Out of the box Fundraising...

[Kims Robot]

There is some info in this thread that has been posted fairly recently. We have a pretty big list of potential fundraisers in our thread, see if that peaks any interest in your team.

[JulieB]

We get $1000 for cleaning up after 5 home football games at our high school.

[Robocat1]

We do an annual Trash & Treasure Sale and advertise for donations (taken the night before) and usually make about $1300.

Max & Erma's also holds special breakfasts, profit about $1200 - no work for us, just sell tickets (they make them), advertise, and bus tables. Sure beats the old Pancake Breakfast we used to do where we had to get donations and cook and clean up!

Instead of just asking for donation, our community members can sign our robot (or a sign when there's no room on the robot) for a minimum $5 donation.

We host a Beach Party Dance for grades 4-6; an alumni DJs and we make about $1200. Everyone else at our school hosts dances for the high school, but we're the only ones putting on a dance for the middle school - and they all come! We sell hot dogs, pop and popcorn that night too. Then, they all sign a banner with the FIRST and LEGO logos and we add pics from the night and hang it in their cafeteria - great way to begin recruiting early.

Our golf outing and Night at the Races are taking a few years to get established - be patient if you do this, it takes 1-3 years to catch on, then its easy. But then, the profit is at least $3,000 each.

Aluminum Recycling drives are also painless and easy - just set up the bin and advertise. Very little time & manpower so even if you only make a few hundred dollars its okay.

We have also done a successful dunking booth at a local festival. Rent the booth and then get all the other high school activities and teachers to be the dunkees. Profit over $1000 in 5 nights. Very fun for us too!

Finally, just try to balance what you sell with what you host and vary the audience you sell to.