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Fundraising

February 5th, 2023 at 07:09 pm

As many of you know, I'm pretty involved in my church. And like all things in our personal lives, prices have gone up for things at church too. The power bill has increased. Insurance increased for the few employees, the cost of materials like paper has gone up. 

A couple of weeks ago we passed a deficit budget. And that is scary since it is often a crapshoot on giving to begin with.

I'm friends with the treasurer and he and I have been brainstorming ideas on ways to "fundraise" to make extra money to throw at the church mortgage to get it paid off sooner. If the mortgage was paid off, it would free up money for the regular budget.

I like doing research so I worked on that. Sadly Amazon is discontinuing its Smile program so that was out. But Kroger grocery stores does have a community outreach program where they donate a small amount back. So, we are working on getting people to sign up for that if they haven't already allocated these funds elsewhere.

A local meat shop is going to designate a week this month and whatever we buy and say we are from Mt. Calvary Lutheran, he will donate 10% back to us. 

I know Rural King also has a Church Week program once a year so hopefully we can get some money back from that.

I have been playing around with sourdough, and I think I might have tweaked a recipe that is pretty good. I gave a loaf to a friend to try and asked if she thought it would sell. She said yes. I gave a loaf to my treasurer friend and he's going to try it and give me feedback on it as well. 

And this weekend I also talked to a couple of ladies who liked my crocheted dish cloths and I asked if I brought some to them, if they might be interesed in purchasing them.

I do these receipt apps and two of them does PayPal, so I am going to donate my money for the mortgage. It's what I consider found money. It's not a huge amount, but more than what we had to begin with. 

I know not one of these items is going to pay off the mortage, but I think it is like our personal lives where we chip away at stuff a litle bit at a time. Plus, having the Kroger store and the local meat shop giving back, we are helping our community by shopping, especially the local meat shop. 

So, off to look for more fundraising ideas...

5 Responses to “Fundraising”

  1. jokeabee Says:
    1675625878

    I am on a city board that fundraises to buy Christmas presents for every child in our town. Some things we have done to raise money- raffles (ask businesses to donate gift certificates or ask people to put together baskets) We've had raffles at a music festival and at a summer kid's bash. The music festival is a lot of work, and I am happy to discuss particulars if you want but basically, we asked bands to volunteer their time and we sold beer and snacks and did a split the pot. Split the pot during an event could also work! Do y'all have a gambling license? Because you could do a community bingo and split the pot (if allowable in your state) If you have a Krispy Kreme near, they have a fundraiser where you can buy dozen boxes for less than retail and then sell them for retail and keep the difference. If you have a major (or minor) league sports team near you sometimes they have the option to have a group of volunteers run the concessions and keep a part of the profit for your group. They also sometimes have the option to sell tickets in a certain section and get a portion of the sales. You can also ask people to donate items for a garage/thrift sale where the church can keep the proceeds.

  2. Lots of Ideas Says:
    1675630915

    I think the idea of paying off the mortgage is a good one but I offer a different suggestion.

    Depending on the amount and the interest rate, refinancing for a longer term might also make sense to lower current expenses.
    In our ‘human’ lives, we pay off mortgages to have one less expense in retirement. But since the goal of the church is to live in perpetuity, then the length of the mortgage in itself is not an issue.
    Because of inflation, debt paid in ‘future’ dollars is actually less pensive. This is counterintuitive, but if you think about rising wages and a steady debt amount, I think it makes sense. It’s why buying and staying in a house is so much better than renting (if you keep up with repairs).

    I also think letting the congregation know of the goal to pay off the mortgage might bring in some larger donations. People who plan to leave money after their death might think about advancing some or all of it now to back a concrete goal. And rallying to work on a shared goal might add to the spirit of community.

    Our church used to host ham and bean suppers - open to the community - where the cooks of the church made baked beans, bread/rolls, and desserts. The church had a kitchen and a large communal area with tables and chairs. Another church in an Italian area hosted spaghetti and meatball suppers - you could bring your own container for take out. And some churches on Cape Cod host both Saturday morning pancake breakfasts and Friday noontime lobster roll lunches. Because it is both a tourist are and has a lot of retired people, these are extremely popular.

    Good luck with your endeavors!

  3. Wink Says:
    1675697584

    My church has been trying to come up with some new fundraising ideas as well. It's just such a hard economic time for people to donate much more. We are looking at having a community yard sale in the parking lot in the spring where we would charge a small fee for a table and a space, and folks can bring their stuff to sell. Lots of people seem to be downsizing and decluttering these days.

  4. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1675751286

    Refinancing now might not be the best time, but if rates drop again it might be a very good idea. I think telling the congregation that you are trying to pay off the mortgage might bring in more money.

    What about having people donate stuff and running a garage sale full of donated stuff and letting the church people tag and help run it as volunteers?

    Or getting items and doing an auction works as well. If there are people with maybe a vacation home they could donate a week and you can auction it off.

  5. LuckyRobin Says:
    1675767750

    I remember one of the local churches by my high school was always doing fundraisers. Each month would be a new one and it was all based around meals and the signs always said they were open to everyone. One was Beans and Jeans, called such so everyone knew they didn't have to dress up to go. One was a spaghetti feed, one was a pancake breakfast, one was the Ham and Jam (they served ham sandwiches and had various people playing approved music), one was a salmon BBQ because we live on the sea and all the men of the church would stuff themselves onto every boat their church owned and go get salmon on Thursday and Friday and then the BBQ would be on Saturday and they'd all haul their BBQ's down to the church parking lot and you could smell it for blocks. They had one that was just a gigantic bake sale with a lot of desserts from the old country, or a lot of old countries. It was really cool what they came up with. The meals were all pretty cheap to make. I wasn't "allowed" to go since the church was Catholic, and we were whatever denomination my parents decided we were that year, which was never Catholic, LDS, or JW. It's a wonder I grew up so well-grounded in my own faith, but I tuned it all out and just went straight to the Bible. My friends said they were fun. Most of the food was donated so costs were pretty low. I got to go to the fundraisers thrown by the Grange, though. They were good, cheap, and fun, but still managed to raise a lot of money even without a lot of food donations.

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