One thing about VBS is that it takes a lot of supplies. Crafts, games, decorations, Bible stories and so much more all need stuff. It’s a lot to handle and can be one of the biggest line items in your budget.

To keep my costs down, I’ve used this one fundraiser for years with great success. Full-disclosure, I got the idea from Group VBS way back in 2008, and I’ve been iterating on the idea ever since.

Here’s the idea:

Create a Donation Wall.

Groundbreaking, isn’t it?

I thought so.

But after using it year after year I found some great benefits.

1. Church members who can’t serve will give.

I noticed quickly that many people in my church are unable to serve at VBS for various reasons but are happy to give. Every year, I’d have a few people who never served, but would pick up several donation cards (more on this later) every week and bring me the donations we needed.

Many never came on a single night, but they played as big a role as anyone else.

2. You can use the supplies over and over.

Many of the supplies you get are reusable. Because we did VBS every year, I rarely had to buy scissors, crayons, markers, construction paper and a whole lot more because I kept what we didn’t use at VBS. This helped not only my VBS budget but my overall kids’ budget.

3. You don’t have to buy everything.

When I interned in kidmin, the kids pastor didn’t ask for donations. Almost every week leading up to VBS, I went with him to stores all over the city tracking down supplies and spending thousands of dollars.

If you’re a VBS director, you have enough to do. You don’t need to be walking the halls of Walmart or Hobby Lobby or scrolling Amazon all day. Shopping is inevitable, but you don’t have to do all of it.

Here’s 5 steps to the Donation Wall Fundraiser

1. Make a supply list.

There are a lot of curriculums that provide a master supply list, which is great, but they can’t tell you all the quantities you need. Find this list or make your own and figure out how much of each item you need based on your projected attendance.

This can get complicated and unwieldy fast. That’s why I recommend one of your first volunteers needs to be a supply manager that eats and breaths this stuff. They will know what each item is for, how much you need and where it goes.

One of the first things we do for our work nights is a supply scavenger hunt. A lot of supplies you may already have on hand, but forgot where it was. I'd make copies of the master list and send out volunteers to all my closets and storage spaces looking for what we have, so we don't have to buy it again.

2. Divide the needed supplies into groups that cost between $5-$20 each.

Once you’ve figured out how many supplies you need, break them up into groups to make it manageable for your congregation. I tried to keep the cost for each donation between $5 and $20. If they wanted to give more, they could pick up another item.

This lowers the bar for people to help. Instead of one person buying $50 worth of markers, you can have 5 people spend $10 which is a much easier ask.

For the more obscure or difficult items, put those by themselves. One time I needed several different kinds of rope at different lengths. Instead of putting all the rope on one card, I split them up to make it easier for my patron to find what we needed at the store.

3. Come up with a fun design that’s in theme.

Every church I’ve served in has asked me to create a booth to help advertise my big events and VBS was no exception. In order to make it eye catching and a hub for all the information, I used a lot of my early decorations that were in theme.

Our donation cards were "cassettes" to play on the boom box. We added more cards as they were taken.

As part of the booth, I included the donation wall that usually sat behind or beside the booth. Members would come up to the wall and see all the donations we needed and pick what they wanted. As we got closer to the event, the church could see how much was taken and how much more we had to go. It served a similar purpose as the thermometer graphic people use when trying to reach a goal.

I’ve done a lot of fun things through the years. I’ve used trees, animals, vinyl records, and my personal favorite was a giant version of Pac Man where all the supplies were dots he was trying to eat.

VBS Display booth for fundraiser pacman — Each dot has a different donation request.

We reused the donation wall as a set piece for our main stage.

4. Create papers for patrons to pick up.

I’ve alluded to this before when talking about breaking the donations up into manageable pieces. Take each donation and write them on a small sheet of paper. Then attach a piece of Velcro, a magnet, or tape, whatever you need to stick it to the wall that would make it easy to remove.

The church members would then take these off the wall as reminder for what they were bringing along with instructions on where and when to return their donation. Many times, I’d also have a sign-up sheet for them to tell me what they took for follow up purposes.

When I first started the papers, I used elaborate shapes, but after the year I used animals, my volunteers revolted, and I had to come up with a simpler solution. Many times, I’d figure out how to make them circular or rectangular so they would be easy to print and cut out.

5. Collect the donations.

After the first week of the booth, I’d put out a large bin or container for patrons to drop off their donations. I’d ask everyone to have them in the week before VBS, so that we have time to organize them properly and fill in any gaps. Many times, people would forget or miss the deadline, so I would call them to remind them and/or go get the supply myself.

Usually, this fundraiser would save the church over a thousand dollars each year. In addition to not having to spend a ton of time at stores, I’d have enough craft supplies to last me for months.

Even if you have enough in your budget to buy everything, I’d still recommend doing something like this. It gets the whole church involved and lowers the bar for volunteers to serve. I’m so thankful for all the people who picked up my little dots. Especially the ones who would take 10 or 20 each year. They made a huge difference and didn't get to see it.

If you'd like more help for VBS, check out my other posts here.