A scavenger hunt fundraiser is a fun, whimsical way to raise more money for your organization. It’s perfect as a standalone activity or as an add-on to another event. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to organize a scavenger hunt fundraiser to raise funds for your important mission.
There’s something magical about looking for treasure, whether you’re looking for gold or simply an item from a scavenger hunt list. But did you know that these fun activities also make for great fundraisers?
Scavenger hunt fundraisers are exciting events to help you raise money for your cause or organization. This article will walk you through everything you need to know to make your scavenger hunt successful, including the steps to organize one and some bonus tips to raise even more money.
Let’s get started!
Scavenger hunts are beloved events where individuals or groups of people set out to find items on a list. Usually, the person or team who finds the most items on the list – or finds all of the items in the shortest amount of time – wins! Scavenger hunt fundraisers feature this fun activity while raising money for an important cause.
It’s important to note that scavenger hunt events don’t just take place in person anymore – they can also be virtual and hybrid (part in-person, part online) events as well.
Typically, you’ll raise money with a scavenger hunt fundraiser by selling tickets to the event or asking for donations in order to participate, similar to a walk-a-thon. This is also a great addition to other types of fundraising events to encourage more participation!
Online fundraising is the key to making your scavenger hunt fundraiser a success. Being able to accept online payments for tickets, donations, and sponsorships will help you raise more money – and will make things way easier for you!
Donorbox has a whole suite of fundraising tools perfect to help you plan and host your scavenger hunt! Check out how Blue Water Jeep Owners’ Club raised over $9,000 with their scavenger hunt fundraiser. We love how they encouraged more gifts by making it possible to donate and determine whether or not participants could leave their Jeep tops on in the cold weather!
Depending on the type of your organization, you can capture the interest of many different kinds of people with your scavenger hunt event.
While this kind of event typically appeals to kids, you can easily make this adult-friendly by changing up the rules and items to be hunted for. You can also include all ages by making it a team event with adults and kids working together! This will help you increase your event attendance.
For example, The Friends of Governors Island made it clear that their egg hunt was open for all ages on their Donorbox Events page, which brought more people to their fun event!
This flexible activity attracts audiences of all ages and can be adapted to fit any group.
If this is your first time hosting an event like this, setting a reasonable but ambitious goal can be tricky. You don’t want to limit yourself…but you also don’t want to get discouraged if you don’t meet your goal.
Luckily, we have a resource to help! Read up about goal setting in our blog How to Set and Meet Fundraising Goals the Smart Way.
Your goal will help guide the rest of the planning process.
Before you launch into planning your scavenger hunt, it’s important to remember that your main purpose is to raise money for your organization. That’s why it’s so critical to choose the right fundraising platform!
You’ll want a one-stop shop that can help you with many different kinds of fundraising, from selling tickets and collecting donations to enabling peer-to-peer fundraising.
Donorbox has you covered with all of this and more. With comprehensive tools like –
Plus, we have tons of resources on our Nonprofit Blog, in our Library, and on our YouTube Channel to help you master every type of fundraising.
Watch this short video to learn more about getting started!
First, you’ll need to decide whether you want to host an in-person, hybrid, or virtual scavenger hunt fundraiser.
Virtual is a great option if you don’t want to spend as much upfront on your fundraiser. Plus, people can participate asynchronously, meaning you might have more attendance overall – and thus raise more money!
Hybrid has both virtual and in-person components so you can get the most participation possible.
In-person will require some extra planning and, typically, a little more money upfront to provide things like refreshments at your scavenger hunt event.
Whatever you choose, build your actual scavenger activity in a way that makes sense. For example, you wouldn’t use a list with only local items for a virtual scavenger hunt where you might have nationwide participants.
We love how this organization used Donorbox for their hybrid scavenger hunt. They sold maps marked with different shops and participants received stamps for each shop visited. Then they had an in-person giveaway!
Your scavenger hunt list will depend on a few key elements.
First, do you have a theme for your event? For example, you might have a nature or seasonal-themed scavenger hunt. Then consider your audience’s difficulty level and whether the list should be related in some way to your organization.
You’ll also need to establish rules. For example, what counts as “finding” the items? Do participants need to capture the items and present them, or can they take a picture on their phones? And, if they take a photo, does at least one member of the team need to be in it as well to prove they were there?
Make sure you create a list that is difficult enough to keep your participants engaged, but not so difficult that they feel it’s impossible.
If you’re hosting a synchronous scavenger hunt event, it’s likely you’ll raise money by selling tickets – especially if your event includes other activities.
Creating and selling tickets is easy with Donorbox Events. You can create unlimited ticket tiers to fit your needs, set a deadline for buying tickets, and set a limit for each ticket tier. This helps you plan smarter!
You can also add the option to include an additional donation on top of ticket sales, which boosts your event revenue. Plus, if donations to your organization are tax-deductible, you can note how much of each ticket can be claimed on taxes. This is what it looks like –
This incentivizes people to buy more expensive tickets, resulting in more funds for your organization.
Once they complete their purchase, they’ll receive their tickets and a receipt automatically via email – meaning your work is done.
You’ve done the planning and you have a fun scavenger hunt event ready to go. Now it’s time to get the word out!
Post about your event on social media, send targeted emails to your supporters, and consider sending an invite through direct mail for local events.
Pro tip: Peer-to-peer fundraising is another great way to share your event. With Donorbox, you can turn any campaign into a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Simply toggle on the option in your campaign and then invite your supporters by email to create their own peer campaign page and they can start fundraising on your behalf! As they share their fundraising page with their network, they raise more money for your cause and get the word out about your scavenger hunt event.
Making the most out of your scavenger hunt fundraiser means collecting donations during your event!
You can use the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app to turn your tablet and card reader into a nimble donation kiosk to accept payments via credit cards, debit cards, smartphones, and smartwatches.
Donorbox Text-to-Give is another great option for fundraising during your event! Simply enable it on your campaign and share your unique campaign ID or custom keyword. Then your guests just text the text-to-give number or shortcode to receive a link to your online donation form – where they can make their donation. When they want to repeat their gift, they can do so right through text!
To make your event even more attractive (and sell more tickets!), consider adding other fun activities. This can be as simple as setting yard games like cornhole out at your event or something more organized like musical chairs.
Peer-to-peer fundraising helps you raise more money – without doing more work.
It works especially well for scavenger hunt fundraisers because your participants can create their own peer campaign pages to raise pledges and donations for their scavenger hunt team.
Donorbox Peer-to-Peer makes it easy for you and your fundraisers! Simply invite them via email or let anyone sign up to fundraise. They’ll then receive an email with instructions and a basic campaign page that they can choose to customize with their own text, pictures, and videos. Any donations they collect will automatically flow to your original campaign, meaning you don’t have to worry about collecting funds.
This is also a great way to make your virtual scavenger hunt fundraiser go even further!
Check out this Step-by-Step Guide to Using Donorbox Peer-to-Peer Fundraising for a more in-depth look at how it works.
Raffling off high-value items is a great way to raise more money for your cause. You can choose to sell raffle tickets separately or include them in your different ticket tiers.
There are different kinds of raffles, so be sure to pick the one that makes sense for your event. You can use donated prizes to make your raffle even more of a success.
For more help, check out this article – 10 Fundraising Raffle Ideas to Raise More Money for Your Nonprofit.
If you’re hunting for a fun, easy way to raise more money for your organization or cause, look no further than a scavenger hunt fundraiser!
Scavenger hunt events are fun for all ages and can fit whatever modality you need – in-person, hybrid, or virtual. They are easy to plan and provide a lot of flexibility around fundraising. Typically, you’ll raise money by selling tickets, asking participants to fundraise for pledges, and collecting donations during your event.
Donorbox can help you every step of the way with Donorbox Events, our comprehensive ticket-selling tool; peer-to-peer functionality to boost your revenue; and many ways to collect in-person or online donations during your event.
We have tons of additional fundraising ideas on our Nonprofit Blog. Our Library is also full of free resources, including our Event Planning Checklist, to help you prepare for your scavenger hunt event.
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower