10 Best Fundraiser Ideas for Churches
Looking for the best fundraiser ideas for your church? As the world opens up again, everyone is craving more connections. Your donors and church members are no exception. How do we continue to guide them on their donor journey and encourage more giving? Creating fun events that people can attend while giving to the church is a great way to encourage deeper connections.
At DonorWerx, we emphasize combining both traditional and digital tools in your giving campaigns. For those of you who can meet in person again, we have great fundraiser ideas, plus digital ways to stay connected to your members.
Below are 10 great ways to fundraise, some of which can also be done virtually. If you need ideas for your upcoming fundraisers, check out this list of the most popular fundraisers and donor ideas for churches.
1. Conduct an Online Auction
Auctions make giving fun. They are also easy to organize virtually. If you run a charity auction, you have the potential to drive big donations by promoting exclusive products, such as art or high-value items. The scarcer, the better. The great thing about an auction is getting to plan in advance and marketing your church fundraiser so that donors can invite other potential donors to attend. Online auctions are one of the greatest and easiest fundraiser ideas for churches!
2. Sell Church Merch
Merchandise, sold via an online shop, is a great way to raise money. Nowadays, you can simply rely on a third-party print shop such as Redbubble, which drop-ships t-shirts and maintains easy-to-set-up online stores. For instance, you could have a few custom designs made and open a Redbubble shop. That way, your nonprofit can also use branding ideas to raise funds. This could be anything from stickers to clothing, and art to household items like mugs.
3. Set Up a Facebook Donate Page
Setting up a Facebook Group page with a donate button that links directly to your website is one of the easiest ways to fundraise. This is because most everyone is on this social media page already. If you target your marketing right, you are likely to reach wider circles of friends and acquaintances. Depending on their chosen settings, people who share or like your links and posts will automatically promote your fundraiser to their circle of friends. This makes it feel less spammy, but still gets people intrigued.
4. Host a Fun Sports Day
Try this during the annual summer and spring months when the conditions outside are best for group activities. Many churches use sports games to gather the whole family or groups of friends to participate. You get to be active and healthy. Of course, you also get to promote the spiritual health of your members through this awesome fundraiser idea for churches. To make this a successful fundraising day, you choose to either sell tickets to the sports event or offer free entry with a donation box on site. Just don’t forget to promote your fundraiser throughout the day, encouraging people to give at the end of all the fun.
5. Create a Bible Movie Drive-Through
An event like this makes use of the creativity that was born during the pandemic—when we couldn’t go to movie theaters or meet in person, how did we entertain ourselves? Many families enjoyed movie drive-throughs or set them up themselves. You can always theme the movies according to what your Bible service values are for that week. Then, simply sell tickets to the evening, and enjoy. Another great idea is to make the Bible movie drive-through appropriate for kids. That way, whole families can come and attend an uplifting event.
6. Create a Video Conference Fundraiser
We now have a wide choice of video conference software, with more folks accustomed to using video regularly. This opens a brand new world of fundraiser ideas for churches. The even better thing is that technology has also improved in the last year, allowing for easier access to conferences, all from a viewer’s telephone or computer. This makes staying in touch with your donors and having virtual events easy. If using videos to reach your congregation is a new tool for you, there are digital platforms that make it easy and practical. Check out our comprehensive look at 12 simple and effective virtual church ideas here.
7. Start a Prayer Chain and SMS Fundraiser
Your church admin probably already uses the power of simple text to stay in touch with the church community. You can use SMS as a platform for fundraising, and you can do it in the same way you often start a prayer chain and forward the text to others. If there is an urgent need to raise funds—for example, pitching in for a church member’s hospital bills—then SMS fundraising is often one of the quickest routes to raising donations. If you need a quick fundraiser idea for churches, this might be your best bet.
8. Offer a Daily Devotional Subscription
Daily devotionals are something your church members can benefit from and look forward to. But it is also a good idea to invest time and energy into creating extra special devotionals that you would send out via a subscription package. This is another way some churches raise extra funding, and offer a premium membership option to include this. Instead of just asking for donations, you provide your donors with extra spiritual value that they will appreciate and look forward to. For an extra unique presentation, try an app like Canva to edit your photos, news, and digital postcards, and make your messages more shareable.
9. Kick Off a Tithing Campaign
Figure out the number of new tithers you need to bring to the church. Then, use text message marketing to promote any new tithing campaigns. If you would like to research different text to give platforms that offer services like tithing logistics catered to churches, check out our full review here. Remember, however, that tithing is a concept that new members may not quite understand comprehensively. Make studies on tithing part of your Bible workshops and guide people toward this way of giving slowly—step by step. Because the best fundraiser ideas for churches still need a little prep work.
10. Conduct Skillset Workshops
Executive pastors, church leaders, and managers can all benefit from better productivity skills. But besides teaching core values of the church, why not also offer workshops for soft skills such as coding for church youth or how to manage and track website data for your managers? Host an online workshop to teach skills that are both spiritual and practical, such as wise leadership and pastor productivity alongside digital integration. This is another way you provide value to those who attend your services. They will appreciate the extra effort you make to guide and provide knowledge that is relevant to today’s world.
There’s More to the Best Fundraiser Ideas for Churches!
COVID-19 lockdowns taught us we cannot depend on in-person tithes and donations any longer. Ministries must offer digital giving options to ensure continuity of operations and increase their overall revenue. We believe the DonorWerx Framework is the best text-to-give platform for your church, and we’re prepared to help you understand why.
For more information on how you can benefit from our tools and digital resources, contact us today and schedule a discovery call. The greatest fundraiser ideas for churches can do amazing things, but without a focused giving strategy, they’ll never reach their full potential!
