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:
- Purchased 200 small envelopes, and had youth label them $1 through $200 and had some fun with markers and drawing fun designs on them
- I made stickers out of some pictures from our previous year’s mission trips
- 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.
- 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
- We then found a large bulletin board that was available and put all 200 envelopes on the board using thumb tacks
- 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!
