1. Bring your community together with Zoom Bingo!

A great virtual event that is easy to organise, our customer Princethorpe College gave us this great idea when their students played Zoom Bingo with care home residents to bring a little joy to an otherwise quite isolating time!

2. Virtual reunions

Many schools run annual reunions which help to spur on fundraising as alumni are engaging with their alma mater, but don’t cancel just yet! Virtual reunions are taking the development stage by storm, and proving successful and popular to connect alumni during this time.

3. Virtual giving day

If you host an annual giving day, see which parts of this you can translate into an online format. You could consider a raffle, fun activities or a pledge hour, with the highest pledge receiving a prize.

4. Set up an online store

Instill a sense of nostalgia by selling merchandise or school photos; using ToucanTech you can set up and run an online store on your alumni or main school site. 

5. Isolation challenges

Connect your students and provide them with a fun new challenge by taking on an ‘isolation challenge’. Similar to the Run5, Nominate5, Donate5 challenge that swept the UK in the early stages of lockdown, see what creative sponsorship ideas your students can come up with.

6. Create a fundraising landing page

Consider investing in a microsite or creating a specific page on your alumni site to send visitors straight to your fundraising page - and leave plenty of opportunities around the site to donate too!

7. Virtual scavenger hunt

A little more time needed to pull this one off, but it can be really engaging and drive traffic to your site! Hide ‘clues’ around your community site for participants to look for, and offer a prize to the fastest person to find all the clues!

8. Use video appeals

A great way to encourage donations is to use video appeals from staff members to remind alumni and parents of the value of giving back to their community, particularly during tough times.

9. Online careers mentoring

Offer online careers seminars or one-to-one mentoring from your notable alumni in return for a small donation to your fundraising. 

10. Invite your alumni, students and staff to take part in a birthday fundraiser

Using ToucanTech you can send an automated birthday message, which you can use to invite your community to take part in a birthday fundraiser. Using Facebook or a giving site of their choice, people can ask their own networks for donations to your school foundation as their charity of choice. 

For more tips on topics such as unusual fundraising, check out our top tips page. 

Our customers are running successful virtual fundraising campaigns all over the world. Discuss ways to build your digital fundraising strategy with an experienced ToucanTech fundraising guru; organise a time to talk to the team here.