Any ideas for a "profitable" and fair FUNDRAISER for a small non-profit organization??

I'm always trying to come up with GREAT ideas for a fundraiser to help our small work committee. So far, a group garage sale has been the best! We've done cook sales in our breakroom, however they are not profitable at all! Of course a football raffle is common and can help..........BUT, we are at a standstill because we can't come up with anything else to keep us going. We help people in need, the Ronald McDonald house, charitable needs, family loss/flowers, and our own in-station things like our Christmas party, baby showers, special other things, birthdays, Any ideas from anyone?

Any ideas for a "profitable" and fair FUNDRAISER for a small non-profit organization??
are there any grants you might be eligible for ?





maybe ask your local mayor for ideas ?





Ask McDonald's Corporation in Oakbrook , IL , if they have any suggestions since you are helping support the Charity house.





As an accountant if something can be set up for gift matching / if a foundation or something was estabished. our company allows us to contribute to a charity of our choice and they will match our contribution. I do not know the details but they get a tax advantage and so do we for doing so. Not sure how to arrange. Is one of your members an attorney or tax attorey that might be able to advise ? You could offer to list their name on brochures for advertising in exchange.





What about coupon booklets / ask local business to advertise / you sell the coupon books for low prices ?





ask to have raffles at all sporting events or other events ? ask a business to contribute something ... cell phone / dinner for 2 at a restaurant / dozen donuts / 4 movie tickets / spa time / manicure/pedicure / anything at any loal store and then sell raffle tickets for it.








would food sales be more profitable if grocery stores / sams club donated the food instead of purchasing it ? ask one store to donate bread items / another store to donate hot dogs / another store to donate chips. another store to donate condiments. list their names / thank them . pass the brochure with each item purchased.
Reply:We've found that "garage" sales are very good, but sometimes you get stuck with a lot of things you can't sell. If you are a REAL non profit (have your 501C paperwork) then you can talk to some area businesses about donations or other fund raising methods. For example, McDonalds will sell the coupon books that people sometimes give kids at Halloween for half price, then you sell them to employees for $1. We've received things like coupons for a free car wash or massage, movie tickets, bath sets, etc and then held an auction. If you do that, be sure you advertise to outside buyers as well for the best prices.
Reply:Let's see: carwashes are always a fun way to raise money. Or a game night at someone's house: just charge a couple bucks to get in and provide an easy dinner, like spaghetti and garlic bread.


Or you could do a movie marathon: charge a few bucks to get in and provide popcorn and a soda or something like that.


Also you could contact a fundraiser company like Sees and sell products from door to door or in front of a popular store. (One that I always liked to do was sell cookie dough, and it was always a BIG hit.)





I found a website with a ton of ideas for you though. It is the first site listed in the source box below. The site listed below it is a site where you can do sponsored fundraisers.





GOOD LUCK!!!!! =]
Reply:One of the best fundraisers I have ever heard of was in my old school. Back in the early 1980's., we lost funding for music and athletics, and we had to scramble to keep any programs. We made and sold apple pies. In our area of Michigan, apple orchards are pretty common, and there were lots of blemished or bruised apples that wouldn't sell for much of anything, so the orchards gave us the apples, the sugar beet factory donated sugar, the dairy farmers donated butter, the local grocery store donated the flour, and we used the school cafeteria to make the pies. I think the only thing we had to pay for were the pie tins. The students went out and picked the apples, and we pre-sold the pies for like $8 each. People had to come and pick them up the day we made them. We had every band student and most of our Moms helping to make crust, peel apples, fill pies, package and people who just worked at the door giving people pies for their little tickets they purchased from the kids. They still do this fundraiser today, and it now raises about $30,000. Some people inevitably don't pick up their pies, so the rest are frozen and sold to a local store or resold for a lower price that afternoon.





You could do similar things in your area based on what is available. One idea is to sell seedling trees, you can get them for next to nothing on Ebay, and have one or two days for people to pick them up. Or flower baskets in the spring, bought in large wholesale lots and resold. Or go door to door and to businesses offering to pick up their pop cans that day and then recycling them or getting the deposit. (That is how our girls high school softball team raises money, and I love it.!)





The best ideas have a few things in common. First, they have a high profit rate, with donated items (like your thrift sale) or a very fast turnaround, like a one or two day craft sale, book sale, etc. Also, doing something new that no one else does is good. One idea is to ask for donated items that can be sold on Ebay, and give reciepts since you are a non-profit. This can be a great tax deduction for the giver, and you have a large selling audience to bid on the items. You can sell anything on Ebay, from antique dishes to car parts to DVD's or whatever. Instead of always going to your local businesses asking for donations, try to go door to door, or put a general call out to local people. Offer to pick things up. You can probably get your local papers to give you free classified ads asking for donations. You just need somewhere to store stuff. What you cannot sell on Ebay, you could sell in your garage sales, even holding one a month on a regular basis, first Saturday or something.





Good luck! Thanks for doing good!
Reply:try raffleing a fourwheeler, we did that in the fire dept. i belonged to. usually cleared around seven thousand dollars in our small town....
Reply:Raffles work great in this type of situation and it's something you could do over and over. Choose great prizes that people really want and you'll sell plenty of tickets every time. iPods, digital cameras, spa treatments, full car detailing, and so on work really well. Be sure to price your raffle tickets accordingly; too low and you won't make as much profit, too high and you won't sell many tickets. Fundraising over and over to the same people gets old for you and for them, but if there is a possibility of winning a great prize, that changes everything. Look for more raffle ideas here:





http://www.fundraiserhelp.com/raffles.ht...





Good Luck.



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