Ready to have donors falling for your nonprofit? Use these 10 innovative fall fundraiser ideas to bring in more donations during this colorful and festive season.
What Makes Fall Fundraising Ideal?
We love a good fall fundraiser here at MVP Advisors! And your donors might, too.
The weather is (usually) more mild than summer and winter, expanding your venue options. Donors are less likely to be gone on vacation, giving your RSVPs a boost. Many people are also looking for fun ways to celebrate autumn, giving you several opportunities to capitalize on all the season has to offer!
For some nonprofits and organizations – especially schools and their affiliated clubs and teams – fall is one of the best times to fundraise, with donors looking to show support for the year ahead.
If this all sounds enticing to you (and your supporters), then a fall fundraiser may just be your ticket to success!
10 Fall Fundraiser Ideas for Your Organization
Have you decided to host a fundraising campaign or event this fall? Use these 10 fall fundraiser ideas to get your creativity flowing.
Fall-Themed Fundraising Events & Activities
Fall is a well-loved season for a reason – many people enjoy all the activities that come with it! Lean into the popularity of autumn with these fall-themed fundraising ideas.
1. Fall Festival
Plan an outdoor fall festival filled with all of the favorites of the season. Consider including attractions such as pumpkin carving or decorating, hay rides, magic shows, face painting, carnival games or rides, and so much more.
To maximize your budget, ask area businesses to host booths with activities for kids and bring in food trucks to sell refreshments. Add a craft show featuring a variety of local craftsmen and artisans to expand your audience.
Tip from the Playbook: We suggest making your fall festival free to attend, as this will draw a bigger crowd. To raise funds, charge a small fee for various attractions or offer a few fundraising activities, like a 50/50 raffle or silent auction.
2. Fall Foliage Hunt
If you’re looking for an educational activity for your fall fundraiser, consider hosting a fall foliage hunt. This fall fundraiser idea is especially great for nonprofits that have property to explore, such as parks, camps, or conservation charities.
For a small donation, participants join your nonprofit for a day spent learning about trees, animals, and habitats. They then take part in a guided hike where they compete to find and identify a certain number of leaves or other items in nature. Offer a small prize to the winner!
3. Autumn Craft Day
Many people love decorating for fall. Why not host a crafting event filled with fall-themed DIY projects? Think wreaths, welcome signs and mats, spooky Halloween decor, Thanksgiving centerpieces…the possibilities are pretty much endless! Offer snacks and drinks as part of the ticket price and promote it as a fun day or evening out.
If you don’t want to host a full event, sell craft kits that include all needed materials and instructions. Be sure to include information about your nonprofit as well!
Tip from the Playbook: Co-host this event with local businesses such as florists or paint-and-sip studios to keep costs low and boost your reach. Plus, your guests will be excited to learn from a professional.
Fall Fundraiser Ideas for Schools
Looking to start your school year off right? Involve your students or PTA in these easy fall fundraiser ideas for schools.
4. Stress-Free Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser
We hear ya…so many schools, youth clubs, and sports teams run fall fundraisers. We’ll bet your donors are being overwhelmed by kids selling (albeit tasty) goodies and other items. Plus, these types of fundraisers take a lot of time and effort for everyone involved!
Instead of selling products this year, consider hosting a stress-free peer-to-peer fundraiser for your school. Peer-to-peer fundraising is simple – your school launches a main campaign via your fundraising platform. Then, each class or individual student creates their own fundraising pages linked to that primary campaign.
All students need to do is share their personal or class fundraising page with their friends and family. And all donors have to do to show their support is make a quick online donation! Make things even easier by providing students with templated email and social media content they can use when promoting their fundraiser.
Tip from the Playbook: To up the stakes and boost participation, offer prizes to the individual students or classrooms that hit their goals or raise the most money. These prizes don’t have to be big – lunchtime pizza parties, homework passes, and casual dress days (for schools with uniforms) can all be big motivators.
5. Tailgate Party
This fun fall fundraiser idea for schools also boosts attendance at your sporting events! Prior to one (or several) of your home games, host a school-sanctioned tailgate party.
With the purchase of a tailgate party ticket, guests gain access to family-friendly snacks and drinks, fun games, live music, and meet-and-greets with your school’s mascot. You can also plan door prizes, ticket giveaways, and more to draw guests.
If you’re a college or university, invite various clubs or organizations to host booths or activities. This expands your event while also generating awareness for all that your school has to offer.
Halloween Fundraising Ideas
What’s a list of fall fundraiser ideas without mentioning Halloween? Most of these spooktacular events can be adjusted to fit your target audience, whether you’re looking for family-friendly fun or bone-chilling frights.
6. Trunk-or-Treat
Trunk-or-treats have become more and more popular over the years. These events can be a great alternative (or addition to) the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treat experience, especially for younger children.
The concept is simple – individuals or businesses park their cars in designated spots and decorate their trunks. Children then walk from trunk to trunk collecting goodies.
Even if you want to make this a free experience for families, you can still use it to bring in donations! Reserve a spot for your own nonprofit, where you can provide more information about your mission and request a free will donation in addition to handing out treats. Or, collect a small fee from participating businesses in exchange for promoting them on all event materials.
Boost attendance for both trunks and trick-or-treaters by offering prizes for the most creative, spooky, and/or funny trunks and costumes!
7. Pumpkin Carving Contest
Looking for fall fundraiser ideas that can also increase reach and engagement on social media? A pumpkin carving contest is a great option!
Participants simply carve a pumpkin and submit it to your organization. Or, you can host a pumpkin carving day for all participants. We do suggest photographing the pumpkins yourselves to keep everyone honest!
Share images of each of the completed jack-o-lanterns on social media. Your audience then votes for free by “liking” the pictures of their favorites.
But here’s the fundraising twist: anyone can cast additional votes by making a donation to your organization. To allow this, either create a peer fundraising page for each pumpkin or list them as designations for the donation.
Of course, the carved pumpkin with the most votes wins a prize!
8. Haunted House or Trail
Haunted houses and trails are incredibly popular this time of year. If you have the space, budget, and the volunteers, consider hosting one of your own. Guests purchase tickets to enter…if they dare!
Or, partner with an existing haunted attraction in your area for a give-back night, during which a portion of proceeds will benefit your nonprofit.
Just be sure to either ramp up the thrills or dial back the spooky factor, depending on your intended audience!
Fall Fundraiser Ideas for Thanksgiving
Of course, Halloween isn’t the only autumnal holiday worth mentioning! Thanksgiving is a great time to host a fundraiser – many donors are looking for ways to give to those in need during this season of gratitude.
9. Food Drive
If you’re a nonprofit focused on fighting hunger and food insecurity, the weeks surrounding Thanksgiving are ideal for food drives.
Set up collection sites throughout your community and promote them on social media. Go door-to-door with paper bags listing needed food items and a designated pick-up date, then head back out to pick up the bags on that day.
Think about partnering with local grocery stores as well. Some stores may let you set up a table at the entrance, where you can pass out flyers to shoppers asking them to purchase a few extra things. They can even leave these items with you on their way out!
Tip from the Playbook: Instead of (or in addition to) a canned food drive, you can also host a virtual food drive through an online fundraising page. Use the funds raised to purchase needed items or to provide gift cards to families without the resources to purchase a Thanksgiving meal.
10. Thanksgiving Pie Sales
Not looking to collect donations of food? Why not sell food for donations? In this case, one of the most quintessential foods on any Thanksgiving table…pies!
Most everyone is looking for a delicious pie or two for their Thanksgiving meal. Many will jump at the chance to support your nonprofit while making their purchase.
Team up with a local bakery for this fall fundraiser. Work with them to determine the best way for donors to place their pie orders. You might collect all orders via paper or digital forms, then submit them to the bakery as one large order. Or, the bakery may prefer to receive orders directly from donors.
Either way, this will be one of the sweetest fall fundraiser ideas you’ll ever have!
MVP Playbook Resource: Planning a fall fundraising campaign? Download our free fundraising campaign checklist to keep you on track!
Get Ready to Succeed with Fall Fundraising
Which of these 10 fall fundraiser ideas will you try next? No matter which you choose, we’re sure you’ll have donors falling for your mission!
If you need more seasonal fundraising inspiration, take a look at our 15 Fresh Spring Fundraiser Ideas or our 14 Unique Summer Fundraiser Ideas.
Looking for help with your fundraising efforts? MVP Advisors is here for you! We’re an experienced group of nonprofit consultants ready to offer a hand in campaign planning, content development, donor prospect research, and more.
Book a call or email us today to see how we can work together.