CLEVELAND -- There are many great fundraisers, but a local congregation's members were each given $100 to see if they could make it grow, reported NewsChannel5's Ted Henry.

The Rev. Charlie Diedrick of St. Barnabas Church in Northfield gave out fresh, new $100 bills to both adults and children.

They, in turn, agreed to use the money as seed money and make it grow in a creative way and then give the money they raise to the charities of their choice.

"There aren't too many pastors who give out money that aren't going to get it back," Diedrick said.

So far, Father Charlie Diedrick has given out $20,000 to parishioners. The money comes from wealthy St. Barnabas' private donors, and the trick is to see how parishioners can grow the smaller $100 seed money.

Parishioner Anne Bruno's children wanted to get involved, so she gladly accepted the challenge of the program, called Kingdom Assignment, twice.

Bruno has raised close to $8,000 by holding a cookie sale.

Many parishioners are getting involved in the Kindgom Assignment.

Seventh-grader Mackenzie Madigan made bracelets and fleece blankets to sell and donated the money to St. Jude's Hospital.

She raised $1,230 from selling bead bracelets and blankets and raffling the blankets off.

Henry reported St. Barnabas supplied WEWS with their own video of the large and active parish, including dozens and dozens of parishioners who are still participating in this project that teaches them how to raise money.

Some of the money will be going to the Akron Battered Women Shelter.

Another group of parishioners chose a prison ministry.

"The mother and father both died so the grandmother took care of five of their children, and she was having trouble paying the bills," Dietrick said.

Henry reported the Kingdom Assignment is absolutely ingenious. If Diedrick can make this project work so well at St. Barnabas Parish, it kind of makes you wonder why it can't work just as well, anywhere.

The initial seed money donated for this project was $10,000 and one of the charities receiving several thousand dollars raised by this effort was Cleveland's Autism Society headed by Roy Mclean.

"If you think of the original $10,000, and if everybody raised $2,500, they'd turn that $10,000 into $250,000," Mclean said.

The Kingdom Assignment is clever. It works. It's fun and the ways people think of to raise money can be simply zany, Henry reported.

E-mail Henry to let him know if your group or congregation tries this type of idea.