While summer is the time to enjoy the warm weather and longer days with kids in summer camps, it doesn’t mean volunteering and fundraising need to take a backseat!

Volunteering can be a great way to keep kids in your life engaged with the community!

Volunteering plays a crucial role in building community, personal well-being, and social engagement. Whether you’re a summer camp leader, a teacher enjoying summer break, or a parent, getting kids involved with a local organization looking for a few extra helping hands is a great way to keep kids (and yourself) occupied!

Great kid-friendly volunteering options include food banks, local farmer’s markets, summer festivals, and seniors centres! Remember that volunteering doesn’t have to be a full-day activity or doing something extremely difficult – the key to volunteering with kids is to keep it simple and keep it fun!

Having trouble finding volunteer opportunities that can include kids?

Some organizations might have a minimum age for volunteers or may not know how best to provide volunteer options for kids, but that’s no need to stress! There are lots of options to volunteer without the organizational hoops to jump through, including:

• Organizing a community garbage clean up at a local park with your day camp group!
• Work with your local municipality to see if there’s a spot to host a gardening day to plant flowers or help with gardening!
• Check-in with neighbours or the local senior centre to offer delivery of little errands!

Even if an organization like your local library, arts centre, or recreation centre isn’t actively advertising a need for volunteers, don’t be shy to ask if there are any ways for your group to help! Often there are smaller tasks that would free up lots of time for staff but don’t seem like a big enough task to ask the community for help with.

Another option for getting kids involved in giving back to the community is to start a summer fundraiser!

Summer fundraisers can benefit a summer camp, sports team, or local organization. The warm weather of the summer months can provide new and fun fundraising options that aren’t always available during other times of the year!

Donorbox put together some great summer fundraising options that we love, including:

• Water balloon fights
• Ice cream parties
• Open-air movie screenings
• Backyard or Community Park Barbecues
• Swim-a-thons
• Outdoor Fitness Clubs

Another great way to get kids involved in summer fundraising is to have them come up with a fundraiser idea as a group!

Tapping into their innate sense of creativity and challenging them to come up with fun ideas to get the community involved in fundraising is a great way to get them involved from start to finish. This is a great option for older groups of kids who have never been responsible for hosting a fundraiser or event to learn about the process from start to finish with the guidance of adults!

By putting them to “work” at building their own fundraiser, kids learn how their efforts can make a difference in the community and provide a great opportunity to practice life skills that will be used throughout their lives. For older kids that are starting to explore what’s next in their lives and education, it can provide insight into career options and skills that they’re good at or would like to learn more about!

Of course, if you’re pressed for time, we’re always here to make fundraising as simple as possible!

Our staple fundraisers are always a great option, like our cookie dough fundraiser! Other great options include our muffin dough, cinnamon and sticky buns, coffee and tea, beef jerky, and doggie dough! We’ll make sure you’re armed with all the tools you need to make sure this fundraiser is a great success, and our team is always on hand to help if you still have questions!

Looking ahead to fall fundraising and want to hit the ground running?

Our Harvest Bundles full of fresh vegetables will be available again this fall for those in the Calgary-Edmonton area. We’ve partnered with Erdmanns Gardens & Greenhouses to provide some amazing farm-to-fundraiser boxes, as well as offering a Food Bank Bundle option as part of our Giving Back Food Bank program. Want to find out more about the fundraising opportunities we can support, be sure to check out our website and download our free e-book with all the details! Once you’re ready to fundraise, get in touch and our Indeygo team will reach out to get started!