Church fundraising ideas to help you raise money, engage members, and help your community! 20 church fundraising ideas to help inspire your next campaign.
Faith organizations are a mainstay on Mightycause. Church fundraising on Mightycause is diverse — we host everything from mission trip fundraisers, fundraisers for specific programs, to holiday fundraisers. These church fundraising ideas will help your church and its members get out into the community, build a following, get people engaged and excited, all while raising funds for your church!
1. Bingo Night
Okay, so we know bingo nights are nothing new for most churches! They’re a staple. And here’s why: they’re fun, they don’t require much of an investment, and they can be a great time for people of all ages. A bingo night fundraiser can be put together quickly and easily and bring in some extra cash for your church without a lot of effort. You know what they say: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And if bingo night is still able to bring in crowds, keep hosting them!
2. Mission Trip Fundraising
Mission trips can be amazing opportunities for the church members who go on them and the people in the communities they help. But they can also be a bit of an administrative headache that requires coordinating lots of church members (often teens) and helping them fundraise what they need for the trip. Mightycause has a solution for that. Teams and events on Mightycause are the perfect product for coordinating a mission trip fundraiser at your church, allowing you to easily manage & communicate with participants, set them up for success with fundraiser templates, and help them get to the finish line.
3. Family Fun Run
Get church members of all ages and activity levels to step out into the community for a Family Fun Run! Hosting the fun run as a group fundraising event allows you to add an element of competition and up the church fundraising ante. Our event fundraising product also allows you to manage ticket sales and event registration! This church fundraising idea requires a little more planning ahead than, say, a bingo night, but a Family Fun Run will help you raise more. And, even better, you can get your whole community involved!
4. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Peer-to-peer fundraising allows your church’s biggest supporters to raise funds for your church, on their own schedule. The benefits here are huge for your church. There’s no large-scale organizing, no campaigning. All you have to do is ask, and set your members up for fundraising success! And for your church members, peer-to-peer fundraising gives them a meaningful way to show their support, tell their friends & family about your work, and do good. Holiday fundraisers, birthday fundraisers, wedding fundraisers, and more can be a great way to get your church members engaged! And, of course, we’ve got the best peer-to-peer fundraising tools on the market.
Get the full scoop on peer-to-peer fundraising with our Peer-to-Peer Fundraising ebook! It’s totally free, and will help you learn all about engaging your church members in peer-to-peer fundraising.
5. Day of Service
Faith-based organizations like Covenant Life School have raised tens of thousands of dollars with service-based events. In 2019, Covenant Life School’s Serv-a-thon raised more than $33,000! How do they work? Well, they’re all about community service: visiting the elderly, feeding people in the community, working on craft projects that go toward a good cause or recognizing community heroes. Participants get their friends & family members to sponsor their efforts by making donations to your church. This is a great way to get your church members actively serving your community, and raising money for your church.
6. Upgrades and Renovations
People love to donate to campaigns with specific goals. So, take a look around your church. What do you need? A new roof? Refurbished floors? A new and upgraded room for your youth group to meet? These kinds of church fundraising ideas are great at getting people motivated to give, because they get the feeling of being able to give something tangible to their church — as well as reap the benefits of your renovated facilities.
7. Craft-a-Thon
Get your church members to show off their creative side with a Craft-a-Thon! Whether you auction off the crafted items or donate them to local causes, a Craft-a-Thon can get your members knitting, quilting and creating for a cause. You can either give participants the option to craft over a longer period of time, or host a one-day crafting marathon. Like most of the other church fundraising ideas in the “a-thon” genre, this one is perfect for our teams & events products. The participating crafters can ask their social network to sponsor them with a donation.
8. Read-a-Thon
This can be a great way to engage members young and old! (In fact, why don’t you divide participants up by age so you can make sure no one feels left out?) Try creating reading lists for your participants based on age and interests, and challenge them to go through all the books on the list!
9. Easter Egg Hunt
This isn’t a new one either, but you can introduce a fun peer-to-peer fundraising element and managing registrations and tickets with Mightycause events! It’s also a great opportunity to engage sponsors and community partners.
10. Gift Wrapping
There are some people who are able to wrap gifts beautifully, and well, then there’s the rest of us. And some of us get to a point during the holidays where we just can’t fathom wrapping another gift. That’s where a gift-wrapping fundraising comes in! Gather your church’s best and most talented gift wrappers and offer up their services for a donation to your church. This is a great church fundraising idea for the holidays!
11. Rummage Sale
A rummage sale is a great opportunity to bring your congregants together, raise funds, and do some tax-free shopping! This church fundraising idea takes a little bit of planning and coordination, but they’ve very easy to pull off, don’t require a business license or sales tax. This can be especially effective during the holiday season. You can host them in your parking lot on a sunny day, or a big empty space in your church, and staff the event with volunteers!
12. Spaghetti Dinner
A spaghetti dinner is a fun, cost-effective church fundraising idea that can help cultivate your church’s community! We recommend planning your spaghetti dinner about 3 months in advance — you’ll need to sell tickets (which you can do on Mightycause, with an added peer-to-peer element) and corral volunteers. Having a silent auction or raffle with donated goodies can help keep things lively as well!
13. Little Luxuries Challenge
The cost of those “little luxuries” like your daily Starbucks, getting your lunch Door Dashed to your desk, and so on can add up. Why not ask people to temporarily give them up and donate the cost of those treats to your church? Teams & events on Mightycause are a perfect vehicle for this! Round up your members, have them start a fundraiser, ask them to donate the cost of their favorite daily present to your church, and gather support from their social network as well. You could get extra mileage out of this fundraiser during Lent!
14. Walk-a-Thon
This church fundraising idea is a classic for a reason! It’s easy to get church members of all ages involved, a great activity for families, and relatively easy to pull off! All you need is a few months’ planning time and a place. A local track or park would be an ideal location — just make sure you clear it with the powers that be and secure any necessary permits! Include some rest spots and make it a relatively short walk to ensure little ones and people with mobility issues can participate. This type of fundraiser is best for the spring fundraising season, before it gets too hot out!
15. The Great Church Bake-Off
Who doesn’t love a baking competition?! This church fundraising idea is simple, fun, and tasty. And there’s a lot of flexibility in terms of how serious you want to get (and how many talented bakers you have in your church). Set a few categories (for instance, pies, cakes, savory bakes like quiches), line up your judges, and then… on your marks, get set, BAKE! Award ribbons to the finest bakes, and sell or auction off the treats to hungry church members! (Or, simply charge admission for a buffet and let everyone enjoy them.)
16. Babysitting
Does your church have a childcare center? Put it to good use by offering babysitting services in the evening so mom and dad can have a much-needed night out! (It’s especially effective around Valentine’s Day.) If you have some experienced adults there to supervise, you can also have teens from the church help out with the kids and gain some valuable experience with little ones.
17. Christmas Fundraiser
Turn the season of giving into the season of giving back! Instead of (or in addition to) exchanging gifts, challenge your church’s members to host a fundraiser for your church. Create an event on Mightycause, get your members to sign up, set a goal, and get them fundraising! This can help you meet any year-end funding goals, and get your church community coming together for an important cause.
18. Digital Tithing / Collection Plate
People are busy these days. Some people don’t even carry cash on them. So, one thing your church can do to help make giving more convenience is help them do it digitally! When you sign up for a charity account on Mightycause, donors can set up monthly donations that will automatically withdraw from the bank account or credit card they choose. The donors can update their donation, update their card, change the date and fully manage their donations on Mightycause. If your church has a website, you can make it even easier by installing our widget on your site! They can set up their donation on their phone, on your website, directly on your Mightycause page — and make sure they’re donating without having to remember to write a check or bring cash with them to church!
19. #GivingTuesday
#GivingTuesday is one of the most important fundraising days of the year. Held annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (and Black Friday and Cyber Monday), #GivingTuesday is an international movement dedicated to charitable giving. In 2019, Mightycause raised more than $6 million on our platform! People will be giving on #GivingTuesday… it’s just a question of whether they’ll be giving to your church. So, save the date, and be sure to sign up for #GivingTuesday on Mightycause!
20. Photos with Santa
This one is fun, easy, and sure to bring your church members out! All you need is a Christmas set-up, a volunteer Santa Claus, and a skilled volunteer photographer. To keep things simple, you can have the photographer send a digital file of the photo and photographer release to print it wherever they’d like. And if you want to make the absolute most of photos with Santa, schedule a day for people to get their pets’ pictures taken with Santa, too!
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