Fundraising Ideas

The staff at Youth Encounter had great fun brainstorming ideas to help you and your church raise money to participate in middle school and high school events. Below you'll find our ideas as well as ideas people have shared with us along the way. And if you have ideas that aren't included, please make sure to send them to us (see link at the bottom of the page)! We'll add them to the list! Happy fundraising!

• Have the youth group organize and run a rummage sale at the church! Items can be donated by people in the congregation and lots of money can be raised. (Jen Miller, Event Ministry Director, Youth Encounter)
• Have musicians in your congregation? How about having a benefit concert? (Jen Miller, Event Ministry Director, Youth Encounter)
• If you really want to do something crazy, sponsor a song. When having someone come and perform you can always have groups or individuals sponsor a song or a segment of the program. Break down the length of the program by 5-10 minute segments with a dollar amount on each one. Then have the congregation members, committees, or youth group raise/donate that specific amount for each "song" until you have the amount you need. (Rachel, Minnesota)
• Write something to put in the bulletin asking for the congregation to "adopt" or "sponsor" a youth. They could do things like pray for them during the event weekend, write them an encouraging note, and even help pay for part (or all) of the cost. This is a great way to also promote intergenerational ministry! Senior citizens have so much wisdom! It would be great to pair a youth with one of the seniors in your church. One church has each pair meet both before the event for discussion and prayer, and then again after the event to share the experience, to thank them, and to pray together. (Larry Johnson, President, Youth Encounter)
• Have the youth host some sort of meal at the church. Youth can dress up (or not). You could do a freewill offering or have the meal be a set price. Ideas include:
• Hosting Lenten soup suppers before the service (Jennifer Noyes, Events Division Head, Youth Encounter)
• Hosting a spaghetti dinner and providing entertainment (singing, playing piano, juggling, etc.). You could even have youth dress in black and white to serve the meal. Candles could be on the table. Youth could offer babysitting to give the parents a "fun night out." You could even have a maitre d' seat everyone. (Jen Miller, Event Ministry Director, Youth Encounter)
• Offering a soup luncheon after church on Sunday. Ask families to donate crock pots of soup and invite the entire church! (Donna Gapinski, Team Division Head, Youth Encounter)
• Having fun with "spuds & dogs"! Serve baked potatoes with all the fixins and hot dogs. Have bars, cookies or pie for dessert (donated by families of youth or members of congregation). (Donna Gapinski, Team Division Head, Youth Encounter)
• Host a talent show with performances from everyone in the congregation (and have a freewill offering). Jen, who did this at her church, said, "I remember one year when a group of women dressed up like the California Raisins and danced around to the song 'Heard it Through the Grapevine.' It was fun and the congregation really got into it." (Jen Miller, Event Ministry Director, Youth Encounter)
• Sell everyone's favorite food--pizza. Check out www.PizzaKit.com for more information or make your own. If you go to a warehouse store such as Sam's Club or Costco and get pizza fixins in bulk you'll have everything you need. Sell pizzas by advance order so you know how much to buy (and then buy a little extras for the stragglers) and have the youth make them assembly line style and wrap them up. Easy, tasty, and it brings in the bucks! (Joe & Rachel, Minnesota)
• Sell stock. Kids "sell stock" in their faith development for $10 per share.  Donors get a 'stock certificate' for instant recognition.  Each kid writes a personal thank-you, which could be like a business report, to each of their stock-holders describing how their faith was strengthened at the Quake or Zone. (Joe, Minnesota)
• Host a car wash in the church parking lot! (Joe, Minnesota)
• Have a silent auction. Ask church members and local business to donate items and/or services. (Tip: ask only for new or gently used items, or otherwise you'll have a rummage sale—which is a different idea.) (Donna Gapinski, Team Division Head, Youth Encounter)
• Try selling gift certificates. Check with local grocery stores, garden centers, etc. and ask if you can sell gift certificates to congregation. You get a percentage of the profits, and the purchaser gets full value of certificate. (Donna Gapinski, Team Division Head, Youth Encounter)
• Bag groceries at your local grocery store or work concessions at the baseball field. Often youth groups can do this and receive donations or a portion of the profits. (Kate Tripoli, Media Assistant, Youth Encounter)
• Feeling a little competitive? Sponsor an "a-thon" like a run/walk-a-thon, academic-a-thon (spelling, math, geography, bible trivia where you get sponsored per correct answer), etc. People can participate and raise support, or give a donation to someone participating. (Kate Tripoli, Media Assistant, Youth Encounter)
• Host a family fun night with a small cover charge! Games, a scavenger hunt, battle of the bands, talent show, carnival, face painting, etc. The possibilities are endless! (Kate Tripoli, Media Assistant, Youth Encounter)
• Feeling creative? Try a service project with a fun twist! "At our church a number of years ago, we raffled off things like singing telegrams (the pastor's son and I wrote one and delivered it the person on his birthday), four hours of slave labor (the winner planned to use it for the weekend that her daughter got married), '100 Pounds of Lugging' (we'd lug 100 pounds of anything--bags of leaves, boxes from the basement to Goodwill, 100 pounds of lumber from your pick up to the attic you're refinishing, etc.). I love those kinds of things that connect youth with the rest of the congregation." (Cathy Pino, Youth Create Manager, Youth Encounter)
• "My home youth group just had a very successful 'Youth Auction' where church members could buy youth and have them do various jobs around the house, or babysitting. One kid went for $300. It was a great way to get youth working with and for church members (making intergenerational connections) and also a quick, easy fund-raiser." (Amber Harder, International Team Assistant, Youth Encounter)
• Make cinnamon rolls. Very similar to selling pizzas, but easier in some ways. You can buy them pre-made and frozen and just pop them in the oven, frost them, and sell them to all the hungry church-goers on Sunday morning before, between and after services. (Rachel, Minnesota)
• Tupperware and Pampered Chef have some good programs for selling things that give a good percentage back…and the product is good, so it's not a hard sell. (Rachel, Minnesota)
• Decide to do a specified free will offering one Sunday. Getting the youth excited and getting them in front of the congregation always helps. If they were to do a short presentation in a service and talk about why they're excited about the Quake or Zone, it will get everyone else much more excited and will help them to see the value in supporting whatever it is that they are raising money for. (Rachel, Minnesota)
• "One thing that I do to raise extra money at this time of year is to go and hand out phone books...I believe that a youth group of 10 people could easily raise over $1000 in a day!" (Eric Arundel, Spoke Folk Director, Youth Encounter)
• Sell Krispy Kreme donuts! Check out the fundraising tab at www.krispykremes.com for more information. You could sell the donuts in between services, or directly to individuals. (Jeanne, Registrar and Tiffany Schmader, National Team Director, Youth Encounter)
• Have a Penny War! All you need is two or more opposing groups, each with its own large container. When pennies are put in your own container, they count positively. Silver coinage and bills count as negative (which is why you try to put them in your opposing team's container). Whichever group has the highest total at the end, wins, although all groups usually end up in the negative. The loser/losing team must submit to whatever the terms were: shaving a head, dying hair, chores, winner gets small ice cream party, etc. (Ryan Veil, Sales Coordinator, Youth Encounter)
• One incredible youth group did this in Texas and the youth director had to shave his head like Martin Luther! It was incredible! Way to go! (Carl, youth leader, Texas)
• Organize a flower sale around Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or Easter. Work with a local nursery and get some good deals on arranged flowers. (Ryan Veil, Sales Coordinator, Youth Encounter)
• Open a candy shop. Coordinate with a church youth director and set up a concession table with candy and maybe even coffee or espresso machines and sell concessions on Sunday or Wednesday nights when your youth group meets. (Ryan Veil, Sales Coordinator, Youth Encounter)
• Have a flea market. This is similar to hosting a garage sale, except that people basically rent space in the church parking lot. They set up their own stuff and you raise money by charging per table for each person that comes and sells ($10-$15 per table). You would also set up a concessions/snack area to raise money. (Ryan Veil, Sales Coordinator, Youth Encounter)
• Another fun idea is "Flock of Pink Flamingos" which works well in smaller communities. One parishioner pays 20 dollars or so to have the youth put a flock of 20-30 pink flamingos in somebody's yard. The youth travel over to that person's house and set up all the flamingos. When that person finds the flamingos in their yard, they can pay 20 or so to have the youth remove them and place them in another parishioner's yard. It's a wacky, fun thing to do, and it gets the church and kids known around the community. (Amber Harder, International Team Assistant, Youth Encounter)
• The Jar Fundraiser/Gifts in a Jar has been a big hit in Iowa.  One church packages the dry ingredients of various things (soups, hot chocolate, brownies, cookies, etc.) into jars. Ruth, in Iowa who told us about this idea, says they take orders the first three weeks in November. She writes:

"...the first Friday night in December, we have our night to assemble the jars. We used to go caroling for our December event, and that has been combined with the jar making. What has happened is that we end up going to only one home to carol, as some moms are getting all of the ingredients onto the tables in preparation for the kids return to the church."

"The first year we only did 4 different jars (all of them were sweet things, like cookies and brownies along with Russian tea and cocoa).  Last year we had six different things, plus the tea and cocoa (two of which were soups)."

"We purchased a few books on various types of 'Gifts in a Jar.'  That's what we market is as, too.  The toughest part was figuring out how much we needed in ingredients to make the jars.  I don't think there was a year that we didn't send someone to the store to get this or that!  The key part of this is that we asked the parents to donate all of the ingredients (practically, this means that we would call them and tell them what to bring). We tried to be discerning in this area."

"Charges?  Well, we charged $8 per jar (quart size) and $4 for a drink, but we also had 'deals.'   Package #1 was 2 jars and 1 drink for $18, Package #2 was 3 jars and 1 drink for $25, Package #3 was 4 jars and 1 drink for $30. (The Russian tea was packaged in 2 cup bags and the cocoa was 3 cups per bag with 1 1/2 cups of mini marshmallows on top.)"

"Bottom line, it has been a good fundraiser, but is a time consuming one.  We had help from another mom who was a math major and was very helpful in the figuring of the ingredients. Plus she is a computer whiz and did a lot of the flyers, etc. for us!"

"Some years better are than others, but I think it's a win/win, as the person purchasing get a good gift and the kids feel like they have had a big part in the process.  We always stress that to the kids, that they be proud of what they are doing and that it is a gift to be given, so we want to do our best."

Ruth and Wanda also suggest making more than was pre-ordered as people will often buy the jars when they are assembled. (Ruth & Wanda, volunteer youth leader, Iowa)

Have a fundraising idea that isn't included? Please let us know so we can add it to the list! Click Here!