FUND-RAISING IDEAS
- Keep the change. Keep a special container in your home (click on the coin box at right to order free boxes) and fill it with loose change by emptying your pockets each day. Ask members of your congregation, friends, and family to do the same. Then, gather the change each Sunday and place it in a giant container at church to measure the progress. You can even bring a container to school, work, or local businesses. Bring your change to the Youth Gathering, or send in a check for that amount instead.
- Take a noisy offering. Get your congregation—including Sunday school children—to bring in change for two, three, or four consecutive Sundays. Take a “noisy offering” in metal pots, and watch the gifts add up!
- Start a quarter collection. Headed to the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans? Collect quarters before heading to the French Quarter! Try “quarter math.” A stack of 15 quarters equals one inch. How many quarters would it take to reach your pastor’s height or the ceiling of your sanctuary? See if your group can collect quarters from all 50 states before meeting with youth from across the country.
- Penny pinching. Divide your group into teams and get ready for some friendly competition. Label containers for each team and collect pennies in your container. Each penny you collect is worth one point. Be prepared with larger coins and dollar bills to offset your competition. For each nickel, dime, quarter, and dollar put into the other team’s container, points are lost by an amount you previously determine (e.g., a nickel reduces the score by one, a dime by two, a quarter by five, etc.). The team with the most points wins!
- Remove litter from local parks, roadways, creeks, or playgrounds in your community. Ask members in your congregation, local businesses, neighbors, families, and friends to sponsor you in this day of community service. Designate the funds you raise toward your challenge goal.
- Hold a dodgeball tournament. At Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, IL, youth groups in the Chicago area participated in a dodgeball tournament where all proceeds were donated to ELCA World Hunger. [Watch a video about this event] Players engaged in hunger-related activities when they were not playing dodgeball. That included playing “Hunger Jeopardy,” an interactive PowerPoint game that challenges children, youth, and adults to test their knowledge about world hunger.
 Unite for change. Join other Lutheran youth groups in your area to sponsor a big event (like dodgeball) to raise funds for the Youth Challenge. Think about a dinner, run/walk, ice cream social, or “battle of the bands.”
- Double your fun. Ask your Thrivent Financial for Lutherans representative to match whatever you raise. Call 800-THRIVENT for more information.
- Chores for change. Join other members of your youth group to volunteer your time and energy to help others in the congregation with chores around their homes. With each chore, accept a donation toward the Youth Challenge.
- Download the challenge brochure (5.1 MB - PDF) and help spread the word about the challenge. [Or order free copies online]
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