Top 80 Christmas Fundraising Ideas

1. Christmas Wreath Sale

The classic for a reason. Fresh evergreen wreaths are something people already buy every December, they carry a real margin, and a presale model removes almost all the risk. Order forms go out in late October, orders close in mid November, and wholesale wreath farms ship in time for a single pickup day in early December. Margins differ a lot between programs, so compare the share of each sale you keep before you commit to a supplier rather than assuming a standard markup. A simple upsell like a hand-tied velvet bow or a matching door swag lifts the average order without any extra selling effort.

Two details separate smooth wreath sales from stressful ones. First, lock in your wholesale supplier by early fall, because good farms sell out their fundraising allotments. Second, plan the pickup day like an event: a drive-through lane, alphabetized orders, and a few strong volunteers turn hundreds of wreaths into a two-hour job.

2. Poinsettia Presale

Partner with a local greenhouse, take orders through November, and deliver the plants in time for holiday decorating. Offer two or three sizes at simple prices instead of a long list of options, because easy choices sell faster. Poinsettias do especially well wherever people gather in December anyway: after church services, at school concerts, and in office lobbies. Many buyers take several, one for home and a few as gifts for teachers, neighbors, and coworkers, so print that suggestion right on the order form.

3. Christmas Tree Lot

This is the big swing of Christmas fundraising. A tree lot needs real money up front, a visible location, netting and twine, night security, and a rotating volunteer crew for most of a month. In return, few December fundraisers have a ceiling this high, which is why some groups have run the same lot for decades and why regular customers come back to the same corner every year.

If it is your first season, start smaller than you think you need, because unsold trees on December 24 are pure loss. Order a conservative number, sell hard the first two weekends when demand peaks, and arrange a fallback with your supplier or a mulching partner for whatever remains. Add a stand of wreaths and garland near the checkout, since tree buyers are in exactly the right mood to grab one more thing.

4. Fresh Garland and Greenery Bundles

Garland sold by the foot is an easy add-on to a wreath or tree sale, and it also stands alone well. People want it for mantels, staircases, porch railings, and storefronts, and many tree farms sell offcut greenery in bulk for very little. Bundle it with pine cones and a sprig of holly, offer standard lengths so pricing stays simple, and let customers order by the doorway or railing they want to cover rather than doing math in feet.

5. Personalized Ornament Sale

An ornament with a name or a year on it stops being a decoration and becomes a keepsake, and keepsakes sell at keepsake prices. A volunteer with a vinyl cutter or a friendly local engraver can personalize plain ball or wood-slice ornaments for a small cost per piece. Schools and teams can add a logo version that families collect year after year, which quietly turns a one-time sale into an annual tradition with a built-in customer list.

6. Holiday Candle Fundraiser

Candle companies run ready-made fundraising programs where your group keeps roughly half of every sale, and winter scents make December their strongest season. Sellers carry a small catalog or share an online shop link, supporters order gifts they were going to buy anyway, and the company handles production. If you have makers in your group, hand-poured candles in simple jars with a tag naming your cause earn even more per candle, just test your wicks and scents well before you take real orders.

7. Advent Calendar Sale

Advent calendars have one hard rule: they must be in buyers' hands before December 1, so run this as an early November sale with a firm order deadline. Chocolate calendars from a wholesaler are the simple version. The creative version is a local advent calendar, where 24 nearby businesses each donate a small daily offer or treat and you sell the calendar itself, which gives shops exposure and gives you a product that costs almost nothing to produce.

8. Gift Wrap and Ribbon Presale

A catalog classic that still works because most households run short of wrapping paper in the second week of December. Take orders in October, deliver in November, done.

If a catalog company feels dated, buy quality rolls and ribbon wholesale and sell simple bundles at pickup tables after games, services, and concerts instead.

9. Holiday Cards From Kids' Artwork

Have children draw a winter or Christmas scene, scan the drawings, and print them as packs of folded cards. Parents buy them, grandparents buy more of them, and aunts and uncles round out the order. Several print services cater to schools and will handle the whole pipeline from scan to shipped pack, or a local print shop can run it for less. The younger the artist, the better these sell, and the original drawing makes a nice bonus gift when the cards are delivered.

10. Cookie Dough Fundraiser

Cookie dough is a strong seller all year, and December is its natural peak, because half the neighborhood is baking anyway and a tub of ready dough feels like help rather than an obligation. Time delivery for the second week of December so the dough arrives right before holiday baking begins, and plan a freezer-friendly pickup day since the product cannot sit in a gym overnight. Our complete cookie dough fundraiser guide covers suppliers, margins, and the whole order-form playbook.

11. Peppermint Bark and Holiday Candy Boxes

Peppermint bark costs little to make in volume, looks beautiful in a simple box with a ribbon, and sells itself as a hostess gift or a teacher gift. A church or community kitchen crew can produce trays of it in a single afternoon; just check your state's cottage food rules before selling homemade treats, or use a wholesale candy supplier if the rules are strict where you are. Sell boxes at every December gathering you already have, and take preorders for people who want several. For more food ideas that sell well, see our list of food and snack fundraising ideas.

12. Hot Cocoa Bomb Sale

Cocoa bombs are chocolate spheres filled with cocoa mix and marshmallows that melt open in hot milk, and kids ask for them by name. Sell them in packs of four with flavors like classic, peppermint, and caramel. Test your recipe until the shells release cleanly from the molds, then film one melting for your promotion, because that short video does most of the selling for you.

13. Gingerbread House Kit Sale

Families love decorating gingerbread houses and hate baking the walls. Sell the solution: a kit with pre-baked panels or graham crackers, icing, and a candy assortment, packed by your volunteers from bulk supplies. Price it below the fancy store kits and above your cost of goods, and offer a pickup window the first weekend of December. Kits pair naturally with a gingerbread competition later in the month, so many groups sell the kit and the contest entry together as one bundle.

14. Christmas Bake Sale

The format everyone knows, dressed for December. Frosted sugar cookies, gingerbread people, fudge, peppermint bark, and quick breads sell fastest, and holiday packaging does more for the price than the recipe does: cellophane bags with ribbon, small boxes of assorted cookies, and tins that look like a gift someone can hand straight to a teacher or neighbor.

Two decisions make the difference. Set the table where December foot traffic already exists, a concert lobby, a market, a church coffee hour, rather than hoping people make a special trip. And price by the box, not by the cookie, because a six-dollar gift box moves faster than a stack of one-dollar singles and takes less volunteer time at the table. Check your state cottage food rules for what home kitchens are allowed to sell. Our complete bake sale guide covers pricing, labeling, and table layout in detail.

15. Holiday Merchandise Presale

Branded fleece blankets, beanies, hoodies, and ornaments with your team or school logo, sold on a presale order form so nothing is printed before it is paid for. Families buy these as actual Christmas gifts, which means the fundraiser rides on a budget they had already set aside.

Run it through a print-on-demand or bulk supplier who quotes you a per-unit cost, set your price above it, and close orders early enough for delivery before the holidays, usually meaning a deadline in the first half of November. Keep the design range small. Three good items are easier to sell, easier to sort on pickup day, and easier to hit a supplier minimum with than a catalog of twelve.

16. Holiday Gift Card Fundraiser

Supporters buy gift cards at full face value for stores they were already shopping at in December, and your group keeps a rebate paid by the retailer. Nobody spends an extra dollar, which makes it one of the easiest asks of the season, and grocery and fuel cards keep earning long after the holidays if you continue the program into the new year.

The catch is volume and administration: rebates per card are modest, so this works when many families participate and when someone reliable manages the ordering and pickup schedule. Compare programs carefully, since retailer participation and the percentage you keep vary by provider and change over time.

17. Breakfast With Santa

Pancakes, cocoa, and the man himself. Breakfast With Santa is one of the most reliable family events in fundraising because the ticket buys something parents genuinely want: a relaxed Santa visit without a mall line. Sell tickets in advance for timed seatings, roughly ninety minutes each, so the room turns over and Santa is never mobbed. A volunteer photographer, a small craft table, and a cocoa topping bar all raise the value without raising the cost much.

The single most important booking is Santa. Find someone patient and genuinely good with nervous toddlers, confirm the date in writing early in the fall, and have a backup suit and a backup Santa. Everything else about this event forgives improvisation. That part does not.

18. Santa Photo Night (and a Pet Photo Hour)

A photo with Santa at a fair price, no theme park crowd, and the money goes to a cause people know. Set up one well-lit corner with a simple backdrop and an armchair, book families into short time slots, and deliver photos digitally the same evening so there is nothing to print unless people pay extra for prints.

Then add the hour that often sells out first: pets. Dogs in Santa hats are the happiest chaos in fundraising, and plenty of owners will pay more for that photo than for their own. Schedule pet sessions in a separate block, put down floor protection, and keep a volunteer on treat duty to point snouts at the camera.

Leave the corner standing after the sessions end and it becomes a self-serve photo booth for the rest of the event: a box of hats, antlers, and oversized ornaments, a printed sign with your donation link and hashtag, and a jar. It earns quietly for hours without a single extra volunteer.

19. Christmas Market or Holiday Bazaar

Rent tables to local makers and crafters, sell your own booths of wreaths, baked goods, and crafts alongside them, and charge a small entry donation at the door. The table fees alone can cover your costs before the doors open, which means everything your own booths sell is profit. Book vendors in October, because good crafters plan their December weekends early, and promise them real promotion in return for the fee.

Layout matters more than people expect. Put food and cocoa near the entrance so the room smells like Christmas, spread your own booths through the hall rather than clustering them, and tape down every extension cord before opening. A kids' corner with a simple craft buys parents an extra half hour of shopping time, and that half hour is where the money is.

20. Community Tree Lighting Night

If your town square or campus has a big tree, the lighting of it can carry a whole evening: carolers, cocoa and treat sales, a short program, and a countdown. The event itself is usually free, and the money comes from three places: business sponsorships of the night, concession sales, and light or star dedications sold in the weeks before. Partner early with whoever controls the space, since power, permits, and the tree itself are the slow parts.

21. Christmas Concert or Carol Night

A choir, a band, a school music program, or just brave volunteers with song sheets. Ticket the seats or make entry free with a freewill offering, whichever fits your crowd. The quiet earner most groups miss is the printed program: local businesses will pay for a greeting or an ad inside it, and on a good night that page of ads can rival what the door brings in. End with an audience singalong. It costs nothing, it sends people out warm, and a warm room is an easier room to make one last ask in.

22. Holiday Movie Night

A projector, a classic Christmas film, pajamas encouraged, cocoa and popcorn for sale. Charge per family rather than per seat and it becomes an easy yes for parents.

One non-negotiable piece of homework: showing a film publicly requires a public performance license. The US Copyright Office is explicit that a movie shown for entertainment needs clearance or a license, and that the classroom exemption covers face-to-face teaching rather than a fundraiser night (Copyright Office FAQ). Pricing depends on the title and the licensor, so request a quote early, keep the paperwork, and pick your movie from the licensed catalog.

23. Gingerbread House Showdown

Teams pay an entry fee, build in a set time window or at home, and bring their houses to be judged. Then you earn twice: display every entry in a lobby or hall for a week and let the public vote with dollars, one dollar per vote, any house, as many votes as they like. Categories like Best Kid Build, Most Ambitious Collapse, and Judges' Choice keep it friendly. Leave the builds and the jars up for the rest of the week, because the voting, not the entry fee, is where this one earns.

24. Christmas Cookie Decorating Workshop

Bake plain sugar cookies in bulk beforehand, set tables with icing bags and sprinkles, and sell tickets that include a dozen cookies, a box to carry them home, and cocoa while decorating. It works as a kids' afternoon or as an adults' evening with better music and harder icing challenges. Keep an eye on food handling rules for your area; our bake sale guide covers the kitchen, labeling, and pricing details that apply here too.

25. Wreath Making Workshop

Buy greenery, frames, wire, and ribbon in bulk, then charge per seat for a guided evening where everyone builds a wreath to take home. The materials for each wreath cost a fraction of the ticket, one confident instructor can lead thirty people, and the event photographs so well that next year's session sells itself. An adults-only version with cider or mulled wine raises the ticket price further, provided your venue holds the proper license and confirms it in writing.

26. Winter Gala or Snowflake Ball

The formal end of the spectrum: a ticketed dinner with music, a program, and usually a silent auction running along the walls. A gala takes months of work and real upfront spending, and in return it raises more in one night than most groups raise in a season, mostly through sponsored tables sold to businesses rather than individual tickets. If this is your scale, start with our guide to charity event ideas and the playbook in big-money fundraising ideas before you book a venue.

27. Live Nativity Night

A staged nativity with costumed volunteers, a narrator, carols between scenes, and if a local farm is willing, a donkey and a few sheep that children will remember longer than anything else that month. Run it outdoors over one or two evenings with free entry and donation stations at the exits, plus a cocoa stand doing steady business to the side. Confirm animal handling and insurance details with the farm ahead of time, and have an indoor fallback plan for hard weather.

28. Drive-Through Christmas Lights Show

Turn a fairground loop, a long parking lot, or a farm lane into a lights route and charge per car. Families stay warm, the format works in almost any weather, and capacity is huge because the audience never leaves their vehicles. Sell timed-entry tickets online to prevent a backup at the gate, and sell the route itself: local businesses sponsor sections or arches with a sign bearing their name, which can fund the whole display before the first car arrives.

Start with a modest route and grow it annually. The groups that do this well treat the display as an asset they add to every year, and by year three the show has a reputation that does the marketing for them.

29. Gift Wrapping Station

Set up a wrapping table where the shopping already happens: a bookstore, a mall concourse, a busy local shop that likes the foot traffic. Charge per gift with a simple size-based price list, keep a tip jar out, and let the store donate the space as their good deed for the season. Ask paper and ribbon suppliers, or the store itself, to donate materials so nearly every dollar is profit.

This is a perfect shift-based fundraiser for sports teams and youth groups, because a crew of four can run a table, the skill is learned in ten minutes, and cheerful wrappers in team gear earn noticeably better tips. Book the two weekends before Christmas first, since those are usually the busiest wrapping shifts of the season and the hardest dates to claim.

30. Letters From Santa

Parents fill out a short order form with their child's name, age, a proud moment from the year, and one wish, and your volunteers turn those details into a warm, personalized letter from Santa that arrives by mail in early December. Handwritten envelopes and an old-fashioned stamp make it feel real. Price it modestly, offer a sibling discount, and set a firm order deadline in late November so every letter lands before the big day.

31. Video Calls With Santa

The upgrade to the letter: a live five-minute video call where Santa knows the dog's name, mentions the lost tooth, and asks about the exact wish list. Parents book a time slot and submit the details in advance, and one great Santa with a decorated corner and good lighting can do a dozen calls in an evening. Families with relatives far away often book a second call so grandparents can watch, so make gifting a call an option at checkout.

32. Christmas Light Hanging Crew

Plenty of homeowners want lights and want nothing to do with the ladder. A trained adult crew can book installation jobs by the house, with the customer supplying or buying the lights and your team supplying the labor, clips, and patience. Keep it strictly to single-story rooflines, porches, bushes, and yard trees, use waivers, and confirm your group's insurance covers the work before the first job. Offer January takedown at booking for an extra fee, since the customer who did not want to climb a ladder in December will not want to climb one in January either. Booked that way, it hands you a second fundraiser after the holidays with no new selling.

33. Tree Delivery and Setup Service

Partner with a local tree farm or your own lot and sell the part customers dread: getting the tree home and standing straight. A flat delivery fee, a little more for carrying it inside and into the stand, and a truck crew of three can clear a full Saturday route. Older customers in particular will book year after year, and many tip well beyond the fee.

34. Caroling Grams

Sell the delivery of a short carol performance to a doorstep, an office, or a restaurant table, booked by friends and family as a surprise. A quartet, two songs, a candy cane, and a card naming who sent them. Sell time windows rather than exact times so one group can route a whole evening efficiently, and keep a phone-call version on the price list for long-distance senders and brutal weather.

35. Parents' Shopping Night Out

Three or four hours of supervised games, pizza, and a movie for the kids while parents shop, wrap, or simply sit in a quiet restaurant. Charge per child with a sibling discount, cap enrollment at a number your space and crew handle comfortably, and require preregistration with emergency contacts and allergy notes. Every adult volunteer should be background-checked and the adult-to-child ratio generous, because trust is the entire product here, and a smoothly run night sells out the next one by word of mouth alone.

Do one piece of homework before you advertise it. States regulate the care of other people's children, and the rules can reach short one-off events, sometimes covering staff screening, training, and first aid. Some occasional programs qualify for an exemption and some do not, and exempt programs can still carry health, safety, and background-check duties (Childcare.gov explains how licensing and exemptions vary by state). Ask your state child care licensing office where your event falls, and confirm the coverage with whoever insures your organization.

36. Holiday Errand and Delivery Elves

A December errand crew: gift pickups, package returns, grocery runs, standing in the post office line so someone else does not have to. Take bookings by task with suggested donations rather than rigid prices, and quietly waive the fee for seniors who need the help but not the bill. It raises money and goodwill in the same trip, and the goodwill pays off in every future fundraiser you run.

37. Holiday Pet Sitting and Dog Walking

Travel season leaves pets behind, and boarding fills up fast. Responsible teens and adults from your group can offer drop-in feeding, walks, and overnight checks, booked through one coordinator with a meet-and-greet before any job is confirmed. Clear written instructions from the owner, a daily photo update, and a backup sitter for every booking keep it professional. Pet owners are loyal customers; do this well once and next December books itself.

38. Candy Cane Grams

A candy cane and a handwritten note, bought for a dollar or two and delivered to a friend's homeroom during the last week before break. The whole fundraiser is a sales table at lunch and one delivery morning. The detail that makes it painless: sort the grams by homeroom as they are sold, not on delivery day.

39. Holiday Grams With Delivery

The deluxe version of the candy cane gram, with a small menu: a cocoa packet, a mini ornament, a candy bundle, or the premium option, a short song performed at the recipient's desk by volunteers who committed to the bit. Tiered prices lift the average sale, and the song tier becomes the thing the whole school talks about.

40. Santa's Secret Gift Shop

For one or two days, a classroom becomes a tiny store where kids shop for their family with their own few dollars, helped by volunteers who guide choices, keep budgets in envelopes, and wrap every purchase in secrecy. Stock it from wholesale and dollar-store suppliers with items priced from one to ten dollars, so every child leaves with something for mom, dad, or grandma that they chose themselves.

The margins are modest by design; the real return is that this becomes the school event parents mention for years, and it carries a book fair's worth of goodwill into every other fundraiser on this list. Send budget envelopes home a week early so parents can plan, and keep a quiet fund so no child leaves empty-handed.

41. Student Holiday Craft Sale

Art classes spend November making simple sellable pieces: painted ornaments, clay dishes, cards, bookmarks. Then the work goes on sale at the winter concert, priced simply, with proceeds split between the art program and the wider cause. Parents are the most motivated buyers on earth for this inventory, and the students get the experience of seeing strangers pay real money for their work.

42. Class Ornament Project

Each class designs one ornament for the year, produced in a batch and sold to that class's families as the annual keepsake. Keep the youngest grades in the program rather than only the polished older ones, because a kindergarten fingerprint reindeer is the ornament grandparents order in multiples.

43. Classroom Carol-Off

Every class rehearses one carol and performs it at a December assembly, and families vote for the winner with dollars in each class's jar. The singing costs nothing, the rivalry between grades does the promotion, and the jars stay out all week so grandparents can vote too. Crown the winners loudly and let the trophy carol close the assembly.

44. Ugly Sweater Day

Students and staff pay a small fee for the right to wear their most glorious holiday sweater, with a lunchtime contest and a tiny prize. Costs nothing, takes one announcement, and works just as well in offices; companies run the same fundraiser for charity every December. The same pass mechanic powers a pajama day on the last morning before break, and running both turns the final week into a small spirit season of its own.

45. Door Decorating Contest

Classes, hallways, or office departments pay an entry fee to decorate their door, and then the public voting begins: a jar by every door, votes cost a dollar, heaviest jar wins. The competition between rival classrooms does your promotion for you, and the jars, not the entry fees, are where the money is, so keep voting open all week and put the doors where parents walk past them. Announce a couple of sly award categories at the end so more than one door gets to win something.

46. Hot Cocoa and Cookies Stand

A thermos army at the pickup line, the winter game, the tree lighting, anywhere cold people stand around. Cocoa costs cents per cup and sells for a dollar or two, and a toppings bar of marshmallows, crushed candy canes, and whipped cream turns a cheap cup into a premium one. Our list of concession stand items has more high-margin additions if the stand becomes a regular thing.

47. Teacher Elf Challenge

Set a school fundraising goal with milestones, and attach a consequence teachers agreed to in advance: the principal teaches a class in an elf costume, the strictest teacher leads a carol singalong, the gym teacher gets tinseled. Post a progress tracker in the hallway and watch the last milestone get funded by students alone. The stunts cost nothing, and the photos carry your promotion into next year.

48. Christmas Basket Raffle

Build themed gift baskets from donated items: a family movie night, a home baking spree, a cozy evening, a coffee lover's dream. Display them somewhere with foot traffic for two or three weeks, sell tickets by the strip, and draw winners at your December event so the baskets go home as ready-made Christmas gifts.

The basket themes decide how many tickets you sell, so spend your creativity there and let local businesses each own a basket with their products and name on it. Our fundraising basket ideas list has more than a hundred ready-made themes to borrow from.

49. Festival of Trees

Businesses and community groups each sponsor and decorate a full tree, the public pays a small admission to walk the glowing forest, and at the end of the run the trees are raffled or auctioned off, decorations included. It is one of the most beautiful events in fundraising, hospitals and large nonprofits have built signature traditions on it, and a modest version with ten trees in a community hall still earns from three directions at once: sponsorships, admissions, and the final sale.

50. Business Tree Decorating Contest

The lighter cousin of the festival: local shops pay an entry fee to decorate a tree or window in their own storefront, and you publish the map of entries. Shoppers follow the trail, vote for their favorites online or with donation jars, and the winning business gets bragging rights and a plaque. The chamber of commerce is a natural partner, since the whole contest is also a downtown foot-traffic campaign.

51. Advent Countdown Raffle

Sell numbered calendar tickets in November, then draw one winner every day from December 1 through 24, with prizes donated by supporters and businesses. Every ticket stays in the drum all month, so a single ticket can win more than once, which makes the daily winner posts genuinely fun to follow. Line up your 24 prizes before selling anything; our raffle prize ideas list makes that part fast, and groups that like this calendar format can also borrow the pick-a-date mechanics from our cheerleading fundraising page.

52. Online Holiday Auction

Run a week-long online auction of donated items and experiences, and close it by mid-December so every winning bid can still become a Christmas gift. That deadline is the whole trick: bidders are not just supporting you, they are finishing their shopping. Gift-ready items, local experiences, and anything handmade do best. Our silent auction guide covers platforms and logistics, and the silent auction item ideas list will fill your catalog.

53. Holiday Dessert Auction

After a community dinner or concert, auction donated desserts live: grandma's cheesecake, a legendary pecan pie, a tower of decorated cookies. A funny auctioneer and a little friendly rivalry between families can push a single pie to astonishing numbers, and everyone goes home with dessert and a story.

54. Christmas Bingo Night

Holiday bingo with donated gift baskets and wrapped mystery prizes instead of cash, cocoa and bake sale tables along the wall, and a family-friendly pace with themed rounds. Charge per card pack at the door. Note that bingo counts as a game of chance in most states even without cash prizes, so confirm your local rules the same way you would for a raffle.

55. Christmas Trivia Night

Teams pay to compete through rounds of holiday movies, songs, traditions around the world, and one ruthless round about the actual lyrics of carols everyone claims to know. Add a dessert auction or, where permitted under your state's raffle rules, a 50/50 drawing between rounds. Our complete trivia night fundraiser guide has the pricing, scoring, and question playbook.

56. Holiday 50/50 Raffle

Mechanically the simplest add-on in this section: sell tickets at any December event, split the pot with one winner, and announce the draw before the night ends. It bolts onto concerts, bingo, dinners, and games without needing prizes, donors, or storage.

Legally it is the least simple idea on this page, so read this part twice. Do not assume a 50/50 drawing is allowed just because your organization is a nonprofit. Some states prohibit cash-split raffles outright, some allow them only for specific licensed organizations or narrow exceptions, and some require a minimum share of proceeds to go to the charitable purpose, which a fifty-fifty split cannot meet. Check your state gaming or charitable gaming authority, and complete any registration before you print a ticket or advertise the draw. And if the answer is no, do not assume another raffle format is automatically fine. A donated-prize raffle may fall under a separate set of rules in your state, so check that format on its own terms before you switch to it.

57. Holiday Cork Pull

For adult events: gather donated bottles of wine, bag them so labels are hidden, and sell numbered corks at one flat price, each cork matched to a mystery bottle. A few clearly better bottles in the mix keep it exciting, and it tends to clear out early at galas and ugly sweater parties. Alcohol prizes are regulated in many places, so confirm the rules with your venue and state before running it.

58. Giving Tuesday Campaign

Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, opens the year-end giving season, and millions of people show up to it expecting to donate somewhere. Your job is to be a clear, specific somewhere: one concrete goal, one story about what the money does, and a donation page ready before Thanksgiving week. Line up a matching donor for the day if you can, schedule your emails and posts in advance, and report the result publicly within a day, because that report is the first ask of your December.

Treat it as the opening move, not the whole campaign. The groups that win December use Giving Tuesday to find their audience, then keep talking to that audience through the year-end appeal. A comparison of donation tools is in our fundraising platforms guide.

59. Year-End Giving Appeal

The last week of December quietly matters. For gifts to qualified charitable organizations, a contribution has to be actually paid before the close of the tax year to be deductible for that year (IRS guidance), and plenty of donors act in exactly that window. If your group is a team, club, or informal school effort rather than a qualified organization, the season still works in your favor, but do not describe gifts as tax deductible unless you have confirmed that they are. Send a short, honest letter or email built around one person or one need, name a specific goal, and make the giving link impossible to miss. A progress bar helps more than any clever writing; you can build one in minutes with our free fundraising thermometer. Then send the one follow-up most groups skip, the December 30 reminder, and thank everyone by name in the first week of January.

60. 12 Days of Giving Challenge

Twelve days, twelve small daily goals or spotlight stories: fund the art supplies on day one, the team's travel on day two, and so on. Daily wins keep supporters checking back, and small targets feel achievable in a way one big number never does. Prepare all twelve posts before day one, because improvising daily content in December is how campaigns quietly die on day five.

Stretch the same idea to a full advent run if you have the material: twenty-four doors on your site or feed, most of them giving something back with a story, a thank-you, or a photo, and only a few of them asking. A daily rhythm earns attention that a single December email never will, though it only pays off if the content is written in November.

61. Matching Gift December

Find one donor or local business to match every gift up to a set amount, and suddenly every ask you make this month says the same powerful thing: your dollar counts twice. Announce the match at the start, update the total publicly as it fills, and celebrate loudly when it is met. Remind supporters to check their own employers too, since many companies match employee donations and most people never ask. Employer programs set their own eligibility rules, including which organizations and which kinds of gifts qualify, so point people to their HR portal rather than promising a match you cannot guarantee.

62. Holiday Business Sponsorship Packages

The most overlooked money in December sits with local businesses that may still have community-giving or marketing funds available, and the earlier you ask, the better your chances. Instead of asking five businesses for five separate favors, build one page of tiered packages: a title sponsor for your tree lighting or concert, mid-tier logo placement on programs, banners, and the giving page, and a small tier for a mention in the printed program or a sign at one table.

Write each tier as what the sponsor receives, not what you need, and put the audience size in plain numbers you can actually stand behind. Then make the ask in October, before many businesses lock in their holiday promotions and charitable commitments. One sponsor conversation can be worth more than a month of volunteer hours, which is why this belongs beside the bake sale rather than instead of it. Deliver what you promised, send photos afterward, and next year the conversation starts with a yes.

63. Pick-a-Date Christmas Donation Calendar

A December calendar where every square is a dollar amount: give a dollar on the 1st, twenty-four on the 24th, or claim whichever days you like. Supporters cross off the dates they are taking, and the grid fills up in public as a progress board. It works on paper on a hallway wall, as a printable in an email, and as an image people share in group chats.

The appeal is that small numbers feel painless while the full board adds up to a serious total, and unclaimed dates create their own gentle pressure. Set a clear deadline, name the goal, and take payment through one link so nobody chases cash. Groups that like this format can build the grid with the pick-a-date mechanics on our cheerleading fundraising page.

64. Christmas Giving Tree With Donation Tags

A decorated tree in a lobby, church hall, or shop window hung with paper tags, each printed with a need and a price: forty dollars for a night of shelter, fifteen for a book, five for a warm hat. Visitors take a tag, give that amount, and hang the tag back on the tree with their first name, so the tree slowly turns into a visible record of what the community funded.

This is the fundraising cousin of the gift-collection giving tree, and it is worth keeping the two apart in your announcements so nobody arrives with a wrapped present when you needed dollars. Ask a busy host to keep the tree in a warm, staffed spot, refresh the tags weekly, and post a photo of the finished tree in January with the total written on it.

65. Virtual Giving Catalog

Turn your needs into a gift catalog: fund a shelter animal's week, a student's art kit, a family's holiday meal, each with a price and a picture. Donors pick an item in someone's honor and send a printable card announcing the gift, which makes this the answer to every "what do I get the person who has everything" conversation in December. It works especially well for nonprofits with tangible, explainable costs.

66. Holiday Peer-to-Peer Challenge

Give your supporters their own fundraising pages and a festive December challenge to rally around: walk 25 miles by Christmas, do 12 workouts in 12 days, read holiday books aloud for pledges. Each participant brings their own circle of friends and family, which is how a small group reaches hundreds of new donors in a month. A leaderboard and a small prize for the top fundraiser keep the energy up through week three.

67. Text-to-Give Moment at Holiday Events

At every concert, lighting, and dinner you run this season, put a giving keyword and number on the screen or the program and take sixty seconds to ask from the stage. The ask lands while the room is still warm instead of days later in an inbox, and removing the gap between feeling and giving is the whole point of the format.

68. Virtual Cookie Decorating Party

Sell tickets that include a pickup cookie kit, then host a video call where everyone decorates together with music, prizes for best and worst, and grandparents joining from three states away. It is the rare online event people actually describe as fun afterward, and the kit model means revenue arrives before the event even starts.

69. Jingle Bell Fun Run

Bells tied to every pair of shoes, Santa hats and full costumes everywhere, and the sound of a hundred runners jingling down a December street. The distance is beside the point; the atmosphere is the product, which is why a short family-friendly course is usually the smarter choice over a competitive distance. Charge registration, add a costume contest and a cocoa finish line, and invite businesses to sponsor mile markers.

Under the tinsel it is still a run, which means permits, insurance, a marked route, and volunteers at every turn. Our walk-a-thon and fun run guide covers all of that mechanical side, timelines included.

70. Ugly Sweater Party

A ticketed evening built around one glorious dress code, with a contest, festive snacks, music, and a photo corner. It scales from a youth-group cocoa party to an adults' night at a local venue, where drinks stay entirely under the venue's own license. Cheap to run, easy to promote, and the photos advertise next year's party for free.

71. Reindeer Flocking

One morning, a herd of plastic reindeer appears on someone's front lawn with a sign explaining the cause. The flocked family pays a donation to have the herd moved on, and pays a little extra to choose whose lawn it lands on next. Friends target friends, the herd tours the neighborhood all month, and you can even sell "flock insurance" to anyone who wants to keep their lawn reindeer-free. Keep it opt-out friendly and good-natured, and the whole town follows the herd on social media.

72. Holiday Grouch Grams

Pay to send a green holiday grouch, played by your most committed volunteer, to grumpily deliver a candy cane and a scowl to a friend, a coworker, or a favorite teacher. The comedy writes itself, recipients immediately buy one for someone else, and the whole thing runs on one costume and a delivery schedule.

73. Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt

Map the best-decorated houses in town, sell the route as a per-car entry with a checklist of things to spot, and crown a people's choice house at the end. Homeowners opt in happily for the compliment, a hardware store will usually donate the winner's prize for the mention, and families get a ready-made evening out of it. Run it across a whole week so every car chooses its own night.

74. Community Christmas Cookbook

Collect the recipes your community is actually famous for, the casserole from every potluck and the cookies people ask about by name, with each contributor credited. Presell copies in November, print in early December, and watch people buy three because their own name is inside. A holiday-only edition stays useful for years and reprints cost little once the layout exists.

75. Christmas Karaoke Night

Holiday songs only, entry at the door, and a price list that does the comedy for you: pay to jump the queue, pay to request a duet, and the crowd can pool money to retire a song for the rest of the night. Somebody will pay real money to end an endless carol, and that is the moment everyone remembers.

76. Lights of Love Memory Tree

Supporters dedicate a light on a special tree in honor or in memory of someone, for a suggested donation, and each dedication is recorded in a book or displayed on cards beside the tree. Hold a short lighting ceremony where names are read aloud, with carols and cocoa afterward. Hospices and hospitals have run this for decades because it gives grief somewhere warm to go in December, and families return to the same tree every year.

Get the details right: names spelled correctly, a quiet way to submit dedications privately, and a follow-up card telling each donor their light is shining. Those small courtesies are the entire fundraiser.

77. Luminary Night

Sell luminary kits, a paper bag, sand, and a candle or LED, and pick one evening when a whole street, campus, or park path glows with them at once. Each luminary can carry a name or message. The photos are extraordinary, neighbors join in simply because it is beautiful, and the setup is one afternoon of kit assembly.

78. Memorial Ornament Sale

Offer engraved or hand-lettered ornaments bearing a loved one's name, to hang on a community remembrance tree, take home, or both. Many families order one every year and tell you it is the most meaningful thing they buy all season.

79. Sponsor a Star on the Community Tree

Sell named stars or tags displayed on your big tree or a lobby wall, with sizes or placements at different giving levels, families near the base and businesses up top. It pairs naturally with a tree lighting night, gives every donor something to point at all month, and comes down in January ready to be sold again next year.

80. Tribute Giving Page

A simple online page where anyone can give in honor of a person, with an e-card sent to the honoree or their family announcing the gift. Launch it in December, when honoring people is on everyone's mind, and it quietly keeps working every birthday, anniversary, and memorial for the rest of the year. Of everything in this section, this one costs the least and lasts the longest.