Successful Fundraising Ideas for Groups and Clubs

Collecting Spare Change Fundraiser Idea

How to organize a successful spare change collection fundraiser

In today’s digital economy, people don’t have much use for spare change anymore. A few nickels, dimes, and quarters sitting in their pockets or purses doesn’t carry much value. Everyone pays for everything using cards or digital wallets, and spare change has become more of a hindrance rather than something of monetary value. This is why creating a fundraiser built around collecting spare change that people don’t really want to carry around is such a great idea. Plus it’s one of the easiest fundraisers you’ll ever do. While a little bit of spare change isn’t worth much on its own, it can certainly add up fast.

The basic concept of this super easy fundraiser is to create colorful donation boxes or jars with the name of your organization on them along with a message asking people to donate their spare change to support your team, group, or club. Many people will be happy to get rid of their change if they know it’s going to support a great cause.

The most difficult task associated with this type of fundraiser is getting local businesses to participate and display your boxes or jars at the point of sale. The first thing you need to do is leverage all of your organization’s community connections. You may be surprised by the number of contacts your team, group, or club has. From there, start knocking on doors and reaching out to local businesses where you don’t already have a connection. If your community also has large corporate offices, see if they will display your boxes or jars at the reception desk.

One great side benefit to this fundraising idea is that many people will donate more than just spare change. You’ll see some dollar bills going in as well. The more collection boxes you can distribute, the more revenue you stand to make for your team, club, or group. If you can place 50 boxes at various businesses, and collect an average of just $5 per jar or box per day, you will earn $250 per day! Ideally, you’ll want to ask the businesses if you can run the program at their facility for 1-month. However, if it’s a busy location, 1-week could prove to be well worth the effort.

At the end of each day (or every few days) throughout your fundraiser promotional period, you’ll want to send your trustworthy volunteers around to the participating local businesses to gather up all of the spare change collected from that day. Have them leave a small amount of change in the jar for the next day, as people will be more likely to contribute when they see that others have already done so. Once or twice a week, take the spare change to your bank to have them count it and deposit it.

Be sure to tell people on all your social media channels to look for your boxes at participating businesses. Let businesses know that you will be promoting them on social which will give them more incentive to work with you.