Starting a virtual fundraising event takes time and a lot of effort. Whether you are looking for ideas on how to raise money for your first charity event or you’re experienced with organizing many virtual funds rising events, this list of virtual fundraising ideas will help you create the best possible event for your target audience.

Why Virtual Fundraising?

If you’re looking for a fun way to fundraise for a charity, why not host a virtual event? A virtual fund-raising event is a great way to raise funds for your cause. It means that you can reach out to people around the world. It also means that you can hold an event in the current lockdown time.  Charities typically struggle to get people to donate their time. People don’t want to volunteer or help out at charity events, but when they can do it from the comfort of their own home, it’s a whole different story. Virtual charity events are a great way to get people engaged and involved. However, now you might be wondering, what kind of event can be held online? Worry not, this article will provide you with many tips for virtual fundraising ideas that are successful (and money-raising!) 

Plan Your Event and Make It Memorable

With so many things going on in the world right now, it might be hard to get people’s attention to your event. That’s why you have to make it outstanding and memorable. Whatever you’re raising money for, make it special. To help you create virtual fundraising events, we will share with you few ideas already used by other non-profit organizations in the UK are using. 

Ideas for Virtual Charity Events

While a lot of us struggle with remote working and little-to-no social contacts, your events for raising money don’t have to be cancelled because of the recent changes in how the world works. With little creativity and by using the power of the internet, you can create virtual fundraising events that will be as effective as real ones!

1. Online Games Tournaments 

This idea is probably going to attract mostly teenagers and fewer adults, but it’s worth trying. By creating an online game tournament, you give a chance to all those your adults seeking some form of social activity from home while raising money for good cause. Games like Fortnite, Dungeons & Dragons, and many more others allow you to create close tournaments. 
Best friends playing chess during a video call in time of quarantine.
By creating one like that, you will let those players have some fun together while learning about the importance of supporting NGO UK (Non-Governmental Organizations in the UK). Perfect opportunity to mix useful with pleasure! 

2. Virtual Classes

This might be a better option for adults since we’re sure all kids and teenagers are already fed up with online schooling. But how about mixing virtual cooking classes with raising money for some non-profit organizations in the UK? 
Young couple having a online cooking class.
If cooking is not your thing, you could also do online painting, sculpturing, poetry classes… The only limit is your imagination. Try to find out which one of those options will draw the most attention from people and give it a shoot! There’s a lot of virtual fundraising ideas, but this one seems to be especially successful. 

3. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Internet is a very powerful tool that could help your charity tremendously. By simply asking your friends and family to share the information about your virtual fundraiser with their friends and family, you’re creating a huge circle of people who are way more willing to help your cause. Your social circle sharing this information with others is giving it a lot of credibility. 
Group of people having a video conference.
People are usually very cautious with which non-profit organizations in the UK to support. There’s always this fear of getting scammed. If they see that your virtual fundraising ideas are supported by their friends, they’re less likely to question its legality. 

4. Virtual Concerts 

One of the things we miss the most from normal life is enjoying the live concert of our favourite band. While there’s little possibility to bring back that experience now, you can try to give people at least part of it, while raising money for the right cause.  Virtual concerts, played by the most popular bands, are easier to organize- you don’t have to spend a fortune on renting a huge concert area. All you need is a good internet connection, some popular band and done! You just made a perfect virtual charity event. 

5. Movie Night

No matter the age, everyone loves a good movie night. Experiencing it in cinemas is right now limited in many places, so why not create it online? With nothing more than Netflix and some extension (such as Teleparty), you can share any movie you like with your friends and other virtual fundraiser supporters. The perfect way to combine great experience with helping the noble cause!

6. Races

One of the most commonly known ways to raise money is organizing a race. Whether it’s a marathon or any other sports competition, those events have always drawn people willing to either participate in them or cheer on the players. This is one more virtual fundraising idea to consider. You can create that kind of race while maintaining safety measures or make it fully online! All you need is to find some sports freaks ready to help your cause.

How to Create Successful Virtual Charity Events 

The best way to get people to donate to charity is to tap into their emotions. You have to ask yourself, what is the goal of the charity? What emotions are you trying to evoke? And how can you use language to tap into those emotions?

1. Use Emotions to Generate More Money

Emotion is the biggest motivator when it comes to charitable giving. Tap into the emotions of your target audience to generate more money for your charity events. Emotions will increase the likelihood of a donation. With the right emotional triggers, you can increase your success rate. The most common ones are fear and guilt. If you can make people feel guilty for not giving to your charity, they will feel compelled to give. Another way to make people feel emotion is to tell stories. Sharing a heart-breaking story of awful injustice always brings a lot of attention. 

2. Leverage the Power of Social Media

Social media is a great tool for raising awareness for charity events and raising money for great causes. By using social media to get the word out about your event, you can bring the online community together to help support a worthy cause. Social media gives you the ability to engage your community and to spread the word about your cause. Social media can be a great tool for raising awareness and funds for your favourite charities. You can reach out to your audience and ask them to donate to your chosen charity. You can also ask them to share the message with their friends and followers.

3. Build a Bigger Audience

In today’s digital age, technology has made it easier than ever to create a successful virtual charity event. All you need is a good idea, a great team, and some hard work. Once you do all that, if anyone will search for “local charities near me”, they are most likely to see your events.  The best way to build a bigger audience is to figure out who your audience is and where they hang out. You should have a good idea of who you want to reach by this point, so go find them. The Internet allows you to reach people all over the world, but you need to know where to look. If you’re running a charity event, social media is one of the best ways to reach out to more people and get them involved.

4. Create a Long-Term Relationship with Your Donors

When it comes to charities, the most important thing is to create a long-term relationship with your donors, so you can keep them coming back and you don’t have to constantly introduce yourself to new people. If you can do that, then you can keep your business going for a long time. If you can create an event that’s fun for your customers, then they’re more likely to want to come back for more. When you’re on the fundraising trail, there’s a lot of pressure to get money in immediately. However, donors don’t like to feel that they are just a number and that you’ll forget about them as soon as you’ve got their money. The key is to build a long-term relationship with your donors, so they feel like they can trust you. Conclusion  There’s a great number of different ways to reach out to potential donors. Using our virtual fundraising ideas, you can quickly collect money for noble causes without worrying about massive lockdowns. Virtual fundraising events have lots of advantages, including the fact that they let you reach out to more people than you could have if your event was held in a local area.