Donna H-M

Around here they have spaghetti dinners....

Julianna

I knew this board would come up with great ideas! :)
But we have much competition: :( Our local schools and comunity theater have talent shows, all six churches hold yard sales and craft fairs, our library raffels off quilts and other items and has luncheons with speakers, our garden club has plant sales,we tried game night including trivia and bombed, our local Humane Society has photos with your pets and our local wineries all have tasting parties, our highschool has many suppers and sells everything from wrapping paper to candy bars. So we are saturated with fund raising activities here.
Maybe we should have a Talk-A-Thon where we talk non-stop til someone gives us money as we are very good at talking! Ha Ha anyway thanks for your ideas and keep thinking :)

j

Sales I have been to put things together and if they pull your ticket number, you have to taken everything in that pile, it is a good way for things to go, that you know won't. -- J.

Rettie V. Grama

Have a silent auction on a quilt that your Ladies Aide or member organization has made, the fancier the better. Have a start and stop date for auction (a month is usually sufficient) Preferable through your church or social organization; hang quilt in a secure place or show a large color photograph stating size, pattern, etc where it can readily be seen. Provide a container with only a slit to place bids. This box needs to be secure so curious hands and eyes cannot open. (our church uses a wooden box with a lock)
Provide envelopes that contain the following:

A card that states:
1. Starting and ending date of auction.
2. The starting bid of $75.00,
3. Size and name of quilt.
4. Space for Name, Address and Telephone Number, Bid amount and date bid made.
5. Payment Cash Only.
6. Highest bidder wins the quilt


We have found this to be very successful, usually having over 100 bids

smagruder

Silent Auctions are great. One Food Center for homeless or anyone has a dinner, silent auction, and a reverse raffle... and makes around $23,000 each year. Cooks volunteer to cook the meal, auction items are solicited from individuals, schools/colleges, businesses, and 200 tickets are sold for each level of the reverse raffle. In between numbers called on reverse raffles, they sell Split the deck cards. Take a deck of cards, sell tickets for $1. $2. $5 dollars a card (set your own price). Each person who purchases one of the 52 cards is given a ticket with a number on it. The other half of the ticket goes into a bowl. When all 52 tickets are sold... a number is drawn and the winner gets half of the amount sold and the organization gets the other half. This can be done as many times as the group wants to participate.

ladyinpurple135

I am on the Senior Adevisory Board for our local Senior Center and raising funds is one of our main responsiilities. Someone volunteered to hold a Silent Auction back in December and it raised over $900. Items were donated and solicitated from local businesses, although local businesses are not so forthcoming due to the economy.

Also, all reay long we have tables set up in our lobby area with all kinds of items for sale - name your own price except for a few pre-priced items. Costume jewelry is always a good seller, plus just about anything else except books (no room to store them). We have volunteers that sit at the tables as much as they can, otherwise it's on a "trust" basis and people pay the person at the desk. This has netted quite a bit of $$.

Although we have a wonderful and beautiful Senior Center, we are always looking for ways to keep things going - the government funding has been drasticly cut so that the Director has only one full-time paid and maybe one or two at most part-time paid people - everything else is done by volunteers. Almost all classes are free to county residents except when an outside teacher must be hired - cost is still very good though.

Almost forgot, twice a year we (along with many other charities) team with a local department store (Belk) and have a charity ticket sale. People purchase tickets for $5.00 each before the sale day or at the door. The store is only open to ticket holders fro 6am to 10am - ticket holders get their $5.00 back on their purchase. All the money from tickets purchased ahead of time through local charities and Senior Center go back to them totally -plus $2.50 of each ticket sold at the door or register is shared by all involved groups. We made over $900 last Fall and it wasn't a lot of time or effort. Maybe you migh have something similar in your community, or perhaps get a store to participate. Makes lots and lots of $$$ for the store as they have specfial sale prices - and big ones at that - on many items that are not usually included in coupon sales - like fragrances. The sales prices go away when the store officially opens to eveyone and tickets are no longer accepted at that time. You would not believe how many shoppers are at the door at 6am!!!

I hope that my suggestions are helpful.
Sandy in Mooresville, NC

arimuse

family movie night (rent an old classic - I dont think you can charge for the movie but sell homemade popcorn, candies, treats)
cookie exchange (each volunteer makes a diff batch - yu need a coordinator here - and then make up plates of cookies, all different and sell by the dozen)
chili cookoff dinner, have several people making chili and sell by the scoop, or just a by the scoop dinner - 50C a scoop for all donated foods. (we have a watermelon fest every yr here; the biggest moneymaker is the Taste of Hampton nite. People make their fav or dish they are most famous for and donate it and you pay 5$ and go thru a line and get about a tablespoon of anything you point at - there is so much to pick from you cant fit it all on a plate! and the food is terrific. its held at the local HS and the line of people goes out the door and down the walk)
they have all these baby beauty pagents, how about a grandma/pa beauty pangent w/ goans - not bathing suits - or OLD style suits from the 20s and earlier, a talent show, charge 5$ admit and give the winners a crown, etc. sharet

RedGarnet222

I guess I am thinking a little out of the box here, since so many good fundraisers and events were already posted.
How about an on going type sale of Granny Baby sitters for rent? You could pool all the ladies together and make up a list of the numbers and the days they are available. Then advertise in a local give-away paper.
Or how about a sewing class that is a set price per class but the class is every week. I know at first the class may be small but it will grow if you make it fun! Or cooking classes if you can use that nice kitchen. The receipe cards as a hand out.
Don't under rate services as a sellable item.

Cris

Bake sale, cookbook, they probably have wonderful recipes, Solicit nearby businesses for item for raffles or silent auctions. Make "themed baskets" (spaghetti dinner, booze basket, baking basket, etc.) for raffles. Do a cash, 50/50 raffle, winner gets half (sell 1 ticket for $1 or 6 tickets for $5). Have a steak dinner, salad roll, tater steak and veggie for 8-10 dollars depending on what you pay for the steaks. Ask your local boy scouts and girl scouts to help, they earn badges too. Have a pancake breakfast.

Ramona Byrd

Have some OLD movies shown..I mean REALLY old ones in black and white. Make it a dinner movie, and sell popcorn and sodas during the breaks. About 2 movies would be about as much as most older folks could sit still for, but I, myself, would love such a night to remember.

Old time music, none at all of the more modern stuff. I was raised on country music and can't stand the way it sounds now. The older music had rhythm and words you could understand, and emotions that hit your heart. Now most of the singers cram a mike down their throats and scream into it, and leave it to the sound people to make it into "music".