The essence of community-based fundraising

you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.

But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army

Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope,sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
Ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.

It goes on one at a time,
It starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they tsaid no,
it starts when you say WE
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.

Marge Piercy (quoted in Revolution From Within--Gloria Steinem)

How to Conduct Special Events

Examples of inappropriate events abound. In the extreme, if you are the symphony you don't sponsor a pie-eating contest; if you run an alcohol recovery program you don't have a beer bash. Often, however, the question of appropriateness is more subtle than in those examples, as shown in the following two case studies.
A question of timing: A community center in a factory town of 25,000 people held a yearly luncheon attended by about 500 people at $50-100 a plate. The luncheon had been a successful fundraiser for three years. In 1990 the town's industry laid off half of its work force. Unemployment in the town rose from four to 25 percent. That year the community center still held its luncheon, and still 500 people came. By the end of 1992 the industry had shut down altogether. Unemployment was now up to 40 percent; many people lost their homes and exhausted their unemployment benefits. The town was gloomy; businesses were closing. The community center needed the money from the luncheon more than ever. Since there were at least 200 people who could still afford the price, they held the event. They were sharply criticized for doing so in light of the severe economic austerity that most of the townspeople were facing. The yearly luncheon had become inappropriate due to circumstances outside of the control of the community center.
A question of judgment: A women's health organization holding a raffle offered as a top prize a case of fine, expensive wine. During promotion of the raffle a number of studies were released showing a high rate of alcoholism among women. An internal debate ensued over whether it was appropriate for a group working to prevent dangerous drugs and devices from being given to women to offer alcohol - a potentially dangerous drug - as a raffle prize. Proponents argued that only 10 percent of the population is alcoholic and that alcohol does not harm most people who use it. The chance of an alcoholic winning that prize was slim compared to how many people would be attracted to the raffle because of the prize. However, opponents swayed the group by reasoning that they would not approve of a contraceptive that hurt "only" 10 percent of its users. The group withdrew the prize.
Image of the Organization
As far as possible, the special event should be in keeping with the image of the organization or should promote the image the organization wishes to project. Although considerations of appropriateness sometimes include those of image, image is also a distinct issue. Many events that are appropriate for a group do not necessarily promote a positive image of it. For example, a library would choose a book sale over a garage sale, even though both are appropriate. An environmental organization would raffle a white-water rafting trip rather than a weekend at Disneyland. An organization promoting awareness of the problem of high blood pressure might choose to hold a health fair rather than a dance.
Energy of Volunteers
Looking at the volunteer energy required involves several considerations. How many people are required to put on this event? What would these volunteers be doing if they were not working on this event? Do you have enough volunteers who have the time required to produce this event - not only to manage the event on the day of its occurrence but to be attentive to all the details that must be carried out beforehand?
Volunteer time is a resource to be cultivated, guided, and used appropriately. For example, don't use someone with connections to possible large donors to sell raffle tickets at a shopping mall on Saturday afternoon. Similarly, a friendly, outgoing person who loves to talk on the phone should be the phone-a-thon coordinator or the solicitor of auction items and not be asked to bake brownies for the food booth at the county fair. Obviously, what the volunteer wants to do should be of primary concern. People generally like to do what they are good at and be involved where they can be most useful.
Front Money
Most special events require that some money be spent before there is assurance that any money will be raised. The front money needed for an event should be an amount your organization could afford to lose if the event had to be cancellcancelled. This money should already be available - you should not, for example, use funds from advance ticket sales to rent the place where the event will be held. If the event is cancelled many people will want their money back. Events that require a lot of front money can create a cash flow problem in the organization if the need for this money is not taken into account. Repeatability You need to consider whether the event can be repeated annually. The best event is one that becomes a tradition in your community, so that every year people look forward to the event that your group sponsors. Using this criterion can save you from discarding an event simply because the turnout was small the first time you did it. Perhaps you got too little publicity and only a handful of people came; if each of those people had a great time and you heard them saying things like, "I wish I had brought Juan," or "I wish Alice had known about this," then it may be worth having the event again next year. To decide if an event is repeatable, evaluate whether the same number of people working the same number of hours would raise more money producing this event again.
Timing
Find out what else is happening in your community at the time you want to hold your event. You don't want to conflict with the major fundraising event of a similar organization, nor do you want to be the tenth dance or auction in a row. If you are appealing to a particular constituency, you need to think of their timing. Farmers are mostly unavailable during planting and harvest; Jews will not appreciate being invited to a buffet on Yom Kippur; gay men and lesbians won't come to something scheduled during the Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade, and so on. The Big Picture The final consideration is the place of the event in your overall fundraising picture. If you find that the same people attend all your organization's events as well as give money by mail, you are "eating your own tail" and need to rethink how you are using events. If you cannot seem to get publicity for your events, or you are unable to find an event that reaches new constituencies, then maybe mounting special events is not the right approach. If, after analyzing your donor base you decide that your organization needs to increase its number of thoughtful donors, then you won't do as many events whose main purpose is acquisition. In other words, the results of special events (new names, publicity, new volunteers) must be fed into the overall effort to build a donor base or the effort put into the event will have mostly been wasted.
How to Plan a Special Event
Special events require more planning time than one would imagine. Because so much can go wrong, and because many things often hinge on one thing so that one mistake can throw off weeks of work, events must be planned with more attention to minute detail than almost any other fundraising strategy.
The Committee for Special Events
There must be a small committee of volunteers overseeing the work for the event. Using paid staff time to organize a special event is expensive and does not help to train or involve volunteers in substantive fundraising tasks.
The job of the committee is to plan and coordinate the event, not to do every task. After planning the event, most of the committee's work consists of delegating as many tasks as possible. Large committees can be unwieldy and counterproductive. With a larger committee planning the event, it is likely that some important element will be left out, that the planning process itself will take longer, that the committee meetings will be like special events themselves, and that the committee members will quickly burn out.
Each special event should have its own committee, although there can be overlap from one event to another. Special events are labor intensive, however, and people need to have a rest period between events and a chance not to participate in an event. The committee must have staff and board support, and everyone must agree that the chosen event is a good idea. There are three simple steps a special events committee should take to ensure the success of the event: detail a master task list, prepare a budget, and develop a time line.

1. Detail a master task list. On a piece of paper make four columns labelled "What," "When," "Who," and "Done." Under "What" list all the tasks that must be accomplished. Include everything, even those things you are sure no one would ever forget, such as "Pick up tickets at printer" or "Send invitations to the board." Every minute detail should be on this list. Under the column "When" note beside each task when it must be finished. Now put the list into chronological order so that you have a list of things that must be done and the order in which to do them. After completing steps two and three, complete the "Who," column, noting to whom the task is assigned. When the task is completed, note the date under "Done."
2. Prepare a budget. Create two sheets to work with: one for estimating and recording expenses and the other for estimating and recording income. On each, create columns for the item being priced and its estimated cost (or income) and actual cost (or income). The actual costs and income are filled in after the event.
List those tasks from the master task list that will cost money and estimate how much on the expense sheet. List those activities that will raise money on the income sheet with their estimated income. When you subtract your expense sheet total from your income sheet total, you have the projected "net," or financial goal, of the event. The budget should be simple but thorough, so that all costs are accounted for and planned on. As you budget, remember that an estimate is not a guess. If someone says, "The estimate for food is . . ." or "The estimate for printing is . . ." it means he or she has called several vendors for prices, bargained, and is satisfied that the estimate will be the price or very close to the price you will pay. As costs are incurred they should be noted in the actual column. As much as possible, put off paying for anything until after the event and work in cancellation clauses for rentals or other contracts. For example, if a hall rents for $600 with $300 required as a deposit, try to reserve the right to get all or part of that $300 deposit back (if necessary) as close to the date of the event as possible. Ideally, of course, you will aim to get as many things as possible donated, but don't budget to get anything for free. Always put a price in the budget. This will protect you in case you do have to pay for something you had planned to get donated, and also give you a cushion in case you have an unexpected expense.
3. Create a time line. To ensure that you have thought of everything that should be done and that you have allowed enough time to do it all, think "backwards" from the target date for your event. If you want to have a dance on August 10, what would you have to do on August 9? To do those things, what would you have to do in early August? What would have to be in place by July 15? And so on, back to the day you are starting from. By this "backward planning," the committee may find out that it is impossible to put on the event in the time allowed. In that case they must either modify the event or change the date. Thinking through each week's tasks for the time line is likely to reveal expenses or additional tasks you hadn't thought of. Add these to your task list and budget. As you plan, remember to take into account that although there may be 90 days between now and the event, there may be only 60 "working" days because of schedule conflicts. For example, if a number of your volunteers have children, you should check a school calendar to make sure you don't need anything done on the first or last day of school, during spring vacation, or on commencement. Few organizations can have a New Year's Eve party as a fundraiser simply because they cannot get anyone to work during the two weeks preceding New Year's Day.
Establish "go/no-go" dates. On your time line, you will notice that there are periods of intense activity alternating with lulls throughout the time leading up to the event. The periods of intense activity, where several tasks must be accomplished and each is related to the other (such as design, layout, proofread, print and mail invitations) are called "task clusters." These groups of tasks must be accomplished as designated on your time line. The date by which each cluster must be accomplished is a "go/no-go" date. At those dates, evaluate your progress and decide if you are going to proceed with the event, or if you are too hopelessly behind or too many things have gone wrong and you should cancel or modify the event. Go/no-go dates can also include goals for how many tickets you should have sold or how many ads for the adbook, or how many underwriters are lined up to ensure that the event will be successful.
Once the committee has prepared the task list, the budget and the time line, they are ready to proceed in assigning tasks to other volunteers. When you ask volunteers or vendors to do things, give them a due date that is sooner than the one in the "When" column of your task list. That way, in the best case you will always be ahead of your schedule; in the worst case - if the task is not completed - you will have some time to get it done.
What Not to Forget
Here is a checklist of commonly forgotten items in planning an event: Liquor license. Insurance (on the hall, for the speaker, for participants). Contracts vary on this, but check it out. It often happens that a hall or auditorium is inexpensive because insurance is not included but is required of the renting organization. A one-night insurance policy or a rider on an existing policy can cost upwards of $1,500. Logistics of transporting food, drink, speakers, performers, sound equipment, and the like to the event. Lodging for performers or speaker. Parking: either a well-lighted lot or available on well-lighted streets. If there is going to be food: plates, utensils, and napkins. Are salt and pepper needed? Cream and sugar for coffee or tea? Heat or air conditioning: is it available, does it cost extra, will you need to bring your own fans or space heaters? Here are some questions you need to ask before the event: Is the venue wheelchair accessible? Make sure that all rooms are accessible, especially both the men's and women's bathroom doors, stalls, toilet paper dispenser, sinks, etc. Sometimes a building will be labelled "wheelchair accessible" when only the front door and one area of seating are actually accessible. Where and how to dispose of trash? Are there clearly marked recycling bins and trash cans? Will you allow smoking? If so, where, and is that clearly marked? Does the invitation's reply card fit into the return envelope? Has everything been proofread by at least two people? Is the organization's address on the reply card, flier, poster, invitation, everything else? Are the price, date, time, place, and directions to the event on all advertising? Have you considered the necessity of child care or language translation? How safe is the neighborhood? Will women feel safe coming alone? Can you see and hear from every seat? (Sit in a number of seats to make sure.) Who will open the room or building for you? Do you need any keys? Do you know how the lights work? Where are the fire exits?


The Evaluation
The final step in planning a special event is evaluating how it went. Within a few days after the event the planning committee should meet a last time to fill out an evaluation form, as illustrated below. Save this evaluation along with copies of the advertising, the invitations, and any other information that would be useful for next year's planning committee. The evaluation will allow you decide whether or not to do the event again and will also ensure that the same number of people working the same amount of time will raise more and more money every year. It should not be necessary to create the planning documents described above more than once. Once you have created them, every year a new committee can modify and add to them, but each committee is building on the knowledge and experience of previous committees.
Special Event Report
Approximately how much time did the committee spend on this event? In evaluating this, try to subtract time not really spent on the event (side discussions, eating) and be sure to count time members spent doing errands and making phone calls.
Comments:
Did this event bring in any new members? __ Yes __ No
How many?
Can people who came to this event be invited to join the organization?__Yes __ No
Did this event bring in new money? __ Yes __ No
How much? ______
Does this event have the capacity to grow every year? __ Yes __No
Comments:
What would you do exactly the same next time?
What would you do differently?
List sources of free or low-cost items and who got them and indicate whether you think they will be available next year:
What kind of follow-up needs to be done?
Which committee members did what work?
Other comments:
Which committee members would be willing to work on this event next year?

50 Ways to Love your Funder

55 Ways To ‘Feel the Love”
Grassroots Fundraising
(or is it friend-raising?)

1. Give it yourself. This is the easiest way for those who are able, although if you are able to give this much money you should be helping raise much more than $500.

2. List all your friends who are interested in your organization, or similar organizations. Decide how much each one should give. Write to them on your own stationary, include a brochure from the organization and a return envelope. Phone those people who don't respond in two weeks. Some people will need 10 friends to give $50, and some people need 50 friends to give $10. Most people will need a combination such as: 2-3 @ $50; 4-5 @ $25; 15 @ $10.

3. Give part of the $500. Then ask your friends to join you in giving $25, $50, or whatever your gift is. This is most effective because you are not asking them to do anything you haven't done.

4. Set up a challenge campaign. Challenge gifts can be quite small. Tell people you'll give $5 for every $25 they give, or will match every $10 gift up to ten gifts. For added suspense, make this challenge during a fundraising event. You or the host can announce, "We now have the Dave Buckstretch Challenge. For the next five minutes, Dave will give $5 for every new member that joins Worthy Cause."

5. If your organization has a diverse funding base with several grassroots fundraising strategies in place, use them all:
Sell 100 raffle tickets = $100
Give $50 = $ 50
Bring 10 people to an event that costs $10 = $100
Buy two gift memberships (@ $15) = $ 30
Get 15 friends to join (@ $15) = $225

6. Help with your organization's phone-a-thon. Bring the names of people you think would like to join and call until you have raised $500. Or trade names with someone in the organization and call their friends until you have reached $500. This is particularly effective for people who are shy about asking their own friends for money, but not afraid to ask people they don't know.

7. Acquire mailing lists for your organization. If you belong to another group, perhaps you can set up an exchange, or perhaps you have access to a list of members of some other group. You can ask all your friends to give you the names of 10 to 15 people they think would like to join. You would need to recruit about 25 members at an average gift of $15. Depending on how "hot" your list is, you might need as few as 200 names (to do a bulk mailing) or as many as 1500-3000 (if you expect a 1-2% response.) You would have to have a greater response if you wanted the mailing to pay for itself and also generate $500.

8. Give the organization something they need that is worth $500, such as a fax machine, filing cabinets, couch, adding machine, computer program, etc.

9. Pledge $20 a month, and get one other person to do likewise. Then sell $20 worth of raffle tickets.

10. Teach a seminar on a topic you know: Fundraising; Knitting; Organic Gardening; Organizing; Proposal Writing; Environmental Impact Reports; Gourmet Cooking; Dog Grooming; Starting Your Own Business. Charge $30-50 per person, with a goal of 20-30 people. Either absorb the cost of promotion, or have enough participants to cover it.

11. Give some or a lot of things to your organization's garage sale, making sure they are worth $500, and then help to sell it all.

12. With 4 or 5 friends, have a spaghetti dinner at a church or union hall or other big room with a large kitchen. Charge $10 per person and feed more than 50 people. You can charge extra for wine or garlic bread, or for dessert.

13. Have a fancy dinner at your home or a regular dinner at someone's fancy home. Serve unusual or gourmet food, or have special entertainment. Charge $25 or more per person, and have 20 or more guests.

14. Get three friends to help you have a progressive dinner. Start at one person's home for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, progress to the next person's house for soup or salad, the next person's for the main course, and the last person for dessert. Either charge by course, or for the whole package. To make it extra special (and much more expensive), get a limousine for the evening that carries guests from house to house.

15. Host a wine and cheese party. Do not charge admission and invite as many people as you can. During the party, give a short talk about your organization, and ask everyone to consider a gift of $25, $50, $100 or more (depending on the crowd). Either pass out envelopes and ask people to give then, or after the party contact everyone individually who came and ask for a major gift. Indicate that you have given, and if appropriate, how much you have given.

16. Get your gambling friends together. Charge a $5 entrance fee, and have a poker evening, asking that every "pot" be split with the organization. Individuals win and so does the organization. You can charge extra for refreshments, or include one or two glasses of something with the price of admission. (Watch the laws in your community on this one. In some communities it is illegal to gamble, even in your own home.)

17. Do one fundraising event every other month that nets at least $75. This might look like:
Poker Party $100
Fancy dinner (8 people x $25) $200
Sell 50 raffle tickets @$1 $ 50
Book sale $ 50
Recycle newspapers $100

18. Solicit small businesses, churches, synagogues, or service clubs for $500. If you are active in a church, or own your own business and are involved in business organizations or service clubs, this can be very effective. You can often raise $200-$500 with a simple proposal and oral presentation.

19. Take a part-time job in addition to your present work, and give everything you earn up to $500.

20. Ask 5-10 people to save all their change for 3-5 months. You save yours. Count it at the end of the prescribed time and use one of the other methods to raise the rest. (You may not need to.)

21. Ask 2-5 friends to help with a bake sale, book sale, or garage sale. You and your friends bake the goodies, or get the books or the other stuff required for the sale, staff it, and help clean up afterwards. This is an excellent way to get people involved in fundraising without ever actually asking them for money.

22. For the fairly rich: Give your organization $5,000 as an interest-free loan for a year. They invest it, earn 8-10%, and at the end of the year, they give you your $5,000 back.
23. Sell your organization's materials, buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers, or whatever else they have for sale. Also, help distribute these to bookstores or novelty shops.

24. The Farming Out Method: Entice 5 friends to sell 100 raffle tickets each, or to raise $100 however they like. Share this list of suggestions with them. Give them a nice dinner at the successful end of their efforts (or a bottle of good wine, or a weekend away).

25. Get a famous or popular person to do a special event. Watch the costs on this, or you may lose money.

26. Invite people to your birthday party and ask that in lieu of gifts they give money to your organization.

27. Conduct a volunteer canvas. For one evening, you and a group of friends take literature to all the neighborhoods around you and ask for money at the door. Be sure to comply with city and county ordinances.

28. Lead or get someone to lead a nature walk, an architectural tour, a historic tour, a sailing trip, a rafting trip, or a horseback ride. Charge $15-$25 per person, or charge $35 and provide lunch. Advertise the event in the newspaper to draw in people from outside your organization.

29. Start a pyramid dinner, or a chain dinner. Invite 12 people and charge $12 each. Get two people of the twelve you invited to invite 12 people each at $12, and two people from each of those two dinners to have 12 people at $12, and so on. Here's the income:
Your dinner $12 x 12 = $144
From your dinner $12 x (12 + 12) = $288
From those dinners $12 x (12 + 12 + 12 + 12) = $576
Twelve is used in this example because it worked very well for the Nuclear Freeze Campaign in California, which was Proposition 12. In many communities, most of the income for the campaign was generated by 12 x 12 dinners.

30. Collect cans for recycling. Ask all your friends to save their cans and bottles for you and turn them in to a buy-back recycling center.

31. Sell your frequent flyer miles to friends or donate them to the organization for a raffle. Watch the rules of the airline on this, but most airlines let you give away miles, and you may be able to sell your miles as long as you don't go through a mileage broker.

32. If you live in a nice house or own a getaway cottage in a beautiful place or an expensive city, rent it out for a week or a weekend two or three times during the year and give the proceeds to your organization. Or rent a room in your home for much less than the cost of a hotel room to people needing a place to stay while they are on business in a big city. You may even make a new friend in the process.

33. If you own a valuable dog and you breed it, donate the proceeds from one or two puppies. (I know some animal lovers will join me in feeling mixed about bringing more animals into the world when so many need homes; this suggestion is for people who were already planning to breed their dog. It is not intended as an incentive.)

34. Organize a service raffle. Get four people (one can be you) to donate a simple but valuable service that many people could use and sell raffle tickets for $3-$5 each. Keep the price a little high so you don't have to sell so many and so that the buyers have a higher chance of winning. Services can include childcare for a weekend or for any weekend night two weekends in a row; one day of housecleaning; yard work; house painting (interior or exterior), etc. Sell the tickets to neighbors, work mates, and to other board members. Encourage people to buy several by offering discounts for multiple purchases, such as one for $5, 22 for $10, but 3 for $13, 4 for $17, 5 for $20. If you are really bold or live in a more affluent area, or have few friends, sell the tickets for $20 each. A full day of housecleaning for $20 is a real bargain, and buyers have a high chance of winning with fewer tickets sold.

34. Offer to do something your friends and family have been nagging you to do anyway, and attach a price to it. For example, quit smoking on the condition that your friends donate to your group, or get your friends to pay a certain amount for every day you don't smoke up to 30 days. Agree to match their gifts at the end of thirty days if you didn't smoke give them their money back if you did. (This method could be applied to other healthy behaviors, such as exercising or not eating sugar.)

35. If you belong to a church, research whether your church or others has a discretionary fund. Many churches have small pools of money available to groups through a women's fellowship or pastor's discretionary fund or various seldom-used endowments. Grants are often in the $50-$500 range and so go largely untouched by fundraisers. Sometimes simply writing a letter will free up this money and it tends to be renewable if someone is willing to ask the church yearly.

36. Research all the service clubs in town and see what their giving policies are. They often have formal giving guidelines for large grants of $2,000 and up, but have smaller amounts of money available for specific small projects.

37. Find out what items your group needs and try to get them donated. This is good for people who really hate to ask for money but who don't mind asking for things that cost money. Items that one can sometimes get donated include computers, paper, office supplies, office furniture (second-hand from banks and corporations as they redecorate), typewriters, adding machines, food, even cars.

38. Ask someone to donate $50 a month for a year. Ask four people to donate $10 a month for a year. Ask nine people to donate $5 a month for a year. Get the organization to send reminders to them or send the reminders yourself.

39. Find a few friends who have small savings accounts and pool them into one account. Invest the pool in a Treasury Bill or CD and when it comes due, give everyone what they would have made if they had invested only their little amount, and give the group the rest. For example, if four people invest $2,500 each for a pool of $10,000 in a CD that matures in a year, they may be able to earn 6% interest for a total of at least $600 (actually more, depending on the compounding factor). If each person invests only $2,500 for a year individually, they may not be able to earn more than 4%, for a total of $100 each or $400 for everyone. The $200 difference can be given to the group while everyone gains the interest they would have made. Find more friends or invest for longer to make up the $500.

40. Give it yourself. (This is so good I have to say it twice.)

41. Strategy with a long-deferred payoff (we hope): leave the group a bequest.

42. With similar hopes as above, get friends to include the group in their wills.

43. Ask friends who belong to service clubs, sororities, antique collecting groups, support groups, bridge clubs, etc. to discuss your organization in their group and pass the hat for donations. A once-a-year sweep of even small organizations can yield $100 from each.

44. For the church-going: ask if your organization can be a "second collection." The church passes the plate for its own collection and then you or someone from your organization gives a brief talk (or sometimes the whole sermon) about your group and the plate is passed again; the proceeds go to your group.

45. A variation on the above is to organize a "second collection Sunday" and get as many churches as you can to take up a second collection for your organization. Someone from your group will need to be at each service and give a brief talk. Second collection Sundays can be very lucrative, as witnessed by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which collects $8 million on one Sunday in all the participating Catholic churches in the United States.

46. If, as a child, you collected something avidly that you now store in a basement, consider selling it. Coins and stamps are particularly valuable and have usually increased in value over the years. But your collection of rocks, toy ships or rockets, arrowheads, or dolls can also be valuable. When you donate the income from the sale, you can deduct that amount from your taxes-an added bonus of this strategy, since you probably paid little or nothing for the items in the collection.

47. Have a sidewalk sale or garage sale for your whole neighborhood or building. Go around to your neighbors and tell them you will take their stuff outside and sit with it all day to sell it if they will donate half or all of the proceeds to your group. Since this is stuff people want to be rid of anyway, it is a good deal for them. In one apartment building with ten units participating in donating stuff, an organization netted $3,000 in one day. Three people from the organization helped with the selling. With a few high-ticket items, such as a washer/dryer or some nice lamps, you can make good money.

48. If you have an artistic bent, offer to design greeting cards to specification for organizations or individuals for a fee. If you are good at calligraphy, sell your skills to schools for graduation announcements, friends for classy but low-cost wedding invitations, or just fun certificates such as "World's Greatest Dad" for Father's Day or "Outstanding Friend." Create unique Halloween costumes or masks. Donate the proceeds from your artistry.
49. Create a take-off on the "adopt-a-highway" technique by naming budget items of your group as available for adoption. You could develop a flyer that reads, "The following items have been found near death from negligence and abuse. Won't you help? $25 per month will ensure that our computer is maintained. $100 per month will release our photocopy machine from toiling with no toner and a dying motor. (We can lease a new one.)"

50. An idea for people who live in border towns: Get permission to place a large container in stores or even at the airports of towns near national borders. Have a sign that asks people (in several languages) to throw in any coins or paper money they have not exchanged. Many times people leaving Canada or Mexico don't have time to exchange all their money or cannot exchange their loose change. Multiply this times hundreds of shoppers or travelers and you can make a lot of money. UNICEF does this in many European airports.

51. Hold an "I'm Not Afraid" Auction. You do this with just a few friends or hundreds of people if you have enough items to auction. You survey a few people (and use your own common sense) about what things need to be done in their home of office that they are afraid of or would really rather not do. This is different from a service auction-there has to be an element of dread in the activity. For example, some people cannot wash their windows because their apartment is too high or the second story of their house is too high and they suffer from vertigo. If you are not afraid of heights, you can sell your window-washing service. This goes for drain cleaning, minor roof repairs, antenna fixing, etc. Of, if you are unafraid of cockroaches or waterbugs or spiders, you can offer to clean out that dark corner or garage or basement for a small fee. Snakes can be found in gardens and woodsheds, but maybe that doesn't bother you. The problem doesn't need to be as serious as phobia. How about allergies to dust, pollen, weeds? If you don't have them, you can mow, sweep, clean for a fee. By marketing it as an "I'm Not Afraid" Auction, you also have the option for people to name something they need done to a group of volunteers, and then have a volunteer say, "I'm not afraid to do that." In that case, you will need a set fee for service.

52. Similar to the suggestion above is the "Details Auction." This is for all your friends whose desks are overflowing with papers or who can't get their receipts in order to give to the tax preparer or who complain they can never find anything. If you are well organized, offer to clean up their desk, get their rolodex in order, file their papers, etc. If you like to shop, sell that to people who don't and do all their holiday shopping for them, or buy birthday, baby shower or niece/nephew presents for them. Anything that people feel they cannot control is the organized person's fundraising dream come true.

53. Find out which of your friends (perhaps this is true for you also) work in corporations with matching gift programs. Then ask them to donate and get their gift matched, and ask them to ask their co-workers to donate and get their gift matched.

54. Get an "affinity" credit card. (This is for really large organizations or chapters of national organizations.) A firm, such as Working Assets, sets up a credit card with your logo on it, and a small percentage of each sale goes to your group. The Nature Conservancy, the Women's Building in San Francisco, and others are using this successfully. It requires a guarantee of volume of users.

55. For smaller groups than in #54, think of a store or service related to your organization or where a lot of your members shop. Ask the store to donate a percentage of profits for a certain day or week, or even forever. You can also explore this with mail-order firms. Then you advertise widely to friends, family and members that Joe's Florist will give 2% of each sale during Valentine's weekend to anyone identifying themselves with your group.
As you can see, almost all of these strategies involve asking for money and giving money yourself. These are the basic premises of fundraising-you must ask, you must give. Everything after that involves creativity, imagination and a sense of fun. I also listed two twice-give it yourself and ask someone for it. That's not because I didn't really have 55 ways-it is because those are the best, fastest and easiest ways to get money.