Fundraising Event Ideas for a Hospital

What are some good hospital fundraising event ideas your local hospital can use? There are plenty of events other hospitals have used in their fundraising programs that have been quite successful. No doubt that some of them would be successful for your hospital too. This article will give you some ideas.

The first thing you should do to raise funds for your local hospital is to think about people, businesses, and organizations that are local. They can do the most to help you.

Here are several other organizations which may be willing to assist in your fundraising efforts:

• Prominent area businesses who would appreciate the publicity
• Local churches, which already have a lot of support in the community
• Friends and family members - especially for marathons or other events
• Your local newspapers, televisions stations, and radio stations

You might be surprised how much donations will increase if you can also get your local mayor, state senator or representative, or even local United States Congressman to speak at an event, urging donations.

Many hospitals and other organizations that use fundraisers have great success with auctions. One advantage of using an auction to raise money for your hospital is it can be done alongside of other events. You could have a fundraising dinner and a charity auction on the same night run as either a silent auction, a voice auction or even both!

If you want to use an auction to raise money for your hospital, you will want to plan for it well in advance. It takes time. You might find that a lot of businesses are willing to donate items you can auction off. You just have to ask someone in charge. Businesses might donate free meals, radios, televisions, and even computers. Some might have artwork to donate. They might be willing to donate just to help your hospital out. They might be even more willing to donate if you tell representatives of the organization that you will publicize where the items being auctioned off came from. Even though they might be willing to help just because they believe in your hospital, the free publicity offered will not hurt!

.Some hospitals or other organizations auction off a dinner with a well known person in the community, or a hospital official. Other organizations auction off such a person as a "slave" for the day. Such an auction sometimes makes a lot of money for the charity involved.

If you can auction off something a little unusual, you will have even more of a chance of raising big money. Such things could be a behind the scenes tour of a local attraction, the chance to meet the cast of a local play, or the chance to meet stars from your local college or professional sports team.

Another option is to hold a raffle. Local businesses may be willing to help you if you want to hold a raffle for a television or a car, by allowing you to place pictures of the items you are raffling off next to counters with the chance for people to donate. You can start by contacting the HR Department or administrative offices of local businesses, asking for their help. The businesses might even donate things for you to sell.

Whoever heard of having a garage sale to raise money for a local hospital? Some hospitals do raise money successfully that way. You never know how many friends, neighbors, and even businesses will donate items for sale.

For example, restaurants might donate coupons for free meals that you could sell, at a discount, to those at the sale. The customer would get a cheap meal, and you would make money for your hospital. Computer stores might donate computers and appliance stores might consider donating overstocked stereos, or televisions. How many people who work for your hospital would donate items to sell? You could also sell lemonade and have a bake sale during the event. A youth group might even donate the items to sell at no cost to you. All money raised would be profit. In addition, consider having a jar where people can donate additional money. You just need someone willing to ask a whole lot of people to help because they believe in your hospital.

Do you know a large building you could use for free for the garage sale? If so, you will make even more money. If not, the cost of renting a building will have to be considered when you consider how much money you would like to raise.

If space is an issue, why not try selling the same items on an Internet auction based site? You could get the items to sell the same way that you would for a garage sale. Just make certain everyone knows the money raised is going for your hospital.

Make sure you send press releases about your garage sale to local radio stations, television stations, and newspapers. Advertise it on your hospital's website. Tell everyone who works at the hospital to invite friends.

Some of your employees may have friends or relatives that work for an employer who will match their charitable contributions. Encourage them to get their friends to take advantage of this by giving to your hospital. You could even advertise this in the community, so others could give the same way. Who knows how much money you could raise?

If you want to raise money through entertainment, there are a lot of fundraising ideas out there. Money can be raised through house parties, in which friends, neighbors, family members, and others donate to the hospital. Your hospital could host a gala night, in which guests at a fancy party could donate. No doubt a lot of money could be generated through a music theme night, with music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, or 80's. If you know talented people, they could perform a rock, country, or some other kind of concert to raise funds. You could host an Oscar party and charge admission to watch the Academy Awards on a big screen television. You could host a party in honor of the premiere or finale of a favorite television show or a marathon movie or television night, charging for admission to see favorite shows and more money if a favorite phrase is spoken. If you know the people with the talent to be involved in one of these shows, they might be willing to help you plan the event.

If you want to generate funds using food, you have a lot of options. You could sell all types of pies, cakes and pastries, donated by a local restaurant, to generate funds. You could host a spaghetti dinner at a local school, church, or other large meeting place and raise a lot of money if you find just the right organization to cooperate.

In conclusion, your best hospital fundraising event ideas may be those other hospitals have used successfully in the past.

According to the article on brighthub.com, The Latest Fundraising Trends, by Jean Scheid, the days have long since past in which one can raise money for his charity by just sending children door-to-door, selling candy. Instead, charities have to find ways of money that make money, without costing too much.

If you have hospital fundraising event ideas, feel free to leave them in the space below.