Fundraising

We recognize that it may have been difficult for your church to fundraise for NYC during the pandemic since most fundraisers involve shared meals. We encourage you to be innovative and think of ways you can fundraise without sharing a meal together. How can you adapt old fundraisers into new ones? Below is a list of fundraisers that are COVID safe or can be made COVID safe. They are split into categories so you can find what might work best for your congregation.

Food

  • Prepare your congregation’s favorite/traditional fundraising meal – simply package each meal “to go!” (Concerned about the waste of “to go” packaging? Invite people to bring their own containers and set up a serve yourself line. They can then take it home in their own reusable containers. You could always offer some “to go” containers if people forget to bring theirs.)
  • Host a food auction – cakes, other desserts, or any other food. Use technology creatively to make this work in your setting. You could send out or post pictures/ingredients/starting bid, or even conduct the entire auction online if needed.
  • Host a bake sale where members of the youth group or other church members bake and sell items “to go” after church.
  • Make and sell homemade candy – how can you personalize this for NYC? Could you use NYC colors or even try to make the logo? Get creative!
  • If your church has a living nativity, sell food people can take home.

Service

  • Shovel snow
  • Have a car wash
  • Offer gift-wrapping services during the Christmas season
  • Design custom backgrounds for video calls

Creativity

  • Host a paint night
  • Create homemade ornaments and sell them

Active/Sports

  • Host a golf tournament
  • Have an adult versus youth sports game. Who will win in your congregation? Game on!
  • Host a community frisbee tournament

Other

  • Have a church-wide yard sale where all proceeds go toward the youth group
  • Flamingo someone’s yard! Members of your congregation can pay for “flamingo insurance” to make sure they’re never flamingo’d. When someone’s house is flamingo’d, they pay to remove the flamingos and have the option to pay to choose where the flamingos go next.
  • Sell poinsettias during Christmastime or Mother’s Day flowers in the spring
Photos of Brownsville Church of the Brethren fundraising efforts for National Youth Conference
Photos courtesy of Brownsville Church of the Brethren Youth Group

Youth at Brownsville (MD) Church of the Brethren participated in a “Dude and Youth” cake bake and silent auction. Each youth worked with a male mentor in their life to bake a cake for the auction. They raised almost $2000!