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The Best Youth Ministry Fundraiser Ever: The Wall O Money

March 28, 2011 Adam Walker Cleaveland

Fundraising. Ugh.

That’s what I think every fall when I realize that we have some awesome mission trip opportunities, but that we’re going to need to raise some money. So, if you’re like me, you start to make a list of all the “standards” when it comes to fundraising: pancake breakfasts, car washes, rummage sales, flamingo-ing, etc. It’s a bit depressing, and I never look forward to the work that goes into these types of fundraisers.

As I was preparing to come up with a list of fundraisers for this year, I asked my network on Facebook & Twitter what their favorite fundraisers were, and a friend sent me a note about the Wall O Money. She had told me she made close to $10,000 on this fundraiser the previous year, and so of course, I was all ears!


Essentially, we just needed to get a “wall” of envelopes that were labeled $1 – $200. Then it was as simple as making the wall visible to the congregation, and watch the money come in. It sounded great, and while I was a little skeptical, we decided to run with it.

After just having the Wall O Money up for two Sundays, we’ve currently raised about $3500 from the Wall O Money, and I have a feeling we’ll continue to raise more. And so, in my mind, it really is one of the best youth ministry fundraisers ever. At least in my experience. And here’s what I did:

  1. Purchased 200 small envelopes, and had youth label them $1 through $200 and had some fun with markers and drawing fun designs on them
  2. I made stickers out of some pictures from our previous year’s mission trips
  3. In each envelope, we put a small sheet of paper that included instructions, as well as some information about our mission trips, a link to the church’s mission blog, one of the stickers and a reminder of the dates of the trip so people could pray for us.
  4. The instructions were simply to put the appropriate amount of cash or check into the envelope, seal it, and get it back to me or put it in my box
  5. We then found a large bulletin board that was available and put all 200 envelopes on the board using thumb tacks
  6. We already had a pancake breakfast scheduled, so that was when we “unveiled” the Wall O Money, and now we just leave it up in our Fellowship Hall so that it’s easily accessible by everyone after each worship service.

Here are some of the reasons I think this is an amazing fundraiser:

  • There isn’t a lot of time and energy that needs to go into it.
  • Because the minimum donation is $1, I had many kids asking parents if they could give a dollar or two (including this young girl who gave the very first donation to the Wall O Money for $1).
  • People can go in with friends and decide to donate to one of the larger envelopes.
  • The $1-$20 envelopes went very quickly, as did the $190-$200 envelopes.
  • Some people were picking envelopes that had the same number as their birthdate, or their age or just a number they liked – so it was fun to try and figure out which envelope to take.
  • Since it’s something that we can just leave up, there will always be more opportunities for someone to give.

Again, with minimal effort, we’ve been able to raise about $3500 in just two Sundays. In comparison, a ton of planning, time, and volunteers were needed to pull of our Pancake Breakfast, and that brought in a total of $1200.

So – looking for a fundraiser for this spring? Try the Wall O Money – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! Or maybe you have a fundraiser that you think is even better? Please share your knowledge here with everyone!


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Filed Under: Ministry, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Fundraisers, Mission-Trips, Raising Money, Youth Ministry

Adam is an artist, entrepreneur, pastor, husband and father. He lives in Skokie, Illinois with his wife Sarah (who is also a pastor), their son Caleb, and their dog, Sadie. Read More…

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