I'm looking for unique fundraising ideas (other than selling candy, candles, doing car washes). I am working with a conservative Christian youth group and we need to raise several thousand dollars for a trip to Osh Kosh, WI in two years. We're in Florida. Any and all unique ideas are welcome. I've been scouring the intenet for ideas.

Our Home School Association has a Home Show every year in early November. They sell tickets for $5.00 which includes a door prize ticket. At the Home Show are all of the home sales products, Avon, Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, Longaberger, Creative Memories, Party Lite candles, Tupperware, etc. They serve wine and cheese. The door prizes are donated by the home sales booths and the Home School Association gets 10% of what people buy that night. I think it's a good fundraiser because there isn't a lot of risk, the group only puts out money for the wine and cheese and I am buying stuff that I can actually use and probably would have bought anyway.

When I was in high school, we took several major band trips that we did a ton of fundraising for. Aside from the usual stuff, we ended up selling Avon, Tupperware, and ourselves. Before I explain that, we also did citrus fruit in the winter which was big. As for selling ourselves, we set up a group that took calls for various work such as babysitting, gardening, cleaning, etc. The kids filled out forms stating what they'd want to do, and then the jobs were matched up with the kids. It worked well, because the parents and the neighborhood people were able to reliable, reasonably priced help and also help out the band.

My hubby and I are youth group leaders too. Our church has a long standing tradition of a Pie auction/ spaghetti dinner as a fund raiser. We have a spaghetti dinner and the only cost of admittance is one pie per family.

After dinner, we auction the pies to the highest bidder. In recent years, we have changed it to any desserts, which opens up the possibilities. Everyone knows that it is for a good cause and our main fund raiser, so the winnng bids on the desserts range from several dollars to $80 or more! (as the yrs. go by, people start to look forward to "Betty's Peach Pie", etc. and the bidding wars begin!) It is always a good time, especially if you can find "auctioneers" from the congregation that have a sense of humor. We don't have a large church, but usually bring in around $1,000. Let me know if you have questions.

i dont know how unique this is, but a co-worker of mine sells pampered chef, and apparently you get 40% of the sales as a donation, not unique, but a good cut i think.

Ok, bear with me as this is a bit long. CLASS (Children's Liver Association for Support Services) did this fundraiser. They sent out a flyer that said:
"Get Ready for the Best Holiday Party You'll Never Attend!"
The "In Your Dreams " Gala...aka "Mythical Ball"
The Mythical Ball is an imaginary event that you pay NOT to go to. Sound interesting? With so many holiday events...and fundraisers these days, we thought you might be happier curled up with a good book. This year you can stay at home while still supporting the CLASS' efforts to raise funds during the holidays. Simply check the level of support that is right for you. We'll give your regards to the other phantom guests and send you a holiday greeting card in the mail...Just think you can even claim it as a last minute tax deduction. What could be better?
__ Here's $10-I don't have an imagination!
__ Here's $15 not to come to the Imaginary Ball.
__ Here's $20 for me and my "Imaginary" date.
__ What a great idea! Here's $25 for your ingenious effort!
__ Here's $50 to decorate the ballroom with nothing but air
__ I wish there really was a gala event I could attend but here's $75 anyway.
__ Because I can't say no here's $100 to support your programs

The rest of the flyer had a place for name and info, who to make checks to, where to send , etc. I thought it was a very clever, great idea!
karin

Our youth group does a super bowl dinner. We charge $5 (actually just put out a basket and suggest $5). We have combined this with auctioning dessert, youth member slaves, etc. This is fun and also a good outreach to invite your friends to that wouldn't go to a regular church service with you.

Here's a popular idea in our area....

On Super Bowl Sunday, the youth groups throw a Super Bowl party for the adults, complete with a huge screen TV, mega-stereo sound, sodas, popcorn, chips, etc., acting slave labor throughout the game. But the cool part is, if the adults sign up in advance, the kids go to the adults' homes and bring the adults' easy chair, La-Z-Boy, whatever, to the church. That way each adult can watch the game with a bunch of other fans, in the comfort of his or her own easy chair. They can throw popcorn in disgust or celebration, they can be loud and obnoxious, and no one cares! Lots of the women in the congregations sign their hubbies up year after year! One church tried to cancel their Super Bowl event last year, and the wives wouldn't let 'em! They love getting the guys out of the house for the big game, knowing they aren't at some sports bar in the process. However, a few women also attend the event in their own easy chairs. For $10 bucks a head, a fun afternoon, the kids work and so actually earn the cash, and everyone's happy.

Here are a few ideas to add:
~ If you have a larger church hall, or access to a community building or firehall, you could hold a craft show/sale. You rent table space to crafters, then you handle the food concession, ie. hot dogs, nachos, sloppy joes, soup, etc.
~ You could combine that with a Chinese auction or silent auction with items donated by members and community businesses. Theme baskets also work well for that. Pick up the baskets second hand, use as much donated material as possible to fill them, and supplement with Dollar Tree items.
~ If you don't have a Krispy Kreme donut shop in your area, but there's one reasonably close (say, within a 2 hour drive), that's always a great fundraiser. Our band is doing that this year. You presell by the dozen, place the order and pick them up. There's no pesky delivering, either. You set a time and place for people to come and pick them up.
~ Raffles of a donated larger ticket item are popular here. One club at school sold tickets on a donated lap-top computer, another a donated pre-paid cell phone with minutes and accessories. Gift certificates are also a popular add-on to the main raffle item on the ticket.
~ A community cookbook sale. It requires a little up-front money, but if you don't order too aggressively, to make sure you sell out, you can turn a nice profit. Get as many church members as possible to submit recipes so that they will want to see their name in print and buy a book. If you time the arrival for Mother's Day or Christmas, you can score some extra sales for gifts. With pre-paid pre-orders, you can lessen the up-front cost.
~ Hold a kiddie carnival with a make-it and take-it craft area. The Oriental Trading catalog has some cheap, easy kits to use, or you can get the supplies yourself. Older teens or adults help the kids make the stuff. The teen group members also design and run the small carnival type games. Prizes can be donated stuffed animals or dollar store or Oriental Trading trinkets. Game players collect tickets to turn in at the prize table, with the more tickets redeemed, the larger the prize. If you can get a strolling magician, clown, or juggler to add to the atmosphere, that helps. You can sell food and drinks at the same time, or have a bake-sale table. How about a story-teller area for smaller kids? Make an afternoon of it for them.

HTH

If you have access to a gym, you can have lock-in for the kids with different events - like you can have them on New Years Eve, or any Saturday night and make an agenda - charge $20-$25 per kid - the local groups make $500-$600 a night with these events

Have you thought of putting together a shopping carts worth of groceries and raffling them off. I did this last year at my job. The money went to CMN. Made between $100-$150. The cart only cost me about $25 to put together. I put TP, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, HBA products, and some other stuff I got free through coupons and Rite Aid rebates.

HTH

__________________
-Lia
I love free stuff, but I love getting paid to buy stuff even better!

My son's elementary school did a cookbook from this website.
It was a very different fundraiser than anything they did before. People loved it. Many families bought several copies to give to relatives as gifts since the kids names were listed under the recipes that their families contributed.

http://www.fundcraft.com

__________________
Maria
riagraz1964@optonline.net

Another good one (especially right before the holidays) is Baker's Square gift certificates, good for any pie.

These were great for the $10 and under gifts.

T

Another idea with Krispy Kreme. They sell donut cards. They have 12 punches on them. With each punch, you buy a dozen donuts and get a dozen glazed for free. The card was $10. Can't beat 12 dozen donuts for $10 especially Krispy Kreme. My son sold these for his school last year and we sold about because every body around here LOVES KK.