Kidnap The Pastor Fundraiser

One youth group decided to “Pastor-nap” their pastor as a fundraising project. On a Friday afternoon, the MTT (Manzanita Teenage Terrorists) came in and kidnapped their pastor. They had a video team on hand and MTT taped the invasion leading to the ransom of the pastor for only $2,000. “If you give us the money, you get him back. If you don’t give us the money, you still get him back.” On Sunday morning, the Pastor was still no place in sight. The service went on as planned with the teenagers leading the service. Then, a group of teens dressed in black quietly entered the service. The music stopped suddenly and the tape was shown. The leaders presented their own part of the video by being the News Telecasters. As the service ended, so did the pastor-nap. The “terrorists” stood at the doors with their bags to collect the $2,000 ransom. Source: Youth for Christ/USA (Englewood, California)

Kidnap the Senior Pastor: One church pre-arranged with the senior pastor (when he was about to go on vacation) to kidnap him on a Wednesday night. The youth group walked in at the end of the mid-week service and made their announcement with a ransom note and the demands to get the pastor back. The following Sunday, the pastor did not show up to service because the ransom was not paid. This afforded the youth pastor to have a youth Sunday where they brought the vision of their trip and gave the church exposure as to what the youth was doing on campuses, in their communities, etc. Their goal ransom was $500.00—they raised $1,500.00.

Variation: Contact a local radio station and explain who you are and what you are raising money for. Ask them to participate with you in a ‘kidnap a disk jockey’ campaign. Record sound bytes of all the DJ’s at the station and have them played several times throughout the day with an announcement about an upcoming banquet or concert that your group is sponsoring where one jockey will be locked in a box you create. At the event, put the jock in the box. Have attendees enter their guesses for which jockey has been kidnapped. Each entry costs $2.00 and the winner is drawn in a raffle style. Draw a winner from all of the correct entries. Or you can keep drawing from all the entries until you get a correct answer. Announce at intermission who the winner is and present them with their prize. The radio station’s participation includes commercials over the air for your event, recording the 10 second spots and a prize for the winner of the raffle. You earn all the money from the raffle tickets as well as the cost of the tickets for the banquet or concert. Source: Close to You, Inc. (Gillette, Wyoming)

We have included a number of do-it-yourself fundraising ideas in this section that offer a break from traditional product sales. They were developed by groups just like yours in an attempt have a little fun with their fundraiser. Some of them are tried and true while others show a lot of creativity … and even wackiness in some cases. All of them are obviously not appropriate for every group, but sometimes, with only a little modification, your might find some fund raising ideas that are perfect for your group. If you have an idea for a do-it-yourself fund raiser you are willing to share with others, please send it to us via email. Include anything and everything you would want to know if you were hearing the idea for the first time.