Some traditions remain effective, but technology offers multiple church fundraising ideas that can help your church reach its goals and engage more members. A fundraising plan can help your church plan out its goals and increase giving. Check out the following 20 fundraising ideas to see which ones may work for your congregation.
In the past, churches would take up offerings on a Sunday morning by passing around collection plates. Members would toss in their cash or check contributions. Nowadays, churches have to take it up a notch.
This does not mean that traditional ways should be abandoned. In fact, some congregation members might still prefer them, but there are multiple church fundraising ideas out there that you can use to reach your church goals and engage your members. Sometimes the offering just isn’t enough.
When your church needs to increase giving, what do you do? What types of fundraisers should your church conduct, and how can you get your congregation on board? Is it even possible to make fundraising fun and meaningful?
Today we are gonna take a look at 20 fun church fundraisers.
The famous “Buy One, Give One” concept, popularized by TOMS, is a straightforward and inspirational way to fundraise.
For example, if your church is helping the homeless, you can organize a community lunch sale offering “buy a lunch, give a lunch”, pricing the food slightly higher than average to support your cause.
Offering plates have been used by churches and other faith-based organizations as a primary way to receive donations ever since the early 19th century.
In addition to this traditional method, give your congregation an option to donate online. Make sure your church has a modern, well-designed online giving page. Use Text-to-Give to easily redirect members to your giving page. It will be more convenient for them rather than having to type the URL in their browser. Donorbox also gives you free QR codes with every campaign, so you can use them at your church to send givers to your online donation form instead of only relying on the offering plate.
With Donorbox’s QuickDonate™ feature, your one-time givers can also easily repeat their donations, right on the go. Their precious payment information will be saved upon confirmation from their end and they can repeat their last donation and even download their donation receipts as and when they want.
Finally, you can also set up a giving kiosk at your church to encourage visitors and members to make cashless, in-person donations. The Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app lets you convert your iPad or Android tablet – paired with a card reader device – into a giving kiosk in only a few minutes and accept swift cashless donations. Your donors will be able to give via quick taps, dips, and swipes of their credit/debit cards or by using their digital wallets. A giving kiosk can be a great alternative to your traditional offering place!
A quick, but untapped tool for church fundraising, text-to-give is easy to set up. Mobile fundraising is a simple way to receive donations as a faith-based organization.
With Donorbox, text-to-give is quite easy. Your donors need to send your campaign ID to 1 855 575 7888 (basic plan) or the keyword “GIVE” to 801801 (short code plan). While the choice is yours, the shorter number is much easier to remember and type in. Plus, you can choose a custom keyword in this plan. Once your donors send the campaign ID, Donorbox will send them your mobile-friendly campaign link and there they can make donations. With our repeat donation feature, your donors can quickly repeat this donation in the future without having to fill out any forms. Check this picture for a glimpse –
This method is especially important since fewer and fewer congregants carry cash around, and more and more bring their phones everywhere.
Check out our detailed guide on text-to-give fundraising.
Churches and religious organizations use the Text-to-Give feature extensively to collect donations. We talk about 11 reasons why churches should adopt text-to-give and unlock a new fundraising opportunity.
Nonprofits and churches from around the world have used this effective fundraising technique for years.
The idea is simple. Ask congregation members or members of the local community to give up going out to eat, going out for drinks, coffee, weekend movie nights, or any other (by all means) modern luxury, and donate instead.
Here’s an example of a “Give it Up” fundraiser organized by Neuroblastoma UK. One of the participants said:
“I gave up my daily cappuccinos and texted to donate £3 each day I walked straight past the coffee shop! It was a great feeling. In total I gave £42 plus Gift Aid to save children’s lives. Who needs caffeine when you can get a kick from supporting such an amazing cause?”
If you want to make it easier on your congregation, choose a shorter month, like February. Your congregants can also choose to opt-in for half of the month.
Crowdfunding is a term that refers to any effort to raise money with donations from a large number of people, and it was initially used as a way to attract small-scale investments to for-profit organizations.
However, crowdfunding has quickly become the bread and butter of many 501c3 nonprofits and faith-based organizations.
The ability to reach large audiences beyond their own congregations or audiences is an almost unique advantage of crowdfunding compared to other church fundraising ideas.
Crowdfunding is usually simple to start.
However, simply putting a campaign on the crowdfunding platform does not guarantee you will meet your donation goals. Nearly two-thirds of campaigns fail to meet their goals. Since crowdfunding for churches has become so essential, here are some tips to make sure you reach your financial targets:
This is in no way an exhaustive list of elements for successful crowdfunding, but it covers some of the basics. Good luck!
Another widely known and used tool, peer-to-peer fundraising is essentially an extended crowdfunding solution
Whilst crowdfunding generally uses one landing page to collect general donations or cause-specific donations for the church, the main purpose of a peer-to-peer page is to call supporters/congregation members to fundraise on behalf of your organization.
Therefore, peer-to-peer fundraising features multiple individuals creating individual crowdfunding pages and linking them to your church. Here is the difference:
So, rather than counting on mass appeal, you need to empower your members and supporters to reach out to their networks.
A major advantage of peer-to-peer fundraising is the ability for congregation members and supporters to individualize the cause by explaining why it matters to them. This personalization appeals to emotions and increases donations. People are more likely to donate to an organization their friend or family member recommended.
However, this means you rely on your fundraisers! Make sure you enable them to do the fundraising by providing the right tools and support.
#GivingTuesday, a global day for giving, powered by collaboration and social media, falls on November 30th this year. In 2020, a record-breaking $2.47 billion were raised for #givingtuesday, which was a 29% increase compared to the previous year.
Giving Tuesday campaign combines a lot of the tools we already talked about. To best utilize this powerful church fundraising idea, consider these tips:
Example: During Giving Tuesday, Spirit of Joy Church wanted to raise some funds for their various ministries to help the needy communities around. They set up a donation page on Donorbox with their logo, description, and weekly/monthly recurring donation form.
The form includes donation tiers along with the impact of each contribution. They also added a way for the donors to make tribute donations. Later on, they uploaded a thank-you video to show gratitude to their supporters.
Holidays are a great time to reach out to your local community and fundraise. People are in the spirit of giving, and they also somewhat expect to be solicited.
Here are some church fundraising ideas for holidays:
An auction is a fun and energizing, face-to-face church fundraising idea. Besides allowing you to interact with your congregants in an interesting way, it is also a great opportunity to network with local businesses by gathering charity auction items.
Get local businesses to donate a variety of items. Hire an auctioneer, promote the event, and consider catering food and drinks. Make sure everyone is aware of the rules beforehand.
You can also make the auction silent.
Auctions require a couple of months of preparation, but they are worth the time if organized well.
To add an interesting spin to auctions, you can auction experiences and not just physical items.
If you want to avoid raising items from local businesses, an idea would be to host art auctions. Get the members of your local community and congregants to create art, and donate their work for the purposes of fundraising for your church. There are bound to be some members of your church and community who are talented artists or involved with art.
Everyone has stuff they don’t need lying around their house. Your church can use congregants’ unwanted goods to raise money and give the unwanted stuff a new home (yay for sustainability)! These work similarly to yard sales.
Some church fundraising ideas to do this include:
Make sure you have a way to collect the funds and provide receipts for your donors.
Alternative idea: You can combine these three into a big ‘jumble’ drive/sale where books, shoes, and clothes are sold.
Host sports events, such as a day of tournament play or pay-to-play sports challenges. This can be a great idea to draw the attention of school or college students. You can also host a 5k for the runners/walkers in the church. Set up a fee for each runner.
Assemble a coffee stand in front of the church or on the street on Sunday morning and sell coffee to congregants. Get a local coffee shop to donate supplies (e.g. cups, spoons, muffins). You can also do this with hot chocolate in winter and lemonade in summer!
Talent shows, bingo events, and trivia nights are fun and child-friendly church fundraising ideas. Sell admission tickets for a small fee, but also set up a general donation table. Use this chance to educate the congregation about church activities, and don’t forget to keep reminding the guests what you’re fundraising for.
Food always brings people together. Host a popular chili cook-off or organize a World Food Day, especially if your community includes members from various world cultures.
Threads of Hope is a 100% risk-free tool with no upfront cost.
Here’s how it works:
Choose a Saturday and provide doggie care for half the day. Get a pet store to donate supplies and congregation members to sign up their dogs so you know how many dogs you’re dealing with. This can be particularly fun to organize with your church youth group.
Choose a night where you will keep the kids’ department at your church open for the night. Offer to babysit children while their parents are out (e.g. Valentine’s or just before Christmas for parents to do their Christmas shopping). Charge per hour or a flat rate.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective. If your need is urgent (e.g. a leaky roof), simply send out personalized, heartfelt letters to members of your community asking them to donate for the repair.
For a bake sale, you just need volunteers to bake the goods and some more volunteers to sell the cookies and cupcakes. For a bake-off, design a competition (e.g. quiche bake-off) and have participants submit their entries. You can assemble a jury or pick a winner by popular vote.
A real crowd-pleaser, for this church fundraising idea you need a family-friendly movie, a projector and a screen, and some comfy seats. Sell tickets, and offer childcare services for free (that often results in high tips). Sell popcorn and snacks (buy in bulk to make a profit).
Church Choir is an important part of the church that leads the worship and brings joy through worship music. It also offers the opportunity for members to serve the church. A church choir often serves as an integral part of the community. Church choirs require funds in order to support their own operations, managing a choir requires dedication and hard work, and motivation!
A church choir needs funding to conduct their practice, travel expenses, and choir trip planning, among other requirements. Here are some easy church choir fundraising ideas that are sure to help you start raising donations for your church choir.
Church scratch cards are an easy and simple way to raise donations quickly. Your members and supporters donate the amount as per what their scratch card reveals. And, as a token of appreciation, they can be given shopping coupons or discount cards or perhaps a small gift like candles!
Movie nights are becoming a traditional way to raise donations. For your church movie night, you must be sure to set up your church or arrange a venue that can accommodate your supporters and movie watchers on the night. The idea is simple- your church conducts a movie night and in order to attend, your supporters purchase the pass for the event. The money raised for the event adds up to your fundraising. Make sure to choose an appropriate movie. Furthermore, promote and advertise the event in your community. You can even utilize social media to spread the word about the fundraiser.
Conduct a community talent show as a fundraiser. This simple yet creative way to raise donations has a few more benefits. Not only will the proceeds from the event add to your church choir funds, but a talent show is also an excellent way to help engage your community better with your church.
Create different age group categories to perform in the talent show. However, make sure to promote your event well, start spreading the word much ahead of time so all those interested in participating get ample time to prepare and help you put together a successful fundraiser talent show.
Furthermore, you can take help from volunteers to provide snacks and refreshments to your attendees- just a few snacks are enough and you will have another fundraising channel adding to your church choir fundraising during the event. Further, the talent show will bring forward talented members of your community- there is a good chance you will find new entrants for your church choir.
Your church choir is essentially a group of musically talented individuals in your church community. A benefit concert or gala is a perfect way to raise donations to support your church choir. Your choir must put together a great performance in the event, consider bringing forward all your best talents with their best performances to the stage.
Engage with your community or local stars or performers to contribute to your event. Make sure to keep a headliner of the event. Your fundraising comes from ticket sales, table purchases, and event sponsorships.
Most importantly, you must take care of the logistics involved in organizing the event. This includes the added cost of the venue and possibly catering for the gala, as well as the effort and time needed to find event sponsors. Most importantly, make sure you are marketing your event as properly as your organizing it, the funds raised from hosting a formal event can be well worth it.
Church Mission Trips are an important activity associated with the church. Church mission trips serve the community, imbibe the values of the church more deeply in society, and integrate the members into faith. Different church mission trips can aim at different community missions or goals. Above all, it is a significant journey for all those involved, the missionaries working to bring about societal changes and those belonging to the less fortunate parts of our society- in need of support. Here are a few ideas to get started with fundraising for church mission trips.
Creating custom t-shirts for your mission trip is a traditional and excellent way to spread the word about your mission in your network, this can potentially bring more volunteers or participants and increase overall awareness about your philanthropy. Research about your local artisans or online t-shirt sellers, get an awesome custom-designed t-shirt, and let your members, supporters, and community support your trip by purchasing the tees.
Arrange book solicitations at your church in advance, you can also consider placing collections in other popular spots of your community, you can also offer doorstep pick-up to collect as many books to resell. Start arranging your collection and selling them at your church. You can ask to sell your books every week a the church when more people are visiting, helping you increase your fundraising.
Food is a classic way to attract donors in a sure-shot. Host a pizza lunch at your or church. Or, ask volunteers to contribute baked goods for a bake sale. Bake sales are simple, effective, and easy to organize, making them a popular choice for young men and women embarking on mission trips around the world.
Organize a breakfast fundraiser at your church and let the members of the church join in after the mass to enjoy your bagels, coffee, and other baked breakfast goods. There is a good chance of a big number of people donating in exchange for a hearty breakfast- to support your mission trip. You can also use this opportunity to share your plan and goals for the church mission trip.
Read more creative fundraising ideas for church mission trips.
The most effective virtual church fundraising ideas include live stream fundraisers, social media takeovers, virtual dinner parties, virtual concerts, game night fundraisers, etc. A live stream fundraiser allows you to live-stream your on-ground work and ask your supporters to donate online. Social media takeover, on the other hand, helps you promote your cause via a business or influencer’s social media handle for a few hours or a couple of days to raise funds for your church.
With virtual dinner parties, you can give your supporters a chance to enjoy good food at home, invite some guest speakers, and make it entertaining before asking for donations. Virtual concerts and game night fundraisers are fun, especially for youth groups. Invite a local band or artist over to perform online or simply keep them entertained with board or video games. Subsplash Live can be a good live-streaming app for your virtual church fundraisers.
Host regular fundraising events for your church building project and provide your donors with updates. It increases engagement, enthusiasm, and transparency. What’s even better is a crowdfunding campaign with a set goal and timeline to raise the funds quickly and effectively. You should also remember that supporters are donating to the purpose, not the building itself.
Churches can quickly raise funds for their specific causes, mission trips, or even building projects using crowdfunding campaigns. Such campaigns are personalized, let you post updates frequently, and provide you with a dedicated space to tell your story. With a goal set in advance and given a sense of urgency, people feel encouraged to donate more to your cause than they otherwise would.
Other options include text-to-give which your donors can use to make quick donations with simple and short keywords right through their smartphone messaging service.
The best way to ask for donations to your church is by writing church donation letters. Since giving to a church is more about faith and a sense of gratitude, include inspiring stories and examples in your letters. Open the letter by thanking your supporters and end by sending out a feel-good message every time. You should offer ways of making donations and remember to not bombard people with too many letters.
Our blog on how to write an effective church donation letter will help you get started. But first, take a look at how Donorbox makes giving and tithing super-easy for churches!
Church Fundraising can sometimes seem like a daunting and boring task. However, if you approach fundraising for your church with a different mindset, one of fun and stewardship, you can begin to see fundraising in a whole new light.
In conclusion, with transparency, good intentions, a couple of fun ideas, and the right plan and people in place, fundraising can not only boost your church finances, but also become a way to bring your congregation closer together, showcase your work to the wider community, and positively impact more beneficiaries.
With Donorbox, achieving this becomes possible! With its low platform fees, customizable donation forms, and effective features like text-to-give, crowdfunding, etc.
Ilma Ibrisevic is a content creator and nonprofit writer. She’s passionate about meaningful work, sustainability, and social movements. If she’s not working, she’s obsessing over coffee or cooking. You can connect with her on Linkedin.
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Ilma Ibrisevic
