Fundraising ideas for big money: the formats that raise thousands, not hundreds

The best fundraising ideas for big money have one thing in common: they put a large ask in front of people who can say yes to it. A cake sale asks two hundred people for £3. A gala pledge asks the same two hundred people for £100, £500 or £5,000, and gives them a reason to say yes in front of each other.

I’m Kevin Durham, a charity auctioneer and event host. I work 60 to 80 events a year and have helped raise over £10 million for charity. This guide ranks the formats that raise thousands, not hundreds.

What counts as big money in fundraising?

Big money in fundraising means an event or appeal that nets thousands or tens of thousands for the charity after costs, not one that grosses a big number and keeps little of it.

Net is the only figure that matters.

Every fundraising idea has a ceiling: how many people you reach, times how much you ask each one for. Raise both and the total jumps.

A raffle shows the problem. Under the event raffle rules, you can spend up to £500 of proceeds on prizes and sell tickets only at the event, while it is happening. It’s a fine add-on, but every ticket is a small ask.

Which fundraising ideas raise big money?

The fundraising ideas that raise big money are built around large individual gifts. Here is how the main formats compare.

Most of the great fundraising ideas on long online lists sit in that bottom row. Use them as extras around a big-money format, not instead of one.

The gala: a live auction, then a live pledge

A gala is the format I see raise the most: a room of willing supporters, a whole evening, then the ask. Balls, concerts and boxing nights work the same way. The ticket covers the evening, and the money is made in the room.

The order is everything. Run a short, sharp live auction of around 10 strong lots, not the 50 to 100 that some commission-based lot suppliers roll in with. Then go straight into a live pledge, where every guest can give at a level that suits them.

The pledge is where the real money lives. At a Jigsaw Trust gala, the charity expected £14,000 from the live auction. The auction made £27,000, and a live pledge they had not even planned for added another £30,600. That was a powerful team behind a powerful charity.

In Monaco, I hosted a single-evening gala that raised over €1,000,000. The work started long before the night: which lots, in what order, and a structured pledge. On the night, it was about keeping a multilingual room’s energy up. My guide to European galas covers events like it.

The pledge has a tax advantage too. HMRC says a payment at a charity auction is a purchase, not a gift, so a winning bid usually carries no Gift Aid. A pledge is a donation. If the donor is a UK taxpayer and signs a declaration, the charity can claim 25p on every £1. For the full planning checklist, see my gala guide.

How does a major-donor dinner raise big money?

A major-donor dinner raises big money by inviting a few people who could each make a large gift, telling them about the cause over a meal, then asking.

The money is out there. The Charities Aid Foundation estimates that people with at least £1 million in investable assets gave £7.96 billion in 2023. The British public as a whole gave an estimated £14bn in 2025, and one in five people say they cannot afford to give.

Three things make the dinner work:

• A lead gift, announced early. In a field experiment, announcing a challenge gift brought in 23% more donors and 18% more money than the same appeal without one. Ask your biggest supporter if you can name their gift.
• The cause in the room. A beneficiary, a nurse or a project lead talking for a few minutes does more than any brochure.
• A clear, gentle ask. The fundraising code says you must not put undue pressure on anyone to donate. The ask should come from the heart. It’s not a funeral, and it’s never a hard sell.

There is a Gift Aid wrinkle. HMRC treats a dinner that also raises money from other guests as a fundraising event, but a private dinner for one donor and a few friends counts as a benefit to that donor. Check with your accountant.

Can match funding double a big night?

Yes, match funding can double what a pledge raises, as long as the funder’s pot is big enough and you tell the room the truth about the cap. A sponsor or trustee agrees in advance to match pledges pound for pound, up to a set amount.

The evidence is solid. In a study of over 50,000 previous donors, simply announcing a match raised revenue per letter by 19%, and 2:1 or 3:1 matches did no better than 1:1. At national scale, Big Give’s Christmas Challenge raised £57.4m in one week in December 2025 for 1,591 charities, including £25.8m in match funding.

At a gala, the match works best behind the live pledge. One client doubled their fundraising target: their team did the hard work, and I added a plan for the auction and pledge agreed well before the night. A match belongs in that plan from day one.

Are challenge events worth the effort?

Challenge events are worth it when the sponsorship minimum is high and you know how much the charity keeps. Part of every pound pays for the event itself.

The scale at the top is huge. By May 2026, the London Marathon had raised more than £87.5 million for charities that year, a world record for an annual one-day fundraising event. On 31 May 2026, Soccer Aid raised £16,462,353 for Unicef, helped by a live TV appeal and a foundation matching donations up to £6 million.

Look at the net per person, though. On 18 October 2026, the Cardiac Risk in the Young Kilimanjaro trek page asked for a £499 deposit and a minimum of £4,150 in sponsorship, and said the charity would receive at least £1,975 for each fundraiser. That is still thousands, but not £4,150. Gift Aid on overseas challenges also depends on who pays the costs (section 3.38 of HMRC’s guidance).

A fun run, football match or fight night works the same way on a smaller scale. Gather the participants and their supporters at the end, and you have a room to ask.

Sponsorship and selling tables

Corporate sponsorship turns a good gala into a profitable one. A headline sponsor who covers the venue or the food means more of every ticket goes to the cause.

Sell tables to companies, not just seats to individuals. A company table bids and pledges together, and a little rivalry between tables is gold in the live auction. Offer your biggest sponsor the match, so their name is said every time a pledge is doubled.

What stops a big format raising big money?

A big format fails to raise big money when costs or commission eat the total, or when nobody holds the room for the ask. Both are fixable before the night.

Costs first. The year before MS UK hired me, an external auction company grossed around £13,000 at their event and the charity saw only about £1,300. When I came in, I told the room at the start exactly where every pound was going. The company grossed around £3,500 that year, and the live pledge raised £8,300, all of it for the charity. I didn’t criticise anyone. I just turned the lights on, and the money followed the transparency.

Then the room. Here’s the night I’d rather forget. I once announced a live auction at a big event that was running late, with no speech or video to set it up, and I didn’t stop to get the room quiet. Only a fraction of the guests heard the lots. I’ve never repeated it. Command the room first, and stand on a chair if you have to. Whoever holds the room holds the total.

How do you choose the right idea for your charity?

The best answer to how to raise money for charity is the format that fits the people you already know. Whatever the lists of ways to raise money for charity say, ask who among your supporters could give £1,000 or more, and who could fill a table.

• A few wealthy supporters. Start with a major-donor dinner. Then invite them to the gala.
• A loyal community. A gala with a live pledge, so everyone gives at their own level.
• Sporty supporters. Challenge events, with the costs worked out before anyone signs up.
• A business network. Sponsorship and table sales, and ask your biggest sponsor to fund a match.

How to fundraise for charity well is mostly about doing fewer things properly. My guide to choosing ideas covers the wider options, and raising more covers the levers inside the night.

Where to start

Pick one big-money format for the year and build everything else around it. Set the target, name your lead gift, and plan the auction and pledge before you book the band.

That’s where I come in. I host the whole evening or just the fundraising, and I plan the lots, the order and the pledge with you beforehand. To talk through a big night, call 07596 851647.