Campaign Fundraiser Ideas

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• Bake Sale/Cookie Exchange
  • Ask employees to bake their favorite cookies or other goodies. Sell plates of the treats to employees. Charge an additional fee for the recipe.
• Candy Grams
  • Sell candy with your company or United Way’s logo on it. All proceeds go to the United Way. Midnight Breakfast If your organization has a third shift, charge employees for a midnight breakfast served by executives and other day employees.
• Eating Contest
  • Who can eat the most in a given amount of time (hot dogs, pie, crackers, pickles, etc.)
• Chili Cook-Off
  • VERY popular! Employees cook their favorite chili. Organize a panel of “expert” judges to decide on the best recipe. Charge employees to sample and eat lunch or even have the employees vote.
• Whipped Cream Sponge– or– Pie in the Face
  • Host a whipped cream throwing contest. Use sponges covered or pie tins filled with whipped cream and try to hit a target. Get management to be the targets and have employees pay to play
• Potluck Payoff
  • Organize a potluck lunch and have everyone bring a favorite dish. Charge employees to have lunch.
• Bakery Cart
  • Wheel a serving cart through the workplace and sell bagels, doughnuts, cookies, Danish, coffee and juice, with proceeds going to United Way.
• Basket Auction
  • Ask each department in your organization to sponsor, create and fill a theme basket (spa, chocolate, golf, cooking). The baskets are then auctioned off.
• Dress Down Day
  • Sell employees the right to dress casually or silly for a day. Variations include: “Silly Hat Day”, “Sport Team Day” or “Ugly Shoe Day”. United Way has “Casual Day” stickers available at no cost.
• Survivor Game
  • Each participant pays $5 to join and has to do something each day to stay on the island. They have to: bring an item for the silent auction, bring in baked goods for the bake sale or wear a certain color. Winner receives paid time off.
• Coin War
  • Set up large empty water bottles for each department in a central location. Employees drop their spare change into the bottle. Coins are positive while paper money is negative. The group with the highest point value wins. All cash collected is donated to United Way.
• Football Toss
  • Measure for distance and accuracy with prizes for top Guy and top Gal. Charge per attempt.
• Volleyball/Softball/Touch Football/Basketball Challenge
  • Play real or improvised games with teams of employees. Charge an entrance fee or a canned good for each participant. Spectators may wager for the winning team. Do the challenge with year-round sporting events to raise money all year round.
• Favorite Sports Team Day
  • Sell stickers that allow employees to wear their favorite sports attire during the season. Host a sports theme tailgate party during lunch asking employees to bring their favorite dish.
• Who Is It?
  • Gather baby pictures of co-workers. Have a contest to see who can correctly name the most co-worker. Contestants pay a fee to take part. Give an award for the most correct matches.
• Kids Coloring Contest
  • A colorful way to get everyone’s children involved is to have children color a United Way logo or have them make a picture that shows giving or sharing. These pieces of art are great to use on thank you cards, t-shirts or bookmarks. Sponsor a contest and give a prize to the top three artists.
• Ugliest Apparel Contest
  • Contestants pay to enter the ugliest tie, earrings, socks, or stockings contest. Take pictures of the participants and have employees ‘vote’ on the ugliest apparel by contributing a dollar.
• Picture Match Game
  • Invite employees to try their luck at matching high school pictures, pet pictures or celebrity pictures to executives. Charge employees to vote and award the entry with the most right answers a fun prize
• Lose Your Locks
  • Have employees volunteer to cut their hair or shave their heads if goals are met.
• Balloon Pop
  • Employees or vendors donate prizes for this event– a variation of a traditional raffle. Before filling a balloon with helium, put a note inside with the name of a prize. Employees buy a balloon and pop it to find out what prize they’ve won.
• Funniest Home Video
  • Employees bring in tapes of funny moments caught on tape. Vote on the best video, winner gets a prize.
• White Elephant Sale
  • Have items in storage you don’t use? Gifts you never returned? Donate them to the sale or conduct a gift exchange. Your trash is someone else’s treasure!
• Appreciation Carnation
  • Sell carnations as a sign of appreciation from one employee to another. For an added twist, send the flowers anonymously. Recipients can pay to find out who sent the carnations to them

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