The are several types of church fundraising ranging from tithing donated during religious services to phone solicitations, direct mail campaigns, and specific types of church fundraising events like bake sales or gala dinner events. But despite the types of church fundraising chosen, there are a few easy principles that should be examined.

In fundraising, the first principle is that successful fundraising requires careful forethought and planning. The second is that no church should depend so much on a single funding source that the group would not be able to operate without it. All types of church fundraising planning needs to be guided by this second principle because a church that is totally dependent on a large fundraising donation from one person is very vulnerable.

The organizations that put forth the effort to use different types of church fundraising such that the loss of any one source of contributions would not have a significant impact is clearly in a strong position. For example in 1869, the Metropolitan Museum of Art turned solely to the prosperous citizens of New York City for contributions. More than a century later, it still gets contributions from wealthy citizens but it also receives contributions from local, state, and federal governments, and from corporations and foundations as well. Sure this is just an art museum and not a church but don't lose sight of the larger idea here in terms of diversifying the source of funds and not being overly reliable on any single source of funds.

Today, classification of financial support is essential and no church can generally expect to finance its work repeatedly from any single source. Even if the church is successful in getting one huge grant, it cannot and should not be realistically expected that the grant will be renewed every year, and the future of the church is far from safe. Furthermore, funding sources prefer seeing that a nonprofit organization's funding is indeed well-diversified because this shows a consensus that the church is important and worth supporting.

By becoming acquainted with all types of church fundraising supporters, fundraisers can select those most appropriate to their own church. Remember, it is not likely that every source will show interest in your efforts, and so, with limited fundraising resources, you will need to choose the opportunities you are most likely to win.

Philanthropy can be tracked back to individual people rather than to foundations, governments, or businesses. The United States' founding philanthropists were individuals such as Benjamin Franklin whose vision and generosity led to the creation of several of Philadelphia's earliest nonprofit institutions.

During the Middle Ages, Europe's churches were constructed not only through the largesses of queens, kings, and other nobility but also through the support of trades people and artisans. Many members of merchant and guild associations, including bakers, carpenters, weavers, shoemakers, butchers, masons, fishmongers, furriers, and other contributed to the building of the famed cathedral in Chartres, France; their funding underwrote the creation of many of its breathtaking stained glass windows. Church fundraising goes way back in time, as you can see.