25+ Fun and Creative Ways to Fundraise Your Startup Part 2

25+ Fun and Creative Ways to Fundraise Your Startup Part 2

Hello all. All my entrepreneurs that have a new startup idea they need to get started up! I hope you read my last starting post for this series of posts on 25+ Fun and Creative Ways to Fundraise Your Startup! In that first one I spoke about some truly fun, novel and creative ways to raise some funds. From taking a bean bath, doing a skydive, to hosting a bake off! 

And in today's other fun and creative fundraising ideas, we'll be talking about several more fun and creative things you can do to raise some funds. Things that ANYONE can do. How to do them and what you need to know about it when and if and when you do! So without barking on too much let's get right down into it and talk about 3 fun and creative fundraising ideas!

Fun & Creative Fundraising Ideal 4: Make A Naked Calendar
Okay this isn't or doesn't have to be what you think it is! I'm not talking about making an actual naked calendar like the Calendar Girls! And this might not seem like the most creative of all ideas since this has already been done before many times over. But that's simply because it is a very viable, legitimate and fun way to raise some funds. For any idea or thing you need them for. But in actuality, in actual fact, compiling together a calendar of tasteful nude photos (they don't have to show pink bits) of either yourself or of your business' staff members or of a group of you (say, the people that are behind your startup ideal) can actually be a good way to raise quite a lot of money and get you some exposure at the same time!

Image source: Friends rally around breast cancer survivor to make naked calendar.Now you would have to get one made up but if you already have the photos taken (and they could be funny/comical photos of you holding a plant pot or something over your private parts) or just posing in a funny pose or having a funny facial expression on. Being painted and drawn on or something. Then you can get those photos made into a calendar quite easily these days. Most local stationary/computer stores on the highstreet provide a calendar making service. Or you can even find one of these online quite easily too. The online ones are better since you can usually choose a design first and then just send them your photos, pay the fee and then wait for them to make them into calendars of one large photo per month or something.

I've never personally done this myself but I know that it's popular amongst people and businesses that do want to raise some funds and get some extra "exposure" (that's a risque word to use here what with all the literal exposure going on right?) for them, their new startup idea and business venture.

What you'll need:

• Some funny or tastefully nude photos of you or your group.
  
• Someone to make a calendar for you (either online/offline).
  
• Someone to sell them for you or ways in which you can.
  

Fun & Creative Fundraising Ideal 5: Host a Dance-A-Thon / Dance Off
In a Dance-A-Thon, it's sort of like a Marathon except, instead of running, you are dancing! You will need to have somewhere where you can host this. That could be your local town hall for the night or even in your or someone else's home. You'll need a lot of music ready so you might need a DJ to sort that. And you'll need a lot of people to turn up too. At least enough so that everyone has someone to dance with. And this is a great way to raise funds if you love dancing! You can dance away until your hearts content! Or at least until the night is over!

The way to earn money with a dance-a-thon is to charge people a fee to enter. You could also ask for donations as well and give a free gift away such as DVD or something relevant to what your business is about. Even refreshments, make them free for people who donate a certain amount of something. It could take some organising, but if you pull it off, it could be quite lucrative too!

What you'll need:

• A venue you can hire for the night or even your own dinning room perhaps?
  
• Enough music to last the whole night and maybe a DJ to play it for you.
  
• To charge people to dance for the night and ask for donations too.
  
• Refreshments like hot and cold drinks, a buffet maybe.
  
• Fun & Creative Fundraising Ideal 6: Host a Quiz Night.
  

Another great fundraising idea, and one that probably isn't quite as daunting an event to arrange, organise and host for the night than a dance-a-thon or making a naked calendar is. And if you happen to have a bit of a competitive side to you and are fairly knowledgeable when it comes to general knowledge or in something else. And you just happen to know a few other people that are too. Then hosting a quiz night can prove to be very affective to help you raise some funding money for your startup! All you need is some teams, some questions, and then well, you know how quizzes work! At the end of the night, the winners are announced by whover got the most amount of questions right.

What you'll need:

• Some quiz game with lots of questions.
  
• A venue you can host enough people (at least 10).
  
• To charge them to play and ask for donations.
  
• Some prizes to give the winners (bottle of wine/leg of lamb etc).

Fun & Creative Fundraising Ideal 7: Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt can be a quite profitable to thing to do if you can advertise it enough first and get sponsored enough to do it. You would make money by charging people to enter that hunt. And let's be honest, why wouldn't they? Scavenger hunts are great fun for all ages and they can even be themed to a certain type of hunt too. For instance, if you was in the health niche, you could create a scavenger hunt to find healthy snacks or even tips. If you was in the motoring niche, you could create a scavenger hunt to find things for their car like allinone kits or just driving tips and things. Just look at what those things are in that nice that are popular with people and source them which you can give or have people find in those scavenger hunts.

What you'll need:

• You'll need to source the items people can find in your scavenger hunt.
  
• You'll have to hide things in places and provide a map or clues to find them.
  
• You'll have to charge people to go on the hunt which is where your funds come from.
  

Fun & Creative Fundraising Ideal 8: Speed Dating
Could you help people find love and raise some funding money at the same time? You bet! With the rise of online dating and sites like Tinder, it's easier to find a date than ever before and long gone of the blind date days of Cilla! But hosting a speed dating night could also be quite profitable as well for several reasons. Firstly, due to it being "speed dating", people can move quickly through the nights so you can get in other people. A standard speed dating night will take someone about an hour to speed date up to 5-10 different people where each one only last 5-10 minutes. You could have a bell go off so when it does, everyone has to switch partners. But this is something you could set up and charge around $10 per night per person to and if you get just 10 people for one night that's $100 right there. Now do it every night for a couple weeks $12-1400 in funding. Not bad for helping people to find lurve right?


What you'll need:

• A venue to hold and host the speed dating night.
  
• Enough tables and chairs for people to sit in for the amount of people there are.
  
• Some drinks, refreshments and things.
  
• To charge for access to the speed dating night.
  

Fun & Creative Fundraising Ideal 9: Dinner Party
So if all these other hosting ideas don't fancy your take so far, for being to extravagant, how about hosting a simple dinner party? You could charge for access to the dinner party, or even ask people to make donations to you for however much they thought your dinner party night was worth to them. Make sure you cook them a proper slap up meal with all the trimmings (this is making me hungry just typing it!) and provide some drinks and entertainment for the night. Throw in a chocolate fountain and that will be sure to get you a boost in donations!

What you'll need:

• A venue to hold the dinner party night at or even in your own home?
  
• Enough people to cover the costs of the food and drink you give them.
  
• A way to ask for and collect donations based on what they think the night is worth.
  

Conclusion

While these fundraising methods might not be for everyone. You can bet your back teeth on it that other people have done this successfully before in the past. And if you can pull it off right, organise and host it etc. And get enough people interested through the hype you create about it, all three of these fun and creative fundraising ideas can be very lucratively worth doing!

Do you do or have you done any of these fun and creative fundraising methods?

What other ways can you do these and what others are there you know of?

Cheers and enjoy!

Mike.