Posted by Aaron Jeschke on December 4, 2009
Are you a Christian Sports team or organization looking for a product that will help you raise money quickly and easily? Many sports teams have a difficult time raising the money they need because it is usually pretty difficult to communicate the mission and purpose of a sports team to those who are not directly involved. It’s imperative for Christian sports teams to have quality church fundraising products that donors actually want to buy otherwise you might have a pretty difficult time raising money.
The Game Saver Card is the perfect product for Christian Sports fundraising. The Game Saver Card works like the Samaritan Card, but offers sports-themed discounts to golf, automobile, dining, and recreational venues. Save up to 50% at more than 1,700 golf courses nationwide, plus savings on golf instruction, gear, apparel and more. Also save at restaurants, on automobile expenses like oil changes, plus recreation including theme parks and tickets to professional sporting events! The best part is that the Game Saver Card is designed specifically for Christian Sports groups and is amazingly simple to sell! Have any friends that play golf? Who wouldn’t want up to 50% at over 1,700 golf courses nationwide?
It you are having trouble raising money for your Christian sports group than I would highly recommend the Game Saver Card. Its the card that sports fans want to buy! Raising money for your Christian Sports team has never been easier!
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on December 3, 2009
It is not secret that many churches across the United States are in desperate need of funds. Church Fundraising has become even more important of late with the faltering economy and tough financial climate. The major difficulty here is that most churches don’t know how to engage in effective Christian fundraising. A lot of people think that by simply ordering what appear to be the most effective products their fundraiser will be successful. This is simply not the case. Sometimes churches end up indebted to some fundraising companies that sell quality products. What is the solution? How can churches put together effective fundraisers? If you and your team adheres to following principles I believe you will find your Christian fundraising efforts to be much more fruitful.
It is of the utmost importance to believe in your church fundraiser no matter what. As a leader you are the person who makes the engine go. The event or product doesn’t give itself passion, effort and energy. That is something that you must do as a leader. You will find a positive attitude and relentless energy will work wonders and your fundraiser is much more likely to be a success. Even if you find that your Church fundraising product is not what you expected a willingness and desire to believe and to succeed will help enormously.
You also need to be able to “sell” your fundraiser. Whatever your fundraiser may be you need to generate excitement of “buzz” by continuously highlighting the merits of your product to those on your team and to those around you. Ultimately persistence breaks resistance. The one who persistently espouses a product and highlights its finer points will succeed in “selling” the product. Ultimately, with christian fundraising products, you are “selling” a product or an idea in order to finance whatever needs your ministry might have.
Thirdly, never forget to pray. The Lord has all of the money in the world and he can finance whatever needs you may have and often uses things such as church fundraisers to do this. If you don’t acknowledge and seek his hand in your Church Fundraising efforts your fundraiser is much less likely to succeed. Whatever ministry you are involved in my hope would be that ultimately you are fundraising for Him.
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on December 2, 2009
The truth be told, church fundraising is not exactly the easiest job in the world. There are a million possible complications. I can’t really blame those ministers who almost continuously put off church fundraising simply because it is usually very difficult. A problem that I often see Christian groups run into is a lack of commitment to a church fundraiser over an extended period of time. Usually when a christian fundraiser first begins groups are excited about it and very willing to get involved. As time passes team members tend to lose interest and enthusiasm. Especially because the later half of any church fundraiser is more difficult than the beginning. This is true even when you are utilizing the best Christian products.
There are many ways that you can avoid losing momentum when engaged in a church fundraiser. As a leader you can never stop encouraging your team. An important rule to remember is “don’t expect what you don’t inspect”. There always needs to be some measure of accountability on any given fundraiser. If, for example, students in your youth group are selling church fundraising products and you don’t inquire about how it’s going with each individual the students may lose interest, motivation, or simply might forget about it. As the leader of the Christian fundraiser you are the heart and soul of the project. Whether you like it or not people look to you for leadership.
Another way to avoid losing momentum is to pick a church fundraising product that allows you to raise money quickly. The faster you reach your goal the less chance there is of lost commitment. The product I would recommend is the Samaritan Card, a shopping discount card that provides donors with up to 50% off at over 100,000 merchants nationwide. The Samaritan Card allows you to raise money fast which reduces the chances of your group losing momentum. No product, however, is a guaranteed success when it comes to keep your group committed but a product such as the Samaritan Card certainly can make it easier.
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on December 1, 2009
Finish up the turkey and bring out the Christmas tree, Thanksgiving is officially over and it’s that time of year again. Do you have that winter event coming up that you have avoided thinking about for the last two months? It’s not too late to start fundraising. This is a ripe time of year for Church Fundraising groups of all shapes and sizes. All that they need is the right church fundraising products. It’s during the Christmas season that people are more willing to give than any other time of year. After all, what is Christmas really about? It is important to keep in mind that most donors don’t want to simply add to their collection of useless products. Donors, especially during this time of year, are likely spending a lot on various products and ultimately they want something useful.
The Samaritan Card, a shopping discount card that provides donors with up to 50% off at over 100,000 retail, restaurant and recreation merchants nationwide, is the perfect holiday church fundraising product. The Samaritan Card provides something that donors can actually use during the holiday season. With every purchase donors make they will save even more. Ultimately a small $20 donation could result in hundreds of dollars worth of savings! Best of all selling the Samaritan Card allows church fundraising groups to raise money quickly and easily. After the initial order there are no forms, orders, or return visits. The cards are also enormously easy to sell and the wallet-sized cards are perfect for stuffing stockings! Christian Fundraising has never been better!
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on November 19, 2009
For some years I was heavily involved in youth ministry and during that time I performed a number of different tasks and helped put together my fair share of youth events. I often got so caught up on putting on a spectacular event or a producing a quality product that I lost focus as to why I was doing it. What was the purpose of my events? I think the same thing happens in Christian Fundraising all of the time. I have seen many groups get so caught up in raising a specific monetary quantity that they forget exactly what that quantity is for. There are a number of reasons to always keep in mind the purpose behind your Church fundraising efforts.
First, you as the leader of your Christian Fundraising team are responsible for motivating and encouraging your team. If you become overly focused on meeting a quantity goal and not focused on the heart of your mission motivation and purpose will suffer. If your desire is to build homes for the homeless then engage in Christian fundraising for that purpose. If your goal is to see Christ glorified let that be your purpose. The heart of a man is much more important than his hands just as the heart of a fundraiser is much more important than the money that it raises. The heart dictates the actions.
Secondly, the more in tune your team is with the vision the more motivated they are going to be to raise the funds they need. This is pretty obvious but is worth pointing out because without a properly motivated team it doesn’t matter how good your Christian Fundraising product is.
Part of the reason that we at Samaritan Fundraising desire to provide you with the best Christian Fundraising products is so that you can focus more on your mission and vision and less on the bottom line. That’s why we offer the Samaritan Card, a shopping discount card that provides donors with discounts of up to 50% off at over 100,000 merchants nationwide. A faster, easier church fundraiser means a more focused church. A more focused church or ministry is more effective.
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on November 18, 2009
A method that is used frequently in various business settings that is very effective in simplifying and understanding processes is process mapping. What does this have to do with Christian Fundraising? Keep on reading. What we are going to do is use a similar idea to process mapping and simply map out the steps involved in putting together a successful Christian Fundraiser. This idea can easily be used to evaluate the complexity of any Christian Fundraiser that you are considering. Lets take a typical cookie dough fundraiser and draw up a brief process map (of sorts) just as an example.
1. Order Cookie Dough forms from Supplier -> 2. Receive Order forms and distribute to fundraising team -> 3. Team approaches potential donors and has them fill out order forms -> 4. Team returns order forms and orders are processed -> 5. Cookie Dough is shipped to donors.
As you can see in the above example it gives you a good idea as to the complexity of organizing your church fundraiser. Obviously most of you guys are not going to take the time to map out each fundraiser that you consider but a brief mental outline could go a long way in deciding on which type of Christian Fundraiser to use. The above example literally took me one minute to write up. Each step in the process does take a significant amount of time. For example, it may take a week for the cookie dough to be shipped to donors. It is important to consider just how much time you expect each step to take. To give you an idea of how this process will help you we will compare the cookie dough map to a map of the Samaritan Card. The Samaritan Card is simply a shopping discount card that provides donors with up to 50% off at over 100,000 merchants nationwide. The following is the map of the Samaritan Card.
1. Order Cards from Samaritan Fundraising -> 2. Receive Cards and distribute to Fundraising team ->3. Approach and sell cards directly to donors
As you can see in the above example cutting out one or two steps can make a big difference as far as time spent putting together a fundraiser. In this comparison you save time for the donors because they don’t have to wait for the cookie dough in the mail and you save time for your team because they don’t have to return and compile order forms. A simple mapping exercise can reveal a lot about the complexity of a Christian Fundraising product.
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on November 17, 2009
I think an aspect of Christian fundraising that is usually overlooked when ministries put together a fundraiser is service. When we examine the wide variety of Christian Fundraising ideas available we must consider how we can best serve our donors and our Christian Fundraising team. The purpose of a Christian fundraiser is not only to raise the money you need for whatever cause you are supporting but also to meet the needs of the donors and team members themselves. It is paramount that donations are rewarded with a quality product. Many popular products are merely luxury items (popcorn, candy, cookie dough) that most donors can do without. How can we provide a product that allows us to raise money quickly and easily while still serving donors by meeting their needs?
At Samaritan Fundraising we strive to meet the needs of donors and fundraisers alike. That is why we believe firmly in the Samaritan Card, a shopping discount card that provides donors with up to 50% off at over 100,000 merchants nationwide. The cards are easy to handle and easy to sell. They also provide the fundraisers with profits of up to 70% per card. The Samaritan Card also provides for the needs of the donor by giving them savings. It pay for itself in a single purchase and can potentially save a donor hundreds! What better way is there to serve donors than by providing for their needs by offering savings! The Samaritan Card: easy for the minister; great for the donor.
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on November 16, 2009
Too often have I seen groups involved in Christian Fundraising programs that require an exorbitant amount of work from the fundraising team. The truth is that usually Christian Fundraising is a secondary concern. There are very few ministries that have access to individuals who are full time fundraisers. The majority of Christian Fundraising is done by part-time volunteers which means that is of the utmost importance to have a Church fundraiser that is simple and easy. Time is even more of the essence during the Holiday season where everyone is caught up in the Pre-Christmas pandemonium. The key is finding a fundraiser that will work for you. Something that avoids forms, bulky products, return visits, and low profitability. Some of the more popular Christian Fundraising products, such as cookie dough, popcorn, wrapping paper, etc., simple aren’t cutting it as far as the above categories are concerned. Both you and your Christian Fundraising team’s time is very important.
Selling the Samaritan Card is an excellent holiday fundraiser that allows you and your team to raise money quickly and easily. The Samaritan Card is a shopping discount card that provides donors with discounts of up to 50% off at over 100,000 merchants nationwide. There are no forms, orders, or return visits after the initial order and the card is so easy to distribute to the members of your Church fundraising team. The best part is that takes only minutes to sell. With the Samaritan card that is no more organizing of complicated fundraising events! You also can earn profits of up to 70% per card! Why settle for less when it requires more time and effort? Christian Fundraising has never been easier.
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on November 13, 2009
Considering that it is only a couple weeks until Thanksgiving it is important to draw some attention to giving thanks for those who serve and labor on your Christian Fundraising team. Putting together a successful Church fundraiser is much more than selecting a quality fundraiser. In order to ensure fundraising success it is of the utmost importance to have passionate and caring people involved in the process. Whether you are a leader or simply part of the Christian Fundraising team it is vital that you show appreciation for all the hard work that your fellow team members. Why not celebrate Thanksgiving by giving thanks for your fundraising team? In every vocation that I have had from youth ministry to Samaritan Fundraising I always perform better when I know that I am appreciated. The same holds true for your team.
At Samaritan Fundraising we strive to be your fundraising “Armor-Bearer”. We realize that Christian Fundraising isn’t always what you want to be doing which is why we want to make your fundraising experience as simple as possible. That is why we recommend the Samaritan Card. Selling the Samaritan Card is fast, easy, and beneficial to donors. Who doesn’t want a discount card that gives you up to 50% off at over 100,000 merchants nationwide? Our goal is to ease the Holiday stress by providing you with great church fundraising products!
Posted by Aaron Jeschke on November 12, 2009
I think many times when we engage in Christian Fundraising many groups fail to communicate properly just what they are fundraising for. I have had groups come to my door on a number of occasions who are so focused on selling the product that they forget to explain what I am giving to. Why would I spend my precious time and money on a product I may not need to support a cause that I know nothing about? The “because” of your Christian Fundraiser is often times what is most important to the donor. You could have the greatest product in the entire world but without properly communicating why you are fundraising or for what you are fundraising your efforts may prove useless.
In order to correctly communicate the “because” or the “why” of your Church Fundraiser you must first determine that for yourself. Formulate in your own mind a brief yet concise explanation of your mission and vision for the fundraiser. An example could be, “We are raising money for a trip to Peru where we will build houses for the homeless and where we will share the love of Christ with those who do not know Him”. Once you have formulated your vision in your mind communicate it clearly to those who will be helping you raise the money that you need. Be sure to emphasize that promoting the vision is as important as selling the product. Once you and your helpers are ready to communicate both the importance of the vision and benefits of the product then you are ready to begin fundraising. Be sure to invite your potential donors to join you in your efforts for your vision by giving. This way the donors will not only have a great Christian Fundraising product but also will be able to join you in your vision! Christian Fundraising is never more satisfying to the donor than when they have the knowledge that they are supporting a great cause and are able to use a great product!
