Fall
“You Create Change”: At the first meeting, give everyone on the committee or on teams a
water bottle. On each bottle, write “Relay For Life… You Create The Change.” Have all
participants collect spare change throughout the semester to place in the bottle – did you
know each bottle can hold $90 worth of dimes? At the end of the semester, hold a special
bank night to collect all of the change from participants. Consider creating a challenge with
a prize to person who brings most change!
Balloon Pop: In this variation of a traditional chance drawing, team members collect prizes
as well as donate their own goods or services as prizes. Before filling a balloon with helium,
put a note inside with the name of a prize. People donate $1 to buy a balloon and pop it to
find out what they have won. This is a great onsite activity.
Bench Press Contest: Have a bench press contest at the school gym to promote fitness and
raise money. The participant who can press his own weight the most times wins. Divide
contestants into categories. Allow women to press half of their weight. Award trophies and
charge a registration fee. Ask for donations for Luminaria and sign up new teams. This
works especially well as a fundraiser for the football team.
Car Wash: Hold a car wash in the community and charge people to have their car washed.
Host a topless car wash where the catch is that you only wash the bottom of a car; they
must pay extra to get the top washed.
Envelopes at Restaurant Tables: Teams generate donations by placing a Relay For Life
envelope at every table stating “Please Support Our Relay For Life Team and the American
Cancer Society.” Waitresses check envelopes after each seating.
Other Restaurant fundraiser: Ask local restaurants if they will have a RELAY day. Either
a percentage of the day’s earnings, or from a certain item on the menu, will go towards
your team. Your team should be on hand to ask for donations from the patrons as well as be
able to talk about the event. This works especially well with restaurants that have heavy
student traffic. Try calling this Fry Day Friday when you publicize.
Golf Tourney: Perfect for Fraternities, this fundraiser involves creating an 18-hole green
somewhere on campus. Draw a map, get registrants, and have a Sunday golf Tournament.
Check with the Administration before holding the event!
Grocery Store Bagging: Arrange to bag groceries at a local store and ask customers
to ante-up to the next dollar amount for Relay. Also make sure to include a Relay coin
canister at each register.
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Move-In Day Refreshments: On move-in day for your campus, have committee members
sell bottled water or Gatorade to students. Be sure to attach information about your
upcoming CAC/Relay meetings to recruit new members!
Winter
Baby-sitter Service: Baby-sitters are always a commodity. Send out a letter to all your
faculty members letting them know you are baby-sitting for a cause - Relay For Life.
Date Auction: This can be a popular event around Valentine’s Day. You could ask local
businesses to donate gift certificates for dinner or movie tickets.
Exam Study Breaks: Committee members or participants reserve a table at the library or
student union where students are preparing for exams. Sell snacks and drinks, especially
energy drinks, since many students will be pulling all-nighters.
Gift Wrap Service: During the holidays, check with the mall or a local store to see if they
will let you set up a table to wrap gifts in exchange for a donation. Get the paper, ribbon and
other supplies donated.
Homemade dinner: Have your team ask for donations to place their name in a drawing for
a homemade dinner for 15 friends. Invite all teams to sell tickets. For instance, if a team
sells 10 tickets at $10 each, they just raised $100 for Relay For Life.
Kiss The Pig Contest: Hold a penny war competition in a selected department at the
university. Professors willing to participate should carry around a jar and collect money.
The professor with least amount or most amounts will have to kiss a pig. For the actual
kiss, try arranging to do it during half time at a basketball game or other sporting event.
Romantic Dinner for Two: Have a drawing for a dinner that you and your team prepare,
serve and clean up. Make sure you pick a romantic setting and don’t forget the candles!
This is great as a Valentine’s Day fundraiser.
Student-Faculty Basketball Game: Set up a benefit basketball game between the
basketball team and on campus police/faculty.
Super Bowl Party: Organize a Super Bowl Party and ask everyone for a donation when
they arrive. You can also do this with other sporting events as well.
Trash Collection: Everyone knows the worst part about college (next to laundry) is taking
out the trash. Raise tons of money by going door to door collecting trash from each dorm
room. This fundraiser is great after those Saturday night parties. Ask for $2 per bag and get
the whole team to divide themselves up to cover more of campus.
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Wait Tables: Work with a restaurant that will let you designate a specific night to benefit
your team for Relay. Your team would be the waiters for the evening and would collect all
the tips as well as a percentage of that evening’s receipts. Make sure all your friends and
family eat at that restaurant during this benefit. This works especially well at pizza parlors
or hometown restaurants.
Wishing You Well: Set up a “wishing well” at a department or store with a sign explaining
that all proceeds go toward Relay For Life and a cure for cancer!
Spring
Bowling Chance: This is a great fundraiser to hold on the quad or in a high traffic area. $1
gives you the chance to throw two balls from a toy bowling set. If the participant makes a
strike, their name is entered twice into a drawing. If they make a spare, their name is
entered once into the drawing. The team is to solicit a nice prize for the drawing.
Campus Cook-out: Host this on the campus quad during or after finals to celebrate the
end of the semester. This is a great post-event fundraiser.
HOPE Billboard: Create the word "HOPE" out of 4x4 pieces of wood. Paint them purple
and charge $1 for people to put their hand prints in white on them. Then display the
billboard at your event. This is a great way to raise money fast and promote Relay For Life.
This can also be used with signatures and white wood paint pens.
Jukebox: Build a jukebox out of a cardboard box. Have a male and female singer inside and
when someone puts money in have the singers sing a tune! This is great for an on campus
singing group. They can sing all day long on the quad!
Massages: Help ease away the stress from final exams by offering massages from a
certified massage therapist on campus. Ask for donations from students or set a price.
Spring Break Bucket Challenge: Each team gets a sand bucket at a team captain meeting
before spring break. Over spring break or for set period of time, they are instructed to
collect loose change and then turn it in at the next meeting.
Taco or Spaghetti Dinner: There are a lot of places that do the standard spaghetti dinner
so why not try a taco dinner? Have a local Mexican restaurant help you with donations and
a possible location. Schools have found buffet style toppings work best for the taco
dinners.
Use Our Team Day: Auction off your team for an entire day to run errands, do chores, yard
work or laundry!
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ON LINE FUNDRAISING
Facebook Messages: Send 20 Facebook messages asking for $5 a piece and put your
fundraising site in your status updates!
Online Challenges: Consider holding various online challenges throughout your Relay
season. At the end of the challenge, highlight the team that brings in the most money.
 10, 10, 10 Challenge: Encourage teams that you want to raise another 10,000
dollars in ten days. The team to bring in the most money receives 10 pizzas
throughout the night at the Relay event.
 Holiday/Christmas Email: Email to family and friends to state that even if they
weren’t going to send a gift, they could support your fundraising efforts by sending a
check for your Relay For Life team.
 Ice Cream Party: The team that raised the most money the week before Relay gets
a special ice cream party the night of the event.
 One Week Email Challenge: Each participant is challenged to send as many emails
to family and friends as possible. The person that sends the most at the end of the
specified time receives a prize.
ON-SITE FUNDRAISING
Board Games: make a donation to play (great activity late at night!)
Carnival Games: have teams set up various carnival games as a fundraiser.
Chance Drawings: Hold a drawing for an autographed football/basketball of the top sports
team at your school, gift certificates, baskets, etc.
Dedicate a Song: Ask Relayers to donate $5 for a dedication and special song played for
the person for whom they are walking.
Jail & Bail: Pay to have someone arrested and they pay to get out of jail. For additional
money, you can buy yourself a free card for the night.
Jewelry Sale: Make homemade necklaces and bracelets to sell to family and friends. Think
outside the box: Use this opportunity to increase cancer awareness and support by using
charms or colors. Example: add a pink ribbon charm for breast cancer or purple for Relay
For Life.
Lap Tracking: Have beads in a bucket and every time someone walks a lap they chose a
bead from the bucket and add it to their string. Charge $5.00 for the string.
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Mario Kart Tournament: Ask a team to dress up as Nintendo characters and host a Mario
Kart tournament at their campsite. Make cardboard cars to sit in while playing!
Relaxation Tent: Have athletic training or massage certified students/community
members come to Relay to give massages to participants for small fee
Root beer or slushie pong
Sporting Tournaments: If facilities allow the space, set up and run a tournament of some
kind with a small entrance fee to participate. Games like whiffle ball, basketball, and tennis
work well in this situation.
Video Games: Use Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution or other video games as a
fundraiser. Students all love these games and will pay to play them.
POST EVENT FUNDRAISING
Canning Collections: Many of us have seen fire fighters in our community on a popular
street corner filling their boots with donations. Some communities sell special editions of
their local newspaper at certain times of the year at intersections around the city with
donations benefiting various charities. Why not Relay? Consider staking out a popular
intersection with signs that say…We Won’t Stop Relaying ‘Til We Reach Our Goal!
Online Campaigns:
 30 x 30 x 30 Campaign: Try to get 30 people to donate $30 each on the 30th of the
month. That’s $900 in one day! This can be done individually or as a team --- if you
have 15 members on a team, ask each member to ask 2 people for $30. Perhaps the
next month, you can do 20 x 20 x 20. Imagine the possibilities if all your teams
participated in this campaign.
 Team Challenge: Have the top fundraising team challenge the other teams to raise
another $250 online each. The teams that raise $250 or more can do something to
embarrass the other team at next year’s event, such as shaving the team captain’s
head. This same strategy can be used for the committee vs. the teams.
 $0 Raised Blitz: Send an e-mail to all participants that have $0 raised and challenge
them to send one last plea for donations. Use this opportunity to breakdown the
event goal per member (i.e. need $50/member to make our $75,000 event goal).
Also see Pre-Event and Online fundraising sections as these have ideas that you can
do after the event if you are looking to pull in some more dollars for your event!
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BE CREATIVE! Sparking people’s interest is the best way to keep them donating year
after year!
INCORPORATING MISSION INTO FUNDRAISING
“Protect Your Balls”- Dodgeball Tournament
Breast Cancer Awareness:
 Boobie Bingo – Similar to regular bingo but players are required to yell “Boobie
Bingo” when they win! During drawings for items in between games, read a
short mission moment. Prizes that seem to work well are movie baskets, Vera
Bradley, Book Store Gift Certificates, etc.
 Have a large pink ribbon for people to write names of those they are
remembering or honoring by paying a 25 cent donation then display board at
your events around campus.
Great American Smoke-Out:
 Grill Out: hand out info on GASO and quitline and sell hot dogs during busy class
time.
 Bashing Cigarettes: Get a cigarette machine donated and charge $1.00 per hit
with a mallet/hammer. Make sure participants wear safety goggles!
 Cigarette Gram: Have someone dress up as a giant cigarette gram and sing to
people until they pay $1 to stop. It is recommended you get someone who does
not have a good singing voice. You can also pay $2 to have them sent to someone
else. After they finish singing, they share a fact about tobacco.
 Butt’s In A Jar: Collect and count discarded cigarette butts before the event and
put them in a large jar with an anti-tobacco message attached. At Relay, people
can guess how many “Butts in a Jar” for a suggested donation. Award a prize to
the winner. Now it’s an educational activity, and a fundraiser!
 As a thank you for a donation, give postcards that can be sent to female friends and
relatives as a reminder to schedule a mammogram. Be sure to include information on
the importance of early detection and Relay information.
 For any food fundraisers, post signs about the importance of making healthy choices
in your diet to prevent cancer. You could also host a fundraiser selling specifically foods
that are found to be conducive to preventing cancer.