So Your Church Wants to Raise Funds

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So Your Church Wants to Raise Funds

to Partner and Build a Sea Island Habitat for Humanity Home…

One of the first lessons Habitat volunteers learn is that God will provide. Below are some ideas that can help you raise money and awareness about Sea Island Habitat’s ministry. Remember that the number one rule for getting people to give is to ask. Timidity can only limit possibilities.

U Pray about it!—Prayer empowers us to do God’s work and helps us make difficult decisions.

U Make Habitat a line item in the congregation’s budget—This will ensure regular participation in Habitat’s work. Tithe to Habitat. [ Sea Island Habitat tithes to an affiliate in Ghana , West Africa, which in turn tithes to Nepal .]

U The Nehemiah Program—In the Nehemiah Program, a congregation or group agrees to provide the funds and perhaps the labor for a specific portion of the construction for one or more houses. For example, one congregation might agree to buy and install the siding, or to sponsor the roofing or framing of the house. Even youth can be involved, raising funds to purchase a window or a box of nails.

U Multiply your talents—Provide seed money and distribute checks ($100 to $1,000) to individuals or groups. Urge supporters to plan projects that will allow them to make more money from their investments. This modern parable of the talents can yield great profits through bake sales, carnivals, golf tournaments, etc. James Island Presbyterian Church has more than quadrupled their contribution to Sea Island over the years by applying this parable to their fundraising efforts.

U Plan a special offering or offerings—Designate a specific Sunday, a holiday, a Habitat month or fifth Sundays as times for special Habitat offerings. Publicize this early and be aggressive.

U Make a model house—Build a model house in which to collect donations. Place the house in high traffic areas.

U Build a Playhouse—Build a playhouse & auction it off. Proceeds from Charleston ’s Jewish Community Center’s B’nai B’rith Youth Organization raised $1,500 with this project!

U Buy a block, build a future—Create a grid on a poster containing a drawing of a house. Sell sections of the grid and write donors names in the spaces.

U Serve up your congregation’s favorite dinner, desserts or ice cream—Plan a social and spice it up with a speaker or a dance or performers. (Partner families make great speakers.)

U Trade treasures at a garage sale—People seem to give more, in every way, when a garage sale is connected with a cause. Donate unsold items to our Resale store on Maybank Highway .

U Make noise with a silent auction—Offer baskets to biscuits and music to meals. Persuasive organizers can obtain terrific donations from area business. Proceeds can number in the thousands.

U Get creative with a craft show—Solicit crafters from the congregation and the community to donate items or a portion of sales.

U Ask for alternative gifts—A young man at a synagogue raised more than $800 for Habitat as a bar-mitzvah project.

U Distribute Habitat house banks and fund-raising calendars—Children learn to count their

blessings and join in the giving as they collect dimes for every closet in their home and pennies for every light fixture and so forth. This is a great Lenten project. The calendars (Item #3079) are $2.50 per pack of 50, and the house banks (Item #1600) are 12 cents each. Contact Order Entry at

(800) HABITAT, Ext. 2552, to obtain these materials.

U Organize a 2x4 Sunday—Sell the 2x4’s that you will use for construction. Invite purchasers to sign the 2 x 4’s and to write Scripture passages or encouraging messages on them. Expand the campaign to include other building materials.

U Pound it home with a nail sale—Paint the tips of nails and sell them—$1 for a bronze nail, $3 for a silver and $5 for a gold nail.

U Step out with the youth for a walkathon—Set a high goal and challenge youth to obtain “over the top” pledges.

U Phone a friend—Have the walkathon youth challenge another group in the church to match their donations through a phone tree campaign.

U Collect a mile of pennies or nickels or dimes—Have your resident genius figure out how much that would net and then get to work.

U Crank up a concert—Invite members or local artists to give a benefit concert for Habitat.

U Collect aluminum cans— Sea Island partners with the local Aluminum Association and recycles cans at our local Resale store on Maybank Highway.

U Promote an alternative Christmas—Christ Our Hope Lutheran Church in Riverdale, Ga., raised more than $700 by selling simple Christmas ornaments. Offer other items or simply ask for donations; gifts aren’t always necessary. Provide gift/acknowledgement cards indicating that a donation has been made to Habitat.

U Honor special friends at homecoming—When you gather to celebrate the heritage of faith in your congregation, ask for donations to be made in honor or memory of special people. Create certificates for presentation.

U Try the tried and true—Bake sales, auctions, babysitting, preparing mailings for businesses and clean up days for donations are often still great fund-raisers.

For complete information, see: Habitat for Humanity International’s publication—“Congregation’s Guide to Sponsoring a House”—item #3261. Contact Order Entry at (800) HABITAT, Ext. 2552, to obtain these materials.