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No, it really is a cakewalk. Among all the fundraiser activities for schools, this is an easy one that allows the entire group to participate.

Hosting a cakewalk is also a fun and inexpensive way to raise money. With almost no investment required, a cakewalk is a good choice for groups with little or no capital. Although no financial investment is needed, you will need several people who are willing to donate a cake for the event.

There are several variations on how to conduct a cakewalk. Below are two popular options.

Related: Why not combine this candy fundraising.

Option One: Number Each Cake

Ask several people to bring a cake, preferably homemade. Arrange the cakes on tables and number each cake. The numbers must be visible to participants. You must also place a corresponding number for each cake into a jar.

You will have as many rounds as there are cakes. If there are 25 cakes, you will have 25 rounds.

For each round, participants can purchase as many tickets as they wish. A good price for tickets is between $.50-$1.00. The easiest way to handle the drawing is to sell tickets that come in two parts, so that one part will go to the person who purchased the ticket and the other part will go into the jar from which a winner will be drawn.

After a winning ticket is drawn, you will then draw a number from the jar that contains the numbers corresponding to the cakes. Give that number to the winner who will then go to the table and find the cake with the matching number. That is the cake that the person will win.

baked goodsContinue until all cakes have been won. If you have a very large number of cakes, you can have “bonus rounds” where more than one winner will be selected during each round. This is helpful if time is becoming an issue. You can have as many winners per round as you’d like. Of course, the more rounds you have, the more tickets you will sell and the more successful your fundraiser will be.

Option Two: Winner Selects a Cake

This option allows the winner of each round to select the cake they want to win, rather than having to take the cake with a corresponding number.

Arrange all of the cakes on tables. There is no need to number the cakes.

As with the first option, you will have as many rounds as you have cakes (unless you choose to speed things along by having “bonus rounds”). Again, using two-part tickets will make things easier for those conducting the fundraiser. Give one part of the ticket to the participant, and place the other part in a jar.

When you draw a ticket, the winner then goes to the table and selects any cake that is on display. If you have bonus rounds, you must draw just one number at a time. After each winner has selected the cake they want, you can proceed to the next winner.

A variation on this cakewalk, is to put a “dirty Santa” spin on the game. Allow each winner to either choose a cake from the table OR they can choose to take a cake away from a previous winner. The previous winner would then select another cake from the table.

What You Will Need:

  • People willing to donate cakes
  • A group to participate in the cakewalk
  • A place to hold the cakewalk (such as a hall, church or gym)
  • Tickets
  • Coffee and other beverages to serve during the event

A cakewalk is a great fundraising idea that will allow you raise hundreds of dollars in just one night. It’s also a lot of fun, and makes a good choice for an annual event that participants will look forward to all year.