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How Nonprofits Can Raise Money With a Home Tour

Although participants are the “hosts” in a home tour, your nonprofit can still launch the event and turn it into a fundraising initiative. Check out the following ways that nonprofits can raise money with a home tour.

Charge to participate

Homeowners will be especially interested in participating when they know their involvement supports a good cause! Invite local residents to participate in exchange for a small donation.

For a twist, you might also collect items in a home decor drive leading up to the home tour. Then, you can sell the home decor to participants and ask them to decorate solely with the donations they purchased. Turn it into a home decorating contest to further engage your participants through a challenge!

Sell tickets

Not only will homeowners donate to participate, but you can also sell tickets to the audience, who will be touring the homes! Determine how long the home tour should take and divide the audience into groups. Then, sell tickets for different tour times.

Provide snacks and drinks

You can also sell extras at the event, especially if all the homes involved in the tour are in the same general area! Set up a snack booth outside of the homes or in a neighborhood clubhouse, if one is available. You can also sell merchandise branded to your organization for a little extra funding.

Things You’ll Need to Host a Home Tour

Aside from actual homeowners, your nonprofit will need to secure a few other resources to host a home tour fundraiser:

A map of participating homes

There’s no way to know which houses will be interested in being toured. To centralize the event, you might recruit homes in only one neighborhood. However, the audience will still have to travel from house to house, and knowing which order to go in also matters.

Create a map of the event that includes the following information:

  • The addresses of participating homes
  • A map that lays out the order in which homes should be toured
  • Important amenities, like where to find restrooms or refreshments
  • The times of the tour

Print out a physical pamphlet to pass out at the beginning of the tour. You might also provide a link or QR code to a digital version of the map for audience members who would prefer to use their mobile devices.

Amenities

Aside from refreshments, you should also provide other amenities to keep your audience comfortable, such as:

  • Public restrooms: Provide clean, easily accessible restrooms for tourists to use as needed during their tour.
  • Transportation: If the homes are more than a short walk’s distance from one another, consider transporting groups around the neighborhood with golf carts.
  • Signage: Extra directions from house to house can further help guide audience members through the tour.
  • A place to store belongings while touring homes: Allow participants to safely store anything they don’t want to carry along for the tour.

Depending on the duration of the event, some of these amenities may be more important than others. For a central hub to host all these amenities, look for a public gathering place, like a neighborhood clubhouse.

Volunteers to manage the event

You’ll need to oversee the event to ensure it goes smoothly. After all, someone should supervise the event to ensure participants don’t get lost and the event wraps up on time. Ask volunteers to manage the logistics of the event so homeowners can focus on showing off their decor.

You might also recruit someone to speak on behalf of your organization and explain the importance of your nonprofit’s work to ensure the event is tied back to your cause.

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