Fundraising Ideas
We’ve collected quite a variety of fundraising suggestions over the years, so if you’re tired of doing the same thing year after year, perhaps this list will inspire you to try something new. Don’t forget to check the comment section for extra ideas, where you can also add your own ideas.
Download a pdf (56KB) of these fundraising ideas. Adobe Reader is a free download.
Auctions
- Desserts
- Babysitting
- Lawn care service
- Raffles
- Students for service
- Donated gifts from local vendors
- Silent Auction
- Dinner Auction
Pledges
- Bowl-a-thon (pledge per pin)
- Walk-a-thon (pledge per mile)
- Bike-a-thon (pledge per mile)
- Corporate car wash—donations from businesses
- Dime-a-Dance
- Rock-a-thon (using rocking chairs)
- Trash-a-thon (pledge per bag)
Community Help
- Have a booth at a fair
- Car detailing
- Free Car Wash-Students get pledges for how many cars they can wash in so many hours.Clean houses
- “Work Day To Beautify Community” for donations from the community
- Partnership Days—Match up a student(s) with people to serve / to work for a donation
- Phone book deliveries
Dinners
- After church brunch
- All Saints Day flower sales and dinner after church
- Cafe night
- Dinner in concordance with church meetings
- Dinner theater: Friday, Saturday, Sunday matinees (Ask for a free will offering)
- Event banquets/breakfasts/ dinners
- Pancake breakfast
- Potato or salad bars
- Spaghetti feed
- Basket lunch—find church attendees to sponsor students through prayer and/or a monetary amount, then thank them with a creative lunch basket.
- Sweetheart banquet
- Put on dinners at people’s homes for a fee (Provide entertainment)
Donations
- Change drop
- Free will offering
- Loose change offering
- Pledges from the congregation
- Pop machine (or soda machine if you insist!)
- Scholarships
- Slushie machine
- Sponsor-A-Student
- Invest in students and become a stockholder in CHIC stock
Events
- Benefit concerts/music/speakers
- Drive-in movie
- Golf tournament
- Talent show
- Deliver flowers for florists on Mother’s Day
Recycling
- Bottle drive
- Aluminum can drive
- Paper drive
Sales
- Bake sale
- Christmas decorations
- Christmas trees
- Cinnamon rolls
- Concessions at a local university
- Craft sale
- Donuts
- Community yard sale
- Sell coupon books
- Sell flowers and plants from greenhouses (poinsettias and lilies)
- Fruit
- Candy
- T-shirts
- Superbowl Soup Sale
- Superbowl Sub Sale: “First and A Foot to Go”—people place orders and the youth group makes and delivers them to homes during the game.
Miscellaneous
- Have older adults in the church participate in “Adopt-A-Grandchild” (i.e. a youth group student) for prayer and financial support.
- Incentives—raise a certain amount and the pastor or youth pastor will (fill in the blank).
- Flamingo Insurance—sell flamingo insurance to church members in various amounts which guarantee that their homes will not be the flocking ground for pink flamingo lawn ornaments. Place as many lawn ornaments as you can on uninsured lawns, and charge a service fee for their removal. To add even more fun, one member can hire a flamingo hit on another member by paying more than what that person bought their insurance for. Provide the opportunity for the insured to increase their insurance amount.
- Students write an adult sponsor a letter before and during CHIC with prayer requests, then when they come home have dinner with the sponsor.
- Support letters
- Monthly payments—start early and have families contribute monthly to the CHIC fund.