13 Fantastic Fundraising Ideas for Kids and Families

13 Fundraising Ideas for Kids
Raise money for kids’ medical expenses.
Raise money for youth sports, clubs, and organizations.
Raise money for education expenses.
Raise money for moving costs.
Raise money for adoption and family needs.

13 Fundraising Ideas for Kids

Matching Gifts

The Most Impactful Fundraising Idea for Kids and Families


  • What Are Matching Gifts?

    Nonprofit groups that focus on children, families, youth, or related causes can partner with corporations to increase their fundraising impact via matching gifts. When a company offers a matching gift program, it will match employees’ donations to eligible causes, often at a dollar-for-dollar rate. That means an initial donation of $50 can easily become $100.

    Know that your organization must meet the criteria set by participating corporations. For instance, your organization may need to be registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and align with the company’s philanthropic focus area.

  • Why Are They Impactful?

    By educating donors and supporters about matching gift programs, your organization can increase its fundraising capacity and, ultimately, enhance the experiences and opportunities you provide for children and families. Some companies may offer incredibly generous matching ratios, effectively doubling, tripling, or quadrupling the original gift’s value.

  • How Can I Get Started?

    To start leveraging matching gifts, embed an employer search tool into your donation page. This will allow donors to research their eligibility and locate their employers’ match request forms within a matching gift database. Better yet, you can enable matching gift auto-submission. This feature allows donors to automatically submit match requests to their employers with no extra work on their part.




Do More To Empower Kids and Families. Leverage Corporate Giving To Multiply Donations.

The Most Creative Fundraising Idea

Fundraising eCards

The Most Creative Fundraising Idea for Kids and Families


  • What Are Fundraising eCards?

    Fundraising eCards are digital greeting cards designed and shared electronically, allowing children to raise money for causes they care about in a safe, creative, and eco-friendly way. You can create designs for birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions. Then, buyers will purchase the cards to send to loved ones.

  • Why Are They Impactful?

    Digital greeting cards give your buyers something in return for their contributions. Unlock your creativity with each design and celebrate every occasion with thoughtful cards. Get kids in on the design action, allowing them to express themselves and add a personal touch to your fundraiser.

    Not to mention, eCards also teach children about sustainable choices, reducing the need for paper and helping instill eco-friendly values.

  • How Can I Get Started?

    Turn to a reliable eCard website to create your designs. We recommend using eCardWidget, because it was designed with fundraising in mind! Leverage the user-friendly design tools to create stunning designs for every occasion. Then, embed the widget into your site or an eStore to make donating simpler than ever.

    You can sell them for fixed prices, add suggested giving amounts, or let donors decide how generous they’re feeling! From here, supporters can browse your eCard collection and purchase the ones they want to send to their friends and families.

Turn digital doodles into donations! Fundraising eCards can level up your fundraising.

The Most Cost-Effective Fundraising Idea

Crowdfunding

The Most Cost-Effective Fundraising Idea for Kids and Families


  • What is crowdfunding?

    Crowdfunding is a fundraising method that helps individuals raise money for any cause through an online donation page. It’s great for helping kids fundraise and running fundraisers for child-related causes.

  • Why is it great?

    Crowdfunding is a top fundraising option for kids and families because it is cost-effective and easy to get started. Plus crowdfunding campaigns rely on having strong stories to tell, and fundraisers for kids and families tend to have compelling narratives.

  • How can I begin?

    First, you’ll want to pick a crowdfunding platform. Then, to begin your campaign, you simply set a fundraising goal, create your crowdfunding page, and promote your campaign. It’s that easy.

Our Most Engaging Fundraising Idea

Pledge Fundraising

The Most Engaging Fundraising Idea for Kids and Families


  • Why is it great?

    Pledge fundraisers are great because they’re an engaging and personalized way to get involved with a cause. These campaigns use social proof to gather support and increased fundraising revenue.

  • How can I begin?

    First, create your campaign using pledge fundraising software and provide each participant with their own fundraising page. Encourage individual fundraisers to personalize their page and, with parents’ help, begin sharing on social media and collecting pledged donations from loved ones.

    Then, host a child-friendly event such as a fun run, dance-a-thon, or shoot-a-thon. After the event is complete, your organization receives pledged gifts corresponding to the fundraiser’s involvement!

Other Great Fundraising Ideas

Sell Cookie Dough



Selling baked goods is a time-honored tradition of fundraising, especially for little kids, but sometimes a bake sale just won’t cut it! Instead, try a product fundraising campaign where your team sells cookie dough or other fun goodies to your supporters.

Your supporters get to take home their products and decide when and how they want to eat them, and your fundraising cause benefits!

If cookies aren’t your thing, don’t worry. There’s a whole world of things that you can sell to fundraise, including chocolate bars, popcorn, lollipops, and fruit snacks. Choose your favorite treat and get selling!


50/50 Raffle



50/50 raffles are simple and extremely low cost. To prepare, all you’ll need to buy is a roll of raffle tickets. If your kids’ school or club has a parents’ evening, that’s the perfect time for the raffle.

To organize the raffle, ask event attendees to buy the tickets, and then after the drawing, the winner takes home half of the proceeds and the organizer (that’s you!) takes home the other half. 

As a giving incentive, make sure to display how much money is in the growing pot! Just remember that like other raffles, 50/50s are best used to supplement fundraising events. And the more people who participate, the bigger the pot!


Trivia Night



Test your supporters’ wits with a trivia night. Partner with a local restaurant, bar, or coffee shop to have some fun and raise some funds. The location should be determined by cost and if kids are attending.

You can collect donations throughout the night, and depending on where you host, the restaurant might be willing to split the night’s proceeds with you.

Make sure your questions are catered to the expected skill level of your crowd (kids, young professionals, etc.), and pick an emcee who will keep the night light and fun.


Cook-Off Fundraiser



Are you a talent in the kitchen? Do you have a lot of friends and supporters who love to cook? A cook-off fundraiser might just be your ticket to success. You can even host it at your kids’ school.

Have participants enter their culinary creations into a contest, judged by event attendees. To vote, ask attendees to deposit a donation in their favorite food’s donation box.

At the end of the competition, tally everyone’s donation collections and the chef with the most money wins. To maximize participation, be sure to promote, promote, promote! Depending on their age, the kids can be the chefs or tasters or both!


Recipe Book Sales


Learn more about recipe sale fundraisers.

Recipe book sales are ideal for raising money.

Selling recipe books is a great fundraising idea because it’s affordable to set up and allows you to ask for donations in exchange for a provided product.

Put together a cook book with the best recipes that you and your supporters have. Then, sell the book within your community. Your kids can get involved as sales people for the books!

Depending on your budget, you can either have the book professionally bound and delivered or you can do a digital version of the book for free on the computer that’s emailed out. Its appearance is less important than the quality of the recipes, so curate only the best!


Karaoke Night Fundraiser



Partner with a local bar (no kids) or restaurant (kids attending) to host a karaoke night to raise funds for your cause. Get the equipment donated and be sure to promote the evening in advance. Put up signs in your kids’ school and tell all other parents.

To fundraise, charge a cover for the night and encourage attendees to vote for their favorite “acts” with their dollars. 

You can also make arrangements with the restaurant that’s hosting to split proceeds and/or set up food and drink specials. If the bar/restaurant plan doesn’t work out, you can always host at a community center.


Teachers in Jail



“Teachers in Jail” is a great fundraising idea for kids and schools. It’s a free fundraiser that centers around competition between classrooms. It’s a big hit with kids of all ages!

During the fundraiser, students in each class raise money. If the collective total of a class reaches a certain threshold, the teacher then gets put in “jail.”

“Jail” simply means students get a free period and a break from class. What kid would pass up that chance for a free period? Prior to the fundraiser, be sure to recruit a team of teachers and students to work to throw each teacher in “jail.”


Shoe Drive Fundraiser



To hold a shoe drive, your organization can have your community donate their gently used (or even new) shoes to an organization like Funds2Orgs. We all know your children’s growing feet mean you’re constantly buying new shoes for them!

Funds2Orgs will actually come and pick up the shoes, weigh the shoes, and pay your organization based on a price per pound. 

Once Funds2Orgs has collected your shoes, they then sell the shoes to small business owners in countries such as Honduras and Togo with the goal of encouraging local economic growth. Plus your kids’ outgrown shoes don’t go to waste!


Car Wash



If its spring, summer, or even early fall and you’re looking to host a classic fundraiser, a car wash might be just what you need. If your kids are young, you’ll want more parent involvement, but high schoolers should be able to run a car wash with minimal supervision.

As most people know, to host a car wash you’ll gather the supplies, set up shop in a high-traffic parking lot, and offer car washes to passersby.

To fundraise, you can either ask for donations for your handy-work or you can charge a small fee per wash. Either way, make sure you’re early to set up and put promotional flyers around the community, like your kids’ schools.


Want to learn more about corporate giving programs?

Top Resources to Help You Fundraise

117+ Fundraising Ideas for all Causes


This comprehensive resource contains over 200 fundraising ideas.

Still looking for more fundraising ideas and inspiration? Good thing we’ve compiled a diverse list of over 100 fundraising ideas to help you! You’ll select a fundraiser in no time!


Crowdfunding: The Beginner’s Guide


This crowdfunding guide will help you plan your campaign if you choose crowdfunding as your fundraising idea.

Crowdfunding is one of our top fundraising ideas. If you’re interested in pursuing it but not sure where to start, this guide will give you all the necessary background.


Donation Requests: 45+ Companies That Donate


Check out what companies will fulfill your donation requests.

Have you requested donations from companies? There are many businesses in your community that might be open to donating. This guide shows you where to look!


Click here to learn about eCards and take advantage of our top fundraising idea for kids.