Fundraising Tips
100 Square Sale:
How it Works:
Take a piece of bristol board and use a ruler to create 100 squares and number them from 1 to 100. Sell each square for $20 for adults or $10 for youth. Once all numbered squares are sold, randomly draw a number. The person who bought the square with that number wins 50% of the earnings and the other 50% goes to your fundraising efforts. This fundraiser alone could reach your $1,000 fundraising target (or $500 for youth)!
How to Do It:
- Purchase a large piece of Bristol board and use a sharpie and ruler to draw out 100 numbered squares from 1-100.
- Reach out to your friends, family and colleagues through email and social media and ask them to support you by purchasing squares for their chance to win.
- Once all squares are sold and funds are collected, you can then draw for the winning number. You can either notify the winner by email/phone or you can create some excitement and draw for your winner during a Facebook or Instagram Live.
- The person who purchased the square with the winning number from your draw will win 50% of the earnings. You can then manually donate the other 50% to your fundraising page.
- Be sure to send a thank you to all those who participated!
How it Generates Funds:
Each donor can pick a square for $20 (or $10 for youth). Once all squares are sold you will have raised $2,000 (or $1000 for youth). Your donors can pay via cash or e-transfer.
Donate Your Commute/Coffee:
How it Works:
With many people continuing to work from home, they are saving the money they would usually spend on commuting, take-out lunches, and coffees. Reach out to your social networks and ask them to help you with your fundraising efforts by donating their monthly/weekly commute cost (money for gas, parking, public transportation, etc.) or even the estimated amount they would usually spend on coffee or take out lunches.
How to Do It:
- Reach out to your networks through email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to let them know your reason to Ride and why it’s so important to you.
- Ask your donors to consider donating the money they would spend on their commute, lunch, or coffee towards your Ride.
- Be sure to send a thank you to all those who participated!
How it Generates Funds:
Instead of spending money on their commute, take-out lunches, or coffee, your network donates to your Ride page. We recommend mentioning that all donations $10 and more will generate tax receipt.
Virtual Q & A
How it Works:
You invite your family, friends & colleagues to join you and a special guest for a Virtual Q & A session.
How to Do It:
- If you have a notable figure in your network, ask them if they’d be willing to host a Q & A session for you and your network to help with your fundraising efforts.
- Pick a convenient virtual meeting platform like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Skype.
- Pick your date and time.
- Spread the word via email and social media and encourage people to attend by making a $25 donation to your page.
- Be sure to thank all those who participated!
How it Generates Funds:
If you have a minimum donation of $25 and 40 people (or 25 people for youth) in attendance, you will have hit your $1000 goal (or $500 goal for youth).
Virtual Dares
How it Works:
Announce to your family, friends and colleagues that you will be doing fun dares every night for a predetermined amount of time in order to raise funds for your Ride efforts. Who wouldn’t want to see their friend doing something silly and fun for a great cause!
Examples: shaving your head, singing in public, wearing a crazy outfit to your next zoom meeting, or dying your hair.
How to Do It:
- Choose your dare and pick the minimum donation amount (recommended $20/person).
- Pick your goal amount for each dare. For example, “Once I raise $100, this dare will be completed. “
- Spread the word to your family, friends, and colleagues through email and social media about the dare and your goal for that dare.
- Ask anyone who wants to see you complete this dare to donate via your Ride page.
- Once you reach your goal for that dare you, take a photo or video of yourself doing the dare and share with your supporters.
- Be sure to thank all those you participated!
How it Generates Funds:
Ten dares with a goal of $100 will get you to your fundraising goal $1000.
Virtual Class:
How it Works:
Are you skilled in yoga, photography, cooking, crafting, dance or any other hobbies? Why not host a virtual class and have an entry fee in the form of a donation?
How to Do It:
- Prepare the content for your class and include the date, timing and cost
- Choose your virtual meeting platform (Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams)
- Create an invitation
- Reach out to your network through email and social media to announce and promote your class. Let people know why you’re riding and ask them to join you in your fundraising efforts.
- Those interested in virtually attending can pay the $20 fee to your fundraising page
- Be sure to thank all your participants!
How it Generates Funds:
At $20/person, if you have 40 in attendance you have raised $400 towards your fundraising goal.
*Alternative – A professional can be recruited to host the class, which could make it an exclusive event and you can raise your price point even higher.
Swag Sale
How it Works:
We know you have supporters who would love to cheer you on every pedal of the way! Why not create some t-shirts for them and have the proceeds go towards your fundraising goal?
How to Do It:
- Purchase swag items like t-shirts or hats. We recommend starting with a small amount, around 20 pieces, to determine how much interest you have. For example, a plan t-shirt costs around $7 at Walmart or Michaels.
- You create the custom design on your computer and set your selling price. We recommend $25/t-shirt.
- Once your design is ready, all you have to do is print it off and apply it to the swag item with a Cricut machine or an iron-on transfer set (both can be bought at Walmart).
- Promote your swag item to your network through email and social media and sell them for $25 each with proceeds going to your Ride fundraising efforts.
How it Generates Funds:
If you sell all 20 swag items at $25 you will raise $500 towards your fundraising goal.
Craft Sale
How it Works
Are you a crafter? Why not turn your hobby into cash by selling your crafts in return for donations to your Ride fundraising efforts
Examples: Soap, Candles, Wreathes, Pickles, Jam, Knitted Items, Painted Rocks
How to Do It
- You reach out to your network via email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram notifying them that you will be making crafts
- Provide a list and pictures of the crafts you’ll be making in return for donations, each craft will be a different price point, we recommend keeping them above $10 each
- Once the donations have been received via fundraising page, cash or E-transfer
- Arrange deliver or pick up
How it Generates Funds:
It is up to you to decide how much you want to charge your crafts but it’s always a good idea to have a minimum donation amount. It’s recommended that you go no lower than $10. For example, if you sell candles at $15 each and sold 10 of them you would raise $150 for your Ride.
Extra Vacation Day Raffle
How it Works:
If you are a corporate team or have the ability to grant vacation days, why not raffle off an extra day of paid vacation?
How to Do It:
- Choose the number of tickets you need to sell and for how much
- Choose how long you want to run the raffle for.
- Create a link on the company/employee website to allow employees to easily purchase tickets virtually.
- If COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and you are back in office, purchase or print off raffle tickets to be sold within the office.
- Send out an email to all employees at your organization to let them know where they can purchase their tickets, what you are raising the funds for and why. Don’t forget to let them know the date and time of the draw will take place.
- On the day and time of the draw, bring all staff who purchased tickets together (virtually or in person) to announce the winner.
- Once the winner is announced, send out another email to thank all of those who participated.
How it Generates Funds:
If you sell 500 tickets at $20/ticket you will have raised $10,000 towards you team fundraising goal.
Bake Sale
How it Works:
Use your baking skills to create desserts to sell to your friends and family in exchange for donations to your Ride!
How to Do It:
- Reach out to your network and let them know about your fundraiser and ask for their support.
- This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends, families and colleagues, or simply picking up the phone and calling your contacts.
- When you reach out, make sure to tell them what you’ll be baking, how they can get their baked goods (either pick-up or delivery – it’s up to you!) and what it’s going towards.
- When you know how much to bake, turn on the oven and start baking!
- Once your baking is complete, let your donors know that they’re ready. It’s up to you how your donors will receive them.
- Will they be picking them up from your house? If so, it may be a good idea to take cash donations with an off-line pledge sheet and have donors give you their donations when they come to pick them up.
- Will you be dropping it off? Ask your donors to donate directly to your page prior to you dropping the baked goods off.
- Once when all the baked goods are with the donors, make sure to thank them (through social media/email/phone calls)!
How it Generates Funds:
It is up to you how to decide how much you want to charge for your baked goods but it’s always a good idea to have a minimum donation amount. It’s recommended that you go no lower than $10. For example, if you sell cinnamon rolls for $20 a batch and sold 20 batches you would generate $400 towards your fundraising goal.
Plant Sale
How it Works
If you have a green thumb, you can nurture plants and then sell them in return for donations
How to Do It
- Start off by purchasing your supplies, 100 large solo cups, potting mix, mixed seeds (flowers & veggies). This is just a recommended starting point, you can choose a larger quantity.
- Four to six weeks before you want to start selling your plants, start the planting process indoors.
- To make your fundraiser extra engaging, you can document your process on social media to generate interest. This will help keep your sale top of mind with your supporters.
- Once your plants are ready to be sold, announce to your networks that you are now ready to sell plants starting at a certain date. All funds raised go towards your Ride fundraising efforts
How it Generates Funds:
If you sell 25 potted plants at $10/each, you would raise $250 for your Ride. Remember to vary your prices depending on the type and size of the plant.
*If selling in person, Riders should have an Off-Line Donation sheet.
Virtual Raffle
How it Works:
Donors make a donation to your Ride page and the dollar amount determines how many entries into the raffle they get. You then do a draw and provide the prize(s) to the winner(s).
Examples: gift cards, scratch and win lottery tickets, paintings, artwork, woodworking pieces, metal working pieces, etc.
How to Do It:
- Decide what you want to raffle, your ticket pricing (see below), and what the timeline is for your raffle.
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform, sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know. Make sure that your potential participants know what they could win, what the ticket to donation ratio is, and when the raffle will be drawn.
- When your timeline comes to a close, it’s time to do the raffle! Put all the names of those who qualify into a hat/box/container and draw the winner(s).
- Coordinate with the winner(s) on how they will get their prize(s).
- Make sure to thank everyone who participated!
How it Generates Funds:
Participants are interested in winning the raffle prize and they donate directly to your page in order to try and win it. You generate funds by listing a ticket price when you reach out to your network and donors donate accordingly.
Let’s assume you’re ticket price is $20 donation/one ticket and you’re raffling off a painting you made and a $50 gift card to a restaurant. The table below breaks down how much this can raise:
| How many tickets sold | How much it raises for your Ride |
| 10 | $200 |
| 20 | $400 |
| 40 | $800 |
| 60 | $1,200 |
Virtual Poker
How it Works:
Set up a virtual poker game. Participants donate to your Ride page in order to participate, play, and then contribute their buy-in to the winner(s)!
How to Do It:
- Determine the entrance fee. We recommend starting at $20.
- Determine the buy-in that will be going towards the prize money ($20 is typically a safe bet).
- Figure out what date you want the game to be on and the online poker platform you plan on using.
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know. Make sure that your potential players know the entrance fee, the buy-in, and the date.
- Once when a participant donates the entrance fee to your Ride page, send them over the online poker information.
- When the day of the poker game arrives, simply play the game!
- Make sure to thank everyone for participating and scout the room and see if this is something they’d like to do again!
How it Generates Funds:
The entrance fee is a donation to your Ride page.
These types of poker games could be a weekly/monthly fundraiser for your Ride efforts. If you have a full “table” (around nine people) for each game played you would get $160/game.
Virtual Games Night
How it Works:
Host a game night with your network! Participants donate to your Ride in order to participate, play, and then contribute the prize money to the winner(s) pot.
Examples: BINGO, Jeopardy, Trivia, etc.
How to Do It:
- Determine the entrance fee. We recommend starting anywhere from $10 to $20.
- Determine how much each participant has to contribute to the winner(s) pot. Starting between $10 – $20 is typically a safe bet.
- Create the game! There are lots of pre-made templates online that are free.
- Determine which virtual hosting platform you’ll use to host the games night (Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams)
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform, sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know. Make sure that your potential players know the entrance fee, the winner(s) pot contribution, the game to be played, and the date.
- Once when a participant donates the entrance amount to your Ride page, send them over the virtual hosting platform information.
- When the day of the games night arrives, simply play the game!
- Make sure to thank everyone for participating and scout the room and see if this is something they’d like to do again!
How it Generates Funds:
The entrance fee is a donation to your Ride page. We recommend it to be between $10-$20/person.
Flamingo Flock
How it Works:
Reach out to your network and mention that you plan on surprising a friend by “flocking” their yard by setting up a large quantity of plastic flamingos (or other similar lawn ornament) and ask for donations.
How to Do It:
- Get the lawn ornaments online, at a store, or at a rental company. You’ll want a lot of them in order to make the surprise even more hilarious!
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know. We recommend not using social media posts as that could ruin the surprise to the person being “flocked.”
- In secret, set up the lawn ornaments on the individual’s yard. Make sure to leave a note to let the individual know who flocked them and how they can get rid of all the lawn ornaments you’ve placed on their yard!
How it Generates Funds:
Your network donates to your page in order to see someone get flocked.
There are a few ways you can customize this fundraiser as well.
- You can charge a small removal fee to the individual who got flocked. They have to donate to your Ride page in order to get the flock removed. We recommend a $10-$20 donation minimum.
- You can allow the individual who got flocked to get revenge. They have to donate $50 to get you to remove the flock and then set them up on another person’s lawn of their choosing.
- Know of someone’s birthday, anniversary, or other special occasion coming up? This can be a fun way to recognize it!
If you had 30 flamingos and your network donated $10/flamingo, you could get $300 each time you flocked someone.
Neighbourhood Clean-Up
How it Works:
Clean up your community of litter in return for donations!
How to Do It:
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know.
- Do the community clean up!
- Make sure to post photos and mention how much you cleaned up during your fundraiser and to thank all those who donated to your page.
How it Generates Funds:
Donors support your fundraising by going to your Ride page and making a donation. As an alternative, you can set a minimum donation for you to clean up a specific location at their request. If it is a large area you may want to set the minimum at $100 or even greater. We recommend making any minimums $20 or above.
Green Bin Clean
How it Works:
Clean your neighbors’ green bins and in return get donations to your Ride page!
How to Do It:
- You’ll need a truck/trailer in order to get the green bins from the donor’s house to your cleaning location. Alternatively, ask your donors if you can do the clean on their property.
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know.
- Once when you’ve received a donation, add them to the list of green bins to be cleaned!
- Start cleaning!
- Make sure to thank all those who participated.
How it Generates Funds:
In order to get their green bin cleaned, donors have to donate to your page. We recommend having a minimum donation amount of $40. Below is a breakdown of how much you can raise using this minimum:
| Bins Cleaned | Amount Raised |
| 5 | $200 |
| 10 | $400 |
| 15 | $600 |
| 20 | $800 |
| 25 | $1,000 |
Matching Gifts
How it Works:
Offer a matching gift to increase the impact of your donor’s donations!
Examples: personal, employer, or team matching gifts
How to Do It:
- Decide how you want to arrange the matching gift.
- Establish a time line for the matching gift fundraiser and how much you will match up to.
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know.
- Honour the match and announce to your network.
How it Generates Funds:
For example, if your employer has a $500 matching program, you only need to generate $500 worth of funds from your friends and family and your employer will cover the rest!
Virtual Wine Survivor
How it Works:
Wine Survivor is a pool where participants donate to your Ride page, provide a bottle of wine, and have a chance to win all the bottles of wine if they make it to the end.
How to Do It:
- Iron out all the details of your Wine Survivor, like donation amount, minimum cost of the bottle of wine, and any customizations (see below).
- Once when you’ve got all the details in order, reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for them to participate. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know.
- When all the participants have donated to your Ride page, it’s time to begin! Put down all the names of the participants on separate pieces of paper and place it into a hat. Each day draw a name and that individual is eliminated.
- Continue drawing names from the hat each day until there is only one name left. That participant is the Sole Survivor and the winner of Virtual Wine Survivor.
How it Generates Funds:
See below for a breakdown of how much you can raise based off of the number of participants when there is a $20 minimum donation in order to play.
| Number of Participants | How much you’d Fundraise |
| 20 | $400 |
| 40 | $800 |
| 60 | $1,200 |
There are a few ways you can customize your Virtual Wine Survivor. These options are listed below:
- Immunity: Provide participants the opportunity to have Immunity, which provides them safety from being eliminated in the next name draw. Immunity is given to a participant if they make a minimum donation to your Ride page (we recommend $10).
- Multiple Winners: If you have a large group participating, you can decide to have multiple winners. This gives participants a higher probability to win something and may incentivize even more people to be a part of it, which in turn generates more funds for your Ride.
- Gift Card compared to Wine: Instead of asking each participant to donate a bottle of wine, you could provide gift cards to the winners. This lowers the amount of time spent on getting and delivering the bottles of wine to the winner.
Virtual Performance
How it Works:
Do you have a hidden talent? Why not perform for your potential donors on your favorite social media platform and ask for donations in return.
How to Do It:
- Determine which virtual hosting platform you’ll use to host the performance (Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams)
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends, family, co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know.
- Sent out the virtual hosting platform information to all those who are interested.
- Do the performance!
How it Generates Funds:
Ask everyone who attends to donate a minimum (we recommend $20) to your Ride page. If you have 20 people spectate you’ll raise $400 for your Ride.
Special Occasions
How it Works:
Ask your network to donate to your Ride page instead of buying a gift for you on a special occasion.
Examples: birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, etc.
How to Do It:
- Reach out to your network and let them know of your fundraiser and ask for their support. This includes making posts on your favorite social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), sending out emails to your friends/family/co-workers, or simply picking up the phone and calling everyone you know. Make sure to provide your Ride page information to everyone you reach out to!
How it Generates Funds:
Instead of giving you a gift for a special occasion, your network donates to your Ride page. We recommend mentioning that all donations $10 and more will generate tax receipt.
Note: Please keep in mind that the fundraising platform on Facebook cannot contribute to your Ride for Cancer fundraising efforts. Please use the fundraising page provided to you when you completed your Ride registration.
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