How to Get Started in Knitting for Charity Fundraising

Want to make a difference through your knitting but struggle with donating? You could be an excellent candidate for raising money for charity with your knitting!

If you’re here, at this website, chances are you want to make a difference in some way through your knitting.

But judging from the many emails and comments I receive every week, there’s a possibility you’re struggling. Or, there’s a possibility that you’re yearning to make a difference in a different way.

For instance:

1. Perhaps you’ve struggled to find somewhere to donate the items you’ve knitted. Maybe you live in a warm part of the country where hats and scarves aren’t exactly sought-after donation items. Maybe you, personally, love to knit funky or sparkly or otherwise out-of-the-ordinary items that perhaps don’t really fit the guidelines of the charities you’ve looked into.
2. When you’ve approached charities regarding your hand-knits, you keep hearing, “What we need more than anything is money.” Or, perhaps your heart is really caught by a particular cause that doesn’t necessarily need to be covered in scarves and blankets, but instead in dollars and cents. (For instance, perhaps you would love to knit for disaster relief efforts but know that what’s always needed in such emergencies is financial assistance.)
3. There’s a bake sale or silent auction or craft sale that happens at a place you frequent–a church, city hall, community center, library, or so on–and you would love to participate with items you’ve knitted.

All of these issues are simply crying out for you to get involved with knitting for charity fundraising! 💰

Usually, you’ll have one of two options for charitable fundraising through knitting.

• In-person sales. This is where you can participate in silent auctions, craft sales, bazaars, raffles, and so forth.
• Online sales. You can set up your own craft shop through an online presence (Etsy is perhaps the most well-known, but it’s not your only option!), or you can simply offer items to sell through social media and let people know you’re raising money for charity. 💻

Selling In Person

If you want to sell in person, chances are that you’re already familiar with local sales where you can offer your knitted wares.

But maybe you aren’t! Maybe you’re just a naturally gregarious person who wants to see the people you’re selling to, explain why you’re selling, who you hope to help, why you’d love to see the items you’ve knitted with care go to a special person, and so on. 🤝

If so, here are some potential places to look for in-person sales.

• Schools, libraries, community centers, places of worship. Many of these places hold regular events where you can offer your items for sale. If you haven’t yet heard whether they do so, dig into their social media accounts and websites to see if they’ve held sales in the past. Or, you can keep your eye on local newspapers or magazines.
  
  I would even suggest visiting your local library and asking the librarians if they are aware of any sales at any community location where you might be able to sell your handmade items.
  
  One thing to keep in mind, however: many of these sorts of sales have their own plans for the proceeds of the sales. If their plans dovetail with your own values and desires to make a difference, great! If not, you might want to look elsewhere for sales where you receive the proceeds–that you can then donate to the charity of your choice.

• If you can’t find a local event, or if you want to have more control over where the proceeds from the sale of your handknits go, you might want to go to a more established fair or festival.
  
  That’s where this website will be a huge help! At the Fairs and Festivals.net website, you can browse events by state. When you click on a state, you’ll find an up-to-date listing of all the fairs and festivals in your state, arranged in alphabetical order by city. The listing will also include what types of items are sold, including “handmade.”
  
  Do note that, while you can open the listing for more information, most of that information is available only to members of Fairs and Festivals.net. You can find out more information about membership here.

If you have (and take) an opportunity to have your own booth at a fair or bazaar, you may find the pieces below helpful.
The Psychology of Sales at a Craft Show
Craft Fair and Trade Show Tips from Experienced Sellers

Selling Online

Perhaps you’re not the gregarious selling type, and the thought of trying to sell to people you don’t know makes you slightly nauseated. (Yep, that’s me.) 🙋‍♀️

Or, perhaps there are simply no local sales raising money for a cause or charity you wish to support–or no local sales at all. And perhaps you’d rather not go out of town to sell your handknits.

If so, selling online could be a perfect fit for you. 📲

There are two primary ways to sell online. First, you can open your own online craft shop. Second, you can simply use social media.

1. For ideas on where you could open an online craft shop (aside from Etsy), take a look at this page that lists 29 Places to Sell Your Handmade Creations. While the page is a bit older, most of the links listed are still good. (Some of the sites listed are no longer linked; most of these are sites that are no longer operating.)
   
   A newer article about online places to sell handmade creations can be found here: 15 Best Websites To Sell Handmade Items (Besides Etsy) 2024. And most of the stores mentioned here aren’t in the article linked earlier.

2. Or, you can go the simple, bare-bones route and sell from your own social media account(s). From my own personal experience, I can tell you that some of best attempts at charity knitting fundraising have come from posting the things I’ve made on social media.
   
   On Facebook, you’ll find that many communities have buy/sell/trade pages. This makes it easy to let folks in your neighborhood know of what you’ve created.
   
   Instagram doesn’t have this capability (as of this writing!), but you can easily share what you’ve made in photos and let folks know that you’re selling for the purpose of charity fundraising. (In fact, you should do this no matter what platform you use. It nearly always makes folks more eager to open their wallets!)
   
   The app Nextdoor is another great option for selling your handmade creations. It’s yet another way you can offer your handknits to people in your own community.

Finally, if you’d rather leave all the hard work of dealing with technology to someone else, take a look at Made4Aid. They’ve made selling handknits online for charity unbelievably simple!

What to Knit for Fundraising

If you have the opportunity to create items for a fair or temporary bazaar, or for a silent auction or raffle, you might wonder what would be the best things to knit.

I’ve found that when it comes to selling knitted creations, items should fall into one of two categories (and preferably both): practical and whimsical. The second part is the most important, because your creation needs to be something unlike what potential customers might purchase elsewhere for less.

(While you might be able to tempt some shoppers with the knowledge that proceeds will benefit a charity, that may not be enough for everyone!)

Popular items under the “Practical” category:

• Washcloths, towels, coasters, and certain kinds of cozies tend to be very popular.
• Hats, scarves, and mittens can also be popular, but with the caveat that they need to be unique in some way. They need to be exceptionally beautiful or exceptionally interesting.
  (This goes for kitchen and bathroom items as well, but if they’re well-made and not too high-priced, that might not matter as much.)
• Bags, covers, and cases. The smaller the better, for both you and them! Coin purses, phone and tablet covers, and glasses cases are all good choices. Again, the more spectacular you can make them, the more likely they’ll be to sell.

Now, let’s consider the “whimsical” category:

• Jewelry is a great choice–brooches, hair clips, even earrings and necklaces.
• Toys are another wonderful option. The cuter, the better! Children will find them irresistible, and if you make them small enough (and cute enough), their parents may have a hard time resisting as well.
  (I write from experience…)😬

Want knitting patterns? Of course you want knitting patterns!!

I have several collections of knitting patterns linked below. These are all full of surefire winners for charity knitting fundraising!

Hat collections

Scarves/Cowls collections

Mitts and Mittens collections

Dishcloth and Washcloth patterns

Hand Towel and Towel Topper patterns

Coaster patterns

Coffee mug & teapot cozy patterns

Brooches patterns

Electronics cozy patterns

Eyeglasses case patterns

Coin pouch patterns

Knitting for charity fundraising is a particularly delightful and rewarding way to make a difference in your knitting. Why not find a show or open a shop, or fire up your social media, and start raising money today?