Mission trips provide great cultural experiences and make a difference in people’s lives. But if your church group is gearing up for a mission trip, you know that the expenses add up quickly.
Mission trip fundraising helps cover costs for church clergy and members to travel and complete mission projects. With mission trip fundraising, donations generally go toward travel costs, project supplies, and missionaries’ needs, including food, medicine, and housing while on a mission.
Let’s explore some of the most effective mission trip fundraising ideas to make your dream mission trip a reality.
Why Are Missions Important?
Successful mission trips are life-changing experiences for everyone involved.
Mission trips play a crucial role in the lives of countless people in the developing world each year. Many churches in the United States have mission teams who travel to serve the less fortunate while spreading the word of the Lord. These short-term mission trips often have a specific mission or focus project, including rebuilding towns afflicted by natural disasters, setting up permanent or temporary health clinics, and helping communities struggling with disease or starvation.
Mission work is a staple of evangelical and other church communities, and many are called to do this type of work on a more long-term basis. Churches may also choose to sponsor a missionary or mission family that lives in the area where vital mission work is being done. The church then supplements its income with the money raised from donations to help it fund the work of serving the community in need on behalf of the church.
How to Choose the Best Mission Trip Fundraiser
Not every fundraiser is a good fit for every church. Before choosing a fundraising campaign, consider your mission trip participants’ ages and interests, fundraising goals, available resources, and how much time and effort people can realistically commit. Asking a few key questions with your committee can help your group choose the best church fundraisers for your community.
Who Will Participate?
Consider your participants’ ages and what they are interested in doing. A fundraiser that gets kids excited may not appeal to adults. Look for activities that are engaging and give participants a meaningful role in the campaign.
What Are Your Groups’s Fundraising Goals?
Start with a clear overall fundraising goal and determine what the money raised will fund. Whether you’re raising money for airfare and travel or mission supplies, knowing how much you need to raise will help you choose an appropriate fundraising strategy.
What Is Your Fundraising Budget?
Consider how much your mission group can spend upfront and whether you have funds available to cover those costs. Compare the potential expenses, including products, event supplies, marketing, and other fees, with the amount you expect to raise. Low-cost or free fundraisers are a good choice when your organization has limited up-front resources.
What Resources Do You Have?
Beyond funding, consider the people and community connections you can depend on. How many participants or parents are active church volunteers? Do you have or can you build relationships with local businesses that could provide sponsorships or in-kind donations? Consider any other resources that can help make the fundraiser a success.
What Has Worked in the Past?
Review previous mission trip fundraisers before starting something new. Which campaigns generated the most participation and revenue over the last few years? Which ones were difficult to organize or didn’t get much support? If a community walk-a-thon worked well last year, you can draw on that success to make it even bigger this year.
What Are You Teaching Your Congregation?
Consider whether your fundraiser reinforces the values and skills you want participants to develop. Fundraisers can teach supporters about teamwork, goal-setting, responsibility, and community involvement. Choose activities that give everyone, even the children, an opportunity to participate.
How to Plan a Mission Trip Fundraiser
A successful mission trip fundraiser starts with a clear goal and a plan for reaching it. Start by determining how much money your team needs to raise, how much each participant will contribute, and how much time you have to reach your goal. Then, choose mission trip fundraising ideas that fit your group and church community.
With a combination of online fundraising, events, sponsorships, and personal appeals, you can give participants multiple ways to get involved and build support for your mission trip.
- Set a fundraising goal – Start by knowing how much do you need to raise as a group and determine how much each participant needs to raise.
- Select the best fundraising activities and methods – Calculate expenses and fundraising costs, as well as projected revenue.
- Create a fundraising timeline – Give your team plenty of time to raise more.
Of course, raising money is not the only thing you must do to prepare for your mission trip. You will be expected to quickly integrate into your new environment and serve. Start preparing yourself now, physically and emotionally. Whether it’s sacrificing personal desires to help others, studying a foreign language, or reading the Bible to find encouraging devotions, do what you can to prepare yourself for your journey.
15+ Mission Trip Fundraising Ideas
What are the best ways to raise donations for your cause? No single answer works for every church; many initiatives can help individuals and mission groups raise money. Choosing the right fundraiser for your church group is part of your journey.
Whatever you choose for your fundraising campaign, make it easy for people to contribute. Using donation software for churches lets faith-based communities set up a webpage, explain the mission, and collect secure online donations.
Here are the best mission trip fundraising ideas to consider.
Mission Trip Fundraising Letters
A simple, sincere appeal can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to raise money for a mission trip, especially when it comes from church youth group members. You can raise hundreds or thousands of dollars by sending a well-written support letter to neighbors, co-workers, local businesses, and community members.
Mission trip letters can be sent via mail, email, and even text or social media.
Launch a Mission Trip Fundraising Website
Luckily, there is a better way to collect funds than the traditional fundraising letter. Mission groups can succeed with peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding.
This is how a church crowdfunding campaign works:
- A church administrator signs up for a free fundraising website.
- Mission trip participants register on the fundraising site, and a personal page is generated with a fundraising goal thermometer.
- Participants customize their fundraising page with their mission statement and photos.
- They invite friends and family to support the mission trip with secure online donations.
- Administrators can easily view fundraiser reports and see how much everyone has raised.
Streamline Donation Collection with Our
Mission Trip Fundraising Websites
Organize a Community Event
If you’re raising money as a group, consider hosting a fundraising event to fund your mission trip. Fundraising events raise money for your mission trip and bring your community members and congregation closer together. When selecting a fundraising event, consider the importance of highlighting your mission and mission-driven fundraising.
Examples of the best fundraising events for churches and mission group fundraising include:
- Walk-a-thon fundraisers
- Serve-a-thons or community service projects
- Charity golf tournaments
- Breakfast fundraisers
- Spaghetti dinners
- Other simple community events such as bake sales, car washes, and group yard sales
Host a Get to Know the Mission Night and Meal
Your church congregation will likely be some of your best supporters since they believe in you and your mission work. Be sure to educate them on the mission and how they can participate – even if they aren’t going on the mission. Host a Get to Know the Mission Night where you talk about the mission’s goals and share a slide show of the community that will be affected. If your church has been there before, sharing pictures and stories can be quite impactful. Then, prepare a meal of the local cuisine for everyone to try.
Sell tickets to attend and take additional donations after the show with a simple t-shirt or bake sale. Consider including a silent auction or raffle as well.
Sell Church Merchandise
Another popular fundraising idea for church groups is to sell branded merchandise online or at church services and events.
Create beautiful, unique designs on a platform such as Printful for church or mission t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, hats, or blankets. Set up a table to sell these items every Sunday, or set up an online store so supporters can order items with a card.
Request Frequent Flyer Mile Donations
Airfare is one of the biggest expenses in mission work. If you want to offer this in-kind donation option, ask your congregation to donate miles to your mission group. Most airlines allow members to donate frequent flyer miles to other individuals or nonprofit groups. Many people travel frequently for work and look for ways to use their miles to do good.
Find Business Sponsorships
Many local business owners allocate funds for philanthropic use. Check with local businesses and companies to see if they will sponsor your mission trip or contribute through a financial or in-kind donation.
Companies should benefit from their sponsorship with advertising and public relations, so let the business know how you can promote their sponsorship on your mission’s website.
Raise Money by Providing Services
Offer household services to friends and neighbors in exchange for donations. This could include tasks such as house cleaning, watering plants while neighbors are out of town, helping with yard work, or pet-sitting and dog-walking services. Service projects work especially well for youth group fundraisers.
Spread the Word!
The best way to start raising money for your mission trip is by telling people about it. Whether you decide to send a letter or talk about it with friends and neighbors, you can do more by going online. Post an announcement on your Facebook or other social media page, share a link to your fundraising page, and invite friends to contribute. Contact local restaurants and businesses and ask if you can post flyers on their bulletin boards.
The church should also support the mission team by talking to the congregation about the mission trip and helping participants raise funds. Church leaders can pass a special donation basket during services or provide donation envelopes for people to pick up after Sunday service or during community gatherings. Utilize church bulletins, newsletters, and the church’s website to let your congregation know about and support your mission.
Writing Thank Yous and Providing Mission Follow-Up
Keep contributors informed about your mission’s activities and successes. Set up a blog or social media page to update people on your adventures and accomplishments, upload photos, and show progress toward your mission goals. There’s nothing better than seeing first-hand that your donations are making a difference.
Send private thank-you notes to those who have given you financial support for your trip. For larger donors, bring them back a small token of your appreciation.
FAQ’s on Mission Trip Fundraising
Popular mission trip fundraisers include crowdfunding, donation campaigns, and community fundraisers.
Set a fundraising goal, create a campaign, ask for donations, organize fundraising events, seek sponsors, and encourage participants to share personal fundraising pages.
Create an online fundraising campaign where supporters can make secure donations, and participants can share their personal fundraising pages through email and social media.
Easy options include online donation campaigns, car washes, bake sales, raffles, and community yard sales.
Ask local businesses, community organizations, and supporters for financial sponsorships or donated products and services. Explain your mission and fundraising goals clearly and provide promotion and benefits for sponsorship.
Mission trip fundraising can help cover transportation, flights, lodging, meals, and other travel-related expenses, as well as supplies for mission work.
Set clear goals, start fundraising early, offer multiple ways to give, and keep supporters updated throughout the campaign.
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