Fundraising Ideas for Travel Expenses
Talk to your congregation and ask for their support of your participation in Clergy Call. Tell them why you believe your trip to DC is important and what you can bring back to the community from the experience:
- Consider delivering a sermon on how faith informs your passion for justice and why it is important for Congress to hear your voice as a religious leader committed to LGBT equality. (This could motivate your congregation to become more engaged in LGBT advocacy as well).
- The tools and relationships you will gain from Clergy Call can help you create a more welcoming and inclusive congregation.
- You will connect with others in your state, region and denomination who are also doing this important work and will be able to bring those connections back to your community to plug into the larger faithful movement for justice.
- At Clergy Call we will be exploring successful models for working across identities and justice issues in order to bolster your skills in coalition building and sustainability.
- Your training and experience lobbying members of Congress in DC will translate into state and local level activism that effectively integrates your religious convictions into public policy advocacy and leadership.
After delivering a sermon or presentation on the importance of your participation in Clergy Call, invite people to support you by giving as they are moved offset the costs of your travel. Consider passing a collection plate or leaving a donation basket in the fellowship hall. Similarly, you can direct people to donate through a custom PayPal account or your discretionary fund.
Creative Ways to Subsidize Travel Expenses:
- Ask friends, congregants, family or colleagues if they have contacts in DC who they can connect you with for a place to stay during the conference
- Ask for donations of airline frequent flyer miles
- Ask for donations of hotel reward points
- Send an email, facebook cause or message, or write a blog post to your congregation, family and friends asking for online contributions to a custom PayPal account or your clergy discretionary fund in order to help cover travel expenses
- Invite a colleague from your denomination or local community to attend Clergy Call – this is a great way to split the cost of your hotel bill!
- Have faith: Directly ask friends, family, congregants or colleagues for financial support of your trip.
Please tell us about your fundraising efforts in your scholarship application.
If you are able to raise partial funds or travel assistance, it is more likely that we can help you with the rest.
