Great Ideas to Fund Camp...

Here’s a list of fantastic ones we’ve run across and have had churches share with us. There's sure to be one that will work great for you!

Mystery Dinner: Mystery dinners are great fun and can easily be adapted to fit a variety of themes from Valentine’s Day to April Fool’s day. Create a menu with 18-20 items. Use items like: main dish, green salad, fork, knife, spoon, toothpick, water, apple wedges, dessert, coffee, cheese cubes, pretzel, sparkling cider, carrot sticks, olive, pickle, etc. 
Come up with a theme and then make up silly names for each item on your list. Use code names like “Brazilian Delight” – coffee, “Tuning Tool”– fork,”Eve’s Temptation” – Apple, “Son of Noah” – Ham, etc. 
Print a menu that lists code name on the top half, then on the bottom you list 4 courses and 4-5 blank lines after each course. Guests simply sit down at a beautiful table, with no plates, cups, utensils…nothing but the menu. Have them fill in the blanks with the code named foods for each of the courses. 
The student servers collect the menus and fill the orders in the kitchen and bringing each person what they ordered for the first course. Then serve each course exactly as it is ordered, even if course on is an olive, a toothpick, chocolate pie and a carrot, without any silverware. Continue until each course has been served.

Create a Calendar: Make it specific to your church or youth group or town and sell them. Have kids help with photography, design, etc. Check out Snapfish, Shutterfly, or Wal Mart.

Sell a Shirt: Have artistic students design a T-shirt, magnets or stickers and have them printed. Sell them to the youth group or in the community.

Partnership Products: Check out Woven Joy, FreeSet and other organizations that provide opportunities for women in third world countries. They can provide merchandise (bags, clothing, jewelry, etc.) that keeps them in safe and meaningful jobs. Not only do you raise money but you are providing an income for women with a need.
 
Job Auction:  “Auction off” odd jobs for students to do.  Be sure to auction off the job and not the student…

Dinner in a Basket Night: Have students create a meal and have families in the church bid on the basket. This is a great way to get people in the church to meet your youth.

Basketball Tournament: advertise in the community and charge a per-team fee.

Sell Coffee: Check out http://www.equalexchange.coop/umcor for fairtrade coffee. Sell the coffee by the bag or by the cup on Sunday mornings.

Silent Auction: Have a Silent Auction for the community. Get local business to donate items and have people bid on them.

Car Wash: Location is key! Get local business sponsors and hand out flyers in the community advertising a FREE Car wash sponsored by the local businesses. Check with your local Wal-Mart because sometimes they will make a donation. Try it as a Wash-A-Thon and have your kids get sponsors to pay a certain amount of money per car washed. Double this up and sell Port-A-Pit Chicken at the same time.

Dinners: Try something as normal as a spaghetti or a chili dinner or mix things up a little and do a themed or murder mystery dinner. Open it to the church or even the community. Charge a per-plate fee or ask for donations.

Rummage Sale: Ask your church to donate items, or rent tables to the community at your location.

Craft/Bake Sale: Hold a bazaar at your church. Have kids or adults in the church donate hand-made items.

Book Sale: Have people in the church donate unwanted books and have a Book Sale.

Restaurant Partnerships: Contact local restaurants that run partnerships (like Hacienda and Ritter’s). They provide a portion of the proceeds for the nights sales to your group from diners who bring in a ticket that they’re eating there to support you.

Chill Supper, Fish Fry, Pancake Breakfast

• Talk with local businesses or congregation members to see if you can get supplies donated for the event. 
  
• Have students that have attended the camp volunteer for the event. 
  
• At each table, have campers from your congregation put a picture of themselves at camp and on the back of the card, write down how camp impacted their life.
  
• Along with a cost/person, be sure to offer places for individuals to contribute love offerings. Next to camper pictures on the tables is great!
  

Soup Cook-Off

• Invite the congregation to sign-up their soup for a cook-off.
  
• Each participant must prepare a certain amount
  
• Provide a half table for each participant. Let them decorate their table and ask them to create a poster sign to hang in front.
  
• Provide bread, soft drinks and dessert
  
• Guests pay an entrance fee and are given a sheet of paper that lists each booth by number and the name of the soup.
  
• Guests sample soups and vote for the favorite.
  
• See if you can get a trophy to be donated for the winner!
  

Gift Basket Sales

• Invite the congregation or local businesses to donate items for gift baskets.
  
• Make the baskets for various seasons, such as a Christmas basket, Easter basket, etc
  
• Sell them for a set amount, or auction them off
  

Pack a Bag for Camp

• Pass out Ziploc baggies to everyone during Sunday service
  
• In the baggies, include a devotional prayer book tailored to camp, and a camp themed trinket
  
• Ask members to carry the trinket with them for a month (this could be a small wooden cross, a glass pebble, etc) Every time they see or hold the trinket, ask them to pray for the students from your church that will be going to camp
  
• Ask members to commit to filling the bag with their spare change for a month
  
• Have members turn the bags in on Camp Sunday. For best return, seek out a donor in your church to match the funds!
  

Celebration Parties

• Set a date and encourage families to register by this deadline. 
  
• Tell families that everyone who registers by this time is invited to attend an ice cream party in April.
  
• At the party, show a camp video, enjoy fellowship, pray for the campers, and give parents an opportunity to brainstorm ideas about sending mail to their kids at camp! (put together a gift box for your campers to share with their cabin; have each parent write a letter to each camper, etc)
  

Send a Kid to Camp Tree

• Similar to the Angel Tree, decorate a tree (any tree will do, palm trees are great for the Easter season) and hang iCash cards with various amounts
  
• Invite members to take an iCash card, enclose a check, and return both to the offering plate 
  
• Be sure to hang pictures of campers from your congregation at camp!
  
• Have students write down on cut-out ornaments or decorations something at camp that they loved
  

Club 52: Pay a dollar a week for an entire year (This seems very manageable to people, and if you can get even 50 members to commit, that’s $2,600, or more than 6 full scholarships!)

Babysitting: Have your older students offer babysitting service at the church for an afternoon for a nominal fee. This is great around the holidays, especially if you throw in gift wrapping!

Adopt a Camper

• Approach various groups in your church to adopt a camper
  
• Each group pays for one child to go to camp
  
• Camper returns to share their experience with the group
  

Pass a Bucket

• Once each month, or every week for a month, pass a red bucket around during the service to collect money for camp scholarships
  
• Have children in your congregation who have gone or who are going to camp volunteer to usher this offering
  
• Each time, invite a camper to share a testimony with the congregation