10 Valentine’s Day Fundraising Ideas
For most nonprofits, Valentine’s Day is a small fundraising opportunity, but if you plan it right, you could raise some funds and grow deeper connections with your audience.
Here are a few simple and impactful ideas you can use to design your Valentine’s campaign. These ideas are more powerful if they are done with the mindset of peer-to-peer fundraising and consistently done every year to claim the day. The same way Salvation Army is associated with Christmas or UNICEF with Halloween.
- Partner with a local florist
Make sure the florist is the best in the city. Nobody wants to buy wilted flowers for their lover on Valentine’s day. Partner with them on a special bouquet or gift basket and negotiate a portion of the sales to go to your cause.
2. For the love of fresh air
This is for companies or nonprofits whose core goal is to promote environmental rights. On Valentine’s day, you could plant trees or flowers to express your love to the rest of the world, to show you care that the environment they live in is clean & crispy.
3. Email campaign
This is the commonest and most effective method of campaigning but is not a stand-alone as it has to be incorporated with other channels for maximum impact. If you don’t have the budget for a story-teller campaign video, you can use a series of designed posters that highlight your cause.
Remember to plan your message arc
One-and-done messaging isn’t a campaign. A proper email marketing campaign will have a minimum of 4 emails:
- A launch message
- AT LEAST one inspirational second appeal
- A last-chance email
- A thank you/ update messages
4. Custom Valentine’s Day Greetings
Have a local celebrity or staff member record personal messages of love for people that donate to the cause you’re trying to fundraise for. It creates a ripple effect because the donor will share it on their social media platforms and inspire others to give so they too can get such a message.
5. Love spell bake sale
For nonprofits who skill girls/women in baking confectionery goods can put up a sale at a local bakery store or partner with a supermarket with a percentage of the profits benefiting your nonprofit. Go ahead and offer pre-orders for larger orders to bring in more funds!
6. Host a wine tasting evening
Wine is one product that moves fastest during Valentine’s day. Partner with a restaurant to host a wine tasting evening on that day or the weekend leading to it and have a percentage go towards your cause.
7. Small Acts, Big Changes
You can go fun on this one and suggest it to single people. You could design a poster that says;
“Have no Valentine’s date?
Baby Grace is asking if you’re still available this 14th.”
As an act of kindness, ask them to volunteer to babysit on Valentine’s day. I bet they’d love it.
Find a way to incorporate what your nonprofit does and create a fun and engaging campaign that people will actually want to participate in. Protip: Valentine’s day is actually on a Monday, so you’ll probably want to do this on the weekend.
Remember, fundraising isn’t the only option for engaging supporters.
8. Premium e-Cards
Create branded thankyou ecards to send out to your donors. They too want to feel loved and appreciated on a day like this. The fastest and easiest way to do this would be through your newsletter.
9. Recite a poem
You know the “roses are red, diamonds are blue” poem? Most common poem used on Valentine’s? I know many charities and social enterprises that educate children. An idea would be to write them a love-themed poem they can recite and the video sent to your donors. Poems are another item besides flowers and chocolate that are warmly received on Valentine’s day.
10. Storytelling films
Many have played around with the themes, “Will you be mine?” “Say it with 5 dollars” to nudge donors and supporters to contribute to the cause. Others have gone the extra mile to redefine what love really is by showing, not telling.
Check out this powerful Valentine’s 2018 campaign by Join One Love.
So, those are my simple ideas. I hope they inspire you to do even better and have your audience grow closer to you this February. Get to planning right away and if you need an upper hand in producing the best campaign, reach out to us today.