I’ve always wanted to run this fund-raiser, however no church I’ve been connected with have ever been keen enough to take it seriously…. or me seriously for that matter.

The idea comes out of the need to support people within the community to do something, whether to be NCYC or Interns in Mission or even to fund-raise for a data projector. Seriously though, the idea of a fund-raiser is old and tired, it needs to be re-visioned, the amount of time and money we put into a fund-raiser is ridiculous and in many cases serves no missional purpose..

This idea then is purely a church fund-raiser, not a missional activity.

I like to call it “Oh no, not another lamington drive”

The concept:

a) We need money to do something that is important, you know its important, we know it’s important and the idea that we actually should run a cake drive or a quiz night so you can support it is pure silly, give us the money, this is important. This is too important to waste time and money fund-raising, lets all just give money in support, open your pockets, write a funding application to the local government, dip into the church reserves, hold a special service for people to give money towards the cause… just get the money into the project.

b) If we do not make *insert percentage* of the funds by *insert date here* we will run a lamington drive and annoy the rest of you and the community around us with so many lamingtons that you won’t want to see one ever again. We will intentionally flood the lamington market thereby sending the lamington market to record lows, we would instigate a lamington market crash. When we make *insert cash amount* we will cease the drive and continue asking for your support without the need of a fund-raiser.

c) If we have not made *insert another percentage* of funds by *insert date here* we will run a car wash at every church service until we make *insert amount of money here* and everyone will be asked to participate in and donate money towards. We will wash and scrub, buying more car polish out of the money you have helped us raise and wasting the water that is becoming more important to the community to keep your cars clean. Together we will make this church the home of the Clean Car and we will show off to the rest of the community for our cars are the cleanest in the land. After the funds have been raised to make up the percentage we will go back to our regular schedule of asking for money to support the venture.

d) If we have not made *insert another percentage* of funds by *insert date here* we will run a quiz night, a bush dance evening and a live music venue to make up the money that we have not yet made, everyone in the community will also be asked to participate, coordinate, clean, cook, provide time towards the venture. Together we will go deaf due to loud noise, tired due to the need to set up the lighting and sound equipment, sore because of packing up and lugging heavy equipment and angry as we each drop boxes onto our toes or slip discs in the process. After these events we’re back to asking you for money without a fundraiser.

e) if the money has not been raised by *insert date here* this is because of your lack of support to the program and by now you will be exhausted. Seriously, this could have been done differently, we offered an easy way out, you made it this difficult and because we still have not made the money to do this we will hit you with another lamington drive until we are able to run the program. You might be sick of lamingtons, but we’re sick of asking for money so we can run this important program in the life of the church and the community that God has called us to. We’re beginning to question your faith in us and the mission to which we’re called… we could have made this money easily over at another church, next time perhaps we’ll try that…

f) of course if we raise the money by *insert date here* we would skip steps b through to e and as a celebration we would hold a thankyou meal and celebration after church for free and on top of everything else the church will also cancel ALL meetings for a month in celebration of the ministry that we’re supporting.

Thankyou

The Fund-raising Team for the “really cool and important missional activity”

I could see this happening…. but whats more important i could see this working in a church setting, the idea that we give money towards a project because we should rather than because they’re holding a cool fund-raiser… there’s the challenge

I’ve been asked to write up a few fund-raising ideas for a mate on the NCYC09 crew, and, to tell you the truth I’ve got a major beef about fund-raising activities by the church for events like NCYC, Summer Camps, Conferences, Mission Trips, Activities…

The major beef is that we, as a church always talk about being saved not through works, but by faith, we talk about God’s love being undeserving, as something we’re given rather than earn, about Grace being a gift. We talk about community and faith and love as things that we shouldn’t be trying to earn but as something that we should be trying to give freely as a gift.

Why then do we make a sudden jump to the idea that young people or others will enjoy the conference more if they earn their way, why do we say things like “we had to earn our way in life, let’s make these young people earn their way to go to this conference?”

It’s a philosophical and theological difference that I have, that if we’re a faith that constantly talks about gifts and giving then why do we make people earn their way to go to something that we know would be good for them, would challenge their faith, deepen their understanding of the gospel, have a renewed generation in our midst?

Then of course there’s the financial difference that I have, let’s say that we’re running a chocolate drive, first then we have to purchase chocolates, that then have to be delivered to the group in boxes and then we try and sell them at the purchase price + whatever we’d like to earn on top as a group fund-raiser. So in order to make money, for an activity that we know is going to be beneficial we must spend money.

Lamington drives, cake drives, car washes, sock drives, pie sales, they’re all the same, we spend money to purchase equipment and/or product and then sell for a profit in order to make money on top of what we’ve spent.

Even if we run a small fete selling cakes there’s someone who has spent time and money to make the cake and, even though it may be a donation to the program there has already been a financial cost in ingredients, power, gas in order to make the cake.

Financially the way I see it is that we’re spending on average about $0.60 for every $0.40 made, for every $3.00 piece of chocolate/lamington/cake/pie that we’ve made $1.20 on we’ve actually spent $1.80 on overheads. Something doesn’t really calculate.

Here’s another idea…

Forget the overheads, forget making the young people earning their way in that kind of way.

a) give the money you would normally spend on overheads to the young people to attend the activity.

b) give the money that you would normally spend on purchasing the chocolates/socks/pies/lamingtons during the activity to the group of young people and, in the case of conferences like NCYC/Planetshakers etc ask them to have a conversation with the organisers about either an indigenous/overseas/country group that may be looking for financial support to attend the conference.

c) have the young people and church host the group you choose to sponsor over, your young people may be interested in learning some of the language of the people coming over, or learn some of the cooking, have them host the people at home, transport with them to the conference, share each other’s faith with each other.

This way the “earning” is in “giving” the young people earn their way by engaging with other young people from a space/country/culture that is different from where they’ve come from. By giving the money and time and hosting them we’re teaching them to give freely, they learn from others that this Christianity thing is much bigger than just them.

Instead of having your youth group run around selling chocolates or pies or socks or lamingtons, or washing other people’s cars have them think about learning a language, writing letters to people they’re supporting to attend the conference with them, make small gifts for their new friends to take home with them, send a few people over before the conference so they can meet the people before the conference…

Who knows? it’s just an idea I’ve been having lately about how we encourage young people to be church and to attend conferences…

Perhaps fund-raising works against what we’re on about…

And, as a gift, here’s another fund-raising activity that I’ve put together for those of you looking for an idea. I like to call it the “Oh No Not Another Lamington Drive” fund-raiser