Healthcare Fundraising Ideas: 35 Options for Foundations and Nonprofit Hospitals

The work that healthcare foundations and nonprofits do to support patients is essential to the health of our communities. But keeping that work funded requires a consistent and diverse mix of financial support. Fundraising teams need to balance high-cost, high-return events with sustainable, long-term programs.

Building a robust (and fun) fundraising portfolio that connects with donors at every level can be challenging. To help you brainstorm your next campaign, we’ve organized 35 fundraising ideas into 11 categories, with a few real-world examples scattered throughout.

Annual Events Donors Don’t Want to Miss

The bread and butter of foundation budgets, annual events give you predictable revenue and community visibility. If you have an established donor base, dedicated staff (or amazing volunteers), and the resources to pull off high-quality, large-scale gatherings, they can be incredibly successful.

1. Signature Gala and Auction

A sophisticated night geared toward major donors and corporate partners, your signature annual gala usually features dinner, an inspirational program with powerful patient stories, and a live or silent auction. The trick is securing quality sponsorship packages and valuable auction items—maybe even adding a virtual component so supporters can bid from anywhere.

2. Annual Giving Day Challenge

A focused, 24-hour campaign designed to get everyone involved, especially your mid- and low-level supporters, this is a digital-first event that relies heavily on social media buzz, email segmentation, and, most important, landing a major donor or corporate partner to offer a matching gift to create urgency so people donate right now.

3. Anniversary Ball or Themed Festival

Less formal than a gala, a hospital ball or festival is a community celebration tied directly to a specific hospital service or anniversary. These are highly marketable events for grateful patients and families. Your goal is to maximize ticket sales and leverage local business support for in-kind donations, making it a fun and accessible entry point for new supporters.

Bring Everyone Together with Community Events

Community engagement focuses on mobilizing local goodwill and making sure your foundation is seen as integral to the city or area.

4. Health and Wellness Fair

Hosted on hospital grounds or in a local park, a health and wellness fair is a direct way to tie fundraising to your mission. Offer attendees free or low-cost services like screenings or exercise classes. Funds are raised through vendor fees, small donations for activities, and on-site appeals, making the ask soft and natural.

5. Community Cook-Off (but Make it Healthy!)

A local cooking competition is a lighthearted, competitive event that draws a diverse crowd, including local restaurants and corporate employee teams. How about a healthy spin? Challenge contestants to make nutritious meals, like a Chili Challenge. Funds can be generated through ticket sales for tasting and voting.

6. 5K/Fun Run

The classic 5K walk or run is a popular fundraising event for good reason: 5Ks directly connect with the community through physical health. Participants pay registration fees, and the most successful events encourage runners/walkers to seek additional pledges from their networks through P2P fundraising. Securing local sponsors for water stations and T-shirts ensures that the majority of registration fees goes directly to the program.

7. Real World Example: Walk Wales

Wales Air Ambulance provides the UK’s only dedicated Helicopter Transfer Practitioners, attending to around 2,500 missions per year. To help fund these services, Wales Air Ambulance created a virtual event called Walk Wales. People pay to register and choose a set distance that would be the same mileage as a specific trek across Wales.

By using JustGiving® from Blackbaud integrated with Strava and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, data is consolidated so the organization can see which marketing channels are most profitable. In the last five years, the campaign has raised £119,000.

“We want participants to feel part of the community and encouraged to raise more, to share their story, share our appeal, and take on the world!” said Mark Stevens, head of fundraising.

Donor Programs Worth Pursuing

Structured donor programs foster loyalty, increase donor value over time, and provide predictable annual operating funds. They work best when you have a defined strategy for stewardship, offering meaningful, tiered recognition.

8. Leadership Giving Societies

Establish exclusive giving societies ($1,000 Founders’ Circle or President’s Club) with distinct benefits, such as access to hospital leadership briefings, exclusive tours of facilities, or private dinners. Giving societies incentivize donors to step up their commitment year after year.

9. Employee Giving Campaign

Mobilizing internal support through an Employee Giving Campaign fosters a sense of shared purpose and ownership among hospital staff. Campaigns are frequently paired with a matching gift program from the hospital or a major corporate partner.

10. Monthly Giving Program

Focused on converting one-time donors into a reliable, recurring revenue source through smaller, automatic donations, monthly giving programs help nonprofits better plan their budgets. Recurring donations with automatic withdrawals make giving more convenient for donors.

From major giving to recurring gifts, learn how Blackbaud can support all your fundraising initiatives

Digital Campaigns

Digital campaigns offer speed, scale, and low overhead, allowing foundations to reach donors quickly and leverage the power of online sharing. These fundraising ideas are ideal for organizations looking to grow their mid- and lower-tier donor lists.

11. Peer-to-Peer Storytelling Contest

Encourage supporters to use their social platforms and networks to share their personal stories of care. Turning fundraising into a contest with prizes for the most compelling story leverages the emotional power of patient testimonials to organically expand your organization’s reach.

12. Targeted Patient Follow-Up Appeals

A digital appeal that is highly segmented based on a patient’s specific service area (e.g., a campaign to fund a new heart scanner sent only to former cardiology patients) can lead to more engaged, invested donors. Personalization uses data to create a direct, relevant connection between the donor’s experience and an urgent need.

Learn to develop individualized donor journeys in this webinar on donor personalization for healthcare fundraising

13. Real World Example: Virtual Activity Challenge

To engage a new generation of donors, University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation created a 30-day virtual activity challenge, Jump In™, a nationwide event to support women’s heart health. By embedding signup forms into their website, users were no longer sent to an external webpage. This provided a seamless brand experience for the event.

“Because every registrant is also instantly added into Raiser’s Edge NXT, we can leverage its analytical tools to strategically follow up and build lasting donor relationships.” Said Erika Johnston, program manager of digital programs and donor experience.

Ways to Involve Corporate Partnerships

Providing large-scale financial support, brand alignment, and employee engagement opportunities, corporate partnerships are best pursued when you can offer clear value to the company, such as visibility to a target demographic.

14. Cause Marketing Promotion

Partner with a retail business (say, a regional grocery chain) to dedicate a percentage of sales from a specific product or period to the hospital. This campaign benefits the corporate partner through increased traffic and positive PR, while your hospital receives funds and broad community awareness.

15. Sponsor-a-Program or Department Naming

Securing a long-term corporate sponsor for a high-visibility program (like a mobile health clinic or an entire surgical wing) provides the highest level of commitment. The partnership invests significant financial support in exchange for naming rights.

16. Employee Volunteerism and Matched Giving

Structure a partnership that encourages employees to volunteer their time at the hospital (e.g. decorating units, assisting with events). The company then reinforces this effort by offering a dollar-for-dollar match on all employee donations made to the foundation.

Patient-Centered Initiatives

These initiatives tap into the powerful emotion of gratitude—the desire of grateful patients and families to give back to the place that provided care.

17. Healing Gardens or Comfort Item Fund

Create a dedicated fund that focuses exclusively on enhancing a non-medical, supportive environment for patients and families: a healing garden, specialized sleeper chairs for patient rooms, or art and music therapy programs.

18. Adopt-a-Room

For major capital campaigns or renovations, offer small- to medium-sized naming opportunities for specific patient rooms, waiting areas, nurses’ stations, or therapy rooms. This provides an accessible opportunity for midlevel donors.

19. Grateful Patient Program

Identifying and soliciting patients and families who have expressed gratitude for their care is a great way to transition people from patients to donors. Train clinical staff to recognize and refer grateful patients to the foundation, allowing development officers to thank them and introduce them to philanthropic opportunities tailored to their area of care.

Take your program to the next level with Blackbaud’s Ultimate Guide to Grateful Patient Fundraising

Special Appeals

Targeted, urgency-driven special appeals are best used judiciously to avoid donor fatigue and are most effective when tied to a clear, measurable goal or an immediate crisis.

20. Critical Equipment Purchase Appeal

Launch a high-impact, short-term appeal focused on acquiring one piece of equipment, such as a new diagnostic machine. The clarity of the need and the high-tech nature of the purchase excites donors who want to directly fund medical advancements.

21. Buy a Brick

During a large-scale construction or renovation project, launch special appeals to fund distinct, smaller elements of the new facility: “Buy a Brick,” “Sponsor a Tree,” or “Name a Bench” can engage smaller-dollar donors in a major capital project.

22. Disaster Relief and Emergency Fund

Immediately following a natural disaster or other emergency, a dedicated fund allows donors to support the hospital’s critical response efforts. These appeals benefit from urgency and are well-received by donors who want to help a trusted, local organization.

23. Real World Example: Emergency Coronavirus Fund

Garnet Health Foundation created an Emergency Coronavirus Fund to help its hospital system care for hundreds of COVID-19 patients. Using JustGiving® from Blackbaud, the foundation raised nearly $150,000 in six weeks.

“I think everyone (agreed) that we were all in this together, and we were all going to get out of it together. We were capturing the passion around that,” said William Dauster, President.

Leaving a Legacy with Planned Giving

Legacy giving, or planned giving, involves securing future commitments (such as bequests or charitable trusts), an essential strategy to ensure the foundation’s long-term fiscal health.

24. Bequest Awareness Workshops

Host educational seminars, in-person or virtually, where donors learn from estate planning attorneys and financial advisors about the benefits of including the hospital in their will or trust. These workshops should demonstrate value to donors without an immediate financial ask.

25. Heritage Society

Create an honorary society to recognize donors who have formally included the hospital in their estate plans. Recognition is typically private or quiet, including exclusive luncheons with the CEO, reinforcing their status as foundational supporters.

26. IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) Promotion

Launch a time-sensitive outreach campaign (often late in the calendar year) focused on donors 70.5 years old and older. This appeal educates them on the tax advantages of making a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) directly from their IRA.

P2P Fundraising

Peer-to-peer fundraising harnesses the power of social networks by empowering supporters to fundraise on the foundation’s behalf, a highly effective strategy for expanding your donor base to a younger demographic. To make P2P fundraising easier, provide an online hub with templates, branding guidelines, and digital tools for participants to use in their campaigns.

27. Birthday Fundraiser Challenge

Encourage supporters to dedicate their birthdays to the hospital by launching a fundraising campaign on social media platforms in lieu of receiving gifts. This simple ask leverages commonly used social tools, making it easy for friends and family to donate small gifts.

28. Endurance Event Team

Recruit a dedicated team of athletes to participate in endurance events (marathons, triathlons, etc.) Each team member commits to raising a minimum amount for the hospital in exchange for a guaranteed spot, coaching, and branded gear.

29. Real World Example: Head for the Hills Cycling Event

One of the Eden Foundation’s most popular events is the Head for the Hills bike ride. It involves as many as 200 cyclists who fundraise on behalf of the foundation.

By setting up the campaign with BlackBaud TeamRaiser, the organization easily inputs supporters’ contact information, creates personalized appeals and online pages, tracks responses, and measures their success against other participants. Result: $100,000 in dollars raised.

“A significant amount of our revenue comes from some form of peer-to-peer fundraising, and in order for us to be successful at that, we needed to have a system which was easy for people who are engaging with us,” said Earl Reimer, Director of Development.

Merchandise and Healthcare Swag

Selling branded merchandise or curated items is a transactional form of giving that promotes brand visibility and generates revenue, often with low administrative costs.

30. Hospital-Branded Merchandise Store

An on-site gift shop or online store selling branded apparel, wellness products, flowers, or specialty items tied to patient comfort (e.g., high-quality blankets, tea sets) can be helpful to visitors and profitable for the organization.

31. Healthy Cookbook

Gather favorite healthy recipes from staff, local chefs, board members, and grateful patients, compiling them into a professionally designed, hospital-branded cookbook. Selling the cookbook online and at hospital events is a unique way to generate revenue.

32. Holiday Gift-Wrapping Service

During the holiday shopping season, set up a gift-wrapping station in a high-traffic area, like a local mall. Shoppers receive wrapping services in exchange for a donation.

Third-Party Events

Organized and executed by external individuals, groups, or businesses to benefit the foundation, third-party events offer an efficient way to raise funds without consuming significant staff time.

33. Restaurant Give-Back Night

Partner with a local restaurant to host a “Give-Back Night” where a predetermined percentage (usually 10-20%) of sales during a time window is donated to the foundation. Your foundation promotes the event, and the restaurant handles all the logistics. It’s a win-win.

34. Community Golf Tournament

Work with a local golf club or external committee to host a golf tournament. The third party manages all aspects, from venue booking and sponsor management to player registration.

35. Local Business Challenge

Create a friendly competition between local businesses or professional groups. For example, host a Battle of the Bartenders where local bars compete for tips, with all proceeds benefiting the hospital.

Why 30 of the Top 32 Largest Nonprofit Hospitals Work with Blackbaud

Managing so many different fundraising initiatives—from an annual gala to P2P events—is a huge lift. That’s why top healthcare organizations choose Blackbaud. Offering purpose-built technology that integrates donor data, optimizes personalized outreach, and rallies your network of supporters, Blackbaud solutions provide the flexibility and scalability healthcare organizations need.

Ready to maximize your fundraising programs? Request a demo today.