Crocodile Dock Vacation Bible School
Fundraising Ideas
Increase your budget for your Crocodile Dock VBS by doing one of these four fundraisers: It’s a Date!, Turtle Shell Sundaes, Fishing for Dollars or Bayou Bugs.
It’s a Date!
Offer busy parents a bargain on babysitting and raise a boatload of funds for VBS. Choose a special date like Valentine’s Day, when babysitters are hard to find. Advertise your price, hours, age levels, and what kids will do—it might be as simple as setting out a variety of board games for a few hours or as elaborate as offering pizza and a movie for kids who attend. Parents can bring their children to the church, where it’s likely you’ve already got plenty of activities and supplies. In one evening you can raise enough to pay for much of your VBS!
Turtle Shell Sundaes
Go beyond a basic bake sale and serve something folks can’t get anywhere else…Turtle Shell Sundaes! Set a price and advertise for a few weeks before the event, using our favorite turtle, Tucker!
A few weeks before your fundraiser, ask a few volunteers to prepare the “turtle shell” bowls. Mix a teaspoon of green paste food coloring (which has a more intense color) into white chocolate bark. Turn edible ice cream bowls upside down, on top of sheets of waxed paper. Pour the green chocolate over the bowls to create “turtle shells.” Allow the shells to dry.
Set out vanilla ice cream and basic ice cream sundae fixings such as chocolate syrup, marshmallows, colored sprinkles, and whipped cream. Have a few volunteers drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream into the turtle shells (which you’ll need to put into bowls) and let participants add their own toppings.
Fishing for Dollars
Have a few hammy volunteers dress up as the ultimate fishermen—waders, hats, an enormous tackle box, and several fishing poles. Station your fishermen near the parking lot exits on a Sunday morning, just before church lets out. Have them stop the exiting cars and let congregation members drop spare change into the giant tackle box. Drivers will love an excuse to clean out all that change that’s been rolling around the floorboards, and you’ll have additional funds for your VBS.
Bayou Bugs
Clean out your children’s ministry supply closet and gather pom-poms, cardboard tubes, stickers, chenille wires, plastic spoons, wiggly eyes—everything! Set out the assortment, along with fishing line and glue. On a Sunday morning, allow kids to pay a small fee to “build a bug” for the bayou. (Be prepared for kids’ creativity to really shine!) Hang the bugs from the ceiling, using fishing line. You’ll get a swarm of bayou decorations…and some extra dollars to supplement your budget.