I just got off the phone with someone asking for Unique Fundraising Ideas and it got me thinking about whether there really were unique fundraising ideas or had most every idea been done before.

I probably should have just answered the question but decided to pursue the conversation with the caller to see what they were really looking for. It turns out they were not so much looking for a unique fundraiser as they were looking for something different than what the believed every other fundraising group in their town was selling.

So we talked about that. At the time she know other groups holding cookie dough fundraisers and promoting candy fundraising so she knew she did not want to do those. So we talked about unique fundraising ideas that she had not considered.

Interestingly she had never considered something like a flower bulb fundraiser. In fact when we talk to people about good fundraisers for the spring and fall we oftentimes suggest flower bulbs because they are competitively priced, relatively inexpensive and attractive products. Besides, more and more people like the idea of healthier fundraising and there is certainly nothing unhealthy about flower bulbs.

We continued the conversation and discussed some online tools that sound good but rarely deliver the outcome one would expect. We talked about the different options of fundraising products that could be sold. In that conversation we touched on lollipop fundraisers using seasonal shapes that made them unique to the time of year.

At the end of the conversation the woman decided on a flower bulb fundraiser but I came to realize that there may not be many truly unique fundraising ideas left. If you have any to share I’d love to hear about them.