4 Innovative Tips for Funding Your Children’s Ministry

Fundraising is necessary for mission-driven organizations to be able to continue their important work. But it isn’t always easy, especially for smaller organizations like your children’s ministry, which might not have the fundraising tech or marketing expertise that larger nonprofits can use to their advantage.

What if you could go beyond simply funding your ministry and launch meaningful, memorable, and mission-aligned fundraisers? In children’s ministry, every activity is an opportunity to shape faith—including fundraising!

This guide explores innovative children’s ministry fundraising strategies to make it easy, exciting, and spiritually enriching for kids and their families to get involved.

Align Fundraisers With Your Teaching Themes

Most teachers, whether in a school setting or leading a ministry, can agree that combining learning and engagement is a difficult balance to achieve. You don’t want to bore your audience, but you also want to keep the focus on the important message you’re sharing.

The same balance is essential in fundraising. The events and campaigns you host should be engaging for participants without straying from your mission to nurture lifelong faith in the children your ministry serves. 

To strike this balance, align your fundraising efforts with your teaching materials. Here are some ideas for how to do this:

• Match event themes with lessons from your children’s church curriculum. For example, you could host a “Fruit of the Spirit” bake sale where kids and parents bake treats inspired by the fruits of the Spirit. Heart-shaped cookies could represent love, slow-baked banana bread might illustrate patience, and donors can practice gentleness with fragile meringue!
• Talk about the fundraiser in children’s church lessons. Prepare the kids in your children’s church group by explaining how the fundraiser ties into the values and lessons you teach. For example, you might share the account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet in John 13 to discuss how God calls believers to serve others. 
• Incorporate memory verses or storytelling. To showcase what kids learn through your ministry, emphasize memory verses or Bible stories throughout your event. Include these references on signage, announcements, and thank-you cards after the fundraiser.

Keep in mind that transparency is a cornerstone of successful fundraising. Parents and community members will appreciate an inside look at your ministry’s work, especially if they donate their support. As a result, your fundraising efforts will double as an opportunity to showcase your mission. 

Empower Kids as Fundraising Leaders

You may already be teaching leadership skills by encouraging kids to lead their peers in prayer or Sunday school games. Kids should also feel empowered to take responsibility for ministry fundraising efforts, especially since these donations support their learning experience!

Always make sure kids are comfortable with their level of leadership in fundraising. No child should feel pressured to raise money on your ministry’s behalf or guilted into “pulling their weight.” Instead, your fundraiser can be an exciting opportunity for kids to practice leadership while raising support for the ministry that pours into them.

Invite Families to Participate in Fundraising Activities

Despite your ministry’s commitment to teaching and guiding the kids you serve, parent or guardian involvement is still vital to well-rounded learning. Wonder Ink’s guide to children’s church curriculum describes kids’ ministry as a partnership with parents, who are “working to equip children to live for Christ!”

Along with supporting children’s learning, family involvement strengthens fundraising efforts. When families actively participate in fundraising, they advocate for your ministry to the congregation and broader community. 

Here are some fundraising ideas to encourage family involvement:

• “Kids vs. Adults” trivia night, where questions focus on Bible verses and curriculum topics
• Family movie night featuring a movie related to recent Sunday school lessons or topics
• Bible scavenger hunt in which families compete to find verse-themed clues around the church’s campus that lead to a prize
• 5K run or walk, which will involve charging a small registration fee and securing sponsorships from local businesses
• Social media challenge where families complete an activity, share their results online, and invite friends to follow suit

The fundraising idea you choose to engage families depends on the types of events or campaigns that would most appeal to them. While the event itself is important for attracting participation, you also need to consider how your ministry keeps families engaged after the fact.

Similar to the nonprofit concept of cultivating donors, your ministry should strengthen its relationships with families during and after your fundraiser. Ask them to volunteer with your ministry or offer take-home activities related to Sunday school lessons that they can complete with their kids. In the end, genuine relationships will lead to future support and stronger collaboration in kids’ learning.

Make It Easy to Participate and Donate

While children’s spiritual growth is likely a top priority for parents, your ministry isn’t the only group on their radar. Between school, summer camps, sports, and other extracurricular activities, kids (and, by extension, their parents) are always busy.

Your fundraising efforts should be respectful of parents’ and children’s busy schedules. Instead of adding another task to their to-do lists, make participation easy by:

• Keeping appeals budget-friendly. Ask for manageable contributions, like $25 for classroom supplies or in-kind donations of gently used toys and books.
• Working around full schedules. If you’re hosting an event, consider virtual or hybrid formats so parents and kids can participate from home. 
• Allow for online donations. According to Getting Attention’s marketing statistics report, a significant portion of web traffic (approximately 52%) comes from mobile devices. In other words, people generally prefer to donate from their phones and tablets, so you should make it easy for them to do so.

Launching a considerate fundraiser means you’ll have to know a lot about the participants you’re trying to reach. Analyze participation from past fundraisers to learn how you can improve future ones. For example, you might learn that social media posts about your fundraiser tend to spur the most community involvement, meaning you’d want to prioritize social media promotion for future campaigns. 

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If your ministry is new to fundraising (or even if you simply need a refresher), it’s important to note that the tips in this guide are only a starting point. Your ministry will have several logistical considerations to keep in mind, such as following accounting best practices as donations roll in and investing in fundraising tools as needed.

The good news is that children’s ministry leaders don’t have to be fundraising professionals to host a successful campaign! With the right ideas and thorough planning, you’ll be on your way to reaching your ministry’s fundraising goals in no time.