The bagged chili lunch is easy too. Get people to pitch in and donate what you will need to make chili (all the ingredients plus your cheese. Also get some sodas.) Get a local restaurant to donate your silverware and napkins. Buy some bowls w/lids, single serving cups w/ lids for your cheese, and single packaged crackers (A lot of times restaurants will order these for you at their prices or they may even donate them to you. If you can't do that, think Sam's Club!).

Type you up a little something explaining what you are raising money for with a thank you. I do it in Word with four to a sheet so they will easily cut and staple onto my paper bags.

Make your chili, bag it up with the cheese, silverware and napkins. Fold your bag over and staple your thank you note on. Get your teams together and load up your cars with the bags and a cooler of sodas in different varieties. Then go hit up local businesses and offer them lunch and a drink for a donation. It is best to start around 10:30 and work until lunch time. It is impromptu, but we did 60 bags and made over $250. We also only had a three-person team!

And, of course, you can do sandwiches and chips too … depending on the time of the year. Plus, some people won't want the lunch but will still donate to help.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience here Angel! I always appreciate what you have to share!

1. Dessert auctions are more fun than dessert sales. Get you a real auctioneer, take donations at the door as well, and get the ladies at church to help you out by doing the baking. Make sure there are plenty of plates, forks, and servers and then encourage everyone to share their dessert. It is a lot of fun!

2. Keep a tally of what you are needing and what you have on the church bulletin board with information on how to donate.

3. We had what we called a BBQ Potato Dinner. Basically, you go around and get orders from local businesses to serve them lunch on a particular day for a donation (we did not set a specific amount). Then you get local businesses to donate the food or sell it to you at a seriously discounted price (let them know that you will deliver each plate with a menu that provides information on who you sponsors are and how cheap the free advertising will be). Sam's Club sells all you need when it comes to to-go boxes, brown paper bags, etc. Get a team together, prepare your food, and serve it promptly. We served over 250 plates of BBQ, baked potatoes, green beans, and a brownie and profited over $1600. Plus, we had a lot of the businesses tell us that if we ever did it again to make sure that we came back and took their orders.

4. We also offered a Canteen at church before Sunday School. We got the ladies of the church to bake us delicious goodies, brought in fresh fruit, made coffee and served it for a donation. We usually made a couple hundred each time and we might run 200-250 on an average Sunday.

Of course, it might be too late to use any of these ideas but there is always a next time.