During the Pandemic, there was a non-profit in our town that decided to offer a fundraiser called “You’ve been egged” to the community. In this case, “to be egged” means to have plastic eggs, filled with candy or prizes, hidden in the yard or left at the door as a surprise for someone else. In 2021, our church created an outreach/fundraiser with this theme…and it was a huge success! The event brought our church community together and brought the larger community to the church, which is a HUGE win in my eyes. AND, we made around $500 with hardly any advertising.
“You’ve Been Egged” The Details
The Basics
- I created a sign up where people could purchase 1-3 dozen eggs ($10, $20, and $30 respectively) and have them delivered to anyone in the city (within 20 minutes of the church).
- The “buyer” could choose how many eggs, if they wanted candy, prizes or both, and if they wanted them hidden or left in a basket at the door.
- Unlike the other organization, we offered our “egging” sometime during the week before Easter. We did not want to get bogged down the night before Easter – especially if the weather was bad. We did have a few slots available for “Easter Eve” for an extra $5. A few people took us up on that offer, but not many.
- We hid the eggs during the day so as not to scare anyone as we were “lurking” around. We wore bunny ears, as well, so they knew what we were up to (if the bag of eggs wasn’t enough). If the recipient was a child, we “egged” the house during the day while they were at school.
A Few Tips
- Buy or print out a map of your city (or use Google Maps). As orders come in, mark them on the map. I made up a code so I’d know how many eggs had been bought, if they needed to be hidden, and if it was for Easter Eve.
- Ask for some volunteers to help you deliver – I had older youth volunteer, seniors, and in between. They loved being able to be the Easter bunny and to bless someone!
- Ask for candy and prize donations to cut back on cost.
- Get volunteers to help you stuff the eggs.
- Make sure to honor each order – some people had special diets and just wanted prizes, some only chose candy, and some wanted both. If there were allergies, that was also noted.
- Once your orders are in and you’ve marked them on your map, divide up the neighborhoods and divvy up the jobs among your volunteers.
- If the eggs are to be hidden, they go in a bag…if they are to be left at the door, they’re in a basket! Make it easy to distinguish the delivery method!
- Lastly, and most importantly, leave this beautiful note that the Happy Home Fairy has for free on her website. We personalized it with our church name at the bottom and changed the number of eggs at the top depending on how many were purchased. We also gave the option to the “gifters” to be anonymous or to leave their name. We left the note on the door and rang the bell. As the note says, we also hid one extra egg that was EMPTY. Why? To represent the empty tomb and resurrection. You could actually leave a little note in that egg inviting them to church on Easter Sunday!
So Much To Love!
Why did I end up loving this outreach so much? Because of the beautiful response we received. I had a young family buy an egging for everyone on their block. I had a senior buy baskets of eggs for everyone in their cul-de-sac in their retirement neighborhood. I had grandparents buying for grandkids, grandkids buying for grandparents, and neighbors buying for neighbors. It was incredible! I got to deliver two special baskets of eggs (special candy was requested because of health issues) to a nursing facility. So many people were blessed through this – and the church was able to raise money for our children’s mission trip!
Editor’s Note: Being Mindful of Creation
While we do not encourage the purchasing of single-use plastic for church events (i.e. dozens of plastic Easter eggs), we believe there are a number of relatively sustainable ways to do this fundraiser:
- Use eggs already owned by the church
- Ask for donations of pre-owned plastic eggs
- Offer an Easter basket option that does not include the eggs at all
- Use eco eggs® which are made from recycled plastic
- Use fillable cardboard Easter eggs
- Use mostly dyed wooden eggs with just a few plastic candy-filled eggs sprinkled in (After all, the hunt is half the fun!)
If you’d like to repeat the fundraiser in future years, you could ask for eggs to be returned to a bin outside the church.
Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash.
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