25 Alternative Income Sources for Youth Workers

Most of us in youth ministry pour 100% of our passion into a job that pays about 75% of our family's needs.There's a lot of factors that make this true:

• There's more supply of highly qualified, experienced youth workers than there is demand for those skills. This holds salaries back.
• Without agreed upon professional standards there's little way to move up in salary over time.
• Speaking of education, I'm meeting more and more youth workers buried in education debt. A sluggish salary while being dogged by debt forcing me to always look for ways on how to make $5000 fast?
• Youth ministry employment remains fluid. While the old adage that a youth worker moves every 18 months has never really been true, youth workers do frequently move compared to their peers in other professions. Moving is expensive, making it harder and hard to build equity in a home or long-term savings in an IRA/401k.

I meet a lot of youth workers who will quietly confess that they are close, but not quite, comfortable in their salary. An additional $500 per month would be the difference for their family.Here's my suggestion: Join the 13.2 million Americans who moonlight a little on top of their full-time job.Benefit #1: There's a lot of opportunities out there for the skills most youth workers have. Lots.Benefit #2: While you might first wince at the idea because you're ministry job keeps you busy as it is, moonlighting is going to actually help you work better at your full-time job.You just might learn a dirty little secret: Making yourself less available actually increases your value in an organization.

25 Alternative Income Sources for Youth Workers

The sharing economy is perfect for youth ministry folks... we have so many marketable skills!Here's 25 freelance gigs that a lot of youth workers could do to earn the pay gap between what their family needs and what their church salary pays.

1. Substitute teaching (Credential required in many locations)
2. Academic tutoring
3. Sports coaching
4. Personal trainer / fitness coach / weight loss buddy
5. Uber, Lyft driver
6. Graphic design
7. Event planning, production (small business events, local organizations, charitable events, etc)
8. Small business project management, bookkeeping, other limited role (credentials may be needed)
9. Catering (either as a provider or server)
10. Fill-in bartender, barista, etc. (a shift or two a week)
11. Small business marketing (create flyers, brochures, graphics, manage social media, etc)
12. Manage websites (add content, edit content, update plugins, etc)
13. Create an Etsy shop
14. Do small creative tasks on Fiver
15. List your guest room on Airbnb
16. Manage other people's Airbnb or VRBO properties (create listings, manage payments/contracts, greet guests, arrange cleaning services, repairs, etc)
17. Do small projects on Upwork (formerly Elance)
18. Petsitting, boarding in your home, dog walking
19. Sell stuff on Ebay (convert a hobby, passion into a specialty niche)
20. Collect and sell used books on Amazon. (people will give you used books, trust me)
21. Handyman services (small projects, repairs, landscaping, painting, etc)
22. Adventure travel (take a group canoeing, backpacking, kayaking)
23. Wedding planner, coordinator
24. Minister for hire (weddings, funerals, etc.)
25. Become a notary public

Consider this a starter list. The reality is that there are hundreds of opportunities for you to make that little bridge amount of money to stay in youth ministry for the long haul. Share your ideas in the comments!Want help working on this? Contact me and buy an hour of my time. (See, that's #26 right there.)