Artistic – design greeting cards; calligraphy for weddings, graduations; create masks/costumes for Halloween

Auction – combine it with a dinner/dance (everyone bring a gift to auction off); solicit prizes from local businesses/individuals

Bake, book or garage sale – ask 4 or 5 friends to help

BBQ/cookout/fish fry – get volunteers to cook/ask grocery stores to donate food items/can promote to general community

Birthday party – donations instead of gifts

Bottle and can deposits – collect through school or work and redeem them for the deposits

Bowl-a-thon – get sponsors to pay a couple of cents per pin for three games/participants pay $25 to cover bowling, shoes, refreshments, etc.

Caribbean Bash – cocktail hour, buffet dinner, extraordinary raffle, silent auction

Challenge campaign – tell people you’ll give $5 for every $25 donation or match every $10 gift up to ten gifts/this can be combined with another fundraising event

“Change” the World – ask 5-10 people to save all their change for 3-5 months/you’d be surprised to find how much you’ve raised

Charitable groups or foundations – contact local groups/many hold fundraisers and are looking for groups to donate to – Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary clubs, etc.

Childhood collections – consider selling a collection/coins, stamps, rocks, toy ships, rockets, arrowheads dolls

Church and other religious groups – some have funds for worthy nonprofits

Coin Cans – place in areas where people have pocket change, such as gas stations, convenience stores, work, markets/decorate outside of can and have the charity name and IRC 501C(3) nonprofit corporation information

Dinner ideas – spaghetti dinner (charge $10 per person & feed 50 or more people); fancy dinner at someone’s home (serve unusual or gourmet food or have special entertainment/charge $25 or more per person & have 20+ guests); progressive dinner (1st home cocktails/hors d’ oeuvres, 2nd soup or salad, 3rd main course, last dessert – could have a limousine to carry guests from house to house); wine/cheese party

Galas and cocktail receptions – to raise money for research/enlist the help of local celebrities to host the event/it can draw a lot of new local people to accelerate CGD research

Garage/yard sale – ask your neighbors to donate and that you’ll sit all day if they’ll donate half to CGDA or put ads in local newspapers for donated items/make it clear that proceeds go to charity & that sale items are tax deductible/offer to pick up donated items/provide information about CGD before & at the sale/consider this an annual event

Getaway – if you have a vacation home & would like to rent it out where the proceeds can be donated to the CGDA

“I’ll Do It” auction – organize someone’s papers, shop for all birthday, holiday, baby shower gifts, etc.

Krispy Kreme sales - www.krispykreme.com/fund.html

Letter drive – mailing letters to friends/family for year-end charitable giving

Make A Wish – sell stars for $1.00 (or any amount) a piece/their name goes on the star & they are hung on a wall

Other “athons” – walkathons, bike-athons, dance-athons, swim-athon, bowl-athon basketball tournaments/may want to enlist the help of local civic organizations and will want to work with the police department for support/local businesses can be involved/collect pledges for how far they walk, bike, swim, etc.

Plant sale – start flowers & vegetables from seed and sell them

Potluck dinner – invite 20+ friends, each bringing a food dish, who will contribute $30

Raffle – ask local businesses to donate goods, services, free dinners, grocery certificate, haircuts, electronics, etc. and raffle these gifts

Resolve to quit a bad habit for a good cause – quit smoking on condition friends will donate to CGDA or get them to donate up to 30 days for everyday you don’t smoke/could also do this for exercising/not eating sugar, etc.

Rubber duck race – attach #’s to ducks

Service clubs – donations from sororities, support groups, bridge clubs

Service sale – baby sitting, housecleaning, yard work, house painting

Sundae party – ice cream social on hot, summer afternoon/could involves kids as a fundraiser

Teach what you know – lead or get someone to lead a nature walk, architectural tour, historic tour, sailing or rafting trip, horseback ride – charge $15-25 per person or charge $35 and provide lunch/teach a seminar: gourmet cooking, organic gardening, cat care, dog grooming, starting your own business/charge $20-50 per person with a goal of 20-30 people

“Tour to Cure” – Transamerica bike tour

Tupperware – have a sale with a portion of proceeds going to CGDA