Fundraising Ideas for Congregations
Raising Money to Send Delegates to General Assembly (GA)
Tell us (email) generalassembly@uua.org what your congregation is doing to raise funds for members to attend the Justice GA!
- From the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach: We held a "Kickoff to Justice Dinner" on New Year's day. A five course meal was put together by a member of our congregation who earned his living as a chef in a past life. There was also a raffle of gift baskets. We sold out at 80 seats. Dinner was followed by a game of UU Jeopardy, which helped many of our members get in somewhat better touch with our association at the same time that we had a lot of fun and quite a few laughs.
- From the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis: We are trying to raise funds to help out those who will go which will promote diversity. One way is to ask for donations from past delegates, especially those who have no intention of going to Phoenix. If we can remind them of the past GAs they went to and how meaningful it was, it will help.
- From the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno: Our Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) group hopes to go to GA in 2012. We are ordering T-shirts with our church name and a chalice on the front and "Justice, Equity and Compassion in Human Relations" on the back. Our youth are tie-dying the shirts in rainbow colors to sell to the congregation. We are promoting these as not only a good cause and a great way to promote the church, but also as ideal to wear for our local pride parade.
- In the past twenty years, more than 100 congregations have held a ChaliceArt jewelry fundraiser. Email Carolyn Cameron at chaliceart@yahoo.com or call (903) 786-8646 for details.
Suggestions for Auctions, Raffles, and Bake Sale Events and Fund Drives
If your congregation doesn’t usually pay delegate expenses, here are some ways to raise the money to do so.
- A sermon topic
- A worship service focus
- Lunch with the Minister, the Director of Religious Education, the Music Director, the Administrator, or the Board President
- Musical performances (choir, instrumental concert, sing-along)
- Pageant, play, or talent show
- Dance
- Bake sale
- Car wash
- Circle suppers
- Sponsored weight loss or smoking cessation
- Donated massages
- A class in organic gardening
- Six conversational sessions in a language other than English
- The services of a handyperson
- Babysitting services
- Mending and clothing repair service
- A portrait photograph
- Dinner for Four (catered or frozen)
- Donated “Bread of the Month”
- A knitted or crocheted “GA afghan”
- A wall hanging to celebrate your congregation
- Artworks on “What it means to be a Unitarian Universalist” created by children and youth in the RE program
- Knitted scarves, hats and mittens
- Donated books, CDs and DVDs
Donations
- Divide the estimated cost of attendance by the number of adults in your congregation, and ask every adult to donate that amount to the fund.
- Ask people to donate Frequent Flyers miles to get delegates to GA.
- Ask a group of major donors to match contributions made to the fund or to contribute a fixed amount, like $500.
- Put a “GA delegates fund” box next to the refreshments you serve after worship, and ask people to drop paper currency into the box every time they take a cup of coffee or a snack.
- Ask people to bring loose change to drop into a “GA delegates fund” jar. Children and youth in the religious education program can count the money and report progress toward the goal of supporting all the delegates your congregation can send to General Assembly.
Obviously, every idea won't be a good match for every congregation. If your congregation has an idea that works, please share it with us so we can add it to the above list of ideas.
For more information contact generalassembly@uua.org.
This work is made possible by the generosity of individual donors. Please consider making a donation today.
Last updated on Thursday, January 5, 2012.
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