How to Raise Money for Philanthropic Adventures and Missions Trips

Last fall, a group of 8 individuals, including myself, decided that we wanted to spend a week in inner-city Los Angeles working at a mission, working with the homeless, and experiencing some of the rich, religious heritage that the city has to offer. We will be going on that trip next Saturday. We had to raise a total of $8,000 for all of us to go, and at the beginning that cost seemed overwhelming.

Fortunately, our group was able to raise almost all of that money in just a period of a few months due to some good planning, well crafted fundraisers, and most importantly, by the grace of God. Here are a few of the fundraising events and activities that we held that were successful for us that you might be able to use in a future trip, whether it be to go work on a house for Habitat for Humanity across or help build an orphanage somewhere half-way around the world.

An Old Fashioned Box Social – We’re primarily a group of young singles, so we had the men in our group, as well as a few other male volunteers cook meals to share with a lady. We ended up with 8 chefs in all (I made Jambalaya). Some of the ladies from our group of friends came to bid on the meals (without knowing who made them), and we were able to raise $350.00 in an event that took just a couple of hours to plan and setup.

A Bake Sale - We operate in a university environment, so we had the opportunity to setup a bake-sale in a high-traffic area. Some of the girls in our group along with a few volunteers from the church made all sorts of baked goods (including Puppy Chow, my favorite!), and we had a bake sale from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM for two consecutive days. After considering the costs of the goods, we easily raised an additional $300.00 from this event.

A Valentine’s Day Dinner - We held a dinner at one of our town’s local churches on the Sunday after Valentine’s Day. We made some reasonably good food and the price of admission was a free will donation of whatever you felt like giving. We also auctioned off a couple of chocolate cakes that weren’t eaten at the dinner, and ended up raising close to $1,000 from this event alone.

Mission’s Letters - Sending letters about your trip to friends and family members is a very effective way to raise funds. In your letter, share why you will be going on your philanthropic trip, what you will be doing there, and ask them for prayer and financial support. I’ve developed a “Missions Letter Writing Guide” that you can download for free by clicking here. Some members of our groups raised several hundred dollars from their mission’s letters this year.

Church Offerings – If you belong to a church or other congregation, ask the church leadership if you could take an offering at a Sunday service or get any support from the church’s mission’s board. Often church members would like to give, but they don’t visibly see any causes to donate to, so they end up not donating anything. By sharing your heart with for a mission’s trip with your congregation, you can often raise hundreds or even thousands of dollars from a single service.

These are the fundraising techniques that we used this year, in the past we’ve used others with mixed success. In a period of about four months, our group of 7 people was able to raise the $8,000 we need in a town of just 7,000 people. If you’re doing good in the world, are diligent about your fundraising efforts, and are doing what you’re doing for the right reasons, you can fundraise just about any amount of money for a short term mission’s or philanthropic trip.