Best Choir Fundraiser Ever

I share this fundraising idea because I've personally done it a number of times in two different churches I've served, and it's worked amazingly well every time. It requires one person to do a little planning and shopping, some willing parents to give one long morning's time at the church, and some drivers. If the fundraiser is to benefit young people, you'll be glad to know it requires no door-to-door sales to strangers. Here's how it works.

The idea is to take orders ahead of time for submarine sandwiches. Parents, adults, kids can all take orders and collect money ahead. Print up some tickets with your church name, the choir fundraiser, the date of the event, and the cost per sandwich. The main task of the choir members is to actually do the selling — take orders at home, school, church, neighborhood, and from family and friends. Mom and dad can take orders at work. Visit some local businesses, explain the project to them, and encourage them to make it a lunch day of sub sandwiches. Collect the money ahead, giving a ticket as their receipt and claim check. Keep a list of names, addresses, number of subs, phone, etc., for all money collected. Turn all money and a duplicate of the order list to one person to keep track of. All checks should be made payable to the church.

About a week before the date, take stock of the sales and go purchase the food and supplies: rolls, three meats (turkey, ham, salami, beef, etc.), two cheeses (jack, cheddar, provolone), mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, tomato. Get additional sandwich stuff if you want to be fancy, but my advice is to keep it simple. A couple of local supermarkets even donated some of our food for free. All sandwiches will be made identically — no custom orders — unless you want to take orders for ready-to-freeze subs without lettuce and tomato. You'll also need to purchase sandwich wrap, bags, and napkins if you want to include them. Go to a place like Sam's Warehouse or Costco for bulk items.

On the morning of the date, have parents show up at 8:00 AM. Put them in an assembly line in the church kitchen and have each person do one task — cut rolls; put on meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, dressings; wrap; bag; mark the outside of the bag; check off the master list of orders; write purchaser's name & location on bag — all of those details that will make delivery go easily. Emphasize that drivers should not handle any money.

Send volunteer drivers out with the finished orders and delivery instructions starting at 10:00 or 10:30, returning to the church for new orders to be delivered as they are ready. Separate delivery orders from those that will be picked up at the church. One option you might consider is setting up tables and chairs at the church where people can come, claim their subs, and sit and eat during the lunch hour. You can provide complimentary chips at each table plus sodas for an extra charge to those eating at the church. If you're confident of your supplies, you can even offer to sell on a walk-in basis to those who have not pre-paid their subs. This is especially good if there is lots of nearby traffic from shopping, or perhaps a junior or senior high school. Count on the youth of the church to spread the word.

You should have one person to supervise the orders and money, one to supervise the shopping and sandwich making, and one to supervise deliveries. The entire project is completed in one day, from sub making, bagging, serving, delivery, and clean up. I've never done this when we didn't net $2,000 after paying expenses. Best time to schedule it is early October (between start of school and Thanksgiving) and February (between New Year and spring break). We also received some good free publicity from local radio stations to whom we delivered unexpected free subs in our first delivery runs.