Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year, is celebrated when the new moon appears between January 21 and February 20. This year Chinese New Year was yesterday, Sunday 22nd January and we are welcoming in the year of the Rabbit. 

One of the gifts the year of the Rabbit is said to bring is the ability to manifest prosperity – Ideal for all of your charitable causes where you work so hard to raise vital funds for those that benefit from your charity. 

There are many traditional Chinese New Year celebrations, including the red envelopes, fireworks, lanterns, food and of course, spending time with family and friends.

If your charitable organisation or cause has members of the community who celebrate Lunar New Year then you could incorporate some of these traditions into your fundraising calendar. 

Fortune Cookies

These cute novelty cookies are always a hit in Chinese restaurants and provide any Lunar New Year event with a simple fundraiser.  

They could include a tombola style ticket, telling those that have taken part whether they have ‘won a prize’ or ‘Better luck next time.’

They could also be a great way of sharing your charity website or online fundraising page. You could even put a QR code inside them for people to scan, taking them to your website or fundraiser. 

Perhaps the Fortune Cookie ticket has some lucky numbers that the person needs to check online on your website – A great way to get more traffic to your online pages and ultimately raise awareness of your worthy cause. 

Take Away Night and Quiz

This is a particularly great fundraiser for school PTA’s, celebrating the diverse cultures within your school community.

You could team up with a local Chinese restaurant to provide the traditional cuisine. Don’t forget to ask them if they could offer the food at cost price in return for you publicising their restaurant on your marketing literature and tickets. You could also ask them to pshare your fundraiser on their social media platforms. Combine it with a Quiz and it’s set to be a great evening for all. 

Fundraise by selling tickets in advance, making sure you’ll more than cover the costs of food and any other offerings on the night. 

This fundraiser would also work well for churches, care homes and any other charitable organisation working within their local community. 

Chinese Lanterns  

Lanterns are a huge part of the Chinese New Year celebration. Bring the community together with a themed fundraiser with the lanterns being the basis for your event. 

People can pay a small fee to join in with a lantern craft activity. Show off everyone’s creations with a parade, awarding a prize for the winning lanterns! 

Fundraise by selling tickets to the parade. Bring in performers like dragon dancers and lots of elaborate costumes accompanied by Chinese drummers.

Any kind of event like this affords the opportunity for further fundraising – Think craft stalls, a tombola, and food and drink. 

The traditional food eaten at Chinese New Year include spring rolls, noodle soup, dumplings, rice-based desserts like mochi, and mandarins. Make sure you team up with a local caterer that can offer authentic Chinese cuisine.

Chinese Lantern Trail

Did you know that Chinese lanterns often have riddles written on them for the children to solve?

You could create a Chinese Lantern Trail around a local place – Perhaps a park or community centre. Each lantern has a riddle or clue for the children to find and work out. Fun for all the family! 

Those who complete the sheet win a small prize – Perhaps a fortune cookie! Put the prize in a red envelope to tie in to Chinese traditions. Usually, these special red envelopes would contain money, but you could fill them with a fortune cookie, some sweets or a mandarin. 

Fireworks Display

Fireworks are a fantastic addition to any of the above fundraising events or work well as a stand alone fundraiser. 

Simply sell tickets for your fireworks display, at least 6 weeks in advance so that guests can put the date in their diary. 

Make Chinese New Year go off with a bang! 

Can We Help You Raise Money?

Here at Donater we have a suite of fundraising tools specifically designed to make giving easier. Easier for the donor to make a donation, and easier for charitable organisations to receive that all-important fundraising.

Our suite of online fundraising tools include:

• A dedicated online fundraising page, personalised to your charity or good cause. Supporters will immediately recognise your branding and thus, trust that they are in the right place to make a donation. Online fundraising pages are easy to share online via a handy link, and can be easily linked to your website with a ‘Donate Now’ button.
  
• QR codes. We’ve all become more accustomed to QR codes, so you’ll know how quick and easy it is to scan one with your smartphone. QR codes can be just as handy for taking donations. All your supporter has to do is scan the QR code with their smartphone, and it will take them to an online donation page. Once there, they can choose to donate with a tap via Google Pay or Apple Pay, or pay with their bank details. QR codes are a great addition to any physical marketing about your event, such as posters or newsletters.
  
• NFC Tags. Our NFC tags take the above QR code concept a step further, and enable any supporter of yours with an NFC enabled smartphone to merely tap the tag or sticker. They will then be taken to an online donation page where they can make their donation quickly and simply. These work better with in-person events, but could easily be placed at the entrance to your charity or on collection boxes so visitors can donate to your cause if they wish. 

And coming soon for 2023 – Our new Tap to Donate tech for hire!