How Can Your Church Raise Funds for a New Social Cause Campaign

As the church grows, its need for money grows too but sometimes collections from giving and tithes do not support the need. There could be a need to renovate, buy land, buy a pastor’s house, or send a team to local or international missions.

Sometimes the church might need to go beyond its members and raise funds from the general community, fundraising platforms, and other means. When organizing a fundraising drive, the church should identify the need, targeted amount, and the fundraising methods to use.

Use online giving

According to PushPay.com, Church online giving is gaining popularity, especially due to the recent lockdowns when church members could not attend services and other congregational church activities. With digital giving, you provide your church members with easy giving solutions.

Congregants can use the application tools to give their contributions and make recurring giving. The tool also provides an easier way for administration. Online giving is secure, fast, and provides members with easy registration using their phones.

Peer-to-peer fundraising

Peer-to-peer fundraising can also be called networking and involves reaching one member who then reaches out to other people. The people who are reached out should not necessarily be members of the same church. The members might start with their family members and progress to friends, workmates, schoolmates, friends of friends, etc.

This kind of giving creates a long chain of givers giving towards one cause. Some churches have raised more than $150,000 through this method and exceeded their fundraising goal. What is most important with this method is accountability.

The social media

When social media was first developed, people used these platforms to chat with friends. Today, many businesses use the platforms for marketing purposes and churches can use them to raise funds. Nearly every individual owns a phone and they connect to their social media accounts daily.

On their social media pages, the church can create a page specifically for raising funds and share it with members. The secret is to share in every social media platform available and direct the giver to where they should send their contributions. Once the fundraising drive is over, the page should be closed to avoid misuse.

Start a giving season

A giving season is a time within the specific church community where members sacrificially give to support a major church project. For example, a church could have plans to buy a mission vehicle, build a Sunday school block, or office block.

The development committee prepares a budget and the leader informs the congregation during Sunday or Saturday service. They set a date about a month away when the drive will begin.

Between the announcement date and the drive start, members can make pledges and prepare what they want to give. The drive could go on for a month to give every member a chance to get something to give.

Sell items

Another effective fundraising method is selling items to members and the community. The church organizes a fundraising day and asks each department to get ready for the day. They invite other churches, clergy, business people, politicians, and employees.

The host church prepares items to sell, such as cookies, toys, souvenirs, electronics, bibles, pendants, etc. During the fundraising day, those present give in cash, write checks and buy items.

Fundraising breakfast, lunch, or dinner

This method has been used by politicians to raise funds for campaigns and business people have used it to pool funds to help them expand businesses. Churches can use the same method to collect funds beyond their goals.

The organizers make arrangements with a hotel or restaurant and get food at a discounted rate. If, for example, it costs $15, they can charge $50 per plate because it’s a fundraising drive. The members will book their plate in advance and the organizers will pay the hotel as agreed and use the rest of the money for the church project.