A church welcome gift is a great way to make a lasting impression on your visitors, but every church is on a budget. In this post, we’ll tell you how welcome gifts can help your church grow, followed by six places to find church welcome gifts for under $5, and we’ll finish with four tips to make the most of your investment.
Why Offer a Church Welcome Gift?
A welcome gift can help your church grow for several reasons.
- The visitor will remember you when they use their gift, so they’re more likely to come back.
- Many visitors feel lost. The welcome table gives them a specific direction and a place to go.
- Shy people are more likely to bolt out the door without making eye contact, but nothing catches a person’s curiosity like a gift display. Welcome gifts provide a perfect icebreaker.
- If you’ve ever taken a child past the candy and dollar toys at the checkout, you know the power of baiting the children to get access to the parents. There’s nothing better than a child who wants to go to church!
6 Places to Find Church Welcome Gifts for under $5
Whether you’re looking for something for the home, for the kids, or even for the pets, we’ve got you covered. Here are six places (and lots of links) to find church welcome gifts for under $5.
1. Your own congregation
We were created to create. You never know what talents and skills are sitting right beside you in church. Make a call for any kind of craft, gadget, or gift members of your congregation would like to make and contribute.
You could even make an event out of it, such as a craft night where people with similar interests develop relationships with fellow believers over their favorite hobby. They can paint, sew, write, design and build the night away, making little plaques, signs, and ornaments.
I found some fun ideas using Dollar Store mirrors and mugs customized with vinyl decals. If your church doesn’t have a circuit or other digital cutting machine, you can buy one for around $200 at Walmart or Amazon, and then you can personalize just about anything. It’s also likely someone in your congregation has a machine and would love the opportunity to use it to create gifts for the church.
2. Your Community
Local business owners, especially those in your congregation, will seize the opportunity to advertise their business, so invite them to contribute a little gift or discount in the welcome bag.
3. Custom Imprint Retailers
There are many custom imprint retailers that sell products in bulk for organizations to provide gifts to prospective customers and market their brand. You can print your church logo, a Bible verse, or anything you want, and you can print it on just about anything to help your visitors remember you. Here are a few retailers that offer unique gifts for under $5.
Garrett Specialties
Garrett Specialties has been offering over 1,000,000 promotional items imprinted with company logos or messages since 1991. They promise highly trained sales representatives will be available to help you. They offer items for auto and travel, bags and apparel, tech and tools, and much more, but I think my favorite is this little guy, a stuffed tiger magnet!
Positive Promotions
The team at Positive Promotions is dedicated to creating the most positive experience possible for their customers. They offer a full category of Christian gifts, and handy menus to filter any category by price. I thought this screwdriver kit for dads was a nice touch.
iPromo
iPromo has many options for less than $5, including electronics, such as computer accessories, tech organizers, personal tech, flash drives, power and charging devices, audio devices, and mobile accessories.
4imprint
4imprint is a global imprinting business that has been trusted by organizations since 1987. They offer free samples and over 100 products for under $5, including a collection specifically for churches. This Wisconsin-based writer really appreciates their ice-scraper that clips right to your visor!
Crestline
Crestline offers promotional products, best-in-class customer service and a curated mix of products designed to maximize your brand’s impact. I found a nice selection of gifts for churches under $5, including a few storybooks for kids, and a cute potted plant pail.
AnyPromo.com
Any Promo.com helps companies and organizations find the perfect promotional swag on the market. They have thousands of items, including a collection of hundreds of toys for under $5! I had one of these things a few years ago, but I lost it. I loved it so much that every once in a while I still go looking for it. At the time of this writing, they’re offering $150 off your first order in the very top header of their website.
Swag.com
Swag.com was founded with the goal of being the best place to buy and manage quality promotional products that people actually want to keep. They have a seemingly endless scroll of items for under $5, including a variety of mini first aid kits and even Tide To-Go, perfect for families with young children.
4. Discount Retailers
Find cute, fun, and practical gifts at dollar stores and discount retailers.
ChristianDollarStore.com
ChristianDollarStore.com is a family business where you get more for your dollar. They offer hundreds, maybe even thousands of products for under $5, including an adorable collection of Fully Rely On God (FROG) items, jewelry, and this tempting candy cross bracelet for only $0.59!
Dollar Stores
Dollar stores have a lot of fun and practical gifts you can offer in welcome packets. I love these religious banner and wall stickers from the Dollar Tree. They cost less than $2 off the shelf, they’re easy to use, and they look great. I had one on my wall and my desktop for a long time. I moved it several times. It didn’t rip or curl as long as I was careful, and it didn’t lose its sticky-ness. It even stayed nice stuck to a busy desktop where I worked, ate lunch, cleaned, and dusted.
Cokesbury is the retail and customer service arm of The United Methodist Publishing House and serves United Methodists worldwide as well as a broad ecumenical audience representing many denominations and independent churches. Cokesbury offers thousands of unique products, including books, Bibles, curriculum, worship resources, and church supplies. They have a wide variety of items on clearance for under $5 and regularly priced products under $5 in every category.
Amazon
I got thousands of results when I searched for “church gifts in bulk” on Amazon.
5. Private Label Rights (PLR)
Private Label Rights, PLR, is “content is written in the form of articles, reports, e-books, guides, and even videos. This content is sold to businesses, bloggers, and authors to help them provide consistent quality content to their readers via newsletters, blogging, books, and their websites.”
When you purchase PLR, you’re typically getting editable templates. Most often, the templates are created and editable in Canva. You can customize it as you want, and then sell or give it away.
The initial investment can be anywhere from free to hundreds of dollars, but once you have it, it’s yours. You can even offer the link to your customized PLR for new visitors so they can download or print it themselves, so you save on printing costs.
Here are three PLR providers offering Christian content.
Daily Faith PLR
Daily Faith PLR is run by a team of Bible believing writers and designers who craft timely content you can use to connect with your community, grow your email list, and share God’s grace, love, and mercy. They can also create customized content.
PLR Planners
PLR Planners offer a “Church Events Planner” for your team, and four other options designed specifically for Christians. They also have many beautiful planners of all different themes.
PLR Publications
PLRPublications.com offers over 15,000 products, including nearly 100 search results for “church”.
6. Bibles in Bulk
Have you got a few extra Bibles from your last bulk order? Or you could place an additional, but smaller order, to include a Bible in your welcome packet. Here are two providers that offer Bibles in bulk for very reasonable prices.
4 Tips to Make the Most Out of Your Welcome Gifts
Employ the power of your ad grant to tell visitors you’ve got a gift waiting for them. Curiosity alone may be enough to get them to show up, especially if you have a picture or two of something the kids will like.
Assemble the packet with visitors so it takes longer, providing an opportunity to talk with them.
Make it buffet-style by placing a variety of gifts in appealing baskets and offer visitors to each choose a specified number of items. Not only is this an incredibly eye-catching display for both adults and children, but it also provides space for conversation. You know your visitors are walking away with a few items they’ll use and remember you, so your investment won’t go to waste.
Order a few extra toys that can go in activity bags for the kids to use during service. Parents will be grateful when their little ones are quiet and occupied, so they’ll be more willing to visit the visitor’s table with the kids in tow after service.
Free Download
We hope this list has offered you something fun and affordable that you haven’t seen before. For more great deals to help make the most of your church budget, see our Discounts for Churches blog and download our Church Discounts PDF.
