Re: Fundraising ideas?
 

A couple of our more successful fundraisers include setting up a table at parent/teacher conferences selling baked goods, bagging groceries at a local grocery store (assuming the store doesn't already pay someone to bag 'em for the customers), and selling hot dogs, brats, chips, and drinks outside the local meat market. (Drives business indoors.) These have all been good for a few hundred dollars, which, granted, isn't Big Money, but it ain't chicken feed either.

For the Big Money, you really need to get some corporate sponsorships going, or write some grant requests. Our team writes several grant requests per year, and we've come to realize that it's sort of a numbers game--a certain percentage are going to turn you down. But that means that another percentage will say yes. Just don't get greedy: remember next year is another competition with another set of expenses, and you can't go to the same well year after year and expect your benefactors to keep digging into their pockets for you. (Well, yeah, some will, but most like to spread their money around. If you're getting the same people to fund you year after year, you might want to talk to them about becoming regular sponsors.)