The Best Fundraisers?

The amount of money we have to come up with in the next few weeks has me going a little crazy.  I have been gearing up for another yard sale in a couple of weeks, researching what other families have done to come up with the money, and getting grant applications in order.  There are so many fundraisers to choose from!  Here are just a few of my favorites.

Yard Sale
I love yard sales of course because we made almost $3,000 at our first one!  It was all God of course bringing the right buyers and giving people the heart to donate to our cause.  It was a TON of work but so worth it.

Sending out Letter
We sent out letters to family and friends about a month ago just letting them know what we are doing.  Although we have only gotten a handful of resposes, the people who did send checks back truly blessed us.  We have also been very blessed by family and friends that live in the area who have wanted to help out.  We have friends who adopted who raised a lot of money this way.

Get your Church Involved
Lifesong For Orphans has a great program that helps a church get set up to help adopting families financially.  Check if your church has anything like this and if it does not then encourage them to get involved.  God calls us ALL to take care of orphans.  Our church is currently working with Lifesong to get something set up.  We are exited to see where this takes Harvest Bible Church.

Puzzle Piece Fundraiser
This is something we recently learned about and love!  It involves people sponsoring a puzzle piece by donating a certain amount of money to an adoption fund.  When they sponsor a peice, there name will get put on the back.  This puzzle will be in the adopted child's room to remind him of how much he is loved!  We are thinking about doing this in the future.

Car Wash/Bake Sale
We did a bake sale at our last yard sale and it was a hit.  We are considering a car wash in the future.

Raffle
We have a friend who raffled off a couple plane tickets and it went really well for her.  We are considering raffling something off to encourage more people to donate.  We are not sure what we would raffle off yet so if you have any ideas let me know!

Selling Merchandise
Besides selling cookies, this has not been a great fundraiser for us.  Every adoption is different and some people do really well selling things.  We have made T-shirts to sell which is a lot of up front cost and so far they are not selling very well for us.  We made cookies which did sell well at our yard sale.  We are selling Ethiopian coffee which we are not making very much on but there is no up-front cost so it is a good fundraiser.  I have heard of people selling all kinds of things to help raise money.  The problem with selling is that there is almost always an up-front costs and most adopting families don't have them money to be taking financial chances.

Sometimes I get so anxious, wondering if I am doing enough.  I know God will supply the money but I am not sure if we are doing the right fundraisers or if maybe we need to be doing more.  Every fundraiser I come across seems like a great idea, we just can't do them all!  I am slowly but surely learning that what I do really does not matter.  Right now I am doing everything I can and God will bless that.  Prayer and Faith are by far the best fundraisers I can think of.