29 Creative Mission Trip Fundraising Ideas
In this article and video tutorial, we will explore 29 creative mission trip fundraising ideas.
Whether you're raising money for a short-term mission trip, a gap year, or if you're a student pastor looking for ways to help your students fundraise, we have packed this video with creative mission trip fundraising ideas.
29 ideas to be exact. You may bethinking, “woah, how am I going to remember all of those?”
Well, don’t worry. We have created a free PDF for you to download with a full list of all 29 mission trip fundraising ideas. Scroll down to get your free resource!
Mission Trip Fundraising Idea Video
Below is a video where we highlight all 29 mission trip fundraising ideas. Give it a watch, and let us know what you think!
29 Mission Trip Fundraising Ideas
Want to see a full list of the mission trip fundraising ideas from the video? Here is a full breakdown of all of the ideas.
1. Spaghetti Dinner
This doesn't have to be specifically spaghetti; it's just an extremely cost-effective meal.
When I was growing up, my youth group used this mission trip fundraising idea, but we did a potato lunch instead.
Similarly, it doesn't have to be dinner. Providing lunch after church, somewhere in the church building if you can get permission, makes it easier for people to attend. If you can't do it at your church, try hosting it at someone's house or backyard.
I recommend making the meal donation-based, or if you're concerned, you could set a minimum required donation.
The reason for this is that if you limit the donation amount to, say, two dollars and don't accept larger donations, you may prevent some people who are willing to donate a larger amount from doing so.
2. Dessert Auction
This idea is likely to have little to no overhead cost. I recommend getting permission to hold the auction at a church event, such as after a service or a member's meeting.
Ask members of the church to donate desserts so you don't have to spend money on them.
In my experience, it's usually not hard to find people who love baking. It also gives people an incentive to donate, as they get something in return.
3. Yard Sale
Similar to the dessert auction, you can ask church members to donate items they want to get rid of and sell them at a yard sale.
This idea may require a lot of work, but depending on the items donated, there could be potential to raise a significant amount of money. My youth group used this mission trip fundraising idea growing up, and it went pretty well!
4. Silent Auction
Ask people to donate items to be auctioned off. Again, it's helpful to do this at a time when there are a decent number of people at the church.
People can donate things they own, gift cards, or even purchase items specifically to be auctioned off.
I recall a group of students in a youth group I once worked with who managed to get someone to donate a car for auction. You'd be surprised at what people are willing to donate.
5. Basket Auction
Come up with a list of baskets in different categories, such as a candy basket, barbecue basket, etc. Have people volunteer to donate and assemble the baskets, then auction them off.
This can be done as a silent auction or a traditional auction. Try to think of ideas that many people in the church would be interested in.
6. Pancake Breakfast
This is similar to the spaghetti dinner, but you could serve pancakes instead. You can hold it before the church service or as an alternative to a spaghetti dinner for lunch.
7. Bracelet Sales
You can have custom bracelets made at a low cost. Have them say something like "#prayfortyler" or "#prayforafrica."
Give them out as a thank-you for donations or sell them with a donation-based price. This also serves as a reminder for people to pray for you when they look at their wrist.
8. Sunday Morning Coffee
Coffee is currently very popular, especially in Christian circles. Get permission to set up a small coffee stand on a Sunday morning.
Churches usually have coffee, but it is notoriously not very good. So when you offer hand-brewed coffee from a pour-over or something similar, I guarantee you'll get some donations.
You might even have someone in your church who is a coffee connoisseur or a barista.
9. Church Cookbooks
Reach out to people in the church and compile their favorite recipes. I guarantee this will be very popular.
You can either sell them for a specific price, or you could sell them based on donations, depending on how much you spend on supplies.
Be careful with this one, as the cost of supplies could surprise you. Just make sure to plan well.
10. T-Shirt Sale
This idea is similar to the bracelets. T-shirts would be slightly more expensive, so I would recommend charging a specific price for them.
Have the shirts say something that reminds people to pray for you or the place you are going to serve.
11. Parents' Night Out
If you're a student, you'll definitely need help from a staff member or another adult for this. My youth group used this mission trip fundraising idea, and we had over 40 kids show up.
Basically, this is a time for parents in the church to make a donation while the youth group watches their kids for an evening.
12. Car Wash
Take a Saturday and offer free car washes in your church parking lot. When people show up to get their car washed, tell them you are raising money for a mission trip and accepting donations.
This is a very common mission trip fundraising idea, but I've also seen sports teams use it to raise money for uniforms and tournament costs as well.
If you have people holding signs by the road that say "FREE CAR WASH" or even "$1 CAR WASH," this could help attract people to make donations.
13. Family Photos
Check and see if there's a photographer you know. If so, there are two ways you can go about this.
See if they'd be willing to donate their talents to take family pictures of people at church. This could be done outside in a location recommended by the photographer, or in front of a backdrop you create or set up.
The next option is to borrow the photographer's equipment and set up a high-quality photo shoot where you use lights and a backdrop.
Make these photos donation-based, or if it would be worth it, charge a minimum amount.
14. Teach a Class
This is where you teach a skill in a class setting. Charge people to reserve a spot, whether it's donation-based or a specific price.
Maybe you know a financial advisor who would be willing to donate their time, or an artist, or a chef. If you wanted to, you could even open it up to the community.
15. Mow Lawns
This could involve mowing lawns or even just general yard work. You could do this in multiple ways.
You could talk to like-minded people at your church who would be willing to donate to you to mow their lawns.
You could come up with a price and go door-to-door in your neighborhood, telling people what you are doing and offering to mow their lawn for that set amount.
16. Babysitting
My wife grew up babysitting as a mission trip fundraising idea. Reach out to some people in your church and tell them you are babysitting to fundraise for your mission trip, and see if they’d be interested in paying you to babysit their kids.
17. Dog sitting
You could get the word out about this in a similar way as we recommended for babysitting. This is a bonus if you love dogs.
When I was growing up, my brother did this in order to raise money for a trip, and he made a TON of money.
18. Cleaning
Reach out to some people in your church and tell them about how you are trying to raise money for your mission trip. Offer to clean their home for donations to your mission trip.
Not only that, but maybe you know people who own a business or office building. People might like to hire you to clean their offices as well.
19. Raking Leaves
This one is dependent on the time of year, but offer to some people in your church to come and rake their leaves in exchange for donations to your mission trip.
If you wanted to, you could even walk around your neighborhood and find the houses that need their leaves raked and go ask them if they’d donate to your trip to rake their leaves.
20. 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament
This one could take a decent amount of work, but it also could bring in a decent amount of money.
Host a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at your church. Require an entry fee. You’ll most likely have to have different age divisions, rules, and referees. You could probably find the first two online, then ask some basketball fanatics in your church to be your referees.
Unless your youth group is really big, you’ll most likely need to go to local schools or even other churches and get people to sign up for the tournament.
21. Chili Cook-Off
This idea most likely won’t cost anything from you. Have people enter into the competition, and then host it at a time when people are already around at church.
If you wanted to, you could have people pay to enter, and then auction the chili off. The winner of the cook-off is determined by which chili has the highest bid.
22. Bake Sale
Have people in your church offer to make baked goods for the bake sale. Sell them on a Sunday morning. You can do a fixed price, but I would recommend the price be donation-based.
23. Raffle
There is definitely potential that you could do this without having to spend much money at all. Find people in your church who might be willing to donate things.
For instance, maybe there is a photographer who would be willing to donate family photo sessions. There might even be people in your church who are willing to purchase items for you to raffle off as well.
24. Movie Night
It seems like every church has an extra projector sitting around (even if it’s decently old). See if you could use it to host a family movie night outside when the weather is nice.
You could make this donation-based. Maybe even offer some concession options, you could definitely do popcorn and soda for pretty cheap as well.
25. Pick a Number
This is a mission trip fundraising idea that I have used before and I love it. You could create a customized graphic for this or just use sticky notes and poster board.
Create a table containing 100 boxes and number them from 1 to 100 (or whatever numbers add up to the amount you need to meet your goal).
Have people select one or more numbers from the table. The number(s) they select represents the amount they will donate to your trip.
26. Walkathon
Reach out to friends and family and share with them that you are trying to fundraise for your mission trip. Ask if they would pledge to donate an amount per mile that you walk.
Plan a Saturday where you will walk as many miles as you can in a set amount of time. I’d suggest 3-6 hours, as that would be a long time.
27. Memory Verse Challenge
Similar to the walkathon, ask people to pledge an amount per Bible verse that you memorize in a month. Then get to memorizing!
You could even have people agree to be your “Official Judges” to make sure the amount is correct!
28. Collect Change
There are a ton of people who have loose change and aren’t planning to use it. Ask them to donate it to help you fundraise for your mission trip.
If you really wanted to, you could even go door to door in your neighborhood with a bucket to do the same.
29. Write Letters
And lastly, a classic mission trip fundraising idea. Write letters to friends and family asking them to donate to your mission trip.
Okay, I know all of these missionary fundraising ideas may be difficult to remember, so we went ahead and created a free PDF for you to download. This PDF is a full list of the 29 mission trip fundraising ideas we talked about here.
More Mission Trip Fundraising Ideas
Want to get more helpful mission trip fundraising ideas? Well check out these articles to keep enhancing your mission trip fundraising ideas.
Bethany GU - Missionary Fundraising Ideas
Faith Ventures - Mission Trip Fundraising Ideas
Therefore Go - Fundraising Ideas for Youth Mission Trips
Modern Missionary Fundraising
I hope these mission trip fundraising ideas were helpful to you. If you are interested in more resources like these, be sure to follow along, as we will release content like this every week aimed to help missionaries fundraise.
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