Running specific church projects could come with substantial capital demands that may necessitate looking outside for aid. Against this backdrop, the idea of initiating a fundraising exercise is given precedence. You will need to adopt creative ideas for a successful campaign.
Some of these (ideas) are discussed in this write-up. But before we delve into that, it is interesting to know that whatever means you decide to go with, you can leverage church donation software to manage the fundraising process better. This is why you should consider subscribing to Donorbox – which is currently the best donation management software.
With Donorbox, you can efficiently store and manage the data of the donors for future use. Plus, it can also serve as a predictive tool that helps you to easily connect with individuals who are likely to contribute to the fundraising cause.
1. Host a Dinner
Who said a dinner has to be held in some extravagant place or made for just a couple? You can look to set up your churchyard and have a dinner for people right there. You do not have to spend so much organizing this dinner as you can engage volunteers from the church’s congregation to help oversee the food preparation, setup, and all.
As for the consumables, you can have things like pizza, ham, hot dogs, etc. – with some drinks or beverages to go with them. Amidst all these, you should not forget the main objective of hosting the dinner – fundraising. Because of this, you can have some light-up banners [with a text-to-give feature] and donation boxes strategically positioned around the venue.
If possible, you can have the project that the fund is being raised for displayed at some point. You should be purposeful about this – and not desperate.
Again, to have a more impactful event or outcome, you should aim to invite a sizeable number of people – both the members and non-members of your church alike. You can maximize social media to this effect and encourage church members to extend an invitation to their friends and families.
2. Organize Community Rally/Event
Getting the message about your fundraising needs to the community will also do some wonders. This can be done in the form of a rally throughout the length of the community with volunteers – probably from the church’s congregation – wearing branded t-shirts showing the text-to-give number.
Communicating the motive behind the fundraising drive will also be logical to build trust further. That said, you may yet go the way of organizing a community event whereby you will have something done outside the walls of your church.
This can be in the similitude of a talent show where you will have some volunteers showcase what they have got – maybe dance, music, drama, and so on. You should, however, get the community anticipating the event by creating some buzz around it as D-day draws near.
One thing this kind of community event will guarantee is the attendance of folks who may not ordinarily ever come within your church’s walls. You should remember to have your donation box available and provide onlookers or attendees with a mobile giving app – if you’ve got one. More so, you can make this ticketing event and be ready to make ticket holders feel comfortable – by providing them with a seat.
3. Consider Hosting a Sales Event Within the Church Yard
Now back to the churchyard where you can also have a sales event. To successfully do this, you can ask church members to bring used items – shoes, clothes, bags, gadgets, etc. – that they no longer need, to church. You can store these items somewhere in the church and have them brought about on the day of the sales.
You can have volunteers prepare some baked goods that can be sold along with these items. You should understand that this event will require some degree of planning, particularly regarding wooing prospective buyers – the more prospects, the higher the probability of having a successful sales event.
To this end, you will have to create awareness; you can employ social media platforms for this purpose. You can also let people know that the proceeds from the sales go into a specific project. One or two donation box(es) can be placed at the entrance of the churchyard as you never can tell who may be willing to contribute to the (fundraising) cause.
When or why does a church need to raise funds?
If you have a small church where the offering is relatively low, you will undoubtedly consider raising funds some other ways. So, let’s look at a few cases that may push you to embark on a fundraising drive:
- Covering operational costs:
A church is primarily seen as just a place of worship doesn’t mean it is exempted from incurring some operational costs. Several bills have to be cleared to run the facility effectively. These expenses could sometimes become overbearing on the purse of the church – a non-profit organization in the first instance. As such, the administrator will have no means but to resort to raising funds away from the customary offering collection. - Completing a project:
The only reason that a project within the church premise may be stalling could be down to the lack of funds. So, to bring it up to speed again, you will have to adopt a fundraising strategy, extending requests to both members and non-members of your church. Any of the creative ideas shared in this article can suffice in this regard. - Attending charity cause:
There may also be an instance where your church is out to fulfill a charitable cause but lack the financial or material capability to do so. But this should not truncate the goal as you can seek funds from other people who may be interested in putting in the fund or some other resources. You can be the conduit through which help reaches the orphanages, homeless citizens, and so on within the local community.
