Festive Fundraising!
Here are some fun, flexible and frivolous ways of bringing your community together, raising money and sharing the joy and good news of Christ’s birth.
Collecting donations:
Online giving enables people to give to your church through the internet without having to visit your church building. It is simple to set up an online giving account, and once you have set up your account you will be able to use it for your fundraising event as well as link it to your church website, A Church Near You page, or social media page, making it easy for people to make a one off gift at any time. Please note that you DO NOT need to have a church website to be able to make use of online giving: every church in the CofE has an ‘A Church Near You’ page which can be used for this purpose.
The National Church of England have negotiated a premium online giving service for churches (using SumUp). You can find out how to easily set up online giving for your church by clicking here.
Some festive fundraising ideas:
Host a Christmas carol fundraiser
Why not plan your own fun Christmas carol fundraiser? What better way to enjoy Christmas music and singing and raise money for your church than to host carols either online via zoom or facebook or at your home or in your neighbourhood. Families or households could donate and sing a carol or verse each.
Light the church at Christmas
Is your church lit during this season? If so, ask people in the community to contribute to the cost of it being lit one evening. You could list who is supporting the initiative and on what days via the church noticeboard or on your website page or whatever is appropriate for your church.
Christmas is also a time when we think of family and friends who are no longer with us. People in your community might be interested in contributing to lighting your church as a way of remembering their loved one by giving a gift in memory and supporting this initiative. You may also be able to offer to light your church on a day that is pertinent to them.
Christmas Tree Festival
Ask people in your community to draw, colour or paint a Christmas tree and place it in their window at home. You could consider asking them to decorate it around a particular theme relevant to them or to your community.
Remember to ask everyone who participates to make an online donation to the church.
You could also collate the information about the houses taking part and offer a Christmas Tree Festival trail or map and ask people to donate in return for receiving Christmas tree festival information.
Christmas Windows
Are there street facing windows in your area (they could be businesses as well as homes) that you could make into Christmas windows?
Ask your community to make a contribution to the church and ask them to host a window each on a different nativity theme.
You could collate this information for people to walk round your area and enjoy your community’s creative Christmas windows. Don’t forget to ask for a contribution in return for trail or map information.
You could also turn this into a competition for the best Christmas window.
Click here for ideas.
Christmas Virtual challenge
Why not challenge your congregation or community to consider undertaking a virtual Christmas challenge together? Mary and Joseph walked 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem (which took approximately 4 days) and 90 miles from Bethlehem when they fled to Egypt so you could ask folks to walk the same distance over advent and ask for sponsorship. Anyone taking the challenge could register with an online fundraising site such as Fundrazr and collect sponsorship from family, friends and colleagues.
Hold a Christmas quiz!
Is there someone in your congregation who would be prepared to host a Christmas quiz night? This could be a great idea to get people together and raise some money. Don’t forget to ask people to pay a registration fee to join the quiz.
If you don’t want to go to the trouble of sorting out quiz questions you can register with virtualquizevents and they will host a virtual quiz for you. You can even set the time and date yourself. Virtualquizevents it is a platform where there is no cost to run a quiz. Each person pays a small amount to take part (the church sets the fee) and the quiz runs for 20 minutes. 60% of the income goes to your church, 10% to the winner, 6% to the second place and 4% to third place.
Christmas cards
Instead of sending cards you could ask the congregation to send an online greeting to their friends and make a donation to your church instead.
When your church is registered with online giving via Sumup you can ask people to donate via the churches Give a Little account which is available to churches with an online SumUp account.
Don’t forget to promote your event! For example, you can use:
- Local press or radio
- Local magazine or newsletter
- Local noticeboards
- Church emails
- Word of mouth – we might not be able to meet but we can use the phone!
- A banner outside your church
- Social media – twitter, whatsapp groups, local facebook pages for example you could create an event on facebook and invite people to it
- You may be able to secure some local TV coverage as well if you share your Christmas fundraising plans with your local news networks!
Remember - the three keys to fundraising success!
1st - Choose a simple fundraising idea that suits your community
2nd – Set up an online giving page
3rd - Promote your event and your online giving page!