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Church fundraising is a great way to earn extra revenue for your church while also building member relationships. Church fundraising provides an effective way to reach out to the community for contributions as well as to spread the word about your Church. There are so many different types of fundraising that choosing the right one for your Church can be a daunting task. In this article we will talk about fundraising and the different types. We will also talk about how you can make it easy by receiving credit and debit card donations.

Types of Church Fundraisers

Direct Sales Fundraiser Your Church Group orders an inventory of fundraising items to be sold by your volunteers. The item is provided to your volunteers who sell the item, deliver it, and receive payment, usually in one trip.

Brochure Sales Fundraiser This is also called Brochure Sales. Your Church Group volunteers are each provided a fundraising brochure to show potential contributors and an order form. Supporters select items from the brochure and record the order on the order form. Once your members are done, all order forms are counted and sent to the fundraising company which ships the items to the contact person for your group fundraiser. Your members and volunteers then deliver the items to your supporters.

On-line Fundraiser On-line fundraising is usually handled in one of two ways. In the first, a personalized website for your group is created. You encourage contributors to purchase items or services from that site and you receive a percentage of sales. The second way is to have a coded link on your organization's website that will take the visitor to a personalized page on a company's product site. Again, you encourage supporters to make contributions through the coded link and your group receives a percentage of the sales.

Special Event Fundraiser These types of fundraisers usually consist of setting up an event and inviting supporters to participate. Events such as car washes, dinners, raffles, plays, and auctions are common but there are lots more to consider.

Accepting Credit and Debit Card donations

Once you've setup your church fundraiser, you can ask for donations through written letters, on your website, by email, or in flyers and newsletters. Make sure to include good instructions on how donations can be made. Donations could be a weekly offering, monthly withdrawal or a one-time contribution, depending on the member's choice.

To really streamline the process you could offer your contributors the ability to contribute to the fundraiser using their credit card. This would allow them to easily make a contribution without the hassle of dealing with cash or check. A lot of people don't carry cash or check anymore because it isn't convenient. Instead they carry credit cards and debit cards.

To accept credit and debit card donations you would need a way to process credit cards. There are lots of options including point of sale terminals, and online internet gateways.

In this article we talked about the different types of church fundraising and also how to make it easy for people to contribute with their credit and debit card.