Planning for Easter events:
Planning for events at the moment can be tough, however, we are all now very used to virtual events and can put our learnings together to craft successful Easter fundraisers that both raise donations and our profiles.
As Easter draws closer, here are our top five digital fundraising ideas to help your charity/charitable organisation make the most out of the time:
1. Quizzes and online giving
Virtual quizzing has been big business over the past year, and a seasonal theme is a great way to reinvent this and fundraise. Host an Easter-themed quiz on Zoom with a donation link at the bottom of the screen for viewers to donate during breaks/throughout the event.
Perhaps you could charge a £5 donation per group taking part and have the text donation code on your invites for donations to be received after the event too. Easter-specific questions around the first Easter egg made and the significance of the Easter bunny will make your event stand out and engage a mixed audience. Charities like Lasting Memories Cancer Trust have been running successful quiz fundraisers in recent months with great success.
2. Seasonal text raffles
Text raffles are a great way of keeping the raffle spirit alive despite the current times and avoid cash handling. Team up with a local cafe or supermarket to create three Easter bundles that people can text to potentially win, with promotions on social media, newsletters, and in local community hotspots.
Perhaps the smallest bundle could be £1 entry, a medium bundle with a £3 entry, and a large bundle with a £5 entry donation. You could take inspiration from children’s charity, Packed With Smiles, who hosted a big community text raffle hosted on digital fundraising platform, DONATE, in December.
3. "Guess the amount” text raffle
Guess the weight is a fete favourite, and can still work virtually with ease this Easter. Have a jar of small chocolate eggs visible on your website and ask your audience to guess how many eggs are in there with a £3 donation per entry and the winner winning the whole jar.
If your charity is a regional or smaller one, you could take things up a notch and team up with a local business to combine your fundraising with their corporate social responsibility. Holmfirth Arts Festival recently teamed up with Kirklees Council with donations matched by the council.
4. Virtual bake-off
Get families involved with some seasonal baking and host a competition to find the best Easter bake of 2021. You could ask all entrants to follow one recipe or let the creativity flow.
With a £3 donation entry fee for each entry, offer the winner a great prize incentive like a baking set or a signed recipe book from Paul Hollywood or a celebrity that is keen to support. The homelessness charity, The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields recently did something similar with their Great Charity Bake-Off.
5. Best dressed text giving
Get your three members of your fundraising team and/or local community heroes involved by taking part in a best-dressed competition. Winners can text A, B, or C to your unique text code, with a £3 donation going to your cause.
Perhaps you could also ask the three entrants and all those who are dressing up at home if you could share their image on your social media to raise awareness and potentially even go viral! Jerry Green Dog Rescue recently hosted a series of fun online dog shows, with a £2 donation to enter, raising much-needed funds for the charity whilst engaging the local community.
Lockdown doesn’t mean fundraising has to be boring and these seasonal fundraisers are sure to put a spring in your step and a smile on your donors' faces as they engage and support your cause. The more you do, the more you are seen.
For more insight, networks like Guild.co can also prove helpful for smaller charities to share ideas, learnings and build up contacts. If not already a member, join CAFE (Covid Affected Fundraising Events). If your charity is looking to go digital with its fundraising this spring and beyond, register with DONATE and receive donations through text, web, and contactless giving.
About the National Funding Scheme
The National Funding Scheme (NFS), operating under the DONATE brand, provides a range of mobile fundraising tools to maximise fundraising campaigns. Launched in 2013, DONATE (www.easydonate.org) is a platform that allows the UK public to conveniently donate via touch, SMS text, or online. It is so simple to use that case studies show increases of 17x the amount raised. As a charity itself, all NFS’s costs are covered by the Government's Gift Aid scheme. When no Gift Aid is available NFS charges 4.5% to cover transaction and administration costs.
Organisations wishing to register with DONATE should go to nationalfundingscheme.org/become-a-partner-organisation/ or for further information see nationalfundingscheme.org/faqs-about-donate/ for full terms and fees.
