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As a senior in college, I am not new to the idea of fund-raising. From the crew team in high school, to student government throughout college, we have done plenty of fund-raisers and have raised tons of money for different organizations. I first think that the selling of paper shoes, or shamrocks, etc. are great ways to get everyone involved. Most people have an extra dollar, and are more than happy to donate.

Most organizations have the paper "things" and all you need to do is request it from their public relations chair (check out the charity's website). For example, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, they have tons of contact information. I let them know I wanted some shoes that to sell to my fellow classmates. Not only did I get hundreds of shoes in the mail within two days, I got balloons, buttons, and many other promotional items. This helped us to promote the charity and let people know what was going on.

As far as a newer and fresher fund-raising ideas- contact your local wholesale florist. They are in every city in America, I promise. You can look in the phone book, or look it up on google, always under wholesale florist. They have flowers of every shape and size. The best times to take advantage of these flowers are roses/carnations on Valentine's day, lilies on Easter, and Poinsettias on Christmas. You can get flowers at unbelievably low prices, and you can mark it up pretty significantly and make lots of money for your group!

The other big money maker is producing a cookbook. Any specialty printer (which is again in every city in America), will be more than happy to put together the book for you. They offer relatively low prices especially if you are willing to stay with an all black and white production. It obviously gets more expensive if you add colors, but you need to make a decision on how much you want to charge to your potential buyers.You can offer prizes for the most creative recipe or even have an artwork cover design contest. These twists will only make it interesting and get more people willing to help. When you get everyone in the school or group involved, the cookbook comes together like magic. To think of this one in perspective- A good size cook book of roughly 100recipes will cost you less that $3 to print, cover, and bound. You could easily sell them each for $10 and make an unbelievable profit.

For fund-raising you really just need to think outside the box. Meet with local companies and see what they can offer you. Specialty printing stores would be a great place to start. They will have multiple products unlike other competitions. They have things including photo quilts, map puzzles, and even custom frames. All of these are ideas that can be ran with and to make a little bit of money! Let your imagination run wild!

Learn more about this author, Lindsay Silliman.
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