How can we pay for this?

Budgets are tight everywhere, so the first question is: How can we find the money to pay for this? While it is generally possible to add this to a church budget after the first year, getting that first year funded can be a challenge.

We have offered youth ministry memberships for years and have heard how churches found those funds. Here's what others have done:

• Some priests/ministers have discretionary funds that can help fund the first year's fee.
• Ask individual donors to contribute -- youth ministry is very popular and this is something many people would be willing to support.
• One youth group asked their parish family to give $20 or whatever they could afford and then passed the hat -- literally! Five minutes later they had almost double what they needed to pay for their congregational membership. Lots of others churches have followed their example with comparable success.
• Set up an Angel's Fund -- and invite individual donors to be an Angel Investor and invest in the youth of the church
• Take a special offering -- tie it to a Sunday where you have participation by youth

We hope these ideas will help you come up with some creative ways to find the funding for a membership.