Let’s be honest, a little healthy competition can be the magic ingredient for pushing a team to achieve incredible results. While teamwork and collaboration are essential, sometimes, offering an award provides a massive motivational boost, leading to better outcomes than simply asking your entire team to hit an unreasonable goal.
We believe that leveraging the right incentive prizes can take any campaign to the next level. Here are the top ways to inject motivation and energy into your team, whether you’re running major youth group fundraisers or a large charity campaign.
1. The Power of Fundraising Prizes Ideas
Small rewards go a long way toward motivating participants. You don’t need to break the bank, but if a prize helps you hit your fundraising target, the cost is absolutely worth it.
- For Individuals and Teams: If you’re managing a group of students, consider low-cost, high-value rewards. At the end of the campaign, host a special movie night or pizza party exclusively for the teams or individuals who brought in the most money. You could also hold a dedicated awards night where the top few fundraising prizes for students are trophies or ribbons, with everyone invited to bring their loved ones.
- Go Big: Instead of spreading small rewards across a large group, you might choose to offer one or two significant prizes, like a desirable gift card or a unique experience, reserved only for the very top performers.
2. Make the Mission Visible
What is the ultimate incentive for volunteers? Seeing the direct impact of their hard work. Use your organization’s network, email lists, and social media to constantly showcase the people and activities the funds support.
For example, if you run youth group fundraisers, don’t just talk about money, share compelling visuals of the activities, trips, or programs the donations make possible. Crucially, don’t limit these shares to the fundraising “season.” Post high-impact visuals year-round and encourage supporters to share them widely. A visible, emotional goal is often the best motivator of all.
3. Custom Wearables: Prizes and Promotion
Creating custom-branded gear, like t-shirts, is easy and affordable today thanks to numerous online services. These items serve multiple purposes:
- Recognition: Hand them out to all your dedicated volunteers, especially those who show up for large events like walkathons.
- Revenue: Sell the shirts online to open up an additional, year-round source of funding for your nonprofit.
- Incentive: If the budget is tight, reserve the branded items to use as incentive prizes for those who reach specific, pre-defined fundraising milestones.
4. Incentivize Social Sharing
Getting the word out has never been easier than it is today, but you have to activate your network. Don’t just rely on your official organization’s page, make sure your volunteers are posting about your work, too!
You can easily motivate volunteers to become social ambassadors by running a simple contest. Offer prizes to those who post the most engaging content or bring in the most donations via a shared link. For truly successful fundraisers, however, you must ensure your own posts are interesting, emotionally resonant, and shareable, content your followers are excited to pass along to their friends.
Fundraising can definitely be a challenge, but integrating a robust system of incentives for volunteers means your results will improve exponentially. Make sure you include the budget for rewards and prizes in your annual plan, over time, your team will look forward to the competition and work harder every year to be at the top!
