As the President of the Board for a small, young nonprofit that is completely run by volunteers, I often look for cost-effective ways to fundraise that won’t entail much legwork. Lucky for us, new fundraising trends are constantly emerging for consumers/runners/etc. to add meaning to their holiday shopping, miles, and so on.

Here are some really easy suggestions to promote outreach and giving opportunities for your organization.

Requires Zero Effort

Register your nonprofit for the following sites:

• AmazonSmile – When someone selects your charity when shopping on AmazonSmile (the exact same as Amazon—but benefitting nonprofits!) .5% of eligible purchases will be donated to your organization.
• GoodShop – 1%-30% of the total purchase is donated back to the nonprofit.
• Welzoo – this internet home page donates up to six cents per day to your charity

Requires Marketing Effort

• Percentage Nights – many local and chain restaurants and stores will offer percentage nights, where if you encourage people to visit the location they will donate a percentage of their proceeds back to your nonprofit. Panera, Chipotle, Moe’s and Zaxby’s all have information on their websites about how to set one up.
• Matching Gifts – if you’re not already doing this in your appeals, start promoting that your organization accepts matching gifts! Workplaces will often encourage employees to be philanthropic by matching either a percentage or a full amount of their charitable gifts. You will usually need to simply confirm the gift was made by filling out a form for the business.

Requires Minimal Effort

• Peer to Peer Campaigns – is there an event where people can rally behind someone to raise money for your charity? Let your constituents do the legwork by connecting with their networks to fundraise for a cause they’re passionate about—yours! Charityproud lets you create a registration for fundraisers to build their own fundraising pages.
• Partner with an Event or Race – community events look for beneficiary nonprofits to bring more meaning to their event. This is great for community awareness as well as fundraising. Often times a portion of proceeds from ticket sales will be donated back to the nonprofit, as well as other incentives—like a donation to your organization for each volunteer you supply. The Super Run is a great example of a 5K race that partners with local nonprofits.
• Partner with a local for-profit – Is there a way you could use in-kind donations to make a profit? For example, a Habitat for Humanity uses donated goods to resell in their ReStore. Or a local Charleston Library takes leftover books from their book sale, gives them to an online used book seller Thrift Books, and is given back 50% of the proceeds. 

Click here to view a Prezi on this topic.

Written by Samantha Shirley, Lead Product Manager