tools can be effective and should be a part of your outreach efforts, the monotony year in and year out can get stale after awhile.

If you feel that your donors are getting bored and not engaging how they used to, it might be time to switch things up. Try something new and different!

Here are some ideas to put the “fun” back into fundraising.

• Games are always fun. Plan an out-of-the-box event that donors can attend, such as a trivia night, field day, or corn hole tournament. Raise funds by selling tickets. Encourage participation by talking up the competition aspect.

• Create a crazy social media challenge (like the insanely successful Ice Bucket Challenge from a few years back) that gets attention and drives engagement through built-in positive “peer pressure.”

• Give donors the chance to fundraise for you by donating their birthdays, pledging events, or forming a team for an endurance event (such as a bike-a-thon or race), etc.

• Send donors an unexpected “thank you” surprise in the mail (we’ve got lots of good ideas here).

• Pull a prank. Pranks, like the pink flamingo flocking prank can generate quite a bit of money in a short amount of time. Participants pay to have a friend’s yard flocked and/or they pay “insurance” to make sure their yard isn’t flocked.

• Sales always go over well. People love to clean out their closets and shoppers love to get a good deal. Pair a thrift or yard sale with a bake sale or concession stand.

• Sponsor a festival, carnival, or dance. The sky’s the limit when it comes to fun things you can do at these types of events: face painting, petting zoos, games, silent auctions, pony rides, dunking booths, concessions, and more! These types of large-scale events require planning and hard work, but they are ideal for engaging your supporters, introducing new donors to your organization, and generating donations. 

What are your best ideas for fun and engaging fundraising ideas? What’s worked well for your organization?