We are living in the fundraising age. Between cutting-edge social campaigns, GoFundMe projects, and millions donated through telethons, we have witnessed the power of philanthropy this year.

Do you want to be another charity champion? Are you looking for an innovative way to raise money for your organization? Or maybe you have a fundraising event and you're looking for low-effort but high-profit ideas?

T-shirts are your answer, especially when you use the right fundraising tips. Put one of these custom shirts on for a weekend. Pass the link around to family and friends and watch your donations rack up by the week's end. Stick with us to find out why T-shirts can be one of the best fundraising strategies you'll ever use.

1. You Can Build Connections Within Your Fundraising Community

When you're looking for ways to fundraise, using t-shirts can be a great solution because it has the added benefit of building connections within your fundraising community. Think about it this way.

Say that you're doing a fundraiser to help out a local organization. At your fundraiser, people get involved in helping out in many ways.

Some people might be working directly with you, organizing the fundraiser, others might be providing entertainment, and others might be doing volunteer work at your fundraiser. And then, of course, there are the people who are donating money to your good cause.

If the people working with your organization are wearing t-shirts and you "gift" t-shirts in exchange for donations, then everyone is wearing the same t-shirt, representing their solidarity in support of a cause.

Already, the connections start at the event itself. But it doesn't stop there. Because people take these t-shirts home with them, they'll remember they're connected to supporting a cause long after your charity event. As a result, they'll be more likely to stay involved, donating money even after the event is over.

2. Shareable on Social Media

Another benefit you get when you use t-shirts for fundraising is that it's easier to share pictures of them on social media. As a result, you'll build up the hype for your fundraising event, as well as your organization and the cause you support.

If someone were to simply donate online, it wouldn't look that exciting if they were to take a screenshot of their donation and share it online. On the other hand, imagine how many people would want to take selfies of themselves wearing the t-shirt they got for your event. They would wear it at the event itself. People would also take group photos, with everyone wearing the same t-shirt with the same message.

By using a branded hashtag, you could encourage people to create user-generated content to share. You could also tag yourself and other people at your organization and create posts including your t-shirts, too.

3. You Can Get More Leads

Another benefit that comes from using t-shirts when you are fundraising is that you can get more leads, which will eventually help you gain supporters. All you have to do, every time you sell a t-shirt, is get certain information from the person buying it.

This information should include their name and contact information. This will be especially easy to do if people order your t-shirts online.

Once you have that information, you can stay in touch with these people. You can invite them to additional charity events and ask them about funding!

To do this smoothly, start things off by thanking them for buying the t-shirt in an email. Then, as you continue to do your work and progress with your causes, you can keep them updated.

Finally, when you start fundraising again, you can ask them to help you continue with your progress by donating.

4. You Can Share Your Message

You don't have to use your t-shirts for only one specific fundraiser. If you design your t-shirt the right way, it can be like a billboard for your charity after the event has occurred and people are going around wearing it.

To make sure that you have a message on your t-shirt that will work in this way, there are certain strategies you have to use.

First, make sure that your cause's logo, slogan, or name appears in a prominent place on the t-shirt. Additionally, ensure that the font is easy to read.

Second, have an eye-catching graphic on the t-shirt. It should be related to your cause—and not be your logo!

Third, make sure that what you print on the t-shirt stands out properly against the color of the t-shirt. If the colors are too similar, then what you print will be difficult for people to make out.

Finally, you should pick a t-shirt that's both comfortable and attractive. If not, people will likely only wear the t-shirt once to your event and not again.

However, if people enjoy wearing the t-shirt, they'll be more likely to wear it after the fundraising event has occurred—sharing your message for a long time afterward.

5. You’ll Have a More Accessible Campaign

One of the biggest drawbacks that comes with a large number of fundraising strategies, like community food drives and charity 5Ks, is that the only people who can usually get involved in them are those who live near the area where they're occurring.

This limits how many people can get involved in your event, which can eventually limit the size of your audience.

Fortunately, when you use t-shirts as the main way of fundraising for a fundraiser, you don't have this problem. You can promote the entire campaign online, without having to worry about state lines or time differences!

But it's not just the fact that you can do this campaign largely online that makes it more accessible.

Additionally, you can make your campaign accessible on mobile phones. This means that people who want to buy a t-shirt to support a charity won't have to wait until they're on their computers to join in on your fundraiser. 

Instead, they can easily put the information needed into their smartphone. Make sure that you design the webpage for buying the t-shirts mobile-responsive so it's easy to fill out on a smartphone of any size.

6. Lower Cost

Another benefit you get from using t-shirts for your fundraising campaign is that it's much cheaper to invest in them than in other types of fundraising campaigns. After all, traditional fundraising events often have additional, expensive costs like paying for a caterer or booking the venue.

If you're doing a t-shirt fundraising campaign, all you have to invest in is the t-shirts themselves! Depending on the design, you could even do it yourself.

You can save even more money by doing the entire t-shirt fundraising event online. Additionally, if you have any t-shirts leftover after the fundraising event, you can still sell some of them later on at a discount.

7. You Can Build up the Hype

With a t-shirt campaign, you can build up the type over time. Even before the event, you can have the t-shirts printed and start advertising them on social media. Then, close to when the event begins and sales start, you and your staff can post pictures of yourselves wearing them.

By the time you start selling them, your followers on social media will be thrilled to donate so they can get a t-shirt of their own!

8. You Can Get the Funders Involved

Depending on how much leeway you want to give, you could have funders involved by allowing them to design their own fundraising t-shirts. You could provide them with options while still having some requirements that help with your organization's branding.

For example, you could require them to include your logo or text about the fundraising event on the t-shirt. However, they would be allowed to add fun designs, images, or their name or initials to personalize their t-shirts.

Another option is to create a t-shirt design contest. You could ask followers on social media to submit their designs. Then, you could use the winning design for your fundraiser.

This would help build up the hype and get your followers involved, which would likely turn into more funding at your fundraiser.

In Addition to Fundraising Tips, Get T-Shirts

Now that we've provided you with these fundraising tips, you might be looking for the right place to buy t-shirts so you can start using them for your own fundraiser. If this is the case, we've got you covered.

At Himeros, we sell clothes that support social causes. Every time we launch a new collection, we fundraise the money for a non-profit that supports our cause. To learn more about our collections, check them out now.