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Fund-raising ideas and activities > Christmas gifts |
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Christmas Gifts
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Two
hunger-related articles appeared in the December issue
of "Lutheran Woman Today." Use the links below to
locate these articles.
Lutheran
Woman Today magazine
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 One December,
Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bellevue, NE,
held an alternative gift fair in the narthex between services on
the first and last Sundays of Advent.
Promotion was done with a few bulletin
inserts, one of which invited members to come to “a different
kind of shopping experience. Gifts are purchased in honor of
family members and friends that will provide hope, healing and
comfort to people in desperate need around the world.” The
bulletin insert gave examples of gift amounts and what they
would do through the ELCA World Hunger Appeal (for example, “$25
provides artificial limbs for land mine victims.”
Tables were set up, each with
information about the three organizations, including the ELCA
World Hunger Appeal, that the fair was supporting. “Shoppers”
were given a receipt with spaces for their name, address,
offering envelope number and the amounts they had given to each
organization/project. Shoppers were also given gift cards to
announce to the recipient the gift that was made in their honor.
Member Betsy Buschkemper shared these
tips for organizing and promoting such a fair in a congregation:
- Keep it simple.
Trying to promote, explain and differentiate the missions and
projects of three different organizations got way too
complicated. Next time, limiting the promotion, publicity and
gift selections to just one agency, i.e., the ELCA World
Hunger Appeal, would make it more manageable for the
organizers and less confusing for the participants.
- Organizing an event like this,
especially for the first time, is a huge amount of work.
Creating posters, church bulletin and newsletter inserts,
recipes, etc., was labor-intensive. But it was worth it. We
were all surprised that this small, first-time event…would
generate so much excitement and revenue, not to mention
increased awareness of global health and hunger issues…All it
takes is a couple of members with the desire, drive and
resources to do it. The ELCA World Hunger
ELCA Good Gifts catalog was the starting point and a great help for the
gift fair.
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 Scott
R. McKinney, pastor of
Abiding Presence Lutheran Church,
Rochester Hills, MI, shared a
letter about Christmas giving that three children of his
congregation sent him. The letter reads:
Dear Pastor McKinney,
Last year for Christmas and this
year for Christmas one of our gifts [from our parents] was the
giving gift. The giving gift is $100 cash that we donate to a
cause. This year we have decided to give the money to the ELCA
World Hunger Appeal. We hope our gift will make a difference.
Sincerely, Cassie, Kent and Cole
Hoffman |
To make it easy for members to give
and to know what they were giving for,
Hope Lutheran Church, Frankfort, KY,
printed small cards, each with a project from the
ELCA Good Gifts catalog on one side and an amount someone could
give to that project, along with a short project description, on
the reverse. The cards also included a blank line for the name
of the giver. Cards were distributed, and members were asked to
return them with their donation.
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The headquarters of
Augsburg Fortress,
Publishers in Minneapolis
picked up on the “Global Barnyard” theme in the ELCA World
Hunger Appeal’s ELCA Good Gifts catalog
and offered its staff the opportunity to “purchase some
‘friendly beasts,’” borrowed from a Christmas carol in
which the donkey, cow, sheep, camel and dove tell of the
gifts they bring to the baby Jesus in the stable. A
sheet was distributed that invited staff to “purchase”
animals that
 help
fight hunger in developing countries.
Various dollar amounts from $2 to
$100, and the animals each amount would buy, were listed. People
were invited to donate money to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal for
the “purchase” of animals either individually or as a team. When
the donation was collected by a designated staff person, the
giver received a paper cutout of the animal to place in a stable
scene. The Minneapolis office raised $2,000 in this effort. |
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