Fundraising Ideas for Your Church or Youth Group

Raising money for an important cause will take time, organization and helping hands to pull it off successfully. Raising funds for your church or church related activity may include the forms making verbal announcements and requests for donations in front of the congregation, selling items for profit or performing services in exchange for donations. All church fundraising resources discussed, and more, can be found at websites like Fundraiser Finder, Best Fundraisers, Fun Attic and Fundraising Links.

Religious Themed Clothing and Accessories
There are some companies that will allow you to print up religious themed T-shirts, ball caps and sweatshirts for a very low price. Some places require that you do not pay anything up front but instead give them a share of your total sales. Clothing and apparel fundraising companies include Xtrims, The Imprint Shop and Good Works on Earth.

Coffee Mugs, Pens, Cup Holders and Other Useful Items
Selling items like this can be done at any time of the year. There are many companies that will let you customize messages to appear on these items. You can include anything from your church name to scriptures you feel are important. Some companies that help you specifically for fundraising with these types of novelty items are Personalization Creations, Spirit Industries and Class Room Supply.

Sweepstakes, Lotteries and Raffles
These types of fundraisers involve finding some kind of desirable prize like a large gift card to a national retail store, tickets to upcoming church events or local concerts. These gifts can be sought out from local business in advance or from items donated by members of the congregation. For example, you could raffle off one or more homemade gift baskets, quilts or new bicycles. A sweepstakes contest could include marking off different squared areas, selling each square off as a "ticket" and then having something land by chance in one of those squares. This has been done with cake walks, a cow dropping a "cow patty" in a square and more. You could also launch paint filled balloons into the air from a far distance and who ever has the square that the paint splatters in gets the prize.

Car Washes, Bake Sales and Art Displays
Washing cars, bake sales and having art displays will get the congregation and the community involved. Baked items can include breads, cookies, cakes, pies and more. Washing cars can be done by the youth groups of the church, the men's group, the women's group or any one else that wants to volunteer. An art display will offer more than one prize to be had by first, second and third place winners with smaller prizes for honorary mentions. These prizes can be donated by congregation or community members and this gives the congregation a chance to show off its best art work as individuals or as a group. You would charge donations to enter the art display or ask for donations for the artwork itself.