How to Motivate Children to Fundraise WITHOUT Prizes

Use These Five Ideas to get Students Excited about Fundraising

For years, schools have executed successful fundraiser by awarding prizes as incentives for students to raise money. Sometimes however, prizes are not financially available or students do not desire the available prizes.

The good news is - it’s entirely possible to motivate children to fundraise without product-related rewards. Try using one or more of these five ideas:


1. Focus on the end-goal. Have your students remember what the money is going towards. Is it going towards the school itself, a special cause, or a new playground? If you make the goal real and show what it takes to reach, students will be more likely to engage in reaching it.

2. Hang “thermometer” posters in the hallways and classrooms to directly track progress. Not only does this directly show how much your team has made, but it inspires the students to reach the top of the thermometer.

3. Show inspirational videos. Is your fundraiser for a specific cause or charity? Showing videos related towards the cause make it even more real. If possible, bring in a guest speaker who represents the charity or cause you're raising money for. If it is not cause-specific, you can still show other inspirational videos that show how positive action and giving can go a long way.

4. Slime the top-selling students. While this might sound ridiculous, this activity creates a lot of hype between the students. It's almost as if students dare each other to do their best at fundraising (and calls for a celebratory school wide slime-ceremony)!

 

5. Create a no homework pass for a day to the top selling student. Rallying students around the idea of no homework often has exponential effects.