Fundraising Ideas for Nonprofits

Do you need to raise money for a charity or movement?

People around the world are raising money everyday for programs and organizations that they are passionate about. Are you wondering how you can start fundraising for your organization, or are you looking for a unique way to begin your organization's fundraising, why not try custom challenge coins?

Challenge coins have been popular in the military, and among police officers and firefighters for years. More recently, the business world has discovered the benefits of using custom coins to recognize company achievements and commemorate milestones.

Today, many small clubs and charities are discovering the benefits of custom challenge coins to raise funds for their profit and nonprofit organizations. Challenge coins are a simple way to showcase your organization's logo or mission in a memorable way.

In order to use custom coins as fundraising items, you would need a provider that you can depend on to supply you and your organization with the highest quality custom coins available. Signature Coins has been making custom challenge coins for fundraising efforts for the last two decades.

Let’s discuss some of the best ways to begin fundraising with custom challenge coins.

Every charitable organization wants to receive contributions. But very few have a strategy, to ask their donors for an appropriate gift or donation. Many charities today have come to use giveaways or gimmicks to ensure a successful fundraising event. Whether your goal is to respond to a current event, raise money for a specific program or generally support your cause, custom challenge coins can be a valuable and memorable promotional tool.

Now may be the best time to drive your charity or organizations message through custom challenge coins. Most people do not view challenge coins as a promotional item but are actually seen by many as a token of value, or symbol of membership.

The key to asking for donations

It’s been a tumultuous year and in the coming weeks and months, successful requests for charitable donations will need to be embedded in larger messaging efforts with the sentiment of mutual support, empathy, and solidarity. For most non profit organizations and charities this approach should not be temporary: As the country deals with ever-greater personal loss and stress, charitable organizations can no longer do business as usual.

Fundraising is a cornerstone of running a nonprofit.

Nonprofit organizations and charities are always looking for new ways to keep their message relevant and their supporters involved and engaged. In order to provide services, programs and support, these organizations need funding, donations, grants and more. The money these organizations need to accomplish their goals have to come from somewhere, and one of the easiest sources is through fundraising.

The line between supporters and the supported charities will grow closer and closer over time. All of us can use a little help, and all of us will need to do our best to provide help to others.

Here are some current donation statistics from Qgiv.com:

• 60% of millennials donate an average of $481 to nonprofits each year.
• Nearly three out of four young adults are willing to raise money on behalf of an organization that matters to them.
• The average American supports 4.5 charities.

So how can you use challenge coins to best achieve your fundraising goals ?

Branded materials serve the dual purpose of getting the organization’s name, mission and logo out in front of people while also ensuring a professional appearance. Companies today give away pens, mugs, bracelets and t-shirts like they’re Halloween candy. The more unique your message, the better a unique item will serve to reinforce your message. Because of the perceived value of custom challenge coins, not only do they work great to capture people’s attention, they also make for a solid fundraising item.

Most people already have your basic fundraising items and would only buy another one for the novelty of it, and chances are they aren’t willing to spend much more than $5 - $10. You may have even seen the popular use of a tote bag, mug or umbrella for raising donation funds. Most people have these items, and although they may want to donate funds to your charity, those items may end up in a pile somewhere in their attic or garage.

We make creating custom challenge coins easy!

But we would prefer you hear it directly from other customers 😉

Fundraising with challenge coins

Custom coins make an outstanding fundraising item for many organizations. Challenge coins are a borrowed tradition from the military, but even when used for other purposes they still carry their intrigue and are coveted by many. The beauty of a challenge coin is in its customizability. We have made a ton of unique designs for different organizations, and making your coins match or support your messaging will help establish an identity for the organization or event.

Our custom challenge coins are plated with precious metal and have a high-level of detailed craftsmanship. These custom coins are worth so much more to those that receive them. People remember the story of how they first received their coins or what it may have taken to obtain one.

When looking for donations or creating your funding kits, challenge coins can allow you to increase the range of your donation ask. As a quick example if you are fundraising on kickstarter or gofundme for your project and are looking for levels for your backers. You can easily ask for a pledge of $15 - $25 per coin. If you would like to add a small presentation upgrade, or display case, you can then ask for a pledge of about $25 - $45. This is just one example of how you can easily and quickly make back any expense of ordering your custom coins as well as a great profit to put towards your funding.

Custom challenge coins always start a conversation, so you can bet the word of mouth will carry. More and more people will hear about your cause, from the actual donors and patrons that support you. People love to talk about an award they received while supporting a worthy cause they believe in. Similar to an exclusive club, custom coins can make your donors feel like they are part of something bigger.

Make your fundraising message clear

In order to optimize your fundraising efforts, it's important that you make your fundraising ask clear and mention it several times throughout your messaging. If you are using challenge coins for fundraising, it helps to make it clear that your organization would like to thank your donors and give them something in return. We suggest referring to them as “Donation Rewards”, “Contribution Coins”, “Donor Awards” or the like. This will help the donor feel like they are part of a larger change or group. Similar to the custom coin they are awarded, they will equate their donations as a long lasting and highly valued contribution.

Sometimes a charity may need to get clever with their messaging to stand out amongst the many great causes to give to. This is where challenge coin options can really stand out.

Using a custom shaped coin in the shape of a fish could work well if your non-profit organization is trying to bring attention to wild fish preservation. If you want to make your custom coins more useful to prospective donors, you can turn them into bottle openers or keychains. Making them into something people will want to use or carry with them every day.

When it comes to getting attention with fundraising coins, size options are a great place to start. We have seen 3D challenge coins at the larger size, approx 3.5 inches or larger, fetch $30+ on their own, at a cost of approximately under $10 each. With great messaging, many people would be willing to donate $40 to $50 for a lifelong award to commemorate their support to a great cause.

Amazing challenge coins don’t have to be large. Our team of artists have designed thousands of coins for over 20 years and we know a well-designed coin will certainly be a meaningful keepsake at any size.