A fundraising thermometer is a visual representation of an organization’s progress toward its fundraising campaign’s goal. This graphic depiction offers benefits to all of the stakeholders in the fundraising campaign. From the organization itself, to the fundraising volunteers, to the general public, every fundraising campaign needs a fundraising thermometer.

For the charitable organization, a fundraising thermometer lets the organization know they are on track to meet their fundraising goals. Although numbers – dollars and cents and percentages – can relay the same information, for people in the organization who are more visual, a graphical representation of the organization’s progress can really emphasize where the campaign is currently at, and how much farther they need to go, to meet their goal.

For those hard-working volunteers actually doing the fundraising, a fundraising thermometer can keep them motivated. As they see the thermometer fill up, they’ll know their efforts are paying off. If this is tied to a reward, it can be even more motivational.

Lastly, for the general public, a publicly displayed fundraising thermometer, either online or in the real world, serves two purposes: (1) Even if a member of the general public has not supported your cause in the past, seeing a visual representation of your goals can encourage him or her to contribute. (2) For past supporters of your charity, it can alert them to the new campaign, as well as encourage those who have already donated to donate a little more, especially as you near the top of your thermometer.

There are several online fundraising thermometers available for free. Below are five sites to choose from:

1. EntropyFarm.org
2. Fundraising Ideas Center
3. Fundraiser Insight
4. School-Fundraisers.com
5. Go Green Fundraising

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1. Business sponsorships. Visit local businesses and ask them to sponsor a portion of your mission trip, such as one day’s worth of expenses. Target businesses that advertise in your church bulletin or whose owners you know directly.
2. Send friends and family letters. Send a letter out to all of your family and friends and let them know about your upcoming trip. Include information about the work you’ll be doing, as well as the costs involved, and ask for their support.
3. Church support. Talk to your church leaders and ask them to contribute financially. Churches may have amounts set aside in their budgets for just this purpose. This is one of the most overlooked mission trip fundraising ideas.
4. Bake sale. Host a bake sale after church, noting that all funds will go to your mission trip. Make a display that details your trip for people to learn more about the mission they are supporting.
5. Salvation bracelets. With some rawhide lacing and beads in black, red, white, blue, green, and gold, make salvation bracelets to sell following church services. Sell them two at a time, so the buyer can keep one and give the other to someone else.
6. Garage sale. Think about the lack of material items the people you will help on your mission trip have. Now think of all the things you have that you could sell in a garage sale to raise money for your trip in what is one of the easiest mission trip fundraising ideas.
7. Sell fair trade items. From soap to coffee, there are dozens of fair trade items you can sell to help raise money for your mission trip. Check out the Internet for ideas and know you’ll be helping others around the world while raising money!
8. Car wash. Get your church’s permission to host a car wash fundraiser after Sunday services to help fund your mission trip. Gather together fellow mission trip participants and wash your way closer to having your trip paid for.
9. Mission trip dinner. With the assistance of family, friends or other mission trip participants, host a fundraising dinner with your upcoming mission as the theme. Have presentation materials detailing your trip available and serve local foods from the region you’ll be traveling to.
10. Raffle yourself off. You may not have the money to pay for your mission trip on your own, but you certainly have the time and the talent. Raffle off blocks of your time. The lucky winners will have your undivided service for four hours and you’ll do whatever chores they’d like.

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1. Sell Christmas trees. Partner with a local tree-grower and borrow a section of a parking lot from a neighborhood business to set up your Christmas tree lot. Publicize the charity you support and offer free hot cocoa or hot apple cider to set your tree lot apart from others in town.
2. Sell Christmas wreaths. There’s no need to wait for the holidays to start the second of our Christmas fundraising ideas. Check online for suppliers who will even drop ship wreaths directly to your customers.
3. Hold a Christmas concert. Who doesn’t love an evening of Christmas music? Pre-sell discounted tickets to the concert and have full-price tickets available at the door. Be sure to let your newspapers and radio stations know about the event in order to receive free publicity.
4. Host a Christmas charity dinner. Turkey, ham and all the trimmings are involved in our tastiest of Christmas fundraising ideas. Add Christmas-themed raffle items for more holiday fundraising. If you’re not an expert chef, you could even hold a simple spaghetti dinner fundraiser with a Christmas theme.
5. Plan a Jingle bell run/walk. Take your typical charity run or walk, add jingle bells for everyone and an ample amount of Santa hats, and your jingle bell event is sure to spread holiday joy. Have entrants collect donations and award prizes for those with the highest amount of donations.
6. Offer Christmas carol-grams. Community members can send a little holiday musical spirit to family and friends while also supporting a good cause. You don’t have to be a professionally-trained vocalist to spread the joy of the season; if you dress festively and have fun, the carol recipient is sure to enjoy your performance.
7. Sell Christmas ornaments. There are several online companies that will customize Christmas ornaments for your organization. These limited edition ornaments are a great way to raise funds and raise holiday spirits! Put the year in your design, so that supporters will want to buy future years’ ornaments and continue their collections.
8. Plan a Christmas fun day. Put together a series of Christmas-themed activities and craft stations and offer a Christmas fun day to local children for a small fee. Not only will children have holiday fun, but moms and dads can get some child-free Christmas shopping in. Make sure Santa comes to visit!
9. Hold a Christmas bake sale. Everyone enjoys bake sale goodies. The holidays are no exception. Festively decorated sugar cookies, gingerbread men, Christmas spritz cookies and more fill people’s tummies and hearts with holiday goodness.
10. Christmas window painting. Local businesses love to have their store windows decorated for the holidays. From holiday sayings to full winter scenes, business owners can support your charity and make their stores more festive at the same time.

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First, you need to select a cookie dough fundraiser vendor to work with your organization. Most vendors offer no start-up costs for organizations to begin their campaign. This means your charity will not be out any money for brochures, order forms, or any other promotional materials. Be sure to select a cookie dough company that offers the varieties of cookies you think your potential customers will like best. Some companies only offer a small array of varieties, while others offer more than a dozen different choices. The cookie dough also comes in different forms, with some being pre-formed cookies and others being tubs of uniform dough. Some vendors offer name brand cookie dough – such as Otis Spunkmeyer. In addition, some cookie dough companies offer dry mix for a cookie dough fundraiser option, in lieu of only frozen dough.

Once you’ve selected a vendor, a successful cookie dough fundraiser will offer their fundraising volunteers some form of incentive for their efforts. Set up teams of fundraisers and offer a prize, such as a pizza party, for the team that sells the most cookie dough. Give weekly updates of each team’s sales, to encourage competition and increase the participants’ motivation to win.

Have your fundraising volunteers set sales goals for their cookie dough fundraiser. Having a goal to work toward motivates people to go that much further in their efforts. For children, this goal setting can be an educational process, helping them understand how much a specific goal item costs, such as a band trip. Children can then learn about the concept of profit margins and goal-setting. With the right cookie dough vendor, motivated teams and individual sales goals, your cookie dough fundraiser has a great chance of being a success!

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1. Charity walk. Big name charities, like the American Cancer Society, use charity walks as one of their primary charity fundraising events. Have walkers gather pledges per mile from their friends and family. Invite the community out to support participants as they walk for a cause!
2. Charity 5K. Instead of gathering donations, runners pay an entry fee to compete in this charity run. Contact local businesses to sponsor t-shirts for entrants and donate items for the goody bags runners receive on the day of the race.
3. Charity concert. Let music bring people together for your cause. Contact local newspapers and radio stations to publicize your event. Pre-sell discounted tickets and offer full-price tickets at the door.
4. Automobile raffle. Who wouldn’t want to win a car? Contact your local automobile dealer and ask them to either donate the vehicle or donate a portion of the vehicle’s cost. As this is a big ticket raffle, publicize it in newspapers, the radio and the Internet to maximize raffle ticket sales.
5. Charity dinner. Couple a tasty, home-cooked meal with a good cause and your community will flock to number five on this list of ten charity fundraising events. If you’re a 501(c)3 organization, many grocery stores will donate gift cards you can use to purchase supplies for your charity dinner.
6. Charity auction. Gather donations from local businesses and supporters of your cause for a silent auction fundraiser. Combine both big ticket and lower priced items to attract the most bidders possible. Make it a live auction with an enthusiastic auctioneer spurring bidders on for more fun and funds!
7. Charity garage sale. Gather donation items from your organization’s members and other community members, and hold your sale in a high-traffic area. Advertise your sale well in advance, noting the organization it supports. For any leftover items after the garage sale, donate them to charitable thrift shops.
8. Charity tours of homes. Ask homeowners, particularly in your town’s historic district, to open their homes for a good cause. Sell tickets for private viewings of fine architecture in your community.
9. Penny carnival. Despite the name “penny carnival,” your organization can raise thousands of dollars with this family-friendly charity fundraising event. Sell tickets to take part in activities at the different booths. Add raffle items or a 50-50 raffle to raise even more money.
10. Face painting booth. Kids young and old love to have their faces painted. Locate your booth at a large community festival, such as a community Fourth of July gathering and watch the kiddies line up and dollars roll in.

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1. Baked potato bar. A welcome alternative to bake sales and chili dinners, baked potato buffets can be set up nearly anywhere and typically require minimal initial investment on the part of your organization. Providing a wide range of toppings is the key to success with this fundraising activity.
2. Themed cookbooks. Depending on your organization’s particular mission, you may be able to produce a themed cookbook that highlights your cause while providing delicious recipes for your donors. Animal welfare groups, for instance, may want to include dog cookies or kitty treats in their recipe books.
3. Custom calendars. Calendars that feature volunteers are especially effective ideas for fundraising, since they serve the dual purposes of attracting donations and honoring individuals who have given their time and efforts on behalf of your organization.
4. Recycling. Numerous items, from printer cartridges to prom dresses, can be recycled, refurbished or resold in order to raise funds for your charity or nonprofit. By soliciting donations of these useful items, your organization can turn trash into cash for your cause.
5. Radio publicity. By partnering with a local radio station to raise funds for your organization, you can attract new donors and reach a far larger audience with your appeal for donations. Radio stations are often happy to help with fundraising drives in order to fill time and to improve their own public image.
6. Garage and yard sales. Rather than soliciting cash donations, your organization may be able to organize a neighborhood garage or yard sale in order to raise funds for general operations or a specific need. Donors can clear out unwanted junk while your organization reaps the benefits of these sales, making this one of the most cost-effective ideas for fundraising.
7. Sponsorships. Zoos and children’s charities often use sponsorships to raise funds for their operations. Your organization may be able to put the same technique to work by selling sponsorships for various charitable activities or upcoming events.
8. Ice cream socials. These nostalgic events can produce significant donations for your charity or nonprofit organization at minimal cost. Ice cream socials are a good way to introduce your charity to the community in addition to the fundraising potential they represent.
9. Friends groups. By establishing a core group of donors and presenting special events specifically for these friends of your organization, you can often create added incentives for ongoing donations to your charity or nonprofit.
10. Food stands at local events. Barbecue, hot dog or hamburger stands at local sporting events and festivals can often create significant revenues for your organization while enhancing your public visibility, making this one of the best overall ideas for fundraising. The additional exposure your charity or nonprofit receives from these activities can actually boost your regular donations as well, allowing your organization to enjoy a greater degree of financial stability.

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1. Economic conditions. During difficult economic times, it may make more sense to solicit smaller donations from a much larger pool of potential donors. This allows individuals and companies to contribute without placing an undue financial burden on any one person or group.
2. Manage your expectations. Be realistic about the likely results of your fundraising campaign. This will allow you to plan future financial expenditures more effectively.
3. Time your appeals wisely. While Christmas is a season of need for many charitable organizations, it is also the time of year when many individuals and families are least financially able to donate due to gift purchases, travel expenses and other holiday obligations. Plan your campaigns for before or after Christmas in order to achieve the best returns.
4. Reach out to the local community. Even national and international organizations incorporate grassroots activities into their strategic fundraising plans. By involving local businesses and organizations in the fundraising activities of your charity or nonprofit, you can often achieve far better results and raise awareness of your organization in local media, thus increasing donations both immediately and well into the future.
5. Rely on volunteers. While financial donations are essential for the continued health of your nonprofit or charity, volunteers who give their time and efforts can be equally important. By using volunteer labor to perform necessary tasks, your organization can use monetary donations to directly address urgent needs.
6. Outline a schedule. Your organization should maintain a schedule of fundraising ideas and activities for at least six months into the future. By planning ahead, you can ensure sufficient lead time for publicizing and preparing for these events. Situations change, so remaining flexible is essential; however, by scheduling events well in advance you can be certain that everything is in place and ready to help make your fundraising activities successful.
7. Write it down. The power of the printed word cannot be overestimated when planning a fundraising strategy. Write down your plans and then carry them through.
8. Work toward a goal. By establishing a fundraising goal and working to attain that goal, your organization can often achieve better results in its fundraising efforts.
9. Keep comprehensive records. By maintaining records of each contact with potential donors and the work that has been done so far in your fundraising efforts, you can ensure that you are not duplicating efforts or neglecting to follow up with interested donors.
10. Prioritize. By investing additional effort where it is mostly likely to produce results, your organization can often achieve better fundraising figures without the additional investment of time or money.

Strategic fundraising can help your organization position itself effectively and maintain a solid reputation in the eyes of the public. By making a plan and managing your fundraising strategy effectively, you can ensure the financial stability of your organization and produce a steady stream of donations to fund the activities of your nonprofit or charitable organization.

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1. The pink car. Car donations can provide significant funds for breast cancer research. By soliciting donations of pink cars, your organization can raise large sums while also promoting awareness.  Of course, you can accept cars painted other colors, as well.
2. Pink champagne breakfasts. Strictly for adults, these gala events are among the most elegant breast cancer fundraising ideas. By offering a continental breakfast along with pink champagne and orange juice, your group can easily attract donors for your breast cancer fundraising campaign.
3. Lingerie sales. Another fundraising event designed with adults in mind, a charity lingerie sale can provide funds for breast cancer research while entertaining and educating the public at the same time.
4. Pink roses. One of the most innovative breast cancer fundraising ideas is to team up with a local florist and promote their pink roses in return for a donation of a percentage of their sales. This is especially good during the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, since your group can typically increase donations while also raising public awareness.
5. Social networking. By adding a pink ribbon image on your organization’s Facebook page or other social networking presence, you can encourage donations for breast cancer research at no additional cost to your organization. Be sure, of course, to link the image to a site that accepts donations.
6. Bake sale. Cupcakes, cookies and other pastries decorated with the easily recognizable pink ribbon can be sold for funds to be donated to breast cancer research. These sweet treats can make a big difference in efforts to find a cure.
7. Newspaper sales. By helping others keep “abreast” of current events, your organization can also attract significant donations for this worthy cause. In some cases, the local newspaper may be willing to dedicate a special edition of the paper to the issue of breast cancer and provide additional information for the community.
8. Pink ribbon-cutting ceremony. Local construction firms and businesses may be willing to combine a ribbon-cutting ceremony with a fundraising opportunity for your group by substituting a pink ribbon in place of the white ribbon traditionally used in these events. This can provide valuable opportunities for attracting new donors for breast cancer research.
9. Festivals and expos. By presenting an informational booth or kiosk at local events, your group can often find new donors and achieve increased financial donations for breast cancer research.
10. Bikini car washes. While these events are not for every fundraising group, they can provide a fun way to collect donations and increase public awareness of the need for funding for this worthy cause. Volunteers can wear pink bikinis or swimsuits to reinforce the breast cancer theme of the event.

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Julian Greene

Luke: Are you involved with fundraising right now? If so, what do you do? If not, what is your background with fundraising and what do you do now? Don’t hold back. We want to hear everything.

Julian: I’ve been involved with fundraising for a long time, but it has recently taken on a whole new role for me. I’ve started my own organization and am seeking non-profit status for us. I will be seeking grants and outside-the-box funding.

I have worked for various non-profits since I was 16, so that’s over 40 years. I started fund-raising at 16 by going around on my own to various churches with my guitar – often solo, sometimes with a quartet — to raise funds for various ministry-related ventures.

As an adult, I expanded beyond my own church roots to working for non-profit rehab programs, homeless shelters, education programs, gift shops, and development. My English degree and background in publishing parlayed into advertising and marketing, and my subject-area emphasis in Seminary was in Church Growth, of which finding funding is always a part.

Luke: What has been the most successful fundraiser you’ve been involved with? Why was it so successful?

Julian: Well, I calculate success in ways other than monetarily, so I would have to choose the fundraiser where we raised money to fix a weekly family style meal for homeless veterans and their families who were living in a tent city in the woods where I was in Washington State. We were able to get the facility and commercial kitchen where we prepared and served the meals donated, and people from all around the area donated so we could purchase food.

Luke: What has been the most enjoyable fundraiser you’ve been involved with and what made it fun?

Julian: The most fun I ever had was when I walked with a group of people from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, to raise money for a homeless shelter in Seattle. Again, people were so responsive. Not only did we get lots of people to pledge per mile (which was 200 miles on foot), but as we passed through small towns, when people found out what we were doing, they all dug deep. I could tell lots of stories about that one. The camaraderie, people’s responses, and just the down deep feeling that we were doing a really good thing made it so much fun. We camped out every night for 10 days, plus we got to see things that you never would, whizzing by these places on the interstate.

Luke: What do you think is the key to motivating volunteers to support a fundraiser?

Julian: I have a good strategy for motivating volunteers and also for motivating people to donate. I don’t take something on unless I truly believe in the cause personally. I can literally sell anything I care about. People are embarrassed to ask for money, and some people are opposed to giving, or, if they are givers, they think they give to too many things, thus they feel obligated to say no sometimes.

I train my volunteers with the strategy they need to be successful. I suppose they are sales techniques to a degree, but I help them to overcome the objections within themselves so they no longer feel embarrassed to ask, and they are also armed with what to say to get people to overcome their objections.

For instance, when we had volunteers going from door to door in a small community to raise money for the hot meals for the homeless veterans in the nearby tent city, of course we encountered people who were unhappy about the tent city in the first place. The usual comment was, “Those people choose to live that way. Why should I help them do what they want to do?” To overcome their objection, we suggested that although they may have chosen that life for themselves, their children didn’t choose it, and the children deserved a good hot meal once a week. Almost everybody donated then, begrudgingly or not. And once the volunteers saw the success rate of that strategy, they stopped feeling nervous about it, and knocking on those doors became a light thing instead of a heavy duty.

Luke: It’s especially challenging right now to raise money because of the state of the global economy. People are tapped out and don’t have as much money to give. How does someone looking to fundraise overcome this?

Julian: People feel like they don’t have as much money to give, but really they are just choosier who they give to. A giver is always a giver, no matter what their resources or financial status. You just have to have the best fund-raising strategy, psychologically. Seriously, you’re appealing to people’s minds and hearts, not just their wallet. The reason I say hearts AND minds, is that that has to be a big part of the equation. Any heartwarming story can appeal, but if you want to appeal to their wallets, you need to also appeal to their minds. Show them why, logically, they should choose your appeal.

Luke: How can a small organization fundraise effectively without having any money on hand?

Julian: To me the single-most important thing is having a person on the committee, and preferably the chief fundraiser, who is highly creative, motivated to your cause, and a big-picture, outside-the-box thinker. For instance, I need some small kitchen appliances for my new organization. Amazon sent me something yesterday that said, “Win a $2500 Amazon shopping spree just for…” I almost deleted it, then I thought, why not? The Universe has seen to it that I have everything I’ve needed so far – if I do this, maybe I’ll win it. I’m big on remembering that story where people looking to be rescued from a flood passed up a ride on a boat because they said the Lord would help them instead. After they drowned, when they got to see the Lord, they said, “Why didn’t you save us?” To which he replied, “Who do you think sent the boat?” The Lord, the Universe, whoever you’re looking to for help won’t just sneak it into your bank account, but opportunities for cash might keep popping up in unexpected places. It’s important to have someone on board who sees and seizes every opportunity to find cash.

Sometimes your needs are fulfilled without cash. I’ve been looking for 20 years to be able to purchase a B&B where I can hold healing retreats and teach people whole life skills. But I don’t even own my own home, let alone buying a B&B. Then one day I was introduced to a man who was looking for someone to help him creatively with his small inn. Now I own the restaurant for the inn, and I’m organizing retreats, spa vacations, and working with many healers in the area to do classes, workshops, and offer healing modalities. It will fill up the Inn, draw tourists from around the world; I did it with less than $600 in the bank and everybody wins. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Now I’m creating my own 501c3 organization.

Luke: Why do you think you are so successful at fundraising? Don’t hold back. Our readers want to know.

Julian: (laughing) Ah, there’s the key to it all. Are you ready for this? Years ago, I overheard a conversation between two women. One said to the other, “The difference between a Christian and a Witch is that the Witch knows her prayers will be answered. Christians just fervently hope, then if it doesn’t happen they decide it was “the Lord’s will.” Now, please. I am not trying to be offensive here. I was an evangelical Christian at the time, and I pondered that question for years. Then I discovered exactly what she was talking about. In Seminary, I was identified as having an unusual “gift” of prayer in that my prayers were answered far more frequently than the average Christian’s. I finally discovered that it was because so often people so fervently fear that their requests somehow go against “God’s express will” for them, that they are always prepared to take no for an answer. And if they don’t take no for an answer, that’s somehow sinful. Both Christian and Occult masters teach the same thing, but it’s often ignored. It’s good plain advice for anyone.

St. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Aleister Crowley, the father of modern occultism, and touted as the wickedest man in the world, put forth the same concept when he said, “Do all as unto the Beloved; anything else is Black Magic.”

That’s my entire core philosophy. If it’s something I believe in, I believe, metaphorically, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. But it’s not a maniacal desperation or psychotic grandiosity, it’s simple knowledge that I choose to walk in alignment with my own Will and the Will of the Universe to bring about good things.

Theology says that Jesus was fully God and fully man. We need to be the same. We attribute full humanity to Jesus yet think we can’t accomplish the same works because he had some special powers to wield on earth. Not true. He set aside those powers when he chose to walk this earth. He accomplished what he did because he lived in such a way that kept a two way direct channel between himself and God. We can choose to live our lives in the same way. No matter what our religious persuasion: Christian, Jew, Pagan, Agnostic, Atheist, Hindu, Buddhist or what have you. “As above, so below.” Whatever good things there are in the macrocosm, you can bring into your own microcosm. What better way to raise money?

Aren’t you glad you asked that question?

Luke: Was fundraising once harder for you than it is now? What changed?

Julian: Yes. Until I developed my core philosophy, fundraising was an exercise in frustration. Now it’s a piece of cake.

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The concept is sound: Shop online at one of the many participating retailers and the cause you support will receive a percentage of your total spend. One hundred percent of the money you raise goes to your specific cause, and prices are no higher than if you were shopping directly from the retailers’ websites. A quick comparison between shopping through Easy Fundraising and shopping directly through retailers’ websites verified that prices are identical. Additionally, Easy Fundraising is a member of the Institute of Fundraising and is therefore expected to engage in responsible fundraising practices, making your fundraising experience more secure.

Some features of this service deserve special mention:

• The focus of Easy Fundraising is to raise money for causes. You have the option to support a cause already registered with the site, or you can register your own cause. This is an excellent fundraising idea for sports teams, charitable organisations, schools and more.
• Two features of the site allow you to save money while shopping and fundraising. The Compare section allows you to comparison shop for the best price of the item for which you are searching. The Deals section may help you save money by using voucher codes or printable vouchers. This area also shows any applicable sale prices.
• Another section of note, the Raise More section, provides fundraising professionals with ideas and tools to increase donations. This area contains tips, toolbars and video tutorials to make your fundraising efforts more effective. It also contains banners and other tools to help spread awareness about your campaign via email, Facebook and Twitter.

A close review of Easy Fundraising suggests that it is a great tool for unique and fairly passive online fundraising. For those who are not actively fundraising on behalf of a cause, the site also provides the opportunity to have your normal online shopping habits benefit some great causes.

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