Fundraising Ideas

Fundraising Ideas

Here are a few fundraising ideas for you or your youth, so you can begin to start thinking about financial considerations for CY2012. Each idea will need to be tailored to your particular needs and congregation.

Here are 10 possibilities – but the list is truly endless!  Send us your best ideas and we will continue to update the list . . . canadayouth2012@presbyterian.ca.

 

  1. Sell a Kilometre:  Raise money for Canada Youth by selling mileage.  Divide the number of return kilometres to Brock University by the amount the trip will cost.  This is the cost per kilometre. Have people fund as many kilometres of your trip as they like. You can even track your fundraising progress with a map as you raise money!
  2. Potato Dinner: A potato dinner featuring a baked potato bar is fun and profitable! Check with your local restaurant supplier in order to get the largest potatoes. Sell tickets in advance to include one potato with a toppings buffet, a drink and dessert. Have a wide array of toppings available. Youth could also provide entertainment for the evening.
  3. Cookie Grams: Pick a holiday and pre-sell cookie grams.  Bake cookies, add a card to be filled out by the buyer and deliver.
  4. Parents’ Night Out: This is a good way to give the adults in your church a night out.  Offer parents and other adults a night out – dinner, a movie and babysitting for a set price. Rent local movies from your local library or church offices. Use the following as an outline for you evening:
    1. The whole group prepares and sets up for dinner.
    2. Half the group serves the adults while the other half feeds and cares for the children in another room.
    3. The group that babysat during dinner comes out to clean up while the other group babysits.
    4. The whole group puts everything away.
  5. Talent Show/Talent Auction/Coffee House: Youth host a talent night where admission is free, but is costs to leave the show! You might also want to host a talent auction, in which people donate their ‘talents’ and others bid and buy.
  6. Thirty Pieces of Silver: At Easter, have members of the congregation bring plastic sandwich bags with thirty pieces of silver in them (the amount for which Jesus was betrayed). Any denomination of coin is acceptable, so long as it is silver.
  7. Match a Dollar:  Ask your congregation to match dollar for dollar the funds that you or your youth group raise for CY2012.
  8. Beg an Egg:  Go to a home and ask them to donate one egg (you may need to convince them that you are not crazy and promise not to throw it at their home!). Go to the next house and ask them to donate any amount of money for the aforementioned egg.  Repeat cycle endlessly.
  9. Offer a Service: Shovel snow, offer pet care, wash cars, baby-sit, clean houses, mow the lawn.
  10. The Pink Flamingo: Purchase several pink lawn flamingos – the tackier the better! Send everyone in the congregation an announcement on pink paper about your Pink Flamingo fundraiser.  Your announcement could read something like this:

On May 22 the youth group of Knox Presbyterian Church will conduct its first annual Pink Flamingo Fundraiser for Canada Youth 2012. We have several lovely pink flamingos, one of which may end up on your front lawn.

We have divided the congregation into four flamingo areas. Inside each pink flamingo is a list of the names and addresses of church members living in one of the Flamingo Areas. On the appointed day, the youth group will plant each of the flamingos on the front lawn of one family from the flamingo list.

If the flamingo ends up on your front yard, you then pledge a donation to the youth group, cross your name off the flamingo list, and replant the flamingo in the yard of someone whose name has not yet been crossed off the list.

The flamingo may not remain in the same yard for more than twenty-four hours. It is not necessary to follow the order of names on the list.

Your donations may be placed in the pink flamingo located in the church narthex. Do not put your offering in the flamingo that you deliver to the next house. Make cheques payable to Knox Presbyterian Youth Group.

However, if you do not want to see a pink flamingo on your lawn ever, you may buy Insurance for the Prevention of Large Pink Birds for only ten dollars. See any member of the youth group to purchase insurance.

Purchase deadline is May 15.

Don’t forget to say THANK YOU to those who make donations. Send a card, give them a phone call, provide a receipt, or pay them a visit!

We hope this list sparks some ideas for you. Only 9 months until the experience begins! Happy fundraising!

P.S. – Have you talked to your finance committee or your Board of Managers about including CY2012 as a budget item?  Now’s the time!