How to Run a Coffee Fundraiser for Your Parish This Advent
Every parish needs funds, and every parish already drinks coffee. After Mass, at the parish office, at the Knights' breakfast, at the youth group's early meeting: the coffee pot is always on. A coffee fundraiser turns something your community buys every week anyway into support for your parish.
Advent is the right season to try it. People are shopping for gifts, hosting family, and looking for ways to give. Here is how to run one from start to finish.
Why coffee works
- It gets used up. Families come back for more, so one good sale can become a standing one.
- It makes a good gift. A bag with your parish name on it is a thoughtful Christmas present for teachers, neighbors and godparents.
- It carries a story. When the coffee is grown by Catholic farming families and the margin goes back to them, the fundraiser does good twice.
Step 1: Set a goal and a date
Talk with your pastor first, and check your diocese's guidelines for parish fundraisers. Then choose a clear goal your community can picture, such as new hymnals, a youth retreat or help for families at Christmas.
Pick your sale weekends. Advent begins on Sunday, November 29, so decide by the end of October to leave time for labels, delivery and announcements.
Step 2: Choose your coffee and your label
Taste before you commit. Our tasting kit lets your committee try the coffee first. With our parish program you can put your parish name and your own design on the label.
As of this writing, parishes pay $9.95 per bag, with a suggested price of $16.95, which leaves about $7 per bag for your parish. The minimum is 100 bags, so selling a first order of 100 bags raises about $700.
Step 3: Pre-sell before the coffee arrives
Pre-orders take the guesswork out of how much to buy.
- Put a short notice in the bulletin two weekends in a row.
- Ask your pastor for a 30-second announcement after Communion.
- Set up a sign-up table after every Mass, with a simple order form.
- Share the link in your parish email and Facebook group.
Step 4: Sell after Mass
Set a table near the door with a few bags stacked high and a sign with the price and the goal. Brew the same coffee in the parish coffee pot that morning, so people can taste what they are buying. Accept cards as well as cash, and keep a running tally where people can see it.
Step 5: Say thank you
Tell the parish how much you raised and what it will do. Put it in the bulletin, and thank the volunteers by name. People who see results come back for the next sale.
Start with a conversation
Every parish is different. Tell us your goal and your dates, and we will help you plan quantities, labels and timing.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.