Recently I had the opportunity to work with a youth group of 6 teens on a fund raising project. Their leader was a senior in high school himself! The youth group of just 6 teens wanted to raise money for “World Impact,” and organization that buys kids out of child slavery. They were going to do whatever it took to raise $1,000 by the end of the year and they were determined. They wanted to collect cans, sell candy and just plain work hard.
I really appreciate that sense of commitment – So I approached them with an idea for selling T-Shirts to see what they could do. They loved the idea and went crazy selling shirts to everyone in their youth group and friends and family and people they never met. In 6 months they raised OVER $11,000 for “World Impact” Nearly $2,000 per person in the youth group!
Here are some of the points we talked about at the beginning of the project that really helped.
• Don’t sell T-Shirts. Give them away as a thank you for a donation of $20.00 or more! The youth group of 6 teens had several people donate $100.00 or more for just a single T-Shirt!
• Get your entire youth group involved – Have the kids in the youth group submit designs
• Let the entire youth group vote on the designs submitted.
• Let each kid in your youth group commit to “Giving” away a specific number of shirts.
• Set goals and share the goals with the youth group as progress is made
• Relate the amount of money raised to the number of meals, wells, gospel tracts, or kids freed from slavery the money raised will allow you to do. Its much more meaningful!
• Tell the story of what the T-Shirt represents…. Why is the youth group raising money?
…Let me know if you have any ideas you think should be added to this list of great ways your youth group can raise funds.
MinistryGear.com 888.812.4044
