Challenging times present an opportunity to refocus on what you are doing and how you can change to maximize your efforts.
One of the most challenging areas for any church is fundraising from the weekly collection plate to niche projects and missions. Keep passing the plate, but take time to evaluate what works and what alternatives might work even better.
Raising money sometimes can seem like the full-time mission of the church. As you "Rethink Church," rethink your fundraising strategies to maximize people's time, energy and potential. Explore fundraising events or activities, ongoing financial contributions, and long-term and planned giving.
Fundraising events
If you want to raise money, creating an engaging event is the first step because-frankly-more people will attend. If they like what you are doing, they will get more involved and your fundraising efforts will be well worth it.
The Myotubular Myopathy and Centronuclear Myopathy Family Conference offers great, real-life stories about how to raise $500 or more. Its site describes two women in Levittown, Pa., who started "Chocolate Lover's Fantasy Night," an evening of chocolate contests with adult and children bakers. For a $10 ticket, attendees get to sample everything. Consider expanding a chocolate-baking event and raising more money by renting exhibit space to local chocolate-related vendors. A coffee shop could give hot-chocolate samples. A restaurant could share bites of a chocolate dish. A doctor's office could distribute information on the health benefits of dark chocolate.
A chain dinner is another great example. With the "Chain for Church," a congregation member invites 10 people to dinner at his or her home and charges $10 per person. Then two of the 10 host their own dinners and invite 10 people each. Then ask at least one guest to continue the chain. Hosts donate the cost of the meals so the dinner fees all go to the fundraising account.
Wesley United Methodist Women, Alexandria, Va., host an international dinner to fund activities. A charitable dinner raised money to refurbish the parlor and nursery, purchase kitchen equipment and do many other activities. An international dinner also is a great way to incorporate the many cultures within your congregation or to show your church's interest in embracing and learning from different cultures.
Combining learning, doing and raising money, one local church youth group offered oil changes for $30 ($15 if a driver brought his or her own oil and filter). They marketed aggressively, planned to buy only the supplies necessary and involved the congregation, including the women of the church who baked sweets to serve to customers. They raised $621 and even had referrals from local mechanics who did not have time that Saturday to do oil changes.
Members of Royal Oak First United Methodist Church, Royal Oak, Michigan, pass the bucket the fourth Sunday each month to support Eiguliai United Methodist Church in Lithuania. The goal is to have the congregation add the "noise" by dropping all of their change into the bucket. The entire offering goes to the Lithuanian church.
"Noisy Buckets" or "Bucket Sundays" are held throughout the country, including Grace United Methodist Church, Vermilion, Ohio, and North Highland United Methodist Church, Aberdeen, S.D., which designates its offerings for youth activities. In Danville, Ill., when a local church's garden charity needed fertilizer, the "noisy bucket" brought in $96-enough to cover this year's materials and seeds for next year.
Consider creating a video to solicit funds for building expansion by showing what the church does and means to its community.
Among other money-raising opportunities are an antique-appraisal fundraiser, an evening of drama, and a youth group fundraising luncheon that incorporates trivia games and worship songs.
See the long-term future
While looming financial demands can require immediate or short-term solutions, be sure to plan for the long term too. Major gifts can raise significant dollars, but they require cultivation and more education than an average fundraiser.
Georgia United Methodist Foundation offers a guide to capital campaigns with helpful details to maximize effectiveness. United Methodist Retirement Homes Foundation gives a dozen scenarios based on real-life, planned-giving opportunities from bequests, annuities, IRAs and more.