November 18, 2020  · AMY HECKMAN

Christmas is coming soon, and with it comes opportunities for end-of-year sharing and giving.

The NCM Christmas Project exists to help churches and individuals unite with a shared spirit of generosity to support a global compassionate ministry project. This year, the Christmas Project is supporting the Empowering Women With Dignity project in Liberia.

In Liberia, women and girls can have a hard path to walk. The country has a high rate of gender inequality, which means that women and girls are vulnerable to gender-based violence, child marriage, and teenage pregnancy, all of which extend the cycle of poverty generation after generation.

This year’s NCM Christmas Project supports those who are trying to change those facts.

Through the Empowering Women With Dignity project, women and girls attend vocational classes hosted at Nazarene churches. The students are given opportunities to improve their economic conditions as they learn how to create goods to sell and run a small business, but equally as important is the chance for their God-given dignity to be affirmed and celebrated.

Your church can make a difference for women in Liberia! We realize that in 2020, fundraising may look very different from previous years. Keep reading for a list of ideas for how you can support the Christmas Project, even if you’re limited to online-only events. Let us know which ideas you try! Thank you for your support. 

To learn more about the Empowering Women With Dignity project, click HERE.

To learn more about the Christmas Project and download free resources for your congregation, click HERE.

2020 NCM Christmas Project Fundraising Ideas

1. Encourage your congregation to set aside funds they’d normally spend on coffee, snacks, or other small items for one week. Donate those funds to the Christmas Project.

2. Hold a virtual online auction on Zoom! Solicit donations of services or goods, and let people bid in the chat box for each item as you display and describe it. Services or goods could include online tutoring, yard work, car repair or maintenance, baked goods, personal shopping, arts and crafts, or more!

3. If you’re meeting in person, set up a “giving tree” in your church foyer. Place varying amounts on tags so people can choose an amount they can afford. Attach a giving envelope to each tag so the donor can return the amount they claimed to the offering plate. 

4. Encourage individuals in your church to host a fundraiser for NCM on Facebook. Click HERE to start.

5. Challenge small groups and Sunday Schools to pool their resources for a group donation to the Christmas Project. If they would normally hold a Christmas party, but cannot due to pandemic restrictions, suggest they donate the amount they would normally spend on their party.

 6.  Encourage individuals to donate a small amount to the Christmas Project for every girl and woman in their immediate or extended family, as a way to honor the girls and women enrolled in the vocational courses in Liberia.

7. If it’s considered safe in your area, hold a bake sale after a Sunday service. Ask for individually wrapped donations of baked goods to sell. Mark items with suggested donation amounts, and leave a box on the table to collect donations (offer online giving options if you can). 

8. Host a drive-through dinner fundraiser, where a few safely spaced and masked volunteers prepare meals in to-go containers. Take reservations and donations online ahead of time to make the pickup experience contactless and quick. Donate proceeds from the dinner to the Christmas Project. Include the bulletin handout with each dinner, available free HERE.

9. Take an extra offering in one of your Christmas services to raise money for the Christmas Project. Share the free project video in your service before you take the offering, available to view HERE, and download HERE. If you’re meeting virtually, share how folks can direct their online giving specifically to the project. 

10. Publish these giving options for those in your church who are interested in knowing exactly where their donations are going. You may also wish to choose one of these as a goal for your church to reach through a variety of fundraisers!

• $16.50 – Buy catering supplies for one woman for one month

• $20.00 – Cover the cost of one month of a catering course for one woman

• $20.00 – Cover the cost of one month of tailoring classes for one woman

• $60.00 – Enable one woman to finish a full soap-making course (full cost of course) 

• $294.00 – Buy catering supplies for one woman for a full course

• $360.00 – Enable one woman to finish a full catering course

• $1,500.00 – Cover the cost of an entire 6-month soap-making course for 25 women 

• $1,800.00 – Put five women through an 18-month catering course