Fundraising for your church’s youth camp doesn’t have to be something you dread. Finding a fun, unique, and creative way to raise money and excite families is worth the extra effort. Check out the following 15 church camp fundraising ideas and choose one that works best for your members and church’s needs.
Church camps are excellent ways to build a safe environment for kids and encourage more youth to learn about God. Thanks to technological advancements, there are many options you can choose from, and they don’t have to cost too much. The best church camp fundraising ideas let the youngsters take an active role every step of the way.
When coming up with ideas for your youth camp fundraiser, think of all the ways kids and youngsters can fundraise, market, and volunteer during the event. The following 15 church camp fundraising ideas can help you get started.
The following fundraising ideas for a church camp include online fundraisers as well as in-person fairs and activities. Let your creativity flow when thinking of how to best fit these ideas with your church members and youth groups.
Church camp fundraising can be an opportunity for youth groups to learn about charity and to participate in the campaign. Lock-ins let them spend the night in the church, play games, eat delicious food, and socialize with fellow church friends.
You can even let them bring a friend to expose them to the church and learn about God in a fun way. You can charge a fee for participation or let them raise funds from family and friends to sponsor them through the night.
Each member of the youth group can have a fundraising page to raise money for your church camp. Peer-to-peer fundraising helps boost the outreach of your church as well since a lot of new people come to know about your camp through the fundraising pages.
Alternatively, you can also create an online pledge donation form so participants can easily use it to collect pledges from their families and friends.
You can keep them busy with trivia or other board games, or make it more of a challenge and create a scavenger hunt.
Pledge drives are another common fundraising church camp idea. This can even be included in other ideas such as a fundraising run, walk-a-thon, or bike event.
The primary purpose of these events is to encourage donors to give more significant gifts by allowing them to spread them throughout the year.
Crossways Camping Ministries has created the below online fundraising campaign to provide ways donors can make a pledge toward the betterment of their camping sites and experience. It also lets people donate one-time or monthly through the recurring donation form.
Your church camp can make this a fun fundraiser that involves youth groups, parents, and other community partners. You can start with a weekly class for youngsters with a new project every week and charge a fee for each attendee.
Once the class is done, you can continue the fundraiser by posting projects throughout the church and selling projects to families and church members.
You can also hold a craft fair to sell these projects and invite other vendors to participate for a fee. Sell tickets to your craft fair event. Class attendees and families may get discounts. Add different ticket levels and price them strategically. The weekly classes along with this event will help your church raise a lot of money for the camps.
The below example is from a Christian summer camp including a lot of activities such as crafts and art, food, Bible classes, and more. Their pricing structure for the tickets is very simple and this can be your inspiration for a straightforward approach to youth groups and their families.
Yard sales are so popular that there are apps to help people find and visit every local yard sale to get the best deals. Many people love the excitement yard and garage sales give.
Your church can capitalize on this popular activity and hold an annual yard sale to raise money for your church camp. This is also an excellent way to get children and teenagers involved in fundraising for the church.
Each age group can perform different activities, from collecting in-kind donations to labeling objects, making signs, and collecting and counting funds. Let the youth group talk about your church camp to people coming to your sale and inspire them to make donations. Activate text-to-give. It’s the simplest way to let people quickly donate.
Donorbox Text-to-Give can be enabled on the tool and you can choose either the basic or the shortcode plan. You’ll get a unique id for each of your online campaigns on Donorbox and a texting number. Ask your audience to text the id to the number and they’ll receive a mobile-friendly donation page link to complete the donation. Repeating the donation is even easier – no need to go to the donation page again (shown below)!
Many visiting your sale would love this opportunity to help these young people raise extra money for your camp.
Walk-a-thons are another popular fundraising trend, but you don’t often see churches promoting these events. That’s a mistake since sporting events like this can bring in many new donors. Walk-a-thons can encourage more youngsters to volunteer and fundraise for your church camp.
Churches can raise funds for their church camps by encouraging attendees to raise funds with peer-to-peer campaigns. They can also sell tickets to an additional event after the walk or sell booth spaces to vendors and sponsors. As mentioned earlier, walk-a-thons are also an excellent way to encourage pledge fundraising among participants and other attendees.
The variety of ways a church can fundraise during these events is an excellent reason to add it to your fundraising calendar.
Volunteer days involve people providing services to their neighbors for a donation to the church. They have also become standard practice in schools. Kids and youth groups who attend your church camps may already be comfortable with this campaign. The more comfortable they are, the more likely they are to participate.
Before holding this church camp fundraiser, it’s essential to educate youth groups on the different ways they can help. It’s best to create a list of volunteer activities and ask them to go and find people who need their support.
Your church can raise funds with a peer-to-peer campaign. Your youth group can ask people to donate in exchange for help with their chores. Each member can have their own fundraising page, so it is easy for you to track and reward them afterward.
Check out Donorbox Peer-to-Peer. It is simple to set up and you can invite people from the tool itself. They will receive email invitations and can customize their fundraising pages to get started, all in just a couple of minutes! Here’s a quick demo to help you get started right away –
You can also sell t-shirts and hats to volunteers to raise some extra money.
An easy way your church can raise funds is by creating a cookbook and selling it online and in person to church members. Ask your youth groups to share beloved family recipes, and include an image to use. You can then add a campaign donation form to your website and ask their families to donate to receive a copy of the book.
Other baking and cooking options include a bake sale or cook-off where people compete for the best meal or dessert. Ask youth groups to participate and accept pledges from their families and friends. You can also sell tickets to this event after adding a few more exciting activities to it.
The best fundraising ideas for your church youth group include the youngsters whenever possible. Since many of them attend school and receive grades, why not use that as a fundraising opportunity?
The schoolgoers from your youth group and their parents will get behind any activity encouraging kids to get better grades. You can create an online fundraising campaign page where anyone can donate to a child with every a or b grade. You can also let youth groups raise funds from their friends and family and collect more funds.
Donorbox lets you get started with fundraising in 4 simple steps. Sign up for free, create a donation form, embed it in your website or use the Donorbox-hosted fundraising page, and connect your payment process – Stripe or PayPal. That’s it. Thousands of churches are using Donorbox features across the globe. Learn more about how to accept online tithes and offerings with Donorbox in the below video –
This is a nice, simple way to instill a sense of philanthropy in youngsters while also encouraging them to study well and bring in good grades.
Movie nights are another fun fundraising idea for your church. Choose a family-friendly movie, and rent a screen and projector to view the film inside or out. You can also project a movie on a blank white wall if there aren’t many blemishes.
There may also be some members who already have a projector, so be sure to ask around before spending any money. Once you have all the necessary tools and movies chosen, it’s time to advertise.
Let your youth group promote the event to neighbors, friends, and families. If the movie night is free of cost, ask them to collect pledges instead or raise funds from friends and family.
Add a post on your website and social media accounts. You can also create flyers to post around your church and community. Don’t forget to include it in your Sunday flyer as well.
You can also raise money for your church camp by selling tickets or concessions. You can combine two fundraising activities if you’re already holding a bake sale or cook-off.
It doesn’t matter who you are or how much you love your kid. Parents could always use a night out. A Parent’s night out event can also be fun for the youth group, especially those who are good with kids.
Come up with activities and select youngsters who want to help you keep children of all ages busy during the evening.
It’s best to split the kids by age. Where games, stories, and movies may fit one group, others may be more interested in a scavenger hunt or overnight event.
Once you plan your evening, you can promote the fundraiser to all parents and ask them to bring their kids and donate what they can. You can also encourage sponsors in exchange for marketing opportunities.
A great way to raise more money would be to host an online auction before the night out where parents can bid on dinner or fun activities for them to do.
Let your creativity run free for a fundraising event like this.
Talent shows are another fundraising event that can excite and encourage youngsters and parents to participate. Let people choose what talent they want to share, but ensure you have a process in place to limit a bad experience for the audience.
You can sell tickets online and in-person to the event and promote it with flyers and advertisements online and with the press.
You can also take this opportunity to share how your church camp makes a difference to the church and community.
Pro tip: Let your youth groups add a nice, fun presentation to the event and explain how they look forward to the camping experience. This will inspire families and other attendees to donate to your church camp.
Another fun activity is a game or trivia night. Churches have many resources to choose from, but a Bible drill is one of the more exciting trivia games you can include.
Let youngsters participate in the game for free. But ask them to promote the game night to their families and friends and the neighborhood, and sell tickets to them. Remember to reward them afterward for their efforts.
Encourage all to bring their Bible. Once they get to your church, they’ll compete for who can find a Bible book or passage the fastest.
A Bible drill or other trivia game can be for teams or individuals. If there are teams, ask youth groups to brainstorm names for each and design t-shirts to sell on the game night.
You can also sell concessions throughout the evening to help make it fun for all.
Coffee helps youngsters feel older, especially when they’re teenagers and hanging with their friends at a local coffee bar. Your church can let them not only drink but sell coffee to congregation members and raise funds for the church youth camp.
Youth groups can sell coffee, donuts, and other pastries before church and Sunday school or during another fundraiser. It’s best to offer pre-ordered options to your website to ensure greater participation.
If you’re tired of holding the same car wash every year, you can have one for the dogs! Hold the event over the weekend, use the church parking lot or basement, and let people register for space.
Have your youth groups post and hold signs at busy spots around the community to encourage more people to join. You can also raise more money for your church camp by finding sponsors from veterinarians and dog food stores.
If your church holds a family photo shoot or creates a membership book, this may be a new and unique way to raise funds and entice more people to participate.
You can create themes, build backgrounds for fun pictures, and include props and costumes to step up your game. Hire a photographer for family photos. You can also upsell options by offering different packages with different costs depending on what people want.
Have youngsters make the day more fun with activities, games, and concessions for people walking in. They should also invite their families and friends to participate.
Pro tip: Add donation kiosks to the event venue to let people easily donate online. Ensure you have the online donation page added to your tablets or computers. Ask someone from the youth group to be there to assist donors. Also, include a text-to-give option so that younger parents would love the convenience and donate more.
Fundraising for your church camp doesn’t have to be something you dread. With enthusiastic youngsters around, the whole fundraising process just becomes more fun and exciting for everyone. They’ll help you develop unique ideas and can take up a lot of responsibility, from making arrangements to raising money to promoting the online campaigns to selling more tickets.
As you try out different ideas for your next church camp, check out Donorbox – it will get you started with fundraising in just about 15 minutes without any hassle!
Our fundraising features such as Crowdfunding, Recurring Donations, Text-to-Give, Peer-to-Peer, etc. are simple to use and we offer your donors multiple payment methods including digital wallets. Churches can also manage donors on Donorbox and integrate with existing systems like Salesforce NPSP, HubSpot, Blackbaud RE NXT, etc. Our QuickDonate feature lets your donors repeat their donations to your church at any time from any device!
If your church is all set to take its fundraising efforts to the next level, let us introduce Donorbox Premium to you! You receive expert knowledge and guidance from fundraising coaches as well as access to the most powerful tools for fundraising and donor management. A team of tech experts will always be available to help you and you’ll have a dedicated account ambassador to reach out to at any point. Pricing is personalized for every organization.
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Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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Kristine Ensor