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I mentioned yesterday that my church is struggling financially this year. As a result the staff was asked to cut every bit of “excess” from our budgets at the beginning of the summer. Meaning if we hadn’t spent it yet we used it to close as much of the gap as possible. As a result we are spending the rest of the year, well… I guess spending the year isn’t the right term at all.
There is a temptation to throw a bake sale or have a Bike-a-thon so that we can bring back some of the events/programs we had to cut, but one simple truth keeps us from doing that.
My church doesn’t do fundraisers.
Of all the policies we have, this one if by far my favorite. (That, and the one about not Xeroxing your butt… but I digress).
The blanket ban on fundraising of all sorts makes it simple to stop telemarketers who want me to sell their candy bars. It makes it easy to throw away the catalogs that promise me huge gains for the youth budget. And it just makes everything in lour ministry operate more smoothly.
Here are the reasons we don’t do fundraisers.
Fundraisers Take (Lots Of) Time
A lot of work goes into making fundraisers work. First you have to pick how you are going to raise your money, be it candy bars, scented candles, calendars, fancy cheeses, or whatever. Then you have to find people to help and relentlessly pester encourage them to sell well. All of this instead of telling teens about Jesus.
Fundraisers Breed Competition
It sends a dangerous message to ministries if they know their annual budget sinks or swims based on their ability to raise cash each year. Suddenly church members are targets of sales pitches instead of brotherly love and the church lobby looks more like a swap meet than a spiritual home. (I think Jesus had something to say about that).
Fundraisers Can Get Awkward
Youth Ministry is already fraught (+10 word bonus points) with ways to have awkward conversations. (Billy, have you heard of “deodorant”). When we offer to get involved in the messiness of life, this is what happens. Adding fundraisers to the mix just makes things even more difficult. It’s tricky to explain why you have so much “inventory” left, or why you raised money but not enough money. Money makes people weird, and the conversations get just as goofy.
I once experienced a woman who insisted that her son get back his “cut” of the annual fundraising since he was unable to attend one of our larger retreats.
Fundraisers Shift Priorities
Plain and simple, fundraisers cause us to focus on money instead of ministry. Fundraisers perpetuate the idea that good ministry requires good funding. You already spend time thinking about how to best use your resources. Having to gather those resources as well causes the financial decisions to monopolize your time.
Once that happens, everything looks more like an investment opportunity than a ministry. You start to measure events by the financial ramifications instead of the spiritual ones, and you start to talk about every aspect of the ministry in terms of cost and benefit.
I’d rather be broke and talking about Jesus.
So that’s why we don’t do fundraisers. It isn’t that I think we don’t need to have a keen awareness of our program decisions and their effect on the budget, but that should be secondary to what we are trying to accomplish.
Another side effect I’ve noticed is that when all ministries equally depend on the general fund to fund their area, there is a true sense of comradery when the water starts raising past our necks (like it is now). Rather than survival of the fittest and a “he who fundraises doesn’t get left behind” mentality of ministry, we are actively helping one another accomplish what needs to be done because the staff feels one another’s pain.
What’s the funding model of your church?
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luketrouten
luketrouten
luketrouten
Loved the post. I’m sorta half way with you, but half way in opposition. I think too many times, we as Christians and/or church leaders make a habit of outlawing or banning something overall rather than dealing with specifics. (for example: instead of taking the time to teach responsibility to teens about leaving drinks and trash, we just say “no food of drinks in the sanctuary!” Or like the church I grew up in; since some people in the past have taken dancing too far, we weren’t allowed to have our wedding reception in the fellowship hall if we planned on dancing at all!)
My current church’s “policy’ (I use quotes because it’s not a written rule, but an idea kept by the elders) is that we don’t do fundraisers OUTSIDE of our church. We want a reputation as the church that gives to the community, not the one that’s always asking for money. And I totally agree. But I see no reason to ban it within the church, as long as it has it’s proper place. I totally agree that it CAN take up too much time and energy. But instead of just nixing fundraisers at all, we just make sure they stay in their place. For example, we went a couple years to a conference style camp. No one complained when we raised money, but this summer we went to a missions camp instead. Now that the precedent has been set, I can’t see us going back and asking church members to shell out their hard-earned money for a beach vacation with bible studies and a concert thrown in. So I’ve decided that we won’t do any more fundraisers for “entertainment” events, only for mission-centered trips or efforts.
Another guideline is that all fundraisers require work on behalf of the teen. Not just knocking on doors work, either. Even at our inner-church cake auction, we serve the church dinner and the teens are in charge of cooking, waiting, and cleaning-up. We also did a “rent-a-teen” work schedule where they basically earned money by doing chores or other tasks. That was great for instilling hard work; but its getting the axe because of exactly what you mentioned: too much time coordinating. I found myself spending way too much time getting teen schedules lined up with renter schedules and wasn’t able to do more important ministry things.
I think you brought up some great points on what fundraisers do that can be negative, but I’m not sure Jesus would turn the tables over in anger if a teenager asks a church member to rake their yard in order to raise money to go on a mission trip. He did that because they merchants were gouging temple-goers and profiting off God. Fundraisers done right, with the right motives, are more like the church in Acts that spent their own money providing for each other and the needy.
So to make a long comment…longer: I think there is middle ground here. We should definitely examine our ministry practices and toss the bad. But let’s not punt something which God could use just so we don’t have to deal with the stickiness and sometimes awkwardness of money-related endeavors.
Hey Ben, thanks for swinging by and checking out the article. I love having a new voice on here. I agree that there is middle ground. The article was about why we don’t do fundraisers, not necessarily that fundraisers are inherently evil. We’ve gone back and forth on this a lot, and it comes up at least once a year (usually around a big event, of course). I think you make some really excellent points.
I love your point about teaching responsibility (instead of banning outright), and I’ve seen our teens take the initiative to go out and rake lawns and clean homes and babysit to raise money for the event or trip. I can’t explain how humbling it is when a student is out working hard to go on something I’m planning, it really makes me step up my game as well. Encouraging them to do it on their own can teach great lessons without having to do the hand-holding of a “rent-a-teen” style fundraiser (which I’ve experienced at a former church as well… boy did I underestimate how much work that would be.)
In short, I don’t think churches who use fundraising are doing something wrong, but I am thankful that our church is able to do the ministry without them.
I loved this article. I just finished a parent vision meeting at our church here in Delaware getting our families pumped for our upcoming events. And…you guessed it. One of the first things people started getting into was how to spend our budget and what is on the horizon event wise and how that will affect our overall church budget, and of course the parents wallets. I looked them squarely in the eye and said “WE DON”T DO FUNDRAISERS!” haha, it felt really good and it is something that I feel very strong about. I always ask this question: When the men’s ministry wanted new curriculum, did we make them sell cookies? I don’t think so. For some reason with student ministry we stop treating our students as part of the church, and make them these little worker bees who have to earn every little thing. I would rather fight for a good budget early in the year (which I do) and then focus on leading my students into service projects that actually build the kingdom rather than “you name it the next bext fundraiser” whatever it is. Also, I have found that our members tend to be more generous with extra donations for student Min projects when they see how service oriented our SM already is. Ok, that was lots of words to simply say, I LOVED this post and am glad to know I’m not crazy. (Or not crazy and alone).
Thanks for stopping by the site, Joe! I can’t guarantee you’re not crazy, but you’re certainly not alone. I loved the picture of the men’s ministry going door to door selling cookies, by the way. Keep up the great ministry and kingdom focus, it’s worth more than any fundraiser could bring in!
Luke,
I’m with you- fundraising is the pits. My youth pastor buddy and I have a better way. No risk, and Biblical… http://www.team316.org.