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disciplesyouth.com
: special projects : try
this at home : locations : funds Finding funding without losing your mind Without losing your mind...do all that you can to not let finances be a deciding factor in who gets to participate in your trip. Find scholarships, raise money, do whatever is possible to keep costs down. Having said that, don't spend all year raising money! Choose your fund-raisers carefully, and you won't have to do too many. Have work trip participants pay a small amount to "register for the trip" and attempt to raise the rest. Have a visible chart before the congregation to let them know where you are in raising the needed funds. Ask your congregation's board to support the trip. It should be in the church's budget annually. Can your CWF or CMF support it financially? What about your region? Have you ever received a Week of Compassion partnership grant? Contact the VIM Office for an application--Brenda Tyler at (888) 346-2631, ext. 344.
Did you know that there are more than 750 million incandescent light fixtures in the United States! More than half of these are in homes! And, 25 percent of all electricity consumption in the US is used for lighting. Changing just five bulbs from incandescents to CFLs can make an impact by what it saves in energy consumption. Simply replacing five bulbs with CFLs in your home reduces emissions of carbon dioxide by 900 pounds and sulfur dioxide by 12 pounds. These are the gases responsible for global warming and acid rain. Visit www.brethren.org/genbd/BP/CFL/Environment.htm for more information. Service
& talent auction Spaghetti supper/variety show Set up an Italian restaurant complete with candle light, using only card tables with checkered tablecloths. Near Valentine's Day is a good time to hold it. Offer free baby-sitting and the best show in town after dinner. Have work trip participants be waitresses and waiters. Then use their talents to do the show...singing, dancing, gymnastics, skits, audience participation...whatever! Everyone loves it. It not only opens the fund raising to those outside the congregation, but it also helps the work trip participants learn to work together. Buy a mile Show your fund-raising progress on a map with a little moving van to show how far you've gone. Figure out the total number of miles and divide that number into total budget to get cost per mile. Invite folks to buy a mile or two to get your group there . . . and back! They surely wouldn't want to leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere, would they? Or would they? [top] Sell "stock" in the trip Sell shares to members and friends of the congregation for a set price. It's good to set the price fairly low--say $5--so that anyone can afford to buy one share. Others may buy as many shares as they want. You may want to encourage "challenges" between Sunday school classes or individuals willing to purchase a large number of shares. A stock certificate can be drawn up to give to "investors." Be creative with publicity of the stock sale. . . do a skit at a church board meeting of a high-powered board meeting with a CEO and vice presidents with beepers and cell phones and slicked back hair. Once you've sold the stock, give special privileges to stock holders-like a free car wash when you have one. On your return, hold a shareholder luncheon complete with an "annual report" with pictures and stories written by participants. Obviously, people could come whether they bought stock or not. Shareholders could come free and others could come for a fee to cover any extra costs that you didn't get covered before the trip! During the trip, have someone in charge of recording highs and lows that might have affected the "stock" (i.e., "Stock soared when we first stopped the van for Cokes and candy, then tumbled when everyone wanted a pit stop, but discovered the next stop was 50 miles away"). Show slides. Do a skit where high-powered execs sit around a conference table and field reports from committees-the meal committee, the work committee, the stay-up-all-night committee, etc. Be sure you have some way of allowing the work trip participants to give personal accounts of what the trip meant to them; what they learned and how they grew, spiritually and otherwise. A real advantage of this fund-raising "metaphor" is that the concepts of "appreciation" and "value" and "profit" can be played up in Christian terms. It worked for First Christian Church, Jacksonville, Miss., and could work for you! Special thanks to Eric Hughes for suggestions for this fund-raiser! [top] Sell bulbs (plants...not lights) Check with wholesalers about getting bulbs to sell in the fall. Everyone likes to buy and plant these anyway, so you could encourage them to do that and support the work trip. Perhaps someone would buy some for the church and the work group could plant them. They'd be a sign in spring of new life and hope! Sell supplies Similar to the concept used by Heifer Project where you buy a sheep or duck, ask your congregation to buy supplies. Find out how much a box of nails or a can of paint costs. How much is a bag of shingles? Or a brick? Once you know what your work will be, find out costs of various supplies and ask church members to buy a box of nails. They give you the money and you put it toward the cost of all materials on your trip. It's a tangible way for them to participate. Wrap Christmas gifts Ask a local store--that doesn't do gift wrapping--if you could set up a gift wrapping table at their exit during the Christmas season. You could even buy the paper from the store. Make the prices affordable and you'll make lots of money and have fun getting into the spirit. Be sure to pass out a creative little flier (or "business card") explaining what the money will be used for. You could have pictures of past trips on display at the table. You may get extra donations! [top] Parents' day out Plan a Saturday in December for parents to do their shopping and drop their children off at the church. You can have movies, crafts, games, singing. Either set a price or ask for donations. This is a welcome "gift" for parents, it's fun for the kids and it helps raise money for your trip. Santa's workshop or "some assembly required" A few days before Christmas, open up a Santa's workshop. People from the congregation can bring their gifts that say "some assembly required" and your group will assemble them. This gives the parents a chance to enjoy a leisurely Christmas eve and gives your work team a chance to work together on tasks. You may even sell "Christmas Eve Kits" of tea bags and a candle or a log for the fireplace since parents can relax that night! Lights in memory Put up a Christmas tree in the narthex or somewhere in the church and allow members to buy a string of lights in memory of a loved one. They can buy one light or a string of several. Have costs vary. Each time someone buys a light, you plug it in. The tree gets more beautiful as each person is remembered. You can send postcards to the family of the person remembered. Some may choose to have this be a Christmas present for grandchildren or parents. It's a way to remember special folks and support a working effort to change the world! Improve on these ideas Nearly any of these ideas can be adapted to suit your group and your congregation. Take a few liberties and turn them into your custom-made fund-raisers. And if you have more ideas, be sure to send them to us! Then check back here to find your idea posted! [top] [first steps] [choose a location] 
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