• Bake Sale - Bake sales are a great way to get everyone together and strengthen the bond with your church. You can do a typical bake sale fundraiser or a Christmas Cookie box sale where you sell tickets and everyone gets to fill up a box with their choice of cookies.

• Yard Sale - Doing a big rummage sale or yard sale in the church parking lot on Saturday morning is a fun way to raise funds. You can get people to donate their items for a general sale, sell tables like a flea market does, or even let people sell things from their trunks for a small fee. Put out a general call for items and let parishioners know that you can send a crew around with a truck for big items from the attic or garage.

• Community Cleanup - A great project for a youth group is to do a community cleanup fund raiser. Essentially, your workers get pledges of so much per pound of trash collected and hauled away. This works especially well when the area being cleaned up is a visible eyesore such as a creek bed or illegal roadside dumping area.

• Car Wash - The perennially popular car wash fund raiser is a summer staple and for good reason. Church youth groups can always count on it to raise hundreds of dollars for mission trips and other youth ministry needs.

• Christmas Ornaments - You can put together a 'make your own ornaments' craft class and charge a small fee to each attendee plus make a little extra on supplies. Buy the supplies in bulk in the off-season and schedule yours near the Thanksgiving timeframe. You can also offer Christian-themed ornaments, nativity scenes, decorations, etc. for sale as well.

• Easter Lillies - To have these beautiful flowers available for sale s few weeks before Easter, plant your bulbs in starter pots in February. Store them in a low-traffic area and nurture them along with some grow lights. With a cost of only a couple of dollars apiece, it's a surefire moneymaker.

• Gardening Supplies - Another easy way to raise funds in the Spring is to host a garden supplies event in the church parking lot. Work with nurseries, yard services, landscaping companies, and mulch or pine straw distributors. Use lots of roadside signs and publicize it the week before to attract a big crowd.

• Wristband Fundraiser - These low-cost silicone bracelets can be ordered in bulk with your slogan of choice for well under a $1. The right color combination and message can create a huge demand. After all, Lance's Armstrong's foundation has sold over 80 million LiveStrong bracelets. Consider phrases like Got Faith?, WWJD, PrayStrong, BeStrong, Trust Your Faith, etc.

• Poinsettias - These beautiful flowers always sell well around mid-November. Take orders for various types of poinsettias and deliver a few weeks before Christmas. You can also include wreathes and other holiday decorations in your holiday fundraising and make extra profits.

• Recycling - Long-term fundraisers that help the environment are also popular. You can recycle printer toner cartridges or even used cell phones and raise a steady flow of cash. It's all about getting the word out and having lots of convenient donation points.

• Pancake Breakfast - A big breakfast is a surefire draw when there's a good cause behind it. A pancake breakfast fundraiser is easy to do and very low cost. Read the article for five great profit tips and don't forget to place a big jar labeled 'donations' right next to the cash register.

• Portrait Day - Everyone loves to have their picture taken and a dress-up portrait day is a great photography fundraiser. Many companies will give you a big share of the revenue and also provide fun costumes for people to where. For example, you could do regular family portraits or offer 1890's costumes for an old-fashioned feel. To increase attendance, pre-sell appointment certificates offering a free portrait for $10.

So there you have it, a dozen or so church fundraiser ideas. Select one, run with it, and have fun!

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