By Sharon Jones

When you are working in the nonprofit sector, your main focus is on raising funds to enable your organization to get things done. But what with so many charities making demands on people's finances and time these days, how can you get your organization to stand out? Read on for some more information.

Eating Contest

So everyone loves eating right? Then how about holding an eating contest for charity?  Participants get sponsors to donate money for their entry. Or you can get people to donate money for every item they consume.

For example, in the cracker challenge, you may get folks donating $1 per cracker. But the twist is that the participant has to eat as many as they can without taking a sip of water. So it gets progressively harder.

Head Shaving

Now this one is a bit more extreme, especially for female participants. But is a great way of raising some money for your cause. As well as raising the profile of the charity that you are doing it for.

To get the maximum sponsorship for these sorts of events, make sure to set the date way in advance and go on local school and business educating people on what you are doing and the charity that you're doing it for.

Then hold an event of which the head shaving is a part, and celebrate the people that have made the sacrifice for a good cause.

Donor Walls

Something else that you can consider to raise funds for your nonprofit is a donor wall. You can get some sweet donor wall ideas by clicking the link. But in its basic form, it is when patrons purchase a personalized brick. These are then used to make a commemorative wall or included in the construction of the building that they have helped pay for.

It can be a particularly useful money raising activity, as folks like the idea of being acknowledged in some small way for doing their best to help.

Time Bank

Another less well-known idea for raising funds for your nonprofit is to run a time bank. This does take some good organizational and time management skills, though. As it is where you have to gather volunteers that will offer their time to provide services for other people.

The services can be really diverse such as anything from mowing someone grass or helping them with their account depending on what the volunteer is able to do.

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Then the idea is that the person that the volunteer has helped, then makes a donation to your charity, instead of paying them for their services.

Bake Sale

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Lastly, one way to almost guarantee to raise some cash for your charity is to hold a bake sale. Yes, it might seem like it's an old classic, but folks loved baked goods, so you will have a lot of people to sell to.

Also because items are not too expensive, you are more likely to get everyone getting involved. Which can create a great buzz around what you are doing, and serve to further fan the flames of your event. Hopefully resulting in more profits and coverage for your organization.