Now is when you start looking at the money.  How can you make the most money out of the fundraisers that you have planned based on the priority list your group came up with?  This post will focus give you eight things you can do to ensure you meet your fundraising goals with each event.  One last time though, as you look at this list, keep in mind your priorities.  If any of these ideas are to consume too much of your time or take away from the ministry aspect of your fundraiser, then just forget about it.  It may be good to plan one single event that has a top priority of making money.  If that is the case, here is your to do list.

Multiply Your Money

Believe it or not, there are ways you can make double the money, simply by getting someone else involved.  If you have a Catholic Aid representative in your area, they offer matching grants for first time new events up to a certain amount.  Parishes can get this grant each year.  There are also many organizations that are not specifically Catholic that may be willing to help out in this way.  Modern Woodman is another group that I have seen that offers these.  Ask around find out.  If the people at the fundraiser know there is a matching grant, up to a certain amount, they are more likely to donate knowing that the money they give is actually doubled.

Save On Costs

You must provide a quality fundraiser if you want people to come back next time, but there are so many ways to cut costs.  One is simply by asking businesses or specific people to donate.  Come up with your list of needs, put it in the bulletin, bring it to businesses, and people will gladly help.  Their donation of food or supplies is just as good as a donation of money.  We had a lady in our parish that liked to donate meat.  She did not own a meat market, but that was just what she enjoyed giving.  She knew that meat was a big expense.   It was great for us because we saved so much and it was good for her because she could give generously and there was not a lot of attention brought to it.  She would even go get the meat and prepare it if we asked her to.

Get Sponsors

I mentioned in a previous post that your event does not have to be big to get sponsors.  Our parish worked a lot with Catholic Aid.  They gave us napkins, with the Catholic Aid logo on it, for as many events as we needed.  We never had to pay for napkins again.  If you have solid numbers for businesses they are more likely to sponsor your event.  Let’s say you have a monthly breakfast or dinner and you can get up to 200 people at it each time.  To a sponsor that is 2400 each year.  Consider creating a placemat that advertises for businesses and using that for each meal.  You could sell spots for $50-$100 and have 12-20 spots.  That’s an extra $2000!

As far as big events go, the possibilities are endless.  Get the community involved.  It not only saves and brings in the money, but will help you get the word out.

Priest Support

This is a simple one, but must be intentional.  Tell your plans to your pastor and ask him to speak about it from the pulpit.  Not just as an announcement, but as something he wants people to know.  Again, if you have your goals and numbers in order, and you can share your vision with the priest, his support will go a long way.

Advertisments

Depending on the size of your event and what it is, you will want to develop some sort of ad campaign.  That sounds very businesslike and that is what is should sound like.  But after advertising for a short time, people should know the event by colors or shapes of your ads or flyers that you are using.  Look at commercials these days.  If you see a gecko or a dog with a sombrero, you think about something specific.  If you have a big event that you plan to have every year, come up with a logo, font, and general look for a flyer.  So next year when people see that, they do not have to figure what it is, because they will know it’s the same great thing that you offered last year.

If you have breakfasts or dinners as a fundraiser, find something that you can put outside that people recognize that would tell them there is breakfast that week.  Maybe it’s an oversize muffin or a cardboard cutout of a orange juice container (those are bad ideas), but it should be something that wet’s their chops like Pavlov’s Dog.

Social Networking

If you want to get word out about your event and you do not have a Facebook event on it.  You are missing a HUGE area of free promotion.  Set up the event, put your sweet promo pic as the picture and invite every single person in your friends list, even if they live in Russia (yes Russia).  If you have a parish fan page or youth group fan page, send it to every person who follows you on there.  Include a link for them or at least a message to invite their friends also.

If it is a bigger event, set up a email subscription form so you can keep people updated as news comes out.  Get them excited and continue to remind them about the fundraiser.

Stay Organized

As you make plans and start getting things done, keep things as organized as possible.  Besides, you have lots of people doing much of the work for you right? Your organization will show through the fundraiser and will not only impress the donors who comes to support you, but will send a message to your volunteers that you care.  This is an investment you make initially that will make you lots of money down the road.

Live It

Let’s be honest.  Many people will give more money if they know your heart is in it.  As you personally invite people, share with them the why’s of your fundraising and especially your love for the youth and what you want for them.  Do not be afraid to share these things during the fundraiser as well.  If you can stand up and share honestly about the dreams you have for the youth, people will begin to relate and will be there to help.  Saying something like “I want these kids to have opportunities that I never had” will draw lots of people in.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this series of posts.  Would love to hear any feed back from you!

Enjoy!

Think Big

Projector, Screen, and Audio

This is almost a must.  I would make this a priority in your parish even if you don’t have money.  And yes, you need all three.  A sweet video clip is not sweet to the youth if you have it on a flickering TV screen that took 10 minutes to get going and is playing sound out of two 10 year old computer speakers.  Sorry to say it, but I often think when it comes to these three things, you need to go BIG or go home.    It would be pretty hard for a youth minister to tell me that it just is not possible to get these for your church.  One advantage you have in acquiring these is that just about every ministry in your parish will agree that they are needed as well.

Many youth rooms are mounting them on the ceiling and hooking up sound in the room.  This is a great thing because it keeps it in one spot and usually only the youth leader knows how to use it!

I travel with a projector and a small sound system.  Once you have all the right hook-ups and you don’t lose them it is extremely easy to set up and use.

Presentations

These don’t necessarily cost money but do cost time.  If you have the money, I would recommend buying ProPresenter.  You can use it to easily display and play all video, song lyrics, presentations, and play music from your computer in one spot.

During gathering time and any free time I enjoy putting slideshows with random trivia, upcoming events, and just about anything I can think of.  You can set it up so it just plays and repeats until you shut it off.

Banners, T-Shirts, Etc.

Marketing your youth ministry is extremely important and really does require a full attack on things.  I have seen some youth ministers market a theme for each year.  It is great to keep things fresh and to be blunt, we lost a lot of youth each summer and new year.  Giving them something to look forward to each year is great! So how do you do this?

Web Site - If you do not have a parish web site or even a youth web site.  This would be a great place to start.  You can get lots of free web sites from places like Google, WordPress, Blogger, etc but you are very limited and honestly most places that I have seen use this actually create a site that is so boring it is no wonder youth choose to go.  It can be done if you have the time AND the creativity to make it happen.  We recommend Parish Web Assistant.  They will do all of the updates for you!  It takes a little bit of cost to set up, but a small monthly fee and it’s like you have your own staff person there to do the work for you.  Mention this article when you contact Parish Web Assistant and they will give $150 off of the set-up fee!

You can post your theme all over the web site along with an explanation for parents and the youth!

T-Shirts – Use your money to give FREE t-shirts to all of the youth in your youth group.  Or buy them and sell them.  But what better way to get the name of your group out to the community!.  You can create Custom T-Shirts at Customink.  We have dealt with them several times.  Be sure to plan ahead and don’t expect things in less than two weeks and they will work with you to come out with a great product.

Post your theme on your Facebook youth group page and plan to include bits and pieces of that theme each time you gather together.

Think Small

Volunteer Training

Why not ask your finance council to pay for your volunteers to go to a national training conference.  You could ask the church to pay the registration and mileage and then raise the rest or ask if you volunteers would help pay.

Curriculum

Lifeteen offers a great curriculum for high school and junior high.  They typically are used for CCD programs, but if your CCD program is not using it, I would recommend it.  $1500 will get you both junior high and senior high curriculum along with a registration to one of their conferences.

We also obviously recommend Simply Youth Ministry resources.  If you click the banner below you can save 20% on your order.  Buy tons of resources and just go through them.  Adjust them to your group.

There are also tons of sites that offer great video clips and ideas for lessons.

Thank You’s, Etc.

One year I was given a larger than expected stipend for putting on a retreat for one of our parishes.  I used the money to give one year subscriptions of the Magnificat to all of our volunteers.  It was taken very well.  Be sure to PLAN thank you ideas and make it very intentional.  An annual supper is not enough for your volunteers.  In most cases I find that youth ministry volunteer commit up to 5 hours per week on average and they do it every single week.  Be sure they know that you support them.

Another idea would be to buy them subscriptions to Formed Magazine or Group Magazine.

So that is a few ideas.  I could go on and on, but wanted to give you the basics.  Please comment below if you have found other great investments that took a lot of money or a lot of time but were worthwhile!

Enjoy!

They approved the budget very quickly and asked if there was anything else I thought I could use.  I was stumped.  I had budgeted X amount of dollars per week, some continuing education money, and extra in case trips were not covered by fees from youth.  I replied “I don’t think so?” and they gave me a few more seconds to think about it.  So I responded “I have never really spent time thinking big about our ministry money-wise because I never thought there would be any.”  I had worked for so long either buying it myself or not buying it at all.  So I spent some time thinking about it so I could prepare for next year.

I wanted to write a couple of articles to help you as a youth ministry worker/volunteer to dream big things about your ministry and be ready for a time when you have some money to spend.

So this first post will be about thinking big AND small and the second post will be some practical ideas with prices that can help you budget out a bit.

Think Big

I have recently moved to a bigger city and one day was with a group of friends.  We were driving by one of the biggest and most well known churches in our city and noticed that lots of people were heading in and noticed on their sign that they were having the Wednesday evening service.  We decided to go.  It was not a Catholic Church but we wanted to see what the big deal was.

This church was doing many things right and I was very impressed with how well they welcomed, entertained, and educated each person that was there.  There was music playing outside and lots of youth playing games, we were greeted by an adult and several of the youth.  We walked in to the gathering area, were handed a program for the service and greeted several more times.  When we entered the area of worship there was a great praise and worship group, four large screens with fancy graphics and lyrics, and lots of energy in the room.  It was like each Wednesday night was a conference for them.  Their service included lots of video clips and entertainment and was very well presented.  The sermon was very focused, they were on a special theme for a number of weeks, and it is doubtful that anyone left without learning something or being challenged in some way.

Many people wish that Mass could be like this, but the Catholic Mass is a much different experience.  The service at this church is basically an educational experience.  So the question I thought of is “why can’t we offer fun, moving ways to educate our youth about the faith?”

So think big.  What would it take to get people to wonder “what is this all about?”  A place where the youth feel welcomed, are given opportunities to grow, and become fired up about their faith.  There are tons of things you can do without any money, but why not set up an atmosphere similar to this church that I visited.

Take a look at what other big churches have and model that.  Have a great web site, have lots of food, give out great prizes for random things, and find the most creative ways to educate that you can.

Think Small

It is easy to think about huge possibilities if you have the money, but what about the small things.  The small things really are the big things.  Simple things like training opportunities for your volunteers, software programs that simplify your day-t0-day office routines, curriculum that can easily be used on a last minute basis.  Try spending money in a way that opens the youth up to opportunities for relationships with the mentors and with our Lord in the Eucharist.

Simple things that cost money like thank you meals and gifts for helpers will add up and really bring things together.

In conclusion, think big AND small and every time you think of something neat that you wish you could do, write it down.  Compile that list so one day when the finance council has gone crazy and decides to open the door, you will be ready to greet them!

Part 2 of 2 will focus on practical ideas that can be costly but really helpful in this vision.

Those whose physical lives are not safe

If you find youth that are living in abusive homes, are suicidal, addicted to drugs, or maybe have an eating disorder, these are a few of the things you will want to act on immediately.  You do what you have to do as soon as possible after the retreat is over with.  We will not focus on how to handle these situations now, that will be for another post, but talk to your pastor about it right away.  Hopefully, if you discovered these things during the trip, you were able to give a heads up to the youth that you are going to act on it in some way.

Those whose spiritual lives are not safe

During the retreat you were hopefully able to learn a bit more about the youth and hopefully some of parts of the retreat that the youth was really drawn to.  Hopefully you were also able to learn a little bit about how the youth struggles in their faith and the struggles they may have when they get home.  Consider your responsibility and challenge the volunteers with the same to look for tools for the youth to use when they get home.  Here are a few pointers:

• Connect them with a Saint that has similar interests
• Give them schedules of all of the daily and weekend Mass times in the area
• Give a bible study that starts slow
• Give them instructions on the rosary, novenas, and other common prayers
• Offer to show them where the adoration chapel is if you have one
• Set up a challenge for them and follow-up with them each week to see how they are doing
• Connect them with other involved youth that they may not have met yet

The world that our youth live in today makes it extremely difficult for them to push forward and start living out their Catholic faith.  It will be someone like your or another volunteer that has the love and determination to walk them through it.

There is men’s conference that I have heard of that talks about loving a man until he is ready to love a man.  In many cases, a youth will need a bit more time to chew on what they received at the retreat and work on themselves a bit more.  You should not leave them until they are ready and able to share that with someone else.

Here are some pointers as you prepare for this Fall and planning that will help you, your family and friends, and especially the youth.

Plan for YOU first!

You can not give what you do not have.  Yes you have heard that many times and there is a reason for that.  I recently was able to hear a quick talk from Fr. Dave Pivonka.  He talked about why the burnout rate of Youth Ministers is so high.  He said you can live off of your own creativity and ideas for about two to three years.  When you run out of your own ideas and have not allowed the Holy Spirit to feed you more.  You will run empty.

Plan for one hour of prayer EVERY SINGLE DAY.   I assume most of you work right next door to a church or even closer.  Put yourself in front of our Lord in the tabernacle and spend some time with Him.  He will give you everything that you need.  It is sad that we have to be reminded of that but we do.

Plan for Your Family/Friends second!

Set a limit right away with the amount of time that you will regularly put in the office and at events.  I would recommend no more than two nights a week and one weekend a month are committed to your ministry.  Also no more than two committee meetings a month that meet on week nights.

Also make sure you intentionally take time off for yourself and for your family/friends.  I have heard several times to take at least 1 hour a day (prayer), 1 day a week, and one week a year where you do absolutely NOTHING for your ministry.  Your youth may not understand right away how you can choose to ignore their texts on that one day a week, but they will respect for choosing your family first.  It teaches them more than you could have ever taught them in putting in a days work.

Not sure what to do with your time?  Then you got major issues that we will definitely need to discuss in another post.

Try a New Evangelization

Pope Benedict XVI recently created a new council focused on a New Evangelization.  Pope Benedict says “I have decided to create a new organism, in the form of pontifical council, with the specific task of promoting a renewed evangelization in countries where the first proclamation of the faith already resounded.”  You have probably done great things with your youth group and in your parish.  Pick two or three things that you have done in the past that worked great and throw in the one thing that really worked just this last year.  Now pick one of those things that add a new spice to it.

So step three would be to start with a foundational program that you know is an excellent tool in leading the youth the Christ and make it even better.  If it is simply your weekly youth group meetings that have been the best, then try adding a new flavor to the meetings.

Trim The Fat

I always cut something back as I get in to the new year.  This makes room to try new things and to grow.  What are some of the things you do that do not really bring any meat in to the program.  Do you have unneccesary meetings, programs, or duties during work time?  What are some of the things you do for your parish that are not part of your paid ministry?  How do you spend your office time throughout the day?

Trim things down and trim until it begins to hurt a little.

Meaten the Calf

The real meat of your program is going to be the sacraments and the trained volunteers.  Take the time from the things you have cut back and devote as much time as you can to incorporating the sacraments and adoration into your meeting and training your volunteers.  This does not necessarily mean more programs or meetings in these areas, but working to make the quality of these programs even better.

Develop the best training series you have ever developed and make the sacraments and adoration as beautiful as you are able.

Hope that helps you as you plan for this Fall.

Enjoy!

I am putting together this post, because I have found a solution that I believe to be the best available for the price that you pay. Eventbrite is a free online program that anyone can and only charges when someone registers online for an event that requires a payment.

This post is a review of Eventbrite, a great Online Event Registration web site that I found and highly recommend for any person looking for an online event registration solution, especially in youth ministry.  I have evaluated several of the newest and most popular programs out there and asked many questions to those who would not give me a trial version or sample use of their product.  Aside from hiring your own web developer to set up the registration process for you on your own web site, this is the solution I recommend the most. The payment system is secure and flawless and very user friendly for both you and the person registering for the event.  I have messed with a lot of WordPress plugin’s and other simple fixes and nothing even comes close to this.

10 Reasons Eventbrite is the best online event solution for youth ministry.

#1 – It’s Free

If you have an event that does not cost anything or just want to use Eventbrite without benefit of accepting online registrations, it is 100% free.  The only time is costs you anything is if you allow online registrations and someone registers online for an event that is not free.

#2 – No More Inputting Data

The BEST thing about online registrations is that the person registering for the event puts in all of their information for you.  When they register on Eventbrite, you never have to enter their information.

#3 – One Location, Two Types of Registration

Many online event registration programs will charge you for adding registrants on your own.  Eventbrite does not.  Simply enter in the information of youth that register my mail or by turning an application in to you and it keeps it right along with those that registered online.

#4 – Reports

I could write a whole post on the reports that Eventbrite offers.  With a click of a couple spots on the site you can put together a report that includes any data you want from your attendees.  You can export in to an Excel file, .CSV, or even just a text file.

They also include several pre-built reports to print off a ‘day-of’ check-in list and name badges.  If you have experience with mail merge, the possibilities are endless with the system.

#5 – Web Site Integration

If you have a youth group web site, Eventbrite offers simple code for you event to allow registrations straight from your site. It looks professional and is extremely easy to use.

#6 – They Process Payments

There are typically two fees for any online solution, unless you have one built for your site.  There is a fee for the person doing the work for you and a credit card processing fee.  Most systems use PayPal.  For accounting purposes, I strongly discourage PayPal if at all possible.

The benefit I speak of is that Eventbrite will process Payments rather than PayPal if you would like them to.  They simply collect all of the money from the online registrations and send you a check minus the fees a week after the event is over.  It is so slick and I will never go back to PayPal again.

#7 – Social Networking

They are doing alright with their ability to promote and network through social networking.  They are definitely growing each time I use them in this area.  You can easily share the event through Facebook, Twitter, and many other social networks that your youth may use.

#8 – Email Templates and Reminders

You can schedule email reminders or promo emails for just about anything.  Set-up everything the same day you set-up the event and never worry about whether or not the kids will be reminded what to bring or where to meet.

#9 – Copy Events

This is probably one the sweetest parts of using Eventbrite.  You can spend a good deal of time setting up your events, the email that are sent out, the fancy artwork, and all of the parental consent information.  When a new event comes up, you can simply copy everything from one event to another and change the information that needs to change.  Things start being more automated and you have much more time for the important parts of your ministry.

#10 – Coupon/Discount Codes

I love setting early bird deadlines on registrations or having a couple of days where the registrations are cheaper than others.  You can set up discount codes that are only good for a certain amount of time.   Get those Text Blasts going and start promoting your events!

There are TONS more benefits that you can check out by going through their site, but I just wanted to get you started.  If you have any questions or thoughts about this system, please discuss them in the comments section of this post.  I have used Eventbrite for almost a dozen events now and have had zero complaints from the registrants and from my own experience.

Check them out at www.eventbrite.com.

Enjoy!

What Is It?

In a nutshell each disc comes with 10 different games. We use them on the big screen and have kids each pick one of the three racers. When you click RACE on the game it starts an animated race that randomly picks a different winner. There are three versions of each winner so it makes it very hard for the youth to guess even if the beginning of the race looks the same as another.

How I Used It?

We had one person from each team stand up front in one of the three areas assigned to each racer.  If the team chose the winner they earned points.  We have also used the process of elimination.  Every time a team wins they get to pick again, every time they lose they sit down.  You play until one team is left.

Overall it’s a great game that can build teamwork and it’s so quick and easy if you typically use a projector and media.

We are able to offer a link to Simply Youth Ministry to buy the games at 10% off.  Actually the link will give you 10% off of anything from their site.  Get the games and let us know what you think!

I have discovered a way to save facebook conversations to your computer. This would be helpful for many reasons, but the main one being that you can protect yourself from wrongful allegations regarding your conversations with youth. If a youth says you said something in facebook chat, you can pull an unedited script.

I am sure there are other ways to do it, but here is the way that I have discovered and will use.

You can archive all conversations through Facebook chat by connecting your Facebook account to an AIM account.  If you do not know what AIM is, it is similar to Facebook chat except it’s it own little program.  It is similar to MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger if you have used those before.

Here’s how you do it.

Download AIM

Go to http://products.aim.com/ and download AIM.  You will need to set up a username and password.  I would recommend using your own email account and not have them create one for you.

Set Up Facebook Chat

Once your window is open and you can see your buddy list on AIM, click on MENU, and click on SETTINGS.  In your settings you will see a meny item called Facebook Chat.  Go through the steps to connect your facebook account.  By doing this, you are giving AIM rights to sign in to your Facebook account for the use you are suggesting.  If you are worried about this, know that AIM is a product of AOL which has a strong reputation to uphold.

Set Up Archive

Within the same settings menu, you can click on IM Archives.  In there you will need to check the box to Archive chats and IM’s.  Then you can choose a place where these will be stored on your computer.

Test It Out!

You should now be able to see all your Facebook friends in the AIM window and you can start a conversation with them.  What you will find is that the conversation will be held in both AIM and Facebook.  You will want to do everything through AIM so that it documents it there.   Test it out by having a conversation with someone.  To see the archive, you just right click on the person you want to see and click on SHOW IM ARCHIVE.

If everything is working correctly, you will see something like this open up in your web browser.  Some it is chopped off for space reasons and I have put red in spots that I wanted to remain private.  But you get the idea.

I created a web site specifically for our youth group at www.sacredheartym.com.  I have had this site for about seven years and have made tons of changes to get it to where it is today.  I have it set up now to be very low maintenance, but also offer tons of information that is always current and easy to access.   I will use this post to have you focus on a few aspects of it.   Here are some things that I think have been key in the success of our web site.  There should be more to your web site than links to PDF’s.

Current Pictures – The first thing youth notice about the site is the header images.  I changes these at least quarterly and always use current pictures or memories from trips I want youth to remember.   When they visit the site they are immediately brought back to a great memory they have from being involved in youth group.

Way to Stay Updated – Having a spot for youth to sign up to become a fan on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, and receive updates are key to bringing them back to your web site.  Don’t think you have the time for these things?  I probably spend 10-15 a week on these updates.  It is well worth the investment.

Big Event Promos – For every big event I create a new 150×150 promo ad.  This same picture is used for Facebook events and any other promotion that I do.  For regular events like our monthly adoration, I use the same picture for every month and change it maybe each year.  Having a spot on the home page of your site just for your big upcoming events is a great way to constantly remind them.

Discussions – These have been great for youth who spend time just browsing the site.  I can post something funny, serious, educational, basically whatever I want.  The youth do not need to sign in or set up a user name and password.  They just put their name, email, and their comment.  I have my youth group site set up so I must approve every comment (takes about 3 seconds) before it is posted online.  Which great for when the kids are discussing duct tape and one kids says “why do have to be so abusive with duct tape?,” even though they are joking, you may not want parents reading that.

Also when I know a comment has been sent I can have the quick response time to answer questions or shoot back a quick response to them. I put a discussion on another church’s web site asking youth to talk about their favorite saint.  It was a great way to get them discussing.

Upcoming Events – This section is automated and clears out as events are done.  No maintenance after a simple form is filled out with the event info.

Behind The Scenes – I have a page for the volunteers that has all of the upcoming lessons, pictures of our youth group trading cards (so they can remember names), and also pages for the team for our Diocesan Retreat Program.  All of these files are password protected.  It is a great way to make sure people have the current information they need.

Stewardship – Although it is not up to date when I am posting this, it usually is.  I have a spot for volunteers to sign up to help.  It shoots me an email and I follow up with them.

Online Registrations – Since this is time sensitive, I can’t give you an example that will last forever, but I have found the perfect online registration system for just about any event.  You can embed the registration form in to the site, or you can do what we use for our retreat program and just have it go to the registration site.  The site we use is EventBrite.  The thing I love about it is that you can both manually enter info and it is free or people can sign up online and they pay the site fee (you still pay the typical credit card processing fee).  The reports are great and can be used for mail merging and just about anything you are creative enough to think of.

These are things that have been most helpful for me and really make is that much easier for youth to be involved and to stay informed.

A quick tutorial on how to easily maintain your Facebook and Twitter profiles.  Set up the page on your website and link to it from Facebook.  Link your Twitter and Facebook accounts together and you only have to do it in one spot.  You can actually connect the web site also so each time you make a new post on your site, it updates on Facebook and Twitter also, but I like to add little comments on the Facebook page anyway.  To link your Facebook page to your Twitter account go here.

Now how do you get this set-up?  Well I recommend Parish Web Assistant. You can get all of these feature for your entire parish for about $500.  You can also have them do your maintenance for you.  You simply fill out a form, attach any files you want uploaded, and they do it for you.    You can see all of their features here.

You can have them set up your whole parish site also and your staff will be very happy!  Once you get a site set up, if you do everything yourself and you do it the right way, it shouldn’t cost any more than $75/year.

The biggest mistake I see are sites that are not current and only provide links to PDF’s.  Set up a site now that will remind your youth of the great times they have had, keeps them coming back looking for more, and gets them involved.

Please comment below if you have other ideas or questions!

One thing that shook up many of our volunteers is that the training suggests ‘NOT’ having a facebook page and, if you do, ‘NOT’ connecting with the youth in the parish that are under 18. They had some very good points, but anyone who is involved in youth ministry, probably understands the effect Facebook has had on networking and connecting with youth. This article will be on how to make sure you are protecting yourself while still connecting with the youth.

To be blunt, some of the best connections I have made with the youth in our program has been through Facebook chat. The youth are sitting on their computer, thinking and bored, and have a lot on their mind. It’s as convenient as can be to chat once they see their youth minister or volunteer online. There is a sense of relief when they are looking for someone they can trust and they find them.

But is this safe? I have heard many horror stories of simple allegations that have led to a volunteer or paid youth leader getting fired by something a youth ‘said’ happened. Here is my quick ‘play it safe’ guide for those who truly want to protect themselves.

1. Don’t Set Yourself Up

If you are worried about protecting yourself, than just do not put yourself in that situation. Facebook is great, but you do not need it be a great volunteer. Learn more ways to connect with the youth and use your time you have with them wisely. A volunteer that goes to school or parish events to support the youth is doing much more than one could ever do on Facebook.

2. Use Other Means

If your youth director does not have other ways for you to connect online with the youth, it is time that they do. There are tons of other ways to connect with the youth. If your youth group has a web page, work on getting a section where there are discussions and anyone can post. Make sure your youth leader is also emailing anything that is being passed around and talked about online. Sign up for other networking sites that do not offer private chat or messaging like Twitter.

3. Use Facebook Safely

Since you are reading this, you probably already have a facebook account. You can still have one and just network in ways that are safe. Have the youth minister set up a Fan Page. These are pages where everything is public, people can chat, there is a spot for discussions, and more. It is also a great way to create events and invite people to those events.

It is not rude to let youth know that you have a policy about being friends with them on Facebook. It would not even hurt to ask the youth minister to take the heat of it and set the rule for all of the volunteers. Encourage the youth to make a phone call if needed to or to pull you aside during your weekly meeting. Best thing you can do is to remind them that you care and show them your support.

If you are not too worried about protecting yourself from false allegations or rumors using facebook, at least do your best to keep things public. Be cautious of youth that you do not know too well yet and just be smart.

Please discuss any other concerns or ideas you have below!