The Importance of Fundraising for Churches and Religious Organisations
Your church or religious organisation needs funds to survive. You wouldn’t be able to do the work you do without the support of people in your congregation and local businesses in your area. As a non-profit, fundraising has to be a key part of your annual activities.
To help, here we’re looking at some innovative fundraising ideas to help boost your ongoing efforts. Some are in-person events and others are digital fundraising methods.
Fundraising Ideas
Let’s look at some fundraising ideas for your church.
Bake Sale or Coffee Morning
This is a great way to create a little community spirit around your cause. Church leaders can bake, and you can encourage people from the congregation to don their aprons too. The invites for this event can go out to your congregation, but also the wider community as well.
Coffee mornings are also an ideal way to get people together and raise a little cash at the same time. You could also consider putting a couple of specials on the menu too, like hot chocolate with marshmallows.
If the first event is successful, you could even make it a recurring event with regular bake sales and coffee mornings. People from your congregation can also hold them at home, with all proceeds going to the church.
Promotion is vital for a successful event. You’ll want to let your congregation know the details at the end of your services, and put posters up in church and include information in your regular emails. For the wider community, traditional techniques like handing out flyers and putting posters up in community spaces will work well. You’ll want to promote it on your social media too.
Musical Concerts or Talent Shows
You no doubt have plenty of musical talent within your congregation. So, why not put it to the test with a concert or talent show?
First and foremost, you’ll need to get your congregation excited about the event, so you can get as many people as possible to enter. Let them know at the end of one of your services and tell them exactly what you’re looking for at the event. Once you get people signed up to sing, you’ll need to run rehearsals etc. to give them an opportunity to hone their performances.
Ticket sales will be your biggest driver of funds. Start early to give yourself plenty of time to get them sold. You can sell to your congregation and open up the chance for the wider community to purchase tickets. Again, promotion is essential for the local community – posters, flyers and social media are all good ideas. On the night, you can maximise your potential for fundraising by selling food and drinks, so consider working with local vendors or asking your congregation to donate.
Community Fair or Festival
It’s time to throw open your doors and welcome the community in with a fair or festival. Whether a Saturday morning, an evening event or straight after a service on a Sunday, you’ll need help and support from the church community for a successful event.
You can ask for donations from your congregation to fill up your stalls and tombola. But you will also need to ask them to donate their time to run stalls, bake cakes and help with the event logistics. Ideally, you’ll want a fundraising committee that can help budget, plan, organise and execute the event. You’ll be relying on people to take plenty of time out of their busy lives.
Collaboration with other local organisations and businesses is also important to maximise your event’s potential. You could work with the local football club to run a penalty shout out or even offer zorb football. You can engage with businesses in the area to donate prizes to your raffle, whether local restaurants, shops or spas. You could even approach businesses to sponsor your event. The most important thing with business collaboration is that you clearly explain the purpose of your fundraising activities, how support from their business can help, and also what they will get out of the relationship.
Donation Matching Campaigns
With donation matching, a sponsor or a group of sponsors will match any donations given within a certain time period. This could be a local business that has ties with the church and has been an ongoing supporter for example.
People will be much more likely to part with their cash if they know whatever they give is going to be matched. And even the smallest of donations will help, if they’re going to be doubled.
Themed Dinner Events
With a themed dinner event, you invite people to come to your church to eat, talk and meet people. You can choose anything for your theme, whether a curry night, taco night or a pizza and pasta night.
All you need to do is ask people from within the congregation to donate their time to cook something for the event. Or you could even work with a local restaurant to support your cause and donate some meals too.
You’ll then need to sell tickets for people to attend. You’ll want your congregation to get behind your event and buy tickets, but also people from the wider community. So, it’s important to get out into the community and get people engaged. You can put posters up in community spaces, but it also makes sense to hand leaflets out on the high-street and in busy local places. You can speak to people about your cause and explain the importance of your fundraising activities, and you can also bring a few treats and samples of dishes tied into your theme to get them excited about the food on offer.
Leveraging Digital Fundraising for Churches
The digital world also offers further opportunities for you to boost the fundraising efforts of your church.
Utilising Ongoing Giving Platforms
Online giving platforms like GoFundMe or JustGiving are useful spaces to raise ongoing funds for your organisation. Just set up a page, create a story around your church talking about the important work you do and why funds are so crucial for your mission.
You’ll need to remind your congregation of the simplicity of donating this way. Do so in person at the end of your services, as well as through your regular emails and social media posts.
Raising funds in digital form like this can really help streamline your fundraising, as you’re not spending money or using people’s time to host in-person events. All you need to focus on is effectively communicating your cause and mission, to keep the need for fundraising fresh in people’s minds.
Maximising your Fundraising with easyfundraising
At easyfundraising, we provide you with a simple way to boost your fundraising efforts. Simply create a free account with us and set up your fundraising page. Remember to use emotive language to tell your story and set a fundraising goal for your supporters to see.
Then, you can start collecting donations for free. It works like this:
- Your supporters need to register for a free easyfundraising account and select your church as their chosen good cause.
- They can then shop online with more than 7,500 online retailers that are partnered with us.
- Every time they spend with one of these retailers, the retailer will make a donation to you from the money spent. It doesn’t cost your supporters any extra.
It’s a simple way to supplement your existing fundraising efforts and secure a steady stream of ongoing donations. Again, it all comes down to getting the word out about your use of easyfundraising and how simple it is for people to support your cause. When you sign up with us, you can access our ToolKit which provides plenty of handy templates to use in your email and social media communication.
Embrace Innovative Fundraising for your Church or Religious Organisation
It’s time to boost your funds with some innovative fundraising ideas. Whether you want to host an in-person event or sign up to digital fundraising methods, you can guarantee the future of your organisation and make sure you can continue the fantastic work you do every day.