It’s no secret that a church’s survival relies on donations. For many, this can come in the form of weekly offerings and tithing from members. But often, that’s just not enough. That’s where church fundraising comes into play!
The benefits of church fundraisers are two-fold. They offer a way to engage the community and are also an avenue for added income. With so many church fundraising ideas, however, how do you choose the best one? Not to mention, once you’ve invested in a fundraiser, how do you ensure it’s a success?
There are so many components that go into the planning and management of church fundraising. We know first-hand that it can quickly get overwhelming. Because of that, we’ve created the ultimate guide to help you navigate it with ease.
What is a Church Fundraiser?
Simply put, a church fundraiser is an event that raises money to increase a church’s funds. As you know, churches are completely self-funded! That means the upkeep of the building must be paid for by donations – the landscaping, utilities, or any additional costs when something needs to be replaced.
With few employees, and an even smaller budget, church fundraisers can be tricky to execute. But, by taking the right steps, you can pull off a really awesome event. Sky’s the limit when it comes to all the church fundraising ideas you can run with and we’ll get into that too!
The first step? A mission.
The first step to any fundraiser is having a mission. What are you setting out to do? Where will the proceeds of the event go? Answering these questions can help you determine how much money you’re looking to raise and what type of fundraiser is appropriate.
Church Fundraising Ideas to Consider
After successfully nailing down your mission, it’s time to brainstorm what type of church fundraisers to have! The following are a handful of tried and true options that have been providing extra revenue for churches for decades.
What’s really great about most of these options is that they can also have a digital component to them to scale up your fundraiser to a different level. All it takes is using a digital fundraising platform like RallyUp!
Your Very Own Church Bazaar
A bazaar is a marketplace where artisans are able to sell their products. Think quilts, candles, cutting boards, signs, soaps, baskets, decorative lamps, and more. Most churches take on the advertising and hosting of the event and either charge for each booth or take a percentage of what each artisan brings in.
You may also consider a yard sale. It essentially works the same, but would engage more people to participate.
The Age-Old Bake Sale
Is there anything better than a church bake sale? Ask volunteers to bake something sweet and donate it. Not only does a bake sale stand on its own, but it can be a simple add-on to any other event – like the bazaar.
If you want to reach even more people, you can also host the bake sale digitally with an online fundraising platform like ours! You can sell your tasty baked goods online and arrange for local delivery or pickups.
One-of-a-Kind Cook Books
You know those unique recipes that your grandma made from scratch 50 years ago? Ask your congregation to pull out the best, most incredible, delicious recipes they have and put a cookbook together.
They are relatively easy and inexpensive to put together ensuring almost all profit from their sale. Who doesn’t want a book full of the best recipes in the area?
Reserved Parking Spaces
Is your church close to a popular area where events happen? Sell your parking spaces and provide a simple parking pass in return. Are you located in an urban area? You could sell mid-week parking to locals who are tired of driving in circles to find parking.
The Classic Silent Auction
What would church fundraising be without the classic silent auction? Charge any parishioners with collecting donated products from local businesses. Have a casual (or fancy) event with everything displayed and allow bidding on each one. At the end of the evening, the highest bid wins the product.
You could also increase participants by utilizing RallyUp’s online auction feature. Instead of dealing with bid sheets or manual payments, take it all online and expand your reach to people who can’t make your event.
Easter Eggs in the Spring
Consider making chocolate eggs and selling them. Ingredients can be purchased at a low cost in bulk. Each Sunday, after service, have an ‘egg making party’ where volunteers donate their time. The deliciousness can then be sold for $5-$10 per egg!
Golf Tournaments
Believe it or not, golf tournaments are not decreasing in popularity. Partner with a local golf course and host a day-long tournament. Community members can participate by paying a simple entry fee. All fees collected go directly to your church!
Christmas Cards for the Holidays
The holidays are always a great time for fundraising. Especially when you can get families involved! Have the children at your church design their very own Christmas cards. Spoiler alert: they’re going to be so cute. Get them printed and create full packs for volunteers to sell.
Tasty Cook-Offs/Bake-Offs
Let’s be honest, you can’t go wrong with a cook-off. All it takes is a little brainstorming to come up with what would really pique the community’s interest – sky’s the limit:
- Pies
- Mac and cheese
- Chili
- Dips
- Chicken wings
- Cakes
- Cookies
Participants eager to share their best recipe would pay a fee to enter the contest and attendees pay a small fee to try it out. Choose three judges that are popular and known (think–radio hosts, the minister, the fire chief, etc.). The winner gets a trophy and bragging rights.
Parent’s Night Out
It definitely wouldn’t be hard to find parents of young children just waiting for an opportunity to have some alone time. Once a month, have your volunteers (likely Bible School teachers) host a fun night for kids at the church (for a fee), allowing the parents to go out and enjoy the evening solo.
Family Friendly 5Ks
One of the most popular fundraising events out there are 5Ks! Host a 5K run for the entire community. Each runner pays a fee to enter. This may call for a lot of pre-event work, but it also allows for other fundraising to go on during the event like a Cake Walk or a Bake Sale (or both!). A 5k can be themed and with low overhead cost it has the potential to become a yearly event.
You could also expand this event and create an a-thon fundraiser where each participant is tasked with getting pledges. This is a great way to expand your reach to people that might not have known about the event.
How to Decide Which Church Fundraiser To Run With
Let us guess – a lot of these church fundraising ideas resonated with you. That’s great! But not every idea is going to be the best option. Ask yourself these questions to help narrow it down:
- Do you have the budget (however small) to successfully pull it off?
- Do you have the volunteers (manpower) willing to donate the time needed?
- Will your community support this fundraiser?
- What profit are you hoping to make?
Profitability is especially important for most churches as it’s likely tied to something like a new roof, program, new carpeting, etc. Here are some common ways to determine the profit you could or need to make:
Price of product/ticket – Initial cost of event = fundraising profit
The percentage your group will earn is:
Profit / initial cost of event = profit percentage
How to Advertise Your Church Fundraiser Effectively
Once you’ve decided what type of fundraiser you’re putting on, it’s time to get the word out. This is crucial to the success of the fundraiser! There are numerous avenues you can take, including:
- Print – Print advertising can be as inexpensive as you want it to be, like making simple flyers to hang up locally. Or can be more costly, like sending direct mailers to a large database of people. Newspaper or magazine ads may also be an option depending on the target audience you’re trying to reach.
- Social media – It’s highly recommended to use social media as a way to advertise your church fundraising event. While there are paid options available like the ability to boost a post or create an ad campaign, you can also leverage alternatives that are free like creating a dedicated event page. 67% of people in the US alone use Facebook, making it a great way for reaching your community and beyond.
- Digital – We’re now living in an age where organizations are choosing display ads on websites over the giant physical ones you see driving down the road. Ads like these can get costly, but some offer a limit so you can avoid going over budget. Consider asking a local radio station or other organizations to donate ad space. It’s free for them and a chance to contribute to a good cause.
It’s also important, when setting up your church fundraiser, to consider platforms that may help make advertising easier, like RallyUp! Our flexible fundraising platform offers built-in social sharing tools that completely streamline your promotional efforts for each of your fundraisers.
Leverage Grass Roots Options As Much As You Can
Before paying for advertising, see what you can get as a donation. For example, ask a local newspaper to do a story on your event and why your church is putting it on. Additionally, local radio stations provide a ton of opportunity for free advertising from their website to social media pages to on-air mentions. Even if it’s a one-time mention, it’s worth the ask.
A great place to start is simply asking your congregation if they work in advertising or know someone who can help. Leverage your contacts!
Don’t Sleep on the Prep Work
A smooth execution is crucial for the success of your church fundraiser. If all goes well, you may have a recurring event that you can count on annually. With that said, it’s all about the prep work – the time you take with your fundraising team to plan it out ahead of time. Just follow these important steps.
Step 1: Create a Committee
We promise, it’s not as difficult as it seems. Creating a church fundraising committee is simply getting a group of volunteers who are in charge of putting the fundraiser together and managing it. They need to be willing to donate their time for meetings, set up, tear down, and be attentive to any additional needs of the group.
Step 2: Secure Volunteers
Beyond committee members, volunteers for the event itself are crucial to ensure it runs well. This can be as easy as making an announcement during services that you’re in need of help for the event or providing a sign up sheet.
Quick Tip: High school students are great for things like this because they often need volunteer credit.
Step 3: Create a Budget
With other committee members, look at the fundraiser as a whole and make a list of everything you’ll need to purchase.
Then, determine which items you may get donated. Keeping overhead costs as low as possible are critical for most any fundraiser but this is especially true for entities that don’t have a large budget to begin with – such as churches.
Step 4: Set Goals
Using the formulas mentioned above, determine what your costs are to run the fundraiser and how much you’ll need to cover them and make enough to validate having it. For example, if you’re in need of new flooring for the church and need to raise $5,000, add the expenses of your event to the $5,000 and that’s your goal.
Step 5: Assign Jobs
Fundraisers are only as good as their organization. That’s why it’s important to assign each volunteer a specific job or responsibility during the event. Think manning the bake sale table, taking tickets at the door, ensuring the refreshments table is clean and fully stocked.
This will also help you determine exactly how many people you need during the church fundraiser itself. When you incorporate a digital element to your fundraiser, put one person in charge of managing the online fundraising platform. You don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen!
What to Expect During the Fundraiser
If you’ve done enough prep work, the actual event should be the fun part! Still feeling the pressure? Here are some tips for the day of:
- Arrive early – No seriously, really early. Even if everything has been set up the day before it’s important to give yourself enough time for any last-minute store runs or covering a sick volunteer who can’t make it.
- Never overreact – It’s nearly guaranteed that things might not go the way you planned. Luckily, no one else will know if you stay calm, fix what you can, and make sure everyone is having a good time.
Manage the donations – Ensuring donations are all accounted for can get tricky, especially in the midst of a busy church fundraiser. Not only does it help you keep track of money coming in, but it can help streamline the entire event – from marketing to text-to-give options.
What to Do After Your Church Fundraiser
After your church fundraiser is finally over, you can breathe a deep sigh of relief! You did it! Congrats. But, your work is not done. With any fundraiser, it’s important to show community members how much you appreciate their support. A thank you card, post-event, can go a long way.
We know, that’s A LOT of writing. So, rely on your team. Create a mini-event with your church fundraising committee to divide and conquer thank you notes. Make sure to send them to all sponsors and anyone who donated – whether that be a product, their time, or a service.
Additionally, if you’re interested in holding more church fundraising events, it’s important to reflect on what you did right and how you can improve. Hold a formal meeting and task each committee member with bringing one thing they think went well and one thing they think could be improved on.
Finally, make an announcement to your congregation about the money you were able to raise! Flaunt how successful your event was and get them excited for the next one.
Need Help Getting Started?
You’re in the right place! Churches all over the country have leaned on RallyUp to help them fundraise with ease. RallyUp is a fundraising platform that enables you to easily create custom pages for virtual, in-person, or live stream events.
Not tech savvy? You don’t need to be. RallyUp takes you through creating a personalized fundraising page, step by step. Oh! And there is also live support for any last-minute issues.
RallyUp allows you to combine different components so you can start and continue your fundraising efforts before, during, and after the event. This enables you to engage more people and ultimately increase donations.
Ready to make fundraising easier and bring more awareness to your church?
