By Simon Jeynes

So you want to have a pie sale? Or in the case of one school I recently visited in early 2025, an apple pie sale? This was a lot more complicated than just a bake sale. It used the gym space for an entire week, required every parent to participate, and resulted in $116,000 of sales (but with expenses totaling $64,000). Was it worth it?

But let’s start somewhere else. Why do we want to raise money? There are two basic answers:

• To cover the operations budget
• To attain an objective tuition cannot pay for

Stewarding Volunteers

It certainly feels as if it is much harder to get our parents to volunteer than it used to be. Our society has become much more individualistic, focusing on I rather than we. This has been a long progression beginning in the 1960s and (hopefully) at its apotheosis in today’s fragmented American society. Some of our Christian schools disrespect our parent volunteers so much that they demand payment if a certain number of hours are not volunteered. We are a long way away from Deborah’s song: “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves—praise the LORD!” (Judg. 5:2). 

[W]hen motivated, our parents and their parents and our neighbors can be energized to give of themselves in amazing ways.

On the other hand, when motivated, our parents and their parents and our neighbors can be energized to give of themselves in amazing ways. So maybe our parents need inspiration in a different way than before. As the saying goes, if you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same results. Thinking about philanthropy, the love of our neighbor, our parents can be motivated if they are called to something greater than themselves. It has to be something where when they see the outcome, they are proud to have been a part of it. “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet. 4:8–10). 

There are many ways to give of yourself. Here, we are focused on philanthropy. Penelope Burk provides three very specific things that volunteers as donors want (Burk 12):

1. Prompt, meaningful acknowledgement whenever they make a gift
2. Confirmation that the gift will be used as the request for the gift promised
3. A report on measurable results achieved, to be done before another gift is requested

This is helpful. The school must demonstrate organizational integrity, personal connection, and transparency. 

• Mutual obligation (if you will work a shift making hamburgers, I will work a shift later in the year helping you)
• Increased trust (because we work together, we get to know each other and therefore are more likely to trust each other, for example, by leaving my child with you on the sidelines while I go to pick up my spouse) 
• Growth in knowledge (we share information that each of us has, information that overlaps in its extensiveness) 
• Established norms (this is the way we do things around here) 

We have a great opportunity as Christian schools to be part of the movement swinging I back to we!

Transactional Fundraising

Doesn’t a pie sale engender community and raise money at the same time? Doesn’t it give people an opportunity to volunteer for something meaningful and be part of something bigger than themselves?

People love to create community. They hate to fundraise.

The moment you put a dollar sign next to it, all of those things are diminished. For a few, it is a wonderful opportunity to meet and catch up. For the vast majority, it is a chore to be undertaken. This is universal. People love to create community. They hate to fundraise. As soon as “come to the potluck” is followed by “we are raising money for,” the motivation shrivels. It is clear that community is not the objective. Money is the objective. 

I am using the apple pie example because it is, on the surface, very lucrative. The school raises over $50,000 each year. But at what cost? A week where the gym is not open to children, thousands of hours of labor making the $50,000 dwindle in achievement by the minute, and resentment from those for whom making apple pies is not their talent. Apply the same criteria to any other fundraiser you have. Compare how many hours it took with the financial results. Did it actually increase community/social capital? Did it truly lift up people’s giftings? 

Since 2017, Christian School Management has looked at hundreds of ways in which schools have utilized this kind of fundraising. Not one could be validated. Most, indeed, had negative impacts. We call it transactional fundraising. You do something for me. I will do something for you. It is entirely secular in its orientation. There is no verse of Scripture that supports it, and many that point in a different direction. Paul quotes Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). 

Transactional fundraising also leads to power struggles. Many Christian schools have booster clubs and parent associations, begun with idealism and goodwill. They run fundraisers for their own pet projects, sometimes control their own bank accounts, and tell the school how the money will be spent. Senior classes sell pizza to fund their own trip. Younger children are asked to put together baskets that will be auctioned off. They do raise money. They do “help.” Try to change that system and be ready for a fight. But it is out of self-interest, a desire to help what their child is interested in. It is not missional and for the interests of all children. In the case of children, it exploits them and focuses them on themselves rather than outwardly, onto serving the community within which they live. 

Biblical Relationship

There is a much more powerful alternative. Henri Nouwen says: “From the perspective of the gospel, fundraising is not a response to a crisis. Fundraising is, first and foremost, a form of ministry. It is a way of announcing our vision and inviting other people into our mission. Vision and mission are so central to the life of God’s people that without vision we perish and without mission we lose our way” (16). 

There are so many examples of philanthropy in the Bible that it is genuinely a textbook for how to do it. There is one where God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, is the chief fundraiser. He does not do anything transactional. He bases his request for funding on his relationship with his people.

This is an abridged version of this article. To read more, subscribe to Christian Educators Journal.

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Works Cited:

Burk, Penelope. Donor Centered Fundraising: How to Hold On to Your Donors and Raise Much More Money. Cygnus Applied Research, 2018.

Dillon, Mark. Giving and Getting in the Kingdom: A Field Guide. Moody Publishers, 2012.

Jeynes, Simon. The Christian School and Philanthropy: From Secular Transaction to Biblical Relationship. Westbow Press, 2024.

Nouwen, Henri. A Spirituality of Fundraising. Upper Room Books, 2010. Putnam, Robert. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon & Schuster, 2000.