Tip #123: Make it Count
December 9, 2007 – 5:35 pm
Whether your ministry budget corresponds to the calendar year or another time frame, it likely includes one or more fund raising opportunities that will provide finances for mission trips, camps or other expenses of student ministry. Fund raisers are a blessing and a curse as their planning and implementation both allows the community to participate in your student ministry and competes with myriad fund raising tasks your youth and their families face throughout the year.
Just about anything a young person participates in with regularity - schools, sports, clubs, community groups, and more - each has one or more fund raiser per year that is crucial to its activities. This leads to the very serious “Nickel & Dimed-to-Death” syndrome for friends, neighbors and co-workers of the families involved in your student ministry; N&D syndrome is often accompanied with the complication called “Fund raising Fatigue.” This combination can be lethal to your efforts to help kids participate in all your student ministry has to offer.
One way to help prevent N&D and FF syndromes is to do a bit of proactive research on timing, methods, and target population before you choose youth group fund raisers. Consider choosing a time during which schools and others aren’t raising funds (times other than the beginning of the semester and the beginning of each sports season). Find a way to fund raise from a different population (such as sending mission trip letters to folks out of town and outside the congregation). Look into the methods for the fund raisers; if they’re all selling candy or wrapping paper, choose a non-item sales fund raiser like a dinner or coffeehouse.
What are your best practices for effective fund raising without burning out the families & congregation’s enthusiasm?
2 Responses to “Tip #123: Make it Count”
Do fundraisers that build community, are a good deal for the $, and that can become annual events. Annually we do a Spaghetti Dinner & Auction (we keep tickets cheap so anyone can attend and make a lot on the auction - $6400 this year) and a Family Carnival (again we keep tickets cheap so church families can bring their friends and neighbors - we don’t make as much $ on this one but it is a great night and we usually dome out about $900 ahead). The only thing we sell is homemade fudge because people now ask for it.
By Tammy on Dec 10, 2007
we took over the trash pick-up at the county fair and some other events at the fairgrounds. it makes them work for it, but they have a blast and cant wait for the next event. its very social, and the youth are on display doing community work. in our case it pays pretty good too. they used to pay inmates at the jail to do it, but we under-bid it, it was still several thousand dollars for three days work, plus free carnival rides…
By Dean Moore on Jan 10, 2008