Struggling to come up with your next brilliant COTA fundraising idea? Look to your passions!
Your passions, hobbies and/or expertise can be incorporated into a fundraiser benefiting your COTA community campaign. Plus, because it is something you love, you are bound to have a great time!
Have a few artists on the team? Lead a paint night! Collect advance registration via a COTA Event Thermometer to ensure you provide enough supplies, then guide participants through painting artwork they can take home or use as a gift. If you are not the teaching type, look into setting up a fundraiser at your local Wine & Canvas or Painting with a Twist — they provide the supplies, lead the event and send proceeds to your COTA campaign.
Volunteers who make jewelry, knit, crochet and/or are crafty in other ways can provide beautiful in-kind donations of crafted items for silent auctions and drawings. Also, keep in mind that crafting of any kind can become a great introductory class.
Chefs and bakers can offer a cooking class. Like the paint night above, register participants in advance to ensure enough cooking supplies and host this tasty fundraiser at a local restaurant, cafeteria, bed and breakfast or school home-ec classroom — wherever you can find some stoves and have space! Or if your volunteers are frozen dinner connoisseurs, ask a local celebrity chef if they would host the cooking class. Remember a donation of time can be receipted using COTA Gift in Kind Forms.
Photographers can offer services in multiple ways. Perhaps your role at a fundraising event will solely be taking pictures of activities, attendees, decorations and more to upload to the COTA campaign website and Facebook page. Or you can be the photographer at a Breakfast with Santa event to capture pictures of children with Santa Claus (for a donation). If your business offers seasonal photo sessions, perhaps you could donate a day of sessions as a fundraiser with proceeds going to COTA in honor of your local patient.
If you are part of a fitness community, consider planning a walk/run, a bike ride, an afternoon hike, and/or a yoga or CrossFit fundraising session. Similar to a poker run, your participants could ride their bicycles around town with planned stops for breaks, snacks and to learn more about the COTA campaign. If you are an avid hiker, lead a guided hike along trails of the county or state park. Local yoga and CrossFit instructors may offer their services (for free or at a discount) to host a fundraising workout session. Or learn more about planning a walk/run in COTA’s 5k Guide.
If your volunteers and supporters are gamers, consider a 12- or 24-hour charity live-stream where supporters can tune in to watch you play video games. You can use breaks to educate viewers on the COTA community campaign and encourage them to donate.
More of a traditional “gamer”? Plan a board game tournament and break out both the classics and newest editions. Charge an entry fee and offer snacks throughout the day or evening as participants run the board and rake in the points.
Know the owner of a local stable, farm or orchard? Try an ‘introduction to horse riding’ class, or a day at the farm for kids to see animals. An orchard is the perfect venue for fall activities like a craft fair, apple-picking, hayrides, picking pumpkins and more.
Please meet with your volunteer team to brainstorm more opportunities for incorporating each of your passions into COTA fundraisers. Remember to send photos and updates from all of your COTA fundraising events to CampaignInfo@cota.org!
