We realized this at our school so now we do a fundraiser w/ Elite Team Services, no products to sale!!... Yahoo for that. Also, BoxTops is a hit and then a yearly auction.

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I am a board member on the PTA at my childs elementary school and they did a fundraiser recently that was a great success. The company they used was called Liquid Highway. The school sold 12 ounce bags of freshly roasted coffee for $10. The school kept $5 of that. We also had our own label on the coffee at no additional charge. It was something easy to sell instead of expensive junk that people don't want. Everyone we know loves coffee so it was very easy.

This year we decided to do away with our MANDATORY Fall and Spring candy bar sale. The candy bars were smaller and the price doubled. We decided to chance off what people want and need these days - MONEY. Each school family is responsible for selling 75 $1.00 chances twice a year. We give away $2500 - $1000 - $500. This year we gave away $8,000 - gave our principal $10,000 for the school plus purchased 2 smart board systems for the school at a cost of $6400 and increased our bank account with this and the other voluntary fund raisers we do each year. The only real expense is the printing of the tickets and your time in keeping track of who has what tickets and that they are returned sold. We pull the winning tickets for our Fall fundraiser at our annual Penny Party and do the Spring winners at our Home and School meeting during the week we have our Scholastic Book Fair. This way we increase our sales for both affairs and pull the winners in front of witnesses so there is no questions about who won.

I work with a nonprofit local foods organization in Madison, WI. For the past three years we have coordinated a school fundraiser for our area PTOs that uses locally-made and fairly-traded food products to raise funds for school programs.

It has been a great success thus far and grows every year. Last year sales exceeded $50,000.

Products sold for the fundraiser include a wide selection of locally-made, hand-crafted and fairly-traded items such as: chocolate covered Door County cherries; rich maple syrup; specialty jams, crackers and cheeses; and naturally scented soaps - just to name a few of the items.

Parents love the idea of selling something that is good for the community and that they can be proud to stand by and the local producers are really grateful to have this new and exciting way to bring their products to market.

Please visit our web site for more info on the event: reapfoodgroup(dot)org

I don't know if Stop&Shop food markets are in all your areas, but they did have an A+ bonus bucks program that is just finishing up. My school has already received $1000+, and that is without trying very hard. Next year, I'm going to be even more proactive about it. Check out their website at stopandshop.com for information about heading up the program for next year. This is a no-brainer kind of fundraising.

I also know of fundraising by selling candles. I can offer more information on that if you'd like as I see we are not supposed to "advertise". I cannot offer up my candle fundraiser to my school as it would be a conflict of interest, but my direct-sales business does have one, and I'm sure there are other direct sales companies that do as well, (candles or other items). Contact any of those kind of companies to see what they offer. Plus I believe our middle school in town already does a fundraiser through Yankee Candle.