We\u2019ve compiled a list of 15 different church fundraising event ideas ideal for different times of the year, audiences, and needs.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s dive in!<\/p>\n
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Here are 15 church fundraising<\/a> event ideas that you can use for your church. For each, we\u2019ll explain the best way to fundraise. We\u2019ve also segregated the list into different categories to help decide which one is best for the time of the year, your audiences, and your needs.<\/p>\n A fall festival<\/a> is a broad type of event that includes activities for kids like hay rides, face painting, pumpkin carving, and more. For adults, there\u2019s live music, food trucks, and mingling while their kids enjoy the festivities.<\/p>\n Obviously, a fall festival is best hosted in the fall!<\/p>\n For smaller budgets<\/a>, think about asking for volunteers to set up booths, making sure you have a variety of activities available.<\/p>\n Larger budgets can hire professional activities like a rock climbing wall and professional face painter.<\/p>\n This event can be held in your church\u2019s parking lot, which avoids the need for renting a venue! Just be sure your guests have somewhere to park.<\/p>\n Each activity at the festival should cost tickets<\/a> that can be purchased both at the event and ahead of time online.<\/p>\n Sell festival tickets with different tiers, as shown below. For example, $10 buys 5 tickets, $30 buys 15 tickets, etc. That way someone can easily purchase as many tickets as they need for the whole family to enjoy the activities!<\/p>\n Sell Tickets with Donorbox Events!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Be sure to also accept donations during or after the event. Have QR codes<\/a> pasted across your venue for people to quickly access your donation page. You can also engage youngsters in text-giving. That\u2019s a fun way to empower them to support your church.<\/p>\n You can have a giving kiosk<\/a> set up at your event as well. This helps people give quickly from a tablet device with their cards and smartphones.<\/p>\n Donorbox provides you with powerful features to easily and effectively implement all these options for your fall festival.<\/p>\n You get a free QR code with every campaign you create on Donorbox. Plus our Text-to-Give feature gives you a unique campaign ID and a texting number that you can share with your attendees.<\/p>\n Donorbox Events<\/strong><\/a> helps you create an event page and sell tickets online. You can create unlimited ticket tiers and set the tax-deductibility of your tickets, the purchase deadline, and ticket quantity. Donorbox also sends your attendees automated ticket receipts with a digital copy of their tickets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You should also try our Donorbox Live™ Kiosk<\/a><\/strong> app. Add it to any iPad or Android tablet and pair it with a card reader to create a giving kiosk. Or download the app to your Android smartphone or iPhone to use Donorbox Live™ Mobile<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 no card reader required. It\u2019s a frictionless and quick solution to empower your donors to easily give via swipes, dips, or taps of their cards, smartphones, and smartwatches.<\/p>\n Check out this family-friendly fall festival event campaign page by Port Ministries. They created this crowdfunding campaign on Donorbox to raise donations that included participation tickets to their event activities. This is another simple way to raise money with your fall event.<\/p>\n Fundraise Like a Pro - Sign Up!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Nothing brings people together like some great live music!<\/p>\n Concerts work any time of year, but consider getting creative and using the season to make your event more attractive. For example, an outdoor concert during the summer will attract many families looking to enjoy the beautiful weather!<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to secure the venue and the talent. The venue will probably be your church – either inside or outside. The talent could be someone who performs at your church regularly, but it\u2019s fun to mix it up! Seek out local talent and bands with different music styles to diversify your offerings. You\u2019ll need to establish a fee with each band.<\/p>\n Sell tickets to your concert both before and at the door.<\/p>\n Also, ask for donations throughout the night either by having the musicians work the crowd or by having someone high up in your church make an appeal.<\/p>\n You can sell tickets using Donorbox Events<\/a>. With events, you can create as many ticket tiers as you need, include tax-deductible amounts, set limits on tickets sold, and set deadlines for purchasing tickets.<\/p>\n Plus, your donors will automatically receive a receipt for their purchase and the tickets – so no second guessing that their payment went through, and less work on your end.<\/p>\n For taking donations at the venue, set up a donation kiosk using the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk<\/a> iOS and Android app. Simply add it to your tablet, connect a card reader, and accept payments from all major credit cards and digital wallets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Although this can really be any type of food, the goal of a mac and cheese cook-off is to make the event friendly for kids<\/a>, too! Members of your church will cook and compete for awards like \u201cbest overall\u201d, \u201cthe crowd favorite\u201d, \u201cmost creative\u201d, and more.<\/p>\n This event can be hosted whenever!<\/p>\n All you need for this event is a venue and tables for each contestant to set up their samples. If you can use church property, your budget could be $0.<\/p>\n Sell tickets to the event online in advance and at the door. You can also sell refreshments like water and soda to boost your revenue at the event itself.<\/p>\n For selling tickets at the door, make sure you have a way to accept credit card and digital wallet payments. Or you can share a QR code with your potential attendees and direct them to your online event page<\/a> where they can buy tickets.<\/p>\n During the event, you can encourage attendees to make donations to your church. You can talk about how the donations will help you and the impact you\u2019re hoping to create. Have a giving kiosk set up at the venue, which will help people make a quick donation.<\/p>\n The Donorbox Live™ Kiosk<\/a> app can be added to an iOS or Android tablet and paired with a card reader device to accept card payments as well as payments through Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, etc. This app is also backed by Donorbox\u2019s powerful fundraising platform and features and can be a great addition to your event venue to accept in-person donations.<\/p>\n You can also create a campaign for this event on Donorbox and use the free QR code to redirect attendees to this campaign page. With our UltraSwift™ Pay feature<\/a><\/strong> that adds digital wallets to our donation form, your attendees can quickly make a donation from this page.<\/p>\n Finally, you can use Donorbox Events to sell tickets online. Along with all the effective features it brings to your event, Events also enables you to accept one-time and recurring donations right from the ticketing form.<\/p>\n This fantastic event requires few resources and can result in a lot of fun! It\u2019s a great way to create a stronger sense of community in your congregation, too.<\/p>\n This event can be hosted whenever. It\u2019s great for fundraising for a specific purpose like a building fund or mission trip.<\/p>\n The main things you\u2019ll need to make this event a success are games and refreshments for your attendees.<\/p>\n For games, ask volunteers to bring popular board games and\/or come up with fun game booths like ring toss, video game competitions like Mario Kart, and more.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to budget for food and decide whether you\u2019re selling it or if it will be part of the cost of admission.<\/p>\n You can sell tickets to the event itself or sell food at the event – or both!<\/p>\n If you choose both options, keep admission prices low so participants feel like they\u2019re still getting some value out of the night.<\/p>\n Be sure to reiterate that this is primarily a fundraiser – so any money they spend is going toward a good cause!<\/p>\n You can sell food ahead of time by creating a Donorbox campaign with an online donation form<\/a>. Selling food ahead of time helps you plan how much you\u2019ll need to have on hand for your event, too.<\/p>\n Use Donorbox Events to sell tickets to your events. You can also combine the ticket cost with the cost of food and create a ticket tier combining both expenses to streamline things for your attendees. <\/span><\/p>\n This is a great idea because people are already at your church for Sunday service and are more likely to join in and share a meal together.<\/p>\n Sunday lunch or brunch works any time of year, but is great in the spring when people are ready to reconnect and thaw out from winter<\/a>.<\/p>\n You could even plan these quarterly if you have enough interest.<\/p>\n Your main expense here will be food. You could ask volunteers to sign up to bring a dish but to make your event more valuable, consider catering.<\/p>\n If you can use your community partnerships<\/a> to find a local business to sponsor your event, this will mean more funds for your church!<\/p>\n Sell tickets (or \u201cplates\u201d) both ahead of time and at the door. You can also include fun fundraisers like a pie auction or 50\/50 raffle<\/a> to bring in more funds and amp up the energy.<\/p>\n Use Donorbox Events<\/a><\/strong> to easily sell tickets ahead of time. You have the option on the ticketing form to take information from purchasers regarding their food preferences. It\u2019s a must for figuring out how much food to order and the needs of your attendees.<\/p>\n You can also show how much of each ticket is tax-deductible simply by including the fair market value of each ticket and the tax rate.<\/p>\n Donorbox Events also helps you accept donations right from the ticketing form. But to accept more donations on the day of the event, you can utilize Donorbox Text-to-Give<\/a> and QR codes to redirect people to your online donation page.<\/p>\n The concept of a babysitting night is quite straightforward – the church provides babysitters for a night of fun for the kids while the parents go out on the town. And although it is not a family event, it is equally great for adults and their kids.<\/p>\n This event can be hosted whenever but should be based on parent interest. Valentine\u2019s Day<\/a> is a good opportunity for this event.<\/p>\n If you can use church space, the only potential costs here are hiring babysitters (unless you have volunteers<\/a>!) and snacks\/dinner for the kids.<\/p>\n Plan this event a month or so in advance so parents have time to make plans and sign up.<\/p>\n For the night of the event, plan some fun activities and games to engage the kids. You will need young volunteers with similar experiences to plan this event.<\/p>\n Parents must buy tickets for their kids ahead of time so your church can plan. Sell tickets online.<\/p>\n Because you\u2019ll be providing food for the children, you can let parents know the fair market value of each ticket and how much is tax deductible. You should also accept meal preferences for the kids in case the parents want to mention anything important. Your event ticketing tool<\/a> should make all this effortless on your end.<\/p>\n Donorbox Events<\/strong><\/a> is a simple-to-use and highly effective solution for selling tickets online. You can easily set up an online event page and a ticketing form. You either embed the ticketing form on your church website or use the Donorbox-hosted event page. Share the link to this page with the community and let them know you\u2019re hosting a babysitting event.<\/p>\n Create multiple ticket tiers using Donorbox Events. If possible, split the event night into different slots which will help parents decide when exactly they want to drop their kids off and when they must pick them up. You can also create additional tiers for more than one kid or for additional one or two hours.<\/p>\n Donorbox Events also lets you accept attendees\u2019 preferences. In this case, you can ask parents if their kids have any dietary restrictions or allergies. It will help you prepare for the event night.<\/p>\n Boost Event Ticket Sales with Donorbox Events!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n This should be sold as a somewhat glamorous night out for parents. Encourage them to dress nicely and come out to see the silent auction items<\/a>!<\/p>\n This event can be hosted whenever you need to raise additional funds. You can add this to other bigger church fundraising events and engage your older audiences.<\/p>\n Your budget will depend on the scale of the evening and how much volunteer effort you\u2019ll receive. For example, a night with a catered dinner at a restaurant<\/a> will be expensive, but a volunteer-provided meal at your church will cost much less.<\/p>\n Soliciting items for the auction will be your biggest planning task. Ask congregants for donations and ideas and reach out to your community partners for sponsorships<\/a>. We also have email templates<\/a> on our Nonprofit Blog that you can use to request in-kind auction items from a local business.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll sell tickets to the event online beforehand. And you\u2019ll also receive the funds from the winners of the silent auction.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to raise more money through donations, make announcements during the event about any campaign you\u2019re running right now. Or your need for donations. It is advisable to talk about the impact<\/a> and add the same to your online donation page<\/a>. Now, help attendees quickly scan a QR code and go to that page to make a donation.<\/p>\n Having a giving kiosk with smaller custom amounts that are easier for people to give can be equally effective. The kiosk should be easy to use and transactions should be secure and quick.<\/p>\n Donorbox Live ™<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0helps you add up to four custom ask amounts to easily accept in-person donations at your events. Attendees select one amount and tap or swipe their cards to make a donation. It\u2019s that simple!<\/p>\n Donorbox Live™ Kiosk - Learn More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n You should use Donorbox Events to sell tickets to your auction event in advance. Our ticketing forms are embeddable on your church website. Events also allows you to accept donations from the ticketing form.<\/p>\n Finally, you can create a campaign on Donorbox, that includes a fundraising page and a super-fast donation form to help accept donations. Use this form to accept donations or sponsorships for your event, as Lighthouse Ministries<\/a> is doing with the below page on Donorbox. Use our free QR code to redirect people to a page like this and raise more donations during the event.<\/p>\n Workshops are great ways to connect with the adults in your congregation. You can host workshops covering any kind of topic – from career advice to self-help, and even things like cooking and crafts. Workshops can be hosted in person, virtually, or hybrid<\/a>!<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> Send a survey to your congregation to see what topics they might be interested in.<\/p>\n You can host this type of event whenever.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s something coming up that you can tie your workshop to, like a workshop on making resolutions around New Year’s<\/a> Day, then that might inspire more enthusiasm.<\/p>\n Your biggest expense will be an honorarium for the expert teaching your workshop. You\u2019ll need to work with that individual to establish a fair fee.<\/p>\n Otherwise, you might need to buy supplies for things like craft workshops. Planning is minimal too – just be creative and be sure to get the word out so you have plenty of attendance.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll fundraise primarily through selling tickets to the workshops. You can also sell materials relevant to the workshop like books or craft supplies.<\/p>\n Selling tickets to your workshop should be low-stress and easy for those who wish to attend. Donorbox Events is super simple to set up, meaning you don\u2019t have to spend too much time planning this type of event. Check out this live example<\/a>.<\/p>\n Create Church Events using Donorbox<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Simply set the cost of attending your workshop and create an event with a single ticket tier at that price (as shown below). You can embed the event ticketing form on your own website or host it on Donorbox for even less work on your end.<\/p>\n Attendees can choose to add on additional donations with their tickets and check out quickly with a credit card or Apple Pay.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget to offer events for the women in your church! Women\u2019s events, like a high tea, are a great way to strengthen the sense of community<\/a> in your congregation.<\/p>\n Encourage women to dress elegantly and come for an afternoon of fun conversation and delicious treats.<\/p>\n Teas are great for any time of year, but especially in the spring and summer. They\u2019re great events when you have a new influx of congregants so the women can get to know each other.<\/p>\n Your main expense will be food. You\u2019ll also need things like China and serving ware, but see if you can encourage women to bring theirs to share for the event.<\/p>\n You should plan the event months in advance so women can mark their calendars and get excited!<\/p>\n You\u2019ll primarily fundraise by selling tickets to the tea but you can also ask for more donations in person. You can open tickets up to women outside of your church, too, by encouraging attendees to bring guests.<\/p>\n Use Donorbox Events to sell tickets to your women\u2019s high tea event. In addition to setting your ticket tiers, you can set a deadline for buying tickets – so you\u2019ll know exactly how many attendees you\u2019ll have and can plan for food and serving ware.<\/p>\n You can also promote more giving during your tea with Donorbox Text-to-Give<\/a><\/strong>. When you launch your Donorbox campaign with text-to-give<\/a> enabled, you\u2019ll get a unique campaign ID you can share at your event. All the ladies have to do is text the campaign ID to the texting number to receive a link to give to your campaign.<\/p>\n Parents will bring their kids to the church to take pictures with Santa! It\u2019s simple and effortless for your church and can be helpful if you do not have a lot of volunteers available for the event.<\/p>\n We suggest hosting this kind of event the first weekend in December, before many holiday season<\/a> activities.<\/p>\n This event is very inexpensive for your church, provided you have someone willing to play Santa! You may need to rent a Santa costume. You can either hire a professional photographer or simply ask parents to take pictures on their smartphones.<\/p>\n Sell tickets per picture. So for example, if someone wants a picture with one child, then the other child, and then both children together, that\u2019s three pictures – and three tickets.<\/p>\n You can also ask parents to donate at your giving kiosk for taking their kids\u2019 pictures if tickets are not an option. Set up the kiosk next to where your Santa is, so it is easier for parents to pay for the pictures.<\/p>\n You can also sell refreshments for kids and parents to make this event more fun. This will also help in raising more money.<\/p>\n The best way you can fundraise with Donorbox for this simple event is to add the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app to your tablet devices so that parents can quickly donate for the pictures.<\/p>\n You can also create a simple donation form<\/a> (as shown below) to accept donations. Download our free QR code for the campaign and paste it at your venue, or add it to the home screen of the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk using the app’s QR code feature. Parents who aren\u2019t comfortable paying with the kiosk can scan this code and pay with the donation form.<\/p>\n Create Customized Donation Form<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Rest assured that whichever way you use Donorbox to fundraise, security is our utmost priority<\/a> and we have our security team and necessary measures in place to fight any fraud attack.<\/p>\n Chances are you have some talented folks in your congregation. Now is their time to shine! Ask them to sell their goods. Just be sure you have a good variety of things that people want to buy.<\/p>\n Host this event at the end of the year<\/a>, when people are shopping for gifts.<\/p>\n This is a low-budget event since the only requirements are space to host the event and tables for participants to set up their crafts.<\/p>\n Create an online event page to sell tickets to the event at least a month in advance. Depending on the number of participants, you can decide how many tables you\u2019ll need. And if your church space would be sufficient for hosting the event.<\/p>\n You can sell tickets to the event online and at the door. You can also ask participants to donate all or a portion of their sales to your church.<\/p>\n Since this is a fundraiser after all, you should feel comfortable asking for additional donations on top of ticket sales. This takes advantage of the giving season at the end of the year and increases your results for the event<\/a>!<\/p>\n You can also introduce the concept of peer-to-peer fundraising<\/a> to your congregation with this event. Invite each participant to create a fundraising page and share it with their networks. Their friends and families can come to the event and make a donation with this page to help your church. This way, you\u2019ll be giving them a great opportunity to support your church in an innovative and engaging way.<\/p>\n Donorbox Events is your best solution for selling tickets to this event. It also enables you to manage your purchasers\u2019 data and sold tickets at the backend. You can analyze this data to plan your event accordingly.<\/p>\n You can leverage our fundraising pages and online donation forms to accept donations during the event. If you\u2019re going to have young people at the event, try Donorbox Text-to-Give<\/a>. Empower them to text your campaign ID and donate easily using their smartphones.<\/p>\n If you think your congregation would love to help with peer-to-peer fundraising, Donorbox Peer-to-Peer<\/a><\/strong> is the way to go! Simply create a campaign and toggle a switch to turn it into a peer-to-peer campaign<\/a>. Invite your best supporters from the tool. They\u2019ll receive email invitations to sign up and customize their fundraising pages. Check out this short video to understand how Donorbox Peer-to-Peer works!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/New-Church.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>15\u00a0Creative and Engaging Church Fundraising Events<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>Church Events for the Whole Family<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>1. Fall Festival<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a>1.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>1.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>1.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
![\"donorbox](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/word-image-60728-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>1.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Port-Ministries-Church-Fall-Harvest-Crowdfunding-Campaign.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>2. Live concerts<\/h3>\n
\n2.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n2.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n2.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n2.4 How Donorbox can help<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>3. Mac and cheese cook-off<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a>3.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>3.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>3.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>3.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
![\"donations](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/word-image-60728-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>4. Game nights<\/h3>\n
\n4.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n4.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n4.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n4.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>5. Sunday lunch or brunch<\/h3>\n
\n5.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n5.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n5.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n5.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
![\"setting](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/unnamed.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Church Events for Adults<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>6. Babysitting nights<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a>6.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>6.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>6.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>6.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
![\"church](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/word-image-60728-4.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>7. Silent auction<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a>7.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>7.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>7.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>7.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/New-Live-Kiosk-Image-1024x512.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"church](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/word-image-60728-6.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>8. Workshops<\/h3>\n
\n8.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n8.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n8.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n8.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
![\"live](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot_1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"church](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/unnamed-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>9. Ladies\u2019 high tea<\/h3>\n
\n9.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n9.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n9.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n9.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>Year-End Giving Events for Churches<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>10. Pictures with Santa<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a>10.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>10.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>10.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>10.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n
![\"church](\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/nonprofit-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/word-image-60728-7.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>11. Craft sale<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a>11.1 When to host<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>11.2 Planning and budget<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>11.3 How to fundraise<\/h4>\n
\n<\/a>11.4 How Donorbox helps<\/h4>\n