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Solely focusing on your congregation for funds is not an effective method. Good church fundraisers help you reach a wide range of audiences and expand your follower base.
The church fundraisers discussed in this post help you gather funds from your members and non-members.
Let’s have a look.
What are some good church fundraisers?
Here are the top church fundraisers for 2022. These church fundraisers are engaging and effective and do not need much effort to execute.
1. Recycling drive
People usually have clutter around the house or in that one carton they want to discard. Ask them to donate those to you.
Here’s how you can execute it:
- Place signages around your church and promote this event on social media to reach as many people as possible.
- Keep collection boxes in your church so people can leave the items there.
- Now, recycle these items or sell them directly in exchange for money.
These could be anything, such as books, shoes, clothes, etc. Websites like Soles4Souls help you recycle shoes and sell them. You can also sell the books to your city library and clothes through a local consignment store or an online secondhand store.
2. Bake sale
Bake sale is one of the most famous church fundraisers. It’s because they are one of the low-cost events. The participants will bake a dish of their choice, ingredients you provide, or they bring.
Charge an entry fee depending on the resources you’ll provide—for instance, ingredients. Moreover, you may collaborate with a local supplier to sponsor the ingredients and reduce your costs.
Ticketing the bake sale is one fund source. You can arrange the sale in the neighborhood or sell the items online to collect more funds. Make sure your participants know that the money raised will go to charity.
A popcorn fundraiser, pizza sale, or cookie sale are other great ideas in conjunction with a bake sale. To leverage your resources, ask your volunteers to get plates, cups, etc., to serve the dishes. You can also display a fundraising thermometer to motivate your donors to give.
3. Social media campaign for church fundraisers
Today, around 7 in 10 Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with content, and entertain themselves, according to a study. Tap into this opportunity. You can run different types of social media campaigns, paid or organic. It can be as simple as posts on your social media page or a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
For example, take a year-end giving campaign. As part of this, you can run a contest where your audience showcases their donation on their profiles and invites their circle to do the same. Say you can assign a hashtag and ask your followers to tag you on the post where they showcase their donation. The post with the highest engagement, number of friends, or peer-to-peer donations can win a reward.
These church advertising ideas will help you start with more such ideas for a social media fundraiser.
4. Goodie sale
Selling goodies with your church’s branding is a great way to raise funds and increase familiarity. For example, you can brand a T-shirt with your church’s name and a famous Bible verse. Platforms like Bonfire help you design these T-shirts and even sell them on your website.
You can also use an online store builder or WP ecommerce plugins to sell them through your website.
Your volunteers can deliver the goodies to the donors’ doorsteps, and you can charge your customers/them a small delivery fee to raise funds for the church.
5. Coffee day
Your visitors and passersby will surely appreciate a hot cup of coffee in the morning. Pair it with a muffin, and you’ve already got an admirer. Set up a station before your church and sell the coffee and muffin.
You can get a local cafe to sponsor this in exchange for promoting their outlet to your congregation. In exchange, you advertise or market their business with signage or by allowing branded cups/cutlery.
6. Pet wash church fundraisers
Think about this: Most of your audience probably leads a busy life, and the pet grooming centers in your town charge a certain amount of money for the service. What if you charge a little less than those centers and let your audience know that the money is going as a donation? Your volunteers can do the job for free, and all you need is some space in your parking lot and the grooming essentials.
Also, Make sure your volunteers are comfortable with pets and that the pets are trained well. We don’t want any disasters in your church fundraisers, do we?
7. Car wash
Like a pet wash, a car wash fundraiser doesn’t need you to spend much money. Get volunteers, car washing supplies, and a few signage boards in place, and you’re in for a long day.
8. Cookbook sale
Your congregation may have a few great cooks. Ask them to share their best recipes and compile them into a book. Now, you can sell these recipes and add the money to your funds.
Make sure you attribute each recipe to its owner.
9. Childcare church fundraisers
Put your best volunteers on the job and tell your congregation about your babysitting services. Working parents in your congregation would probably prefer leaving their children with you than a creche. Because they are your believers, they would love their children to grow in such an environment. Instead of charging them, request voluntary sums as donations. Since they were already paying a creche, they would probably donate something close to the creche fee. If you find a generous parent, they might even donate more!
Pro tip: One excellent time to offer childcare services is when you host other church fundraisers and events. Valentine’s Day is another night you can prepare to execute this.
Read Also: 15 Brilliant Church Event Ideas For Your Next Event
10. Matching gift drive
A matching gift drive is a corporate philanthropy in which companies match their employees’ donations. Sometimes, this donation is double or even triple the original donation. Sixty-five percent of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs.
Encourage donors to submit applications if their employer offers a matching program. A matching gift search tool can help you determine whether an employer offers such a program.
Ticketed church fundraisers
These church fundraisers require charging a small amount as an entry fee for the event.
1. Auction to raise money for church fundraisers
In an auction, you can source the items from people and local businesses. You can use auction software or a text-giving platform to run the auction.
Here’s how you can use SMS opt-in software to collect donations:
- Set up a keyword that people can text you if they wish to participate in the auction. This keyword is typically akin to identifying the use case. It must be easy to spell and generally is one word. For instance, “AUCTION” in this case.
- Rent a number where people can text in the keyword.
- Set up message prompts to be sent in response to the keyword. You can either set up prompts to collect data over a series of messages or a single reply with a link to your donation page.
- Put up posters or circulate these details over social media.
You can also host the auction over text.
Here’s how it can work: Give a name or an ID to all the items present. Now, say A wants to bid $200 for the item VASE. They can text you ‘A VASE $200’.
2. Movie night
With technology at our fingertips, movie night hosting requires little effort or equipment. Charge a nominal fee for entry to raise money for your church. If you have the resources, add some payable snacks and beverages, with the disclaimer that the proceedings will go to charity to encourage more people to buy.
Another way to raise funds is to ask for donations at the movie’s end.
Pro tip: Choose a movie centered on your cause or one that focuses on giving or helping others. When the movie ends, your audience will be highly inspired by it and motivated to provide. Then, all you need to do is ask and show them how they can contribute to your church fundraisers.
Text-to-give is an excellent method of collecting donations here as it requires the least effort. In a text-to-give campaign, your audiences text a keyword to your number. The donations here are predetermined, and their phone bill gets charged for the donation they wish to make.
Know how it works in detail here.
3. Game Sunday
Plenty of games don’t require much spending- for example, treasure hunting. Host a game of treasure hunt where your audience will make small donations to find the hint that leads them to the treasure, i.e., a considerably big reward. Make it easy to donate by using a simple donation method such as text-to-give or simply with a cash jar at every hint junction. If asking for a fixed donation, ensure the per-hint amount is small enough to get people to donate.
Guessing games, trivia, and board games like Scrabble, Risk, Monopoly, etc., are low-cost games you can host on any regular day. Charge a small entrance fee and reward the winner.
4. Date night
Many bachelors and bachelorettes in your church may be looking for a partner. Host a date night to help them get to know each other. Keep some get-to-know cards on each table to help them start a conversation.
Here’s a guide to help you organize an event successfully.
5. Karaoke night
You can either set up a karaoke machine or use your projector to play the karaoke on YouTube. All the singing talents from your church will show up even if you charge a small entrance fee.
6. Magic show church fundraisers
Magic shows nowadays don’t have to be performed by a highly trained professional. With the help of free resources like YouTube online, a few of your volunteers can learn the tricks and prepare for the big day.
At the end of the show, invite the audience to get on stage to showcase other talents, which will spice up the event even more.
7. Dance party
To execute this church fundraiser, you only need an excellent collection of upbeat music, some good food and drinks, and a vast hall. You can put up posters around your church telling your audience how to sign up for the event. Once you get the sign-ups, organize the event to accommodate all talents and get participants to bring in their friends and family to increase your footfall.
8. Face painting church fundraisers
This church fundraiser can be something similar to Halloween. You can ask your audience to dress up and come or facilitate it in your church. Once everyone is ready, host a ramp walk in their costumes and reward the person who’s dressed up the best.
9. Talent show
This church fundraiser, like many others, can be virtual or offline. Get your audience to register beforehand so you have an idea of the duration of the event. Your audience can also submit videos of their performances.
If you’re going offline, try providing snacks and refreshments to your audience to improve the event’s effectiveness.
10. Camping trip
You can team up with a travel agency to execute this church fundraiser with minimal expense. If not, you can still choose a nearby destination, keeping the costs under your budget. Plan some fun outdoor games to keep this interesting. Use a ticketing software to sell the tickets and collect the entry fee from your audience.
Read Also: 16 Cost-effective Church Growth Ideas to Acquire and Retain More People
11. Gala
Hosting a gala takes more effort and spending than most church fundraisers discussed here. You must care for the decor, food, drinks, entertainment, etc. However, since this is a huge event, you can charge people accordingly to get an entry.
12. Art and craft workshop
Here, some of your congregation will conduct the classes to pass on their knowledge; the rest will learn from them. You can make all the required supplies available and charge per entrant. If you’re hosting this online, use a platform like Zoom.
13. Walkathon, marathon, bikeathon as church fundraisers
The best way to execute this church fundraiser is by associating the event with a cause. For example, your participants can pick up the trash throughout their way in a walkathon. This will inspire them to participate and stay till the end.
Holiday church fundraisers
1. Decorating
Decorating is another holiday-season church fundraiser. Since almost everyone decorates their house, it’s an excellent opportunity to help in exchange for donations. Provide your volunteers with the supplies they need and let them spread out across the town.
2. Pictures with Santa
Every kid wants a good picture with Santa. Why not get one of your members to dress up as Santa and set up a photo booth? You can charge per photo or per two minutes or so.
Some may even want to frame these photographs. For a few extra bucks, you can help them with that, too. Also, consider giving away chocolates after every picture to enhance the kids’ experience.
Since one-third of the annual giving occurs in December, this would be one of the best times to execute this idea.
3. Special holiday celebration church fundraisers
Gather your congregation for a special day celebration. For instance, collaborate with a local caterer to celebrate International Food Day in your church. Participants can pay a small entrance fee to taste the variety of dishes. An Easter egg hunt is also a great church fundraiser and is easy to set up.
4. Christmas light removal church fundraisers
After all those celebrations, people may be unable to clean up and undo the decorations. This is an excellent opportunity to step in with your volunteers’ help. You can ask for donations or charge a small fee in exchange for the service. You can also offer to pick up and discard the tree for a few extra dollars.
You May Also Like: 17 Unique Ideas for Christmas Fundraising (with Examples to inspire you)
Tips for executing church fundraisers
- For all church fundraisers, put up posters with your text giving information.
- Keep track of donors using a donor management system.
- Collect ticket buyers’ names, phone numbers, and email addresses so you can contact them later and start nurturing them to attend or engage with your church.
- Promote these church fundraisers on all your marketing channels.
- The holidays are a great time to host these church fundraisers. But keep some events for the empty months, so you have a well-rounded year of church fundraisers.
- Try to set up a recurring donation on the spot after every donation.
Check out our guide on church fundraisers for youth groups for a few more ideas in your pocket.
Featured image: Photo by Katt Yukawa
