When you have to raise the money yourself to meet your own youth ministry budget, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Four Secrets of Fund Raising
- The Personal Touch. Most people respond better to face-to-face, personal requests for donations than to mass-mailings or telephone appeals.
- Targeted Requests. People seem to prefer giving money to specific projects rather than to general operating funds. Be ready to summarize three or four projects you'd like to accomplish. Know how much each project will cost.
- Planned Giving. You probably will find people more interested in giving on a regular monthly basis than in giving a single large donation. Apparently it's easier to say, "I'll give you $50 a month," than "I'll give you $500."
- Showing Appreciation. Be sure to follow donation with a thank you letter. Don't create a form letter; a person, to-the-point note expressing your gratitude.
Ten Fund Raising Ideas
- Holiday Greetings. Create a group of special holiday activities to invite donations to your youth ministry. Here are a few examples:
- At the beginning of the New Year, put together family resolutions boxes (devotional books, healthy recipes and mixes, exercise wear, etc.). Sell the boxes at a price that will return a good profit to you. Let people know that they’re not only starting their year off right, but they’re also helping the youth ministry budget get healthy.
- Bake Valentine’s cookies, muffins and cakes, purchase gourmet hot drink mixes, fruit and small boxes of chocolates, and arrange them in baskets, finished with colorful wrapping and bows. Sell them to your church members as ready made Valentine’s Day celebrations.
- Plan other activities for other holiday or seasonal celebrations, including Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, the end of the school year, Thanksgiving, etc.
- Harvest Auction. Dedicate a Saturday night in the fall to raising money for the youth ministry budget. Invite church members to create items to donate to the fund-raiser including such things as cakes, cookies, pies and fudge, handmade toys, quilts, knitted sweaters, art work, etc. Start talking about the event early in the year so people have plenty of time to create items. Auction the items to the highest bidders, always reminding the audience that all the money goes to ministry to the youth of the church.
- Odd Jobs. Put together teams of youth to do work that most of us dislike doing (chopping wood, washing windows, raking leaves, cleaning out the garage, etc.), then turn the work into fun social events. Hold a one-hour odd job blitz with as many kids as you can get together, charge a $25 fee for the work, and have a great time working together. Try to do four projects on a Sunday and raise $100 for your budget. (Of course, it would be acceptable if people wanted to pay you more, or if they wanted to also provide refreshments for the kids.)
- After-School Tutoring. Organize a tutoring program for elementary students, especially ones who go home every day to empty houses. Hold the tutoring sessions at school or at the church. Have members of your youth group help the kids with their homework. Invite church members to donate money on behalf of the tutoring program.
- Softball Marathon. Solicit donations for a specified amount per inning of softball played in one game (for example, $1 an inning). Draft all the kids in your youth group, start early in the morning on a Sunday and try to play 25 innings. During the game, have soft drinks and peanuts available to sell to all the spectators who come to watch.
- Provide Transportation. Enlist a few of your older youth (or their parents) to establish a regular transportation service for kids needing to be taken to or from school, for seniors who need to be brought to church, or for school field trips. Try to find a van or station wagon to use, charge $2 per round trip, and pick up five or six people at a time.
- Internet Research. Have your teens form a research company that will pursue topics on the Internet for high school students writing a paper, pastors needing background material for sermons, or families planning a vacation. Charge a flat fee ($10, for example), do the research, and print a good collection of articles to deliver.
- Disaster Preparedness. Collect all the necessary items to create a disaster preparedness kit (flashlights, batteries, water, flares, blankets, etc.). See if you can get companies in your community to donate items (be sure to fully explain your project). Hold a kit preparation party, then exchange the kits for donations to your budget.
- Family Worship Stories. Collect fun worship stories, make multiple copies and give them members of a family worship team. One night a week (in exchange for donation, of course), have team members go to the homes of various church members and read the stories for worship.
- Video Greetings. Organize teams of your youth to video holiday, birthday or just friendly greetings to send to friends and family members. Video five minutes of a family’s greetings, put the video in a mailer, address it and then deliver or mail the package. The charge for the video greeting is a donation to the youth ministry budget.
More Great Advice: David and Kathy Lynn, Great Fundraising Ideas for Youth Groups (Grand Rapids, MI: Youth Specialties/Zondervan, 1993)
From: ABZ’s of Adventist Youth Ministry
Permission to copy for use in the local congregation or group
