Fundraisers

In an effort to increase the involvement of our teens in fundraisers, I have initiated an incentive plan. The basic idea is this: For each dollar that a teen raises through the event, 50 cents goes to the youth group and 50 cents goes into the youth group account but is put aside in their names only to be used for youth group activities. We did a rock-a-thon and because of this incentive we were able to raise over $1,000.00 ($500 for the youth group and another $500 for the teens involved.) And this happened with only with 10 teens involved. Now even the kids whose parents don’t have a lot of money can afford to go to concerts and retreats because they have money in their account. Just an idea that happened to work.

This idea is geared towards getting the entire church body involved in teen activity.
First you get three big jars (like those big pickle jars) and the teens will then vote on three different elders of the church that they would like to see kiss a pig.
Once that is accomplished you hold an event for the whole church to attend (several months later after the voting preferably… to attain more funds of course.)
Where you get the actual pig is up to you… but you should buy a pair of wax lips so that the winner/loser (depending on how ya look at it haha) will not actually have to place their lips on the pig.
But this fundraiser leaves room for the whole church to be involved and at the event you can have many other fundraisers.

Our youth group holds an annual calendar sale in September and October. Each year the sales increase because people know we will be selling them. We have individual sales (family, friends, etc) and group sale (before and after church services, in front of a local department store). The first group profits go into the youth fund while the individual profits go toward our annual trips and events.

Here is a fundraiser that you can really sink your teeth into. Make up order forms to give to the youth to hand to people within the church or community. On it you need to have the cost for the pizza (we did $10 and a buck for toppings), the toppings with a place to check the desired topping off and their name and address (so they can deliver them to the right place.) The pizzas are not cooked, all they need to do is put the pizza in the oven and cook it to their desired crispness. One the day the group makes the pizza, form an assembly line with the pre-made pizza shells at the head of the table, then sauce people, the cheese people, etc. It is a blast for the youth to do and make sure to make some extra’s for snacks. Any food distribution center in your city should have the ingredients and pizza boxes to put the pizza in (make sure you wrap the pizzas with saran wrap in case the people want to freeze the pizzas for an extended period of time). We made over $1000 and we plan on doing this annually.

Fundraisers are not always fun. So this year when we hit a slump in our planning, we asked ourselves how do earn a lot of money and have a lot of fun? After many long hours, we came of with the idea of an area softball tournament. Our youth group supplied the concessions, the prizes, etc. To help promote unity throughout our district, the teams consisted of local church youth groups. In this kind of deal, $$$ is to be had at every turn with concessions, entry prices, and even our very own home-run hit-a-thon. We all had tons of fun and made tons of $$$, but only through a lot of prep time and teamwork.

Our youth group is doing a fundraiser called “Kiss the Kritter.” We placed 8 cans with different people (from the church) pictures on the can in the hallway at church. It is a penny a vote. The Person who then gets the most votes will have to kiss a “kritter” at our fall party. The kritter is either going to be a camel, pig, or donkey. This is a good way to raise money without having to do much work. Everyone will get a laugh at our fall party also!

Although our youth group does not celebrate Halloween we do offer Halloween Insurance. Take all members who are comfortable talking with the public and go to different neighborhoods. For $2 per house offer insurance for Halloween. If anything such as toilet papering, shaving cream, soap on windows, etc. has been done they can call the number on the receipt you give them and your group will come clean it up. Make sure on the agreement they sign that it states you will not be responsible for fixing any damage done. This is good for community outreach and you can earn anywhere from $50 on up. We earned over $60 and didn’t clean one house!

This fundraiser was a big success for our youth group last year. Have teens bring in the names and addresses of at least 10 people they know. They can bring more if they like. Develop a form letter describing your fundraiser, stating that “Tommy” gave their name in hopes that they would consider sponsoring “him” for the walkathon. State that the person’s contribution is tax deductible and include a return envelope with the church’s address on it, for the person to mail in their contribution. We did not put postage on these return envelopes. State in the letter the date for the fundraiser and that the teen who receives the most sponsors will receive a prize. The only work involved is mailing out the letters. There is no hassle or hounding teens to collect from the people whose names they brought in. The contributions are mailed directly to the church.