What Impacts Does Community Fundraising Have On Annual Goals?
In any fundraising situation, there is power in numbers. Rallying the passion and spirit of your community can make a monumental difference and financial impact on your annual fundraising goals for 2025. From connecting deeper to your community to coming up with new ideas to reach an extended network, today’s blog explores the impacts that fundraising will have on your community.
What is Community Fundraising?
Community fundraising is a collaborative fundraising approach that mobilizes individuals and groups within a community to support a shared cause or goal. It thrives on people buying into your collective goal and contributing their time, participation, and creativity to your fundraising efforts. This approach is effective for organizations such as:
- Schools
- Sports teams
- Charitable organizations
- Churches
- Fraternity and sororities
- Rotary clubs
What are the Key Aspects of Community-Centric Fundraising?
Community-centric fundraising pulls on the collective experiences of your community. From sports teams and sororities looking to raise funds to support member scholarships to churches trying to improve their structures or charitable works, community fundraising mobilizes your supporters and encourages them to take action.
In recent years, the rise of digital fundraising has grown exponentially, specifically with online platforms such as GoFundMe and charity fundraising tactics on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Digital fundraising tactics not only expand the reach of communities, but they also help generate excitement for the goals your organization is hoping to accomplish.
Additionally, community-centric fundraising efforts can take on many forms. Some of the most common forms of fundraising for community organizations include:
- Social media campaigns
- Text to Give
- On-Site Events such as trivia nights, bingo nights or auctions
- Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
- Raffles such as Queen of Hearts or 50/50 Raffles
What are the Benefits of Fundraising?
For those in the fundraising industry, they know the feeling of having many ideas, but not enough resources to accomplish those goals. Community-centric fundraising has the ability to utilize your community to accomplish tasks, inspire participation and garner enthusiasm for a particular aspect of your community fundraising campaign.
These elements can be narrowed down into four benefits that will help your community effectively raise funds through the collective power of community fundraising tactics.
Engagement – Fundraising brings your community together in support of a common goal or cause. For example, if you’re trying to raise funds for a large capital campaign for your school, incorporating storytelling into your fundraising marketing pieces may encourage new donors to contribute to your cause.
Awareness – By spreading the word about your cause across multiple channels, you will be able to find additional support within local or social circles among your existing supporters. For example, your parish is running an online 50/50 raffle for parish maintenance efforts, and they have a sharable link. Your community members can share this link via text, social media, or by word of mouth to garner more support beyond those who often interact with your community.
Resources – Fundraising ultimately generates more funds for your cause, but it also may lead to an increase in volunteers and new supporters over time. This benefit improves your fundraising capabilities and grows your community at the same time.
Enthusiasm – Whether it’s a particular event or an exclusive incentive or prize, your community can drum up excitement in support of your cause.
Get Started!
Whether you have been at the fundraising game for a long time or just getting started, community-centric fundraising is a great way to get to know your supporters and drive great results. At Go Raise Dough, we use the power of community to drive impressive online fundraising results for communities small and large. With tried-and-true fundraising tactics and a simple setup, our online fundraisers will help your organizations grow with less effort and more focus on your community’s goals.
Learn more about our online raffles today!