Fundraising Ideas for Work, School and Charity (From Real Collctiv Organisers)
Thousands of people use Collctiv to raise money for fundraisers, which means we know what actually works. We asked our customers about their most successful fundraisers and pulled the best ones together. Whether you're raising money for a charity, school or workplace, you'll find plenty of inspiration: from outdoor cinemas, clothes swaps and raffles, to children designing Christmas cards, Easter egg hunts, sports days, face painting, bingo nights and sweepstakes.
Fundraising ideas for charity
Outdoor cinema night
Who doesn’t love an outdoor movie night in the summer? Hire a projector and pick a film people will actually turn up for. Sell tickets in advance so you know your numbers, price them to cover the venue and a bit extra, and think about snacks: a small concession stand on the night is an easy way to add to the total without asking for more than people already expect to spend.
Put a QR code where the cash used to go
One church collects over £1,000 a week from its Sunday tithe. For a while, they tried passing a card machine down, but it slowed everything down as everyone had to wait for a PIN to be entered and a receipt to print. Their fix was simple. They stuck a QR code to the bottom of the collection plate. It still gets passed along exactly like before, but now people scan and give in seconds instead of holding up the row.
Generate your payment QR code →
Clothes swap
If there’s a clothes swap, I’m there! Everyone brings a few items they no longer wear (which we ALL have) and pays a small entry fee to come in and swap. It costs next to nothing to run, since there's no stock to buy, and it tends to appeal to people who'd rather not just hand over cash for nothing in return. Anything left unclaimed at the end can usually be donated on, so there's very little waste either.
Weekly sales
I admit I’ve paid way too much for an ice cream on a hot day, especially if it’s for a good cause. Rather than betting everything on one big push, one group runs Friday ice cream sales as an ongoing, low-key fundraiser. It's a small amount each week, but it adds up over a year, and it keeps the cause visible instead of it being a once-a-year memory.
Garage sale
One of the simplest fundraisers there is: clear out what nobody needs anymore and sell it. They work just as well scaled up, with a whole street or community pooling their unwanted items into one bigger sale, which tends to draw more buyers than any single household could on its own.
Raffles
A format that's stayed popular for a reason. A handful of donated prizes, whether from local businesses or your own network, and a book of tickets is usually all you need. The bigger or more desirable the top prize, the more tickets you'll sell, so it's worth spending a bit of time asking around for a standout donation before you launch.
Fundraising ideas for schools
Kids selling homemade Christmas cards
One PTA has children design their own Christmas cards, which parents then buy for £2 to £3 each. It's a genuinely lovely idea and one of the cheapest per-unit fundraisers you'll find. The catch nobody warns you about: collecting £2 to £3 at a time from 230 families by bank transfer is a nightmare to reconcile. If you're doing something similar, sort out how you'll take payment before launch day, not after.
Collect payments without sharing bank details →
Run several small fundraisers side by side
Instead of relying on one big event to hit the target, one school runs bake sales, card orders and a handful of other small campaigns all at once. No single fundraiser has to carry the whole weight, so nobody's panicking if one of them underperforms.
Easter egg hunt
Charge a small entry fee per child, hide eggs around the school grounds, and let teachers or older pupils help run the hunt. It's a fundraiser that doubles as an event kids genuinely look forward to, rather than something they're just being asked to support, which makes parents more willing to pay without much persuading.
Sports day, with parents included
Add a few parent-vs-parent or parent-and-child races into the usual line-up and charge a small fee for anyone taking part. It raises money, gives parents a reason to get involved instead of just watching from the sidelines, and usually ends up being the part of the day everyone remembers.
Face painting
A cheap, cheerful add-on to any school event rather than something that needs its own occasion. All it takes is a volunteer with a steady hand and a couple of pounds a face, and it's an easy way to keep younger children entertained while raising a bit extra alongside whatever else is going on.
Fundraising ideas for work
Turn a night out into a fundraiser
One team ran a charity wine and cheese night, selling tickets in advance instead of just collecting on the night. The second tickets are involved, you need a way to track who's actually paid, not just a running total of how much you've raised.
Sweeten the deal with a company contribution
One organiser's charity raffle did unusually well because the company chipped in extra prizes on top, like vouchers or an extra day off. It gave people a reason to enter beyond simple goodwill, which matters a lot!
Run a sweepstake around whatever everyone's watching
Bake Off, the Grand National, Eurovision, football tournaments, the Rugby World Cup. If there's a winner, a bracket, or a shortlist involved, there's a sweepstake hiding in it somewhere. One department ran a Bake Off sweepstake that doubled as a way to get hybrid workers back into the office, since people baked at home and brought their efforts in to be judged (and, more importantly, eaten).
Here is a sweepstake generator ready for you:
Bingo night
Easy to set up and even easier to join in with, since almost everyone already knows the rules. Book a room after hours, print or buy some cards, and offer a few small prizes for each line and full house. It's one of the lowest-effort ways to get a big chunk of the office together for a cause, rather than relying on people to give without any event attached to it.
Fundraising for sport clubs
We've written a whole separate article on this: check out our fundraising ideas for football teams for ideas built for grassroots clubs specifically.
How to actually run a fundraiser
Having a good idea is only half the job. What actually determines whether a fundraiser succeeds is how easy it is for people to give, and how easy it is for you to keep track of who has.
That's where Collctiv comes in. Instead of chasing cash, printing sheets to tick names off, or trying to reconcile 230 separate bank transfers by hand, you can:
- Set up a pot in minutes, set a target if you want, and share a link or QR code
- Let people pay in seconds, using Apple Pay, Google Pay or card details
- See exactly who's paid and how much you've raised, in real time
- Withdraw everything when you're ready
Whether it's a school fair, an office sweepstake or a charity night, the idea is always the easy bit. Collctiv handles the rest.
