I'm going to pipe in here with a few cents worth of comments considering we have just been down this road.
Some time ago we started trying some things out that served multiple purposes: a) do something good and b) give us a moment to tell our audience how modern engineering is related to (a)
One of these is a fundraiser for building a well in Namibia. There are lot of people doing this.
Key points to know.
Use this opportunity to go beyond the usual fundraiser and explain how modern engineering has provided clean water and how more engineering is needed to solve the problem.
Be fully prepared to explain the money flow. typical questions - are you personally going to put in the well. who puts in the well. how much money do you keep, etc....
Asking people to give up money or give up anything is frankly tough. Better yet, sell them something they want anyway.
Late last summer we had a robotics booth to promote FIRST mission, show off the robot, jazz up the kids, explain engineering and water. and we sold water as a fundraiser on this warm day. There were moms that literally were misty eyed over this.
Then we sold school spirit items at the ball game. Very frankly the item had to be something people wanted.
And currently we sell battery charger mod kits to FIRST team. See this
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=12
You need to have a FAQ like this one
here
We learned that many venues are almost always under contract to protect an existing vendor. As luck would have it we worked very hard and got into a venue and will be able to repeat this in the future. And it is a great venue to promote FIRST also.
Looking back over the past year,
the summer town festival has merit - you get a robotics presentation booth. people are thirsty, you sell water and tell them about robotics and modern engineering. Plus you get to protect the vendors that don't sell water. This works !
The other two items are things that people are gonna want and/or need to buy.
Good luck,