Unique Fundraising Ideas - Servathons

Unique Fundraising Ideas - Servathons

Unique Fundraising Ideas

Unique fundraising ideas are often difficult to find.  One of the most unique and best fundraising ideas is the Servathon. 

Servathons are one of the best school fundraising ideas and are highly effective fundraisers, especially for your millennial students, staff and families.  What are Servathons?  And maybe more fundamentally, who are millennials and why are they important to your school fundraising?

Millennials include not only many of your middle school and high school students, but also include many of your staff and younger parents.  Knowing how they think and the qualities they value are highly important in designing fundraisers that attract their engagement.

Millennials are those amazing young people who love to get behind causes that are bigger than themselves and help other people.  They are the largest living generation in our country today.  Because of this, you need to know what motivates them and how to best engage them in your school.

Servathons – One of the Best School Fundraisers With a Cause

The best school fundraisers with a cause are those that serve other people, especially those who are less fortunate.  But can you combine a service-focused event with a major fundraising opportunity?  Yes.

One of the best types of cause-focused fundraisers is the servathon.  In a servathon, your students and families raise money from their friends and family network who are supporting them as financial sponsors.  Think of a walkathon model – but instead of walking around a track, they spend a half day doing hands-on service projects to help others who are less fortunate. 

In a servathon, students do a variety of service projects.  Projects can include going to nursing homes (to sing for the residents and give them manicures and pedicures), delivering cookies to local fire and police departments, handing out food in soup kitchens, organizing clothes in rescue missions, doing cleaning and fix-up projects for elderly and shut-ins – plus a variety of other projects to help people.

In addition to helping people, your students learn valuable lessons about gratitude, selflessness, serving, giving and generosity.  One of the greatest benefits of a servathon is not the people your students have helped, but the life-changing impact it has on the students who’ve helped others.  Those who serve actually benefit much more deeply than those they serve.

Servathons are attractive, especially because they give your students a chance to have a local impact in their community.  Donors also tend to give more generously to a servathon than other fundraisers because, like your students and their families, your donors’ hearts also connect at a deeper level.

Unique Fundraising Ideas

In summary, servathons are one of the best school fundraisers and one of the most unique fundraising ideas available to schools today.  The service-aspect behind servathons engages the hearts of your students, their families, your staff and teachers, your local media – and most importantly, your donors. 

Your millennial families want to be part of something meaningful that helps make the world a better place.  Servathons help meet that deep desire to make a difference and help other people in a way that is truly significant.  Are servathons one of the best school fundraisers for millennials?  Based on engagement levels and fundraising results, the answer is a resounding yes.