I'm not involved in the older kid stuff, but how about doing camps as a fundraiser. Example: have the football team have a camp for smaller kids, showing them how to do football stuff. Science Club do a science camp with lots of exerpiments. Music Club and a Jam Camp where they teach kids musical stuff. Dance Team have a camp for smaller kids. Drama Club have a camp for future actors.
My oldest is now in 7th grade (which is where our middle schools start), so I'm still pretty new to this. Also, I'm in a school with 7th-12th graders, which also makes a difference.
Bottom line, though, is we don't do many activities that involve kids. We do co-sponsor an afterschool program for the middle school students that runs 3 days a week and keeps them out of trouble. But as for nightime activities, we really don't do much. No catalog sales, or sales of anything else. We have one big fall fundraiser, which is a craft fair (and most of the craftsmen have no real connection to the school; only a handful are parents).
Most of our programming is geared towards parents--seminars on keeping your kids drug free, navigating your way through a new school, stuff like that. I am finding it to be a huge adjustment! It is very, very different from elementary school.
Is anyone on a higher grade that 5th for PTO? If so, what do you do for activities? Do you plan capital projects? (no play ground at this age) How do you approach these? I know from the elementary things seem to be so different. When someone asks me what we do at the elementary level I know exactly what to tell them. At middle or junior high, I am just not sure. Could something be wrong with that?