Need ideas for fundraising
 

I need to come up with some ideas for fundraising (part of the training thing for my business frat) And I can't think of any good ones, beyond the usual like car wash (it's already to cold here to effectivly do that) and such.
Anyone have some good ideas? any successful fundraisers you group has come up with?
We need to make $500.

Let's see... There's selling candy, but that's kid stuff. The car wash is a good idea. I've heard of people running a dance-a-thon. Another thing that you can do is to get a keg and a DJ and throw a party, with a small cover charge. 100 guests at $5 each, and pay the DJ with beer money.

Look into running a steak night at a local pub:

You sell the tickets for 20$, take half of the profits;
Pub gets people in the door and good free advertising, cooks 8$ steak and sells lots of beer to wash said steak down.

Do you have Bingo parlors where you live? The Bingos where I live are staffed by volunteer groups doing fundraising, and they get a cut of the sales.

You can make THOUSANDS of dollars with a "Spirit of _____" event where you rent a hall and basically run a multi-bar for the night.

You sell Booths to local bars/nightclubs/pubs/liquor distributors;
They give samples of their favorite drinks/food for a nominal fee (determined by tickets, which you sell, i dunno, a buck each, and take a cut);
You sell tickets to the event, capturing revenue at the door;
You provide entertainment (local band that fits with the theme of the event that really wants exposure);

Th problem with this is that the scale can get out of hand easily... 6,000 people under one roof (and drinking) can ignite easily. You need security, and more importantly there is the cost of the Hall, promotion and other things that you don't think about that sets up a break-even point. You don't want to LOSE money, I assume.

Christmase tree sales: be the middle man for a tree lot, and sell trees to family and friends and you get a cut of profit.

try the same method as Risky Business... :) just watch out for Guido the killer pimp

There are a few:

Around here, some churches and fraternal organizations have given up on having rummage sales, and instead hold one-day flea markets in their parking lots. They handle PR -- generally fliers, word-of-mouth, and an ad in the classifieds -- charge $15 or $20 a space for 30 or 40 sellers, and if they sell them out, have their money in hand before the sale even begins. And you can sell food and drinks for extra cash at the sale, as well as your own stuff. Of course you're in Calgary, and maybe outdoors isn't an option this time of year; is there a gym or hall you could get for free?

Craft fairs are good, too, especially with Christmas coming on (though you'd have to hustle). Get a hall, recruit crafters or artists (especially student artists) and sell space, publicize. With craft fairs, at least around here, you charge X amount for the space plus a cut of sales. You the organizers run a central book; when somebody wants to buy something from a crafter, they send them over to you with a sales order, you take the money and give the receipt, and they take the receipt back to the seller to get their item. At the end, you cash out to everybody minus your cut. And again, you can sell food, have a little music, make an event out of it.

Oktoberfest parties work pretty well -- beer, brats, some accordionists with attitude, and you're in business. Again, see if you can get the beer donated. You've got about two weeks to handle this.

The easy way to successful fundraising is to sell something good that you don't have to pay for. Promote yourself as a group to people who'll be willing to donate the beer, food, or whatever that you're going to sell.

The coolest fundraising gimmick I know belongs to a men's choir, who'll send out a trio for $50 bucks to serenade anybody for anything; usually it's "I love you" or "happy birthday," but other things as well.