Church Fundraising

Church Fundraisers

In order to draw younger members from the congregation to your charity events, you need to make them fun! Here are a few church fundraising ideas that will have your youth group showing up in droves and likely offering to organize your next church fundraiser:

Kidnap the minister – This is a fake kidnapping, and the youth group should seek the cooperation from the minister or pastor beforehand. Really, it's the minister's cooperation that will make this fund raiser a success. The best time to orchestrate a fake kidnapping of your minister or pastor is during a Sunday morning service. Do it something like this:

Get volunteers from the youth group to disguise themselves and bust into the church during the congregation. Make sure the congregation knows about the fake kidnapping, so older members and children are not frightened or shocked.

1. Make an announcement that you are here to kidnap the pastor, and demand a "ransom" for the minister's return.
2. You can announce that you will hold him for a certain amount of time (agreed upon with the minister) and be sure the ransom meets your fundraising goals.
3. Take the minister away for the rest of the service and leave a youth member or youth minister to take over for the remainder of the service.
4. If you are holding the minister for more than the duration of the service you can video tape messages from him to the congregation, asking them to pay the ransom money.
5. The kidnappers should either return to the service or the follow week's service to collect the "ransom" money from members of the congregation.
6. Once the "ransom" amount is met, you can let the pastor return to his service duties.

Donation box fundraisers – This is probably the most common way that churches raise money. During a Sunday service you will often see a charity plate being passed around by the congregation members. You can also take donation boxes and tins to local merchants and ask to have them put out at the cash registers and front desks in banks and hotels. You can find donation boxes for sale, but to keep your overhead costs down shy not make your own?

Donation tins are easy to make:

1. Simply save your old coffee tins and lids.
2. Cut a slot in the plastic lid
3. Cover the coffee can in construction paper
4. Make sure to write your church's name, logo or crest and details about where this money will go.
5. Pop into local businesses and ask if they will agree to display your church donation jar.
6. Then return once a week to collect the money raised.

Angel tree fundraisers – We already spoke about angle trees as a way to raise funds in our Cancer fundraising section. This charity is extremely versatile. It can be used in hospitals, community centers, churches and offices – and it doesn't need to be Christmas for it to be successful. For example, a little girl in my neighborhood developed leukemia, and her church put together and angel tree to raise money for her treatment. All you need for an angel tree fundraiser is a real or plastic tree – any type will do. Then have work with construction paper to cut out paper angels to hang on the branches of the tree. Divide your fundraising goal by the number of angels to determine what to charge per angel – typically $2 to $10 is appropriate. You should make posters and a sign detailing to the congregation what the money made from the fundraiser will go to. Let donors have the option of memorializing a friend or family member who has passed away by writing their name on the back of the angel.