8 Church Fundraising Ideas That Work

Any church can scale its fundraising revenue by strategically choosing the right fundraising ideas. The good news is there is never a scarcity of ideas available to use directly or modify for your needs.

You don't have to leave this page after reading those two lines. This is because we shall explore eight (8) different church fundraising ideas that bring impressive returns.

1. Choir fundraising drive

Let's start this on a melodious note by looking at the choir fundraising drive. A special music concert can be organized to this effect, with your choir performing for the audience.

Also, you can appeal to other choral groups and musical bands to participate voluntarily and light up the occasion. You must be clear on what the event is about from the get-go.

Try to have an expansive guest list; it shouldn't be your church members alone. You can use your church or a venue around the community to host the event. The idea of having an open (outdoor) space should also not be ruled out.

This could increase participation as the attention of those around the neighbourhood is drawn to the musical performance. By the way, the possibility of live-streaming the event should be considered.

2. Organise food events

Food fundraising events are primarily centred around food, and they are pretty notable. That said, food events can be organized in different ways. For one, you may arrange a food and beverage event around your churchyard and have people come around to buy the delicacies. The success of this event will be incumbent on planning and good publicity. Plus, you should share recipes and avail people of the avenue to pre-order or purchase tickets before D-Day.

You should consider reaching out to volunteers to help prepare some special delicacies. Optionally, you can contact a few local restaurants to see if they could provide services and products at considerably lower prices for the event.

But you will sell the food at the regular prices – or even more. Again, you can plan the food event – a dinner, for example – and directly solicit funds from your target audience.

3. Leverage a Peer-To-Peer (P2P) fundraiser

The peer-to-peer fundraising model has come to stay, and this is thanks to its effectiveness. It is typically about generating funds through the influence of your network. You should create a central fundraising page for your church's P2P fundraising drive, probably on a fundraising platform or social media channels.

You can start recruiting volunteers from your church members once the page is set up. They should be urged to share the message about the project with their connections on social networks.

It is important to furnish your P2P fundraisers with the information and resources they will need to have a successful run. You should keep your ears to the ground to know if they have any challenges and tackle the situation hands-on.

4. Give-it-up appeal

The next fundraising campaign may be a means of heralding the message of sacrificial giving – through the Give-it-up appeal. The aim is to have people donate the money they would have used for something else to your church's fundraising cause. For instance, they can be urged to donate rather than spend on regular coffee rounds or go out for movie nights.

In a way, you can also ask that a couple of persons give up the time they would have time spent on pleasure to aid the fundraising drive – as volunteers. This set of people can help organize other fundraising events and even advance awareness about the whole campaign.

5. Text-to-give

Text-to-give is a highly efficient fundraising tool that many non-profits have come to embrace. It makes the whole process of giving seamless and convenient for your audience to give to your cause. This comes on the back of them being able to use their smartphones to send in their donations.

You don't have to keep looking at necessarily gathering people in a location to raise funds with the text-to-give mechanism set up - they can do so from their homes.

The setup is relatively easy and reasonably cheap. You can reach out to your mobile network service provider to grasp the prerequisites for activating text-to-give. Basically, a shortcode will be available by the provider.

You will get to share this shortcode, along with your unique fundraising text-to-give keyword, with prospective donors - requesting that they donate a specific amount. The provider will make remittances after an agreed predetermined period.

6. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding involves soliciting funds from a large number of donors – whether church members or not. This can be done using social media channels or connecting with a trustworthy fundraising platform to manage it for you. You should take care to share your story with prospective donors and also make your fundraising objective clear.

7. Host a series of trivia events

A series of trivia will be nice to organise to fulfil your church's fundraising project. To pull this off, you will have to first source for some unfamiliar facts across different facets of life - spirituality, sports, history, etc. Once you have that sorted, you should pick a date and a venue. You could set up space around your church to host the event and save costs.

Then, you can start working on your guest list and extend invites to other interested persons through social media. It's vital to create awareness about the event. Participation should be through ticketing - which should come at a charge.

You can use a specific percentage of the revenue from ticket sales to get a reward for the overall winner while the remaining goes into your fundraising coffer.

Ensure that you let prospective participants know the purpose of organizing the trivia. Also, you can consider raising stands to sell some items while the trivia is on. Consider selling things like baked treats, beverages, memorabilia, etc.

8. Silent auction

Silent auctions are also great for church fundraising campaigns, and they do guarantee impressive results. Consider partnering with some local stores to get the items to be auctioned at lower prices.

A silent auction is generally cost-effective, and you do not need an auctioneer to read out the bids. The event can be held at a venue, over the virtual space, or even as a hybrid event.

Final words

No longer should a church's fundraising project stall in the face of the many ideas and resources available to successfully run a fundraising appeal. You should map out a comprehensive plan and be committed to the implementation.

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Tags: Church, Religion , Fund Raising, Guest Post