MTGA Trails Toolkit

A list of more than 50 unique ideas for trail fundraising from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

To Help subsidize travel opportunities for students many schools try fund raising. When the students and community have had as many car washes, bake sales and chocolate bars that they can handle, it is time to get creative. The following ideas should help inspire some alternative approaches to raising money.

Many “how-to” guides focus on the mechanics of grantwriting. If you’re not sure about your writing skills, by all means take a good class. But generally it’s not that hard to write a good proposal—assuming you have a strong program to back it up. The core elements are usually the same: a summary (or abstract), statement of need, goals and objectives (keep them specific, attainable and measureable!), strategies (or methods), evaluation, bios/background and budget.

When planning your fundraising activities, you need to become familiar with the various fundraising strategies that are out there (see chart that follows) and which of these strategies are most appropriate for your particular situation. This article does not purport to dictate what strategies your organization should use in any given situation—there are exceptions to every rule in fundraising—but to suggest that certain strategies are more suited than others for certain situations or funding needs.