Fundraising Ideas for Your Team Mission Trip

Sometimes the hardest part of fundraising can be thinking of clever ideas! Here are a few for you to try out!

Insurance from Embarrassment

Your team offers insurance to your church from an embarrassing item, such as a purple toilet. If members of your church (or friends or family) don’t buy the insurance, then the toilet gets delivered to their front lawn, and the only way to have it removed is to pay the toilet removal fee to your mission team!

Flamingos

Place several plastic flamingos (or 50) in someone’s yard overnight. Leave a phone number and note on your church member’s door with options for removal of the flamingos. $50 to A. have the youth remove the birds and put them in someone else’s yard, or B. $25 to simply have them removed and C. $10 to purchase insurance that they won’t be brought back to their yard!

Congregation Spaghetti Dinner

Sell tickets to a spaghetti dinner cooked and served by the youth group. Kick it up a notch by having the youth work on art projects prior to the dinner, and then auction off the art! You could call it Noodles and Doodles!

Service Board

Church members post on a bulletin board odd jobs or service projects for around their home and a price they would pay for the service. Youth take the postings and sign up to do the task for the donation.

Car Wash

All summer long! Some businesses will match the amount of money you raise, and will allow you to do the car wash in their parking lot. Or go door to door offering to wash cars for donations towards your trip!

Envelopes

Take 100 envelopes (or however many envelopes you want) and number pieces of paper 1-100. Place the piece of paper inside, and seal the envelope. Someone takes an envelope with a number in it. That number is how much they donate.

Baked Goods Auction

The youth each bake 3-4 homemade cakes, pies or other goodies. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, have an auction. All the desserts are auctioned off and church members will have a selection of desserts already made for them to serve with their Thanksgiving feast!

Rent-a-Youth Auction

Auction off your youth to members of the congregation to perform various tasks such as: work on their homes/yards, car washing, repairs, babysitting, etc.

Restaurants

Partner with a local restaurant who will donate 10-20% of their profits for one night to your group. They will most likely only do this if their customers mention your name or have a pre-made flyer stating that they are eating there to support you! If you can get the flyers out and can bring in a lot of people, this is really profitable. Most restaurants won’t allow you to pass the flyers out in the parking lot that day, so you’d have to do some prior canvassing. Depending on how many people you can get to come- your profits could range from $100 to a few thousand.

Chili Cook Off

Have the team, (or even others from the church) make big crock pots of chili. Then invite the church to taste the chili, and vote by giving money to whichever chili they like best. You can even bring containers so you can sell the chili. Easy, fun and promotes fellowship within the church!

You + Me = God's Destination

Youth sell miles for the trip. $1 a mile. Use a Map as a graphic with a Velcro plane and move it as they gained funds. Fun videos of youth of “don’t let us only make it to the middle of the ocean, get us all the way!” motto. Each youth has their own map or you could do one big map and change $ per mile.

Mother's Day/Valentine Day Flower Sale

Talk with a local florist about getting discounted prices for a bulk order of flowers. Set up a table at church to take orders two or three weeks before these special occasions. Then place your orders with the florist and distribute the flowers before and after Sunday morning services. Make sure you order a few extras for those that forgot to order in advance!

Kid's Day Out

Your team can plan a three-hour adventure program for 3-8 year olds. Parents will be thrilled to pay a reasonable fee to donate to your cause and have a few free hours on a Saturday. You can modify the vacation Bible school plan you are doing for your mission trip and see how well it might work! Provide a simple snack, plan some fun games, and everyone wins.

Donut Delight

Bring donuts and coffee to church and provide them each Sunday before or after the morning service. The donuts can be donated, bought at wholesale, homemade, or day old. The people then buy the donuts for the going price. Most people really enjoy coffee and donuts in the morning at church, and they are happy to pay for them.

Pancake Breakfast

Borrow all the griddles you can find! Large, industrial griddles will keep the pancakes flowing without too many delays for your large, hungry crowd, before or after church. Try to get discounted or donated sausage links or bacon, coffee, juice, butter and syrup for your community or congregation. Sell tickets a few weeks in advance to gauge how many people will come. Don’t forget to give a reduced price for a family ticket.

Mission Sunday

First, gather the support of your church leadership and ask to have team members stand before the congregation. Talk about the goals and details of your mission trip. Ask for prayer and financial assistance. Have the ushers take an offering or remind people to contribute in baskets in the back on their way out.

Adopt-a-Member

Compile info cards on each of your team members participating in the mission trip, complete with a photograph and specific prayer requests. Lay them out on a table or bulletin board for the church to see. Let sponsors take with them a copy of their trip member's info card to remind them to pray. Some participants will naturally get more sponsors than others. You’ll have to decide if you want all of the contributions to be evenly distributed among the team or put toward each specific participant.

Ice Cream Festival

Find a good location, advertise well, and have fun! Try to get a discount on the ice cream and toppings. You can formalize the occasion with a creative menu of ice cream creations and prices listed. Your team can serve up the ice cream according to order by waiting on tables or by making the concoction right before their eyes in a buffet setting.

Gift Wrapping

Around Christmas time, many people like to have their presents wrapped at the store, so offer to do so for a small fee. Set up a table in a mall or large bookstore and recruit some volunteers with wrapping skills! Make sure that you have the permission of the businesses before you set up a table on their turf! Be ready with a variety of wrapping paper, tape, scissors, ribbons and bows, and tags. Don’t forget to have information about your trip at the table so that people know what their fee is going to. They could become long-term supporters! Don’t forget to give a special thank you to the managers that allow you to do this fundraiser!