Fundraising Suggestions

It is our desire to provide you with ideas that will assist you in your effort to raise funds for your family or a family you are sponsoring.  Should you have any questions about fundraising, feel free to contact us and we will attempt to put you in contact with someone who has experience in raising funds for special needs families.  Below you will find a list of fundraising ideas families have used to solicit their communities involvement in raising the funds to provide a cruise vacation.

• Auctions  Live, Silent or eBay

• Bake Sale

• Car Wash or Pet Bath

• Charity Night at a Local Restaurant  Donate portions of sales or ask diners to round up their bill to an even amount with spare change benefiting your group.

• Change for Children  Collect change at a register or from a fountain. Creates awareness for your group as well.

• Churches & other Houses of Worship   Don’t leave out your church or other religious place of worship! There is nothing grater than getting your congregation involved in helping you with donated venue space for an event, collection of donated items for a rummage sale, posting your cause in the bulletin, etc. You maybe surprised at the networking you may discover within your own congregation that might offer assistance in other areas of your fund-raising efforts.

• Cooking Competitions  Cook off’s to determine best chili, ribs, brownies, pie, cookies, etc. Some of your lo­cal restaurants may be willing to sponsor an event like this to benefit your group!

• Donation letters mailed to businesses and affluent homes in your community can be effective in soliciting donations.  A very successful means of getting donations is delivering a donation request letter in person door-to-door with your family or friends.  This gives the potential donor a chance to meet you and discuss your cause.

• Dress Down Days  Ask your employer to offer employees the opportunity to wear casual clothing in exchange for a donation to your group.

• EBay   List items for sale and indicate the special need for the auction in the description of the item

• Employee Barbecue/Picnic Family Fun Day  Solicit vendors to donate food items & door prizes. Meal & ticket sales go to your group.

• Employers Helping Hands  Ask at work if your company donates money to match your volunteer hours or will make a donation to your group or Skyeward Bound Ranch on your behalf. Workplace donations are a good source to tap into with your coworkers knowing you and about your special needs family.

• Friends & Family  Ask friends and family members to forgo unnecessary special event and holiday gifts and give you Gift Certificates. 

• Marathons of all kinds  Walk-a-thons, Bike-a-thons, Dance-a-thons, Bowl-a-thons. Favorite sports or hobbies provide participants with a great opportunity to test their endurance while collecting pledges for specified lengths of time, repetitions or skills.

• Paper Icon Sales  Suggested donations are $1, $5, or $10. Display in a visible location such as stores, beauty shops, restaurants, bowling alleys, etc. Participants get to sign a fun card and the businesses get to tape them all over their store showing support for your cause. We can help you with a design for the support cards too.

• Potluck breakfast, lunch or dinner  Associate this with a raffle, silent auction, or another fund-raising event.

• Rummage Sale/Yard Sale  A great way to get friends and neighbors involved. Why not make the sale a block party to raise awareness of your group!

• Setting up a table in front of a grocery, department, or home improvement store with the permission of the manager is also a great way to spread the word about your cause.  Be creative in designing a flyer that you can pass out describing the need for your fundraiser.

• Solicit local businesses to help you raise funds  One suggestion is to provide the business with a 4x4 card that patrons can purchase for a dollar, sign their name to, and place on a wall inside the business.  Often times you and the business owner can decide together on a fundraising plan that will be most effective in your community.  Perhaps a carwash in the storekeeper’s parking lot that would entice patrons to purchase goods from the business owner as they are having their car washed.

• Sports Competitions  Golf tournaments, 5 K fun runs, softball tournaments, tug-of-war contests, etc.

• Theme Nights  Such as a Vegas night with the proceeds benefiting your group. A good source of support for a venue like this is your local Rotary Clubs, VFW Halls, Eagles Lodges, Kiwanis Clubs, etc.

Note: "Autism on the Seas" will provide its logo (electronically) upon request for the purpose of creating mailers or flyers.  "Autism on the Seas" is not a fundraising agency or charitable organization, and the use of its logo for illegal or other purposes is forbidden.

Please Contact Us with any questions.