Fundraising ideas

• Have participants relax and get pampered during a fundraising event at a spa, salon, barbershop, or beauty vocational school.  Beauticians can commit to donating a portion of their proceeds for a day or a specified number of hours to your cause.  Supporters can receive a wide range of treatments, including manicures, foot treatments, massages, hair treatments, and facials. 
• Sponsors/Donations:  Approach beauty supply stores, women's apparel stores, nail salons, and other beauty-related businesses to donate cash or services in exchange for publicity during the event.
• Ideally, you would like a high-end spa to sponsor your event.  You can sell tickets for admission to the spa, and the spa will draw people in who have never been there and make money from the sale of spa items such as soaps, lotions, and oils.  If you plan your event for a time that is considered and "off time" for the spa and you can offer them a full house of your supporters that may become new spa patrons, they will be happier to do the event. 
• Other great donations toward this event would be a variety of soaps, lotions, and bath oils to use as gifts or raffle items.
• Possible Venues:  Hair salons, barbershops, and beauty vocational schools are appropriate.  A mall or shopping center might also be willing to donate space where stylists can work, which would give the event great visibility. 
• Preparation:  Decide when to have the event, determine your budget, search for your perfect venue and select what activities will occur at the event.  Advertise and during the event plan a time to thank your sponsors and distribute information about Pilot.
• Tips:  Plan your event around a special occasion, like Mother's Day, prom, or graduation and advertise it as a great place to come to prepare for an occasion. 
• Variations:  Suggest that the salon staff offer mini services, like a 15-minute hair trim, at a discount off the standard, full-service rate.  That way, the stylists (who often are self-employed) will be able to perform more services while donating to your club.

• Go "all in" on this fun evening of casino games.  Casino nights are popular and simple to promote, so it is a safe bet that you club will be successful.  Consider making it into an annual event. 
• Special Equipment:  Casino games, Chairs, Poker chips, Card tables, multiple decks of playing cards.
• Sponsors:  Ask party supply houses if you can rent games and chips for free or for a reduced price.  Solicit sponsors and items for auction and arrange plans for a catered dinner.  Try to find a company, business or individual who might sponsor the entire event.  The sponsorship cost could cover the cost of the venue and any rentals you may have to obtain to outfit the venue. Consider finding people and businesses to sponsor a game (such as a roulette sponsor) or a card table.  You can get, say, 20 sponsors to donate $100 per game.
• Try getting donations of cash or big-ticket items such as flat-screen TV's or even a car that will be used for a silent auction or raffle at the event.
• Possible Venues:  A casino, hotel, recreation room or any place that has the space and permits gambling is good.
• Preparation:  Start with a central committee of five people to handle the venue, sponsors/ advertising, money, games, setup and cleanup
• Decide when to have the event, determine a budget, start seeing sponsors and donations immediately.  Search for an appropriate venue that permits gambling.  Plan what casino games you will feature, and whether you will offer a poker tournament, auction and/or raffle.
• Tips:  Events such as this are good for utilizing many different ways of raising funds.  If you begin planning early, you can include a poker tournament, silent auction, and raffle.  Setup side tables that people can buy into when they get eliminated from their original card game table.  This is a good way to make a few extra dollars and it keeps people at your event from beginning to end.

• Have models or confident volunteers strut their stuff while excited audience members gain insight into the latest styles and newest trends.  A fashion show is a great way to gain immense profits for your club.  And great opportunities to get the word out about Pilot!!!
• Special materials:  Stage, sound equipment and catwalk
• Sponsors/donations:  Ask a few larger stores at a mall or some smaller boutiques to show their seasonal fashions for a sponsorship fee of $30 to $50 per item shown or ask for a sponsorship donation of $500 to $1000. 
• Possible Venues:  A country club restaurant or a local hotel is an excellent choice if you are serving a meal at your event.  If you are just serving hors d'oeuvres and beverages, consider a local community theater, which will provide you with a state, sound equipment and lighting.
• Preparation:  4 months
• Start with a central committee, decide when to have the event, determine your budget, start seeing sponsors and search for your perfect venue. 
• Tips:  To generate more profit, have volunteer photographers document each look that is showcased, and create a photo book with descriptions of each outfit and sponsors.  Include information about your club.  contact attendees about a week after the event to thank them and ask if they would like to buy a photo book for a memento and fashion guide or gift. 
• Variations:  Plan an outdoor fashion event such as a garden party.  Choose to have the items that are modeled designed by students.  Have experimental fashions that might be considered works of art.  Feature hairstyles.  Do a fashion show for children.

• Give participants the opportunity to tee-off for a good cause.
• Sponsors/Donations:  Try to find a company, business, or individual who can sponsor the entire event by covering green fees for the tournament.  That way, whatever the golfers give goes straight to your club.  Also, consider finding people and businesses to sponsor a hole or a golfer's game.  Each golfer can sign up sponsors who will pay a per-hole sponsorship pledge to the golfer.  Pledges of $100 each for 18 holes will quickly add up.  Attempt to get golf clubs, bags, and assorted golf related items donated to be bid on throughout the day in a silent auction.
• Possible Venues:  A public golf course or a country club will provide what you need.
• Preparation:  8 to 10 months
• Start with a central committee of five to ten people to handle the venue, food, decorations, sponsors/donations, advertising, ticket sales, entertainment, setup and cleanup.  Decide when to have the event, determine your budget, start seeking sponsors and donations, search for the perfect venue and consider what additional fundraisers will occur at your event. 
• Tips:  Find a good course with many amenities.  The nicer the course, the better turnout you will have.  Get a volunteer golf pro to attend as a way to advertise and attract more golfers. 
• Variations:  Have a miniature golf tournament to attract family participants.

• Rev up funds with a classic car show.  Have local car dealers exhibit cars and charge an admission fee for spectators. 
• Special Materials:  Classic cars
• Sponsors:  The best sponsors you can have for such an event are the classic car clubs.  You can find a car club in your area on Hubcapcage's website:  www.hubcapcafe.com
• Possible Venue:  If your club has a large parking lot, that is probably the best venue.  If you do not have a parking lot, or if you have a small parking lot, consider a city park, a mall parking lot, a new car dealership's parking lot. 
• Preparation:  Start with a central committee for the venue, food, decorations, sponsors/donations/advertising, tickets, sales, entertainment and setup and clean up.  Find car clubs and new car dealers who will agree to participate.  Search for the perfect venue. 
• Variations:  Motorcycle show, or a great indoor event is a Classic Antique Toy Show.

This celebration will offer participants a chance to dress in outrageous costumes and beaded necklaces!!  Be sure to serve delectable New Orleans-style food and feature a live band for the event.  With this theme, you can incorporate many different fundraisers, such as raffles, wine tasting, gourmet food and auctions. 

• Special Materials:  Mardi Gras decorations, beads, masks and party favors
• Sponsors:  Ask New Orleans-style restaurants to donate food
• Possible Venues:  A fun venue for a holiday festival is your club's home, whether it is a church, school or community center
• Preparation:  Prep time;  6 months to 1 year
• Determine your budget, venue, your entertainment, fundraisers (raffle, silent or live auction), pick an emcee, advertise, print flyers and tickets (begin selling three months out), write a script.
• Variations: Throw a St. Patrick's Day Party or a Independence Day Festival

• Mothers and daughters will enjoy a delightful and dainty afteroon wearing hats and gloves, eating finger sandwiches, and sipping tea and fancy tea sets. Put a box of fun craft supplies on each table, and have guests make their own hats to model at the end.  Set up a photo booth, and sell mother-daughter photos to guests.
•  Special Materials/Equipment:  Basic straw hats, tea and tea sets, banquet tables and chairs, sound system, hat decorations (scarves, ribbons, feathers, fake flowers, tisue paper, streamers)
• Sponsors:  If there is a hat shop in your community, this could be your best sponsor.  Find a venue to lend their facility for free.  Contact local craft storesfor donations of decorations.  Consider partnering with a samll nonprofit chamber music group or jazz ensemble to perform at your event
• Preparation:  Start with a central committee as heads of venue, food, decoarations, sponsors, advertising, ticket sales, entertainment, setup and cleanup.
• Decide when ,where, what menu and what activities will occur at your event.
• Tips:  Schedule this event around Mother's Day
• Variations:  Have a Mother/Daughter Spa Day; Have a father-son event, like a sailing, golfing or fishing tournament.

Set out collection canisters at point-of-sale locations like store check-out counters, or public places like libraries and community pools, and ask people to toss in every penny in their pocket or purse. 

• Special Materials/Equipment:  Collection canisters, Penny wrappers, penny sorters
• Sponsors/Donations:  Contact a bank that offers a coin counting service to its customers and ask if it will count your pennies at no charge
• Possible Venues:  Retail Stores, libraries, government buildings, banks and anywhere else you might find people with money in their pockets works well
• Recommended Volunteer:  5 to 6 to distribute collection canisters, pick up filled containers, count and wrap pennies, and take the rolls to the bank
• Peparation:  Distribute the containers.  Put a label on each container explaining the reason for the fundraiser, the name of your club and the day the penny drivce concludes.  Ask the sponsing location to call your club when the container fills up. 
• Execution:  Volunteers should visit sponsoring locations on a regular basis to pick up full containers and leave empty ones in their place. 
• Tips:  Bring a handcart and a box when picking up containers.  Even small canisters will be surprisingly heavy when full.
• Variation:  Collect all spare change and call it Change for Change and write on the container what positive transformation the money will help your club bring about. 

Help Santa and all the tired shoppers during the gift-giving season by offering gift-wrapping for a charge.  
Special Materials/Equipment:  Wrapping paper, tape, gift tags, scissors, ribbons

• Sponsors/Donations:  Ask stationery stores, florist shops, card stores, and discount retail stores for donations of wrapping materials; ask neighbors and club members to donate as well.
• Possible venue:  Malls, shopping centers, department stores, bookstores.
• Recommended volunteer:  4-5 who can do a neat job of wrapping. 
• Preparation:  promote the event through news releases, bulletin boards and newspapers
• Execution:  Set up the wrapping station in a highly visible place. Display the rolls of paper so shoppers can make their choice.
• Tips:  If you have a secure area where packages can be stores, offer to hold the wrapped packages while people shop: charge a small fee
• Variation:  Offer a gift bag option or gift basket option.  Provide an assortment of fancy bows and ornaments to be used as decorations for an extra fee. 

• Invite bowling teams, kids, families and others for an afternoon of bowling and refreshments.  This low-cost fundraiser is easy to run and requires no special equipment other than the bowling balls and rental shoes already provided at the alleys. 
• Sponsors/Donations:  Persuade your favorite bowling alley to give your club a percentage of money generated by supporters who attend the fundraiser.
• Contact local businesses for sponsorships in exchange for publicity at the event and in any promotional materials that are sent out. 
• Ask retail businesses to donate raffle prizes and a pizzeria to donate food that can be sold to raise additional cash.
• Possible Venue:  a large bowling alley in a metropolitan area is ideal.
• Recommended volunteers:  5 to 10 to promote the event, collect money, run the concession and award prizes.
• Preparation:  Promote the event in local media through ads in free community papers, signs on bulletin boards, and news releases sent to radio and TV stations. 
• Execution:  Crank up the music, throw open the doors, and watch the money roll in in.  Have volunteers circulate among bowlers and offer to deliver snacks and drinks alley-side.
• Tips:  Find a bowling alley that offers Cosmic Bowling to create a party atmosphere.  Consider charging a higher-than-usual flat fee to increase profits but be sure to let participants know up front how much they must pay. 
• Variations:  In addition to charging an admission fee, have participants collect pledges tied to their bowling prowess.  Pledges can be based on the number of pins knocked down, the number of gutter balls or some other criteria.

Bring the tropics to your town by hosting a luau, complete with Hawaiian music, a buffet of island cuisine, tropical drinks, hula dancing and tiki torches.  Sell island-inspired goods like leis, grass skirts, Hawaiian shirts, and macadamia nuts.  Award prizes to attendees with the most colorful or authentic Hawaiian garb.  Charge a general admission fee, and charge separately for the buffet. 

• Special Materials/Equpment:  Sound equipment (microphone, speakers) and Hawaiian decorations. 
• Sponsors/donations:  Line up a local band that can play island tunes to donate a few hours of play time or a dj!!  Locate reataurants that can prepare and donate Hawaiian-style pork, ribs or barbecued chicken, or seek donations to purchase menu items.  Contact party supply stores for donations of leis, grass skirts, and tiki torches.  Ask a bar to donate bartending time and ingredients for mai tais, pina coladas, and non-alcoholic fruit drinks.  Find a dance troupe to perform native dances.  Ask local businesses for prizes. 
• Possible Venues:  A public beach, municipal park, fairground or parking lot is a good option. 
• Recommend volunteers:  15+ depending on the number of activities offered
• Preparation:  Promote the event heavily in local media; advertise in free community papers;  distribute fliers, give details on your club's website or facebook page and post noticies on bulletin boards.  Create a venue plan, including buffet logistics. 
• Execution:  Have volunteers don Hawaiian shirts.  Play recorded Hawaiian music while selling food and souvenirs.  Have live entertainment and dancing after the sun sets.  Hold a drawing for the best Hawaiian outfit. 
• Tips:  Check to see whether a license is needed to hold the event
• Variations:  Serve a traditional meal luau-style around an open fire pit.

A family-friendly event that will put the "wild" in anyone west-or east- of the Mississippi. Offer Western-themed activities, sell refreshments, baked goods, and souvenirs.  Hold a contest for the best Western attire and offer pony rides.  Charge an entry fee, or charge to participate in activities. 

• Special Materials/Equipment:  Kid games (ie lasso a stuffed animal), Pictures to color, Party favors (sheriff badges, toy horses), Plywood and paint (to build a fun Western town backdrop) Adult games (ie horseshoes and darts) and face painting supplies..
• Sponsors/Donations:  Approach local civic groups known for supporting children's causes for sponsorships or donations.  Ask a horse farm or sstable to provide pony rides at a reduced cost
• Possible Venues:  Try a municpal park, school auditoriaum or gymnasium, stable or farm
• Preparation:  Send out news releases, and advertise the event in local media.  Post notices on open bulletin boards in stores and at day care centers.  Map out the staging area to accommodate the various activites.  Designate a clean-up committee. 
• Execution:  Assign volunteers to take tickets, run games, do face painting and run concessions.  Offer Western-themed fare, like corn on the cob, baked beans and chili along with burgers and hot dogs.  Play country music for dancing. 
• Tip:  Make sure the person or company that provides pony rides is insured and can provide helmets for riders

• This food sampling event is meant to give supporters a good taste of some of the community's top local restaurants. Community members can pay an entry fee to sample savory specialties and signature dishes prepared by local chefs. 
• Special Materials:  Cooking and serving supplies and ingredients.
• Sponsors:  See if your local chamber of commerce will sponsor this event, because the fundraiser may generate a large amount of business for local restaurants
• Ask Restaurants to donate the time of their chefs and the ingredients of the prepared dishes.  Talk to the restaurants about the free advertising they will receive with their participation.  Seek local media.
• Possible Venue: A large hotel with kitchen facilities and space to seat a large number of people is best.  Other options include a church, social club or school with a kitchen and open space for tables and chairs.
• Prep time:  8 months to one year:  Central committee of seven who will head up committees:  venue, food, decorations, sponsors/donations, advertising, ticket sales, entertainment, set up and clean up.
• Sell tickets at a central ticket booth.

• Invite supports of your club to a party where they can indulge in a decadent variety of chocolate.  Send out fun-size chocolates or personalized candy bars with your invitations to ensure a sweet response.  Charge fee for admission. 
• Special Materials:  Presentation equipment and materials, Chocolate, Chocolate related food items
• Sponsors/Donations:  A local chocolatier, chocolate shop or candy company could be the best sponsor.
• Research your community for local chefs and bakers that do great things with chocolate.  Ask these individuals to take part in your event. 
• Possible venue: A nice upscale hotel with comfortable meeting and/or banquet facilities is ideal.
• Preparation Time:  4-6 months:
• Identify your venue and date.
• Determine your budget!
• Seek a partnership with a local chocolatier or chocolate shop.
• Select what activities will occur at your event.
• Advertise
• Use the event's them in evening.
• Three months prior to the vent, print tickets and have everyone in your club sell tickets.
• Write a script to serve as your minute-by-minute flow of activities for the event.
• Hold a meeting all event volunteers and go over the tasks and schedule.
• Execution: Come early to set up and decorate; Have volunteers collect tickets and sell more at the door. Follow your script. Initiate cleanup.
• Variations:  Throw an Ice Cream tasting Party; Have a Coffee Tasting Party 

Auction off gourmet desserts with a Chinese auction.  Chinese auctions are a combination of silent auctions and raffles.  Supporters purchase tickets for a set price and use the tickets to bid on the items by dropping them into container next to the item.  The more tickets a supporter drops into a container, the better chance of winning.  At the close of the auction, a ticket is drawn from each container identifying the auction winner. 

• Special Materials/Equipment:  Display tables and gourmet desserts
• Sponsors/Donations:  Seek bakers or volunteers with a knack for baking to donate specialty sweets.
• Possible Venues:  A hotel banquet room works well because the hotel can provide catering, lighting, a sound system, tables, and seating.
• Preparation:  6 months:  Start with a central committee of five to seven people who will serve as committee heads for the venue, sponsors/donations, and advertising as well as to run the Chinese auction. 
• Decide when to have the event.
• Determine your budget.
• Start seeking sponsors and dessert auction items.
• Book an appropriate venue.
• Advertise by sending e-mails, and letters, posting fliers, on your club's website, local media.
• Have your various committees meet regular.
• Hold a meeting with all event volunteers and go over the tasks and schedule. 
• Execution: Come in early to set up. Follow a script to run the Chinese auction; Periodically announce the time left to enter the auction, including the one-minute mark. Announce the winners and present them with their desserts. Initiate cleanup at the designated end time.

Partner with a massage therapist or massage therapy studio to offer everything from chair massages to whole body treatments.  Typically, a portion of the proceeds is donated to the club (usually 10 to 50 %) of the massage cost, while the balance goes to the masseur's/hosting studio. 

• Special Materials:  Massage tables or chairs
• Sponsors/Donations:  In addition to locating masseurs who agree to offer their services, funds will be needed to provide refreshments, including snacks like cookies or fruit, and non-staining beverages like lemonade and bottled water.  You can increase your club's take by holding a raffle with cash prizes or goods solicited from local business owners.
• Possible Venues:  A massage therapy studio, mall or other space with a large open area, community or church fair where a row of chairs can be accommodated, or even a home improvement, camping, boat or other convention center show can work if the venue will provide space for free.
• Preparation:  Have professional signs printed for the event.  Prepare promotional copy that can be used to advertise the event on the venue's and Pilot's website.  Send news releases to your community's free newspapers, and broadcast and print media outlets.  Prepare fliers that can be handed to passers-by.  Check with your state concerning gaming rules for raffles. 
• Execution:  Assist masseurs with the transport of chairs and tables to the venue, if necessary.  Have volunteers chat up passers-by and hand out flyers to those who walk by.
• Tips:  If held at a mall or shopping center, have volunteers offer to carry packages to the car as a value-added service.

• You can earn a 90 percent profit with this promotion.  Sell fundraising scratch cards which typically have 60 dots on them under there are various amounts to donate from zero to $2.50.  The donor chooses and scratches off a dot to uncover the amount to be paid.  Because the amounts are low, buyers may choose to scratch off more than one dot.  If all dots are scratched off, the card totals $100.00
• Special Materials/Equipment:  Fundraising scratch cards available online and can be personalized for your club
• Sponsors/Donations:  Scratch cards are inexpensive, so many clubs simply purchase them with funds from their operating budget.  but if you solicit donors, offer them the opportunity to put their name and/or company logo on the cards
• Possible venue:  Try this fundraiser at Pilot events, for door-to-door sales, outside retail stores, and in conjunction with other fundraising activities
• Preparation:  Obtain a solicitation license if going from door to door.  Obtain permission to set up outside a retail store
• Execution:  Wear T-shirts or buttons that identify club members of your club.  Have documentation available showing that your club is a registered non-profit
• Tips:  Some scratch card providers include a sheet of national brand name coupons that can be given to donors as a token of thanks.  The donation amounts on these cards typically run from zero to $2.50 for a 60-dot card, and $1 to $5 for a 30-dot card
• Variation:  Tie a scratch card promotion to your club's goals.  For instance, if your club raises money for a local Alzheimer's chapter, hold your fundraiser during an annual Alzheimer's Walk.

Easy to organize and simple to run, a candle sale can shine a new light on fundraising for your club!!! 

•  Special Materials:  Sample candles, easel for signs, cashbox and startup funds for making change, tables.
• Sponsors/Donations:  Contact a candle company to propose a sponsorship arrangement. Work with a gift store to obtain donations of past-season product. Ask a small or shopping center management office to sponsor the event. 
• Possible Venues:  Malls, shopping center, grocery store lobbies, or community events like art or craft shows work well.
• Preparation:  Advertise the event in free community newspapers and on store bulletin boards.  Send a news release to the community events editor at local papers.  Price the merchandise or create signs indicating the prices.  Work with a print or sign store to create a professional-looking sign.
• Execution:  Create an attractive display by placing small boxes or books of different sizes on the table and covering them with a tablecloth to create a landscape on which to arrange merchandise.  If holding the sale in a shopping center or mall, ask the facility's management company to broadcast periodic announcements about the sale to attract buyers.  have information about your club and Pilot International and business cards available.
• Tips:  Tie the sale into the holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine's Day and Easter. Host a candle party with products from one of the many companies found online which provide everything needed for a successful event.

Attract attention and make everyone from small kids to the young at heart happy with a colorful balloon bouquet.  Balloons can be sold anywhere people congregate, but are especially appropriate at kids' parties and events. 

• Special Materials/Equipment:  Tank of helium, balloon weights, balloons-mylar and/or latex, colored string or ribbon
• Sponsors/Donations:  Companies that cater to children, like kid-friendly hair salons, pizza parlors, water parks, skating rinks, and toy stores.  Craft shows might also be a good place to set up a balloon booth. 
• Possible Venue(s):  City fairs, church festivals, or school events (i.e. sports games, dances) are great places
• Preparation:  Gather all materials.
• Execution:  Inflate a bouquet of balloons (10 or more) to attract interest at events or for in-store displays.  Sell them on-demand and customized to each customer's preferences. 
• Tips:  In addition to offering colored balloons, always have varied assortment of design balloons on hand for occasions including birthdays, graduations, weddings, new babies, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Christmas, and New Year's Day. 
• Variations:  Offer a balloon service at a hospital in concert with the in-house florist or floral provider.  Deliver the balloons or bouquets directly to patients' rooms.  Offer add-on items like candy or stuffed animals to increase the price point of each balloon sale.  Host a balloon release event.  Tag balloons with a card listing the purchasers 'names and return addresses.  Have a ceremony to release the balloons and award a prize to the person whose balloon travels the farthest.

• Late winter or early spring is the perfect time to cultivate a flower bulb fundraising effort.  Your members will use colorful brochures provided by the bulb supplier to entice customers.  The bulbs are shipped en masse directly to your club so you can distribute orders to buyers. 
• Special Materials/Equipment:  T-shirts with the name of your club
• Possible Venue:  Community events, church fairs, shopping centers or malls are good options.
• Preparation:  Find a bulb supplier online.  Order brochures and order forms.  Prepare signs to display on your table.  Promote the sale in community newspapers and on bulletin boards.  Send a news release to the lifestyle editor of local newspapers and broadcast stations, emphasizing what the funds will be used for. 
• Execution:  Set up a table with signs.  Place a potted plant or two on the table to put buyers in a floral frame of mind.  Have volunteers greet passerby in a friendly way before hitting them up with a sales pitch.  Help customers fill out order forms. 
• Tips:  Offer home delivery of bulbs to customers for an extra charge.  Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes cost as little as $4.95 to mail from the U.S. Postal Service and make it easy to send out orders. 
• Happy Selling!!!!

Collect donated clothing, accessories, household goods, small appliances and other treasures and resell them at a profit.  Locate a no-cost venue and 100% of the profits will go to your club!!! 

• Special Materials/Equipment:  Cashbox and start-up funds; Pilot Club t-shirts, tables to display merchandise, Signs to advertise the event
• Sponsors/Donations:  The general public is the best source of donations;  Contact retailers for dinations of out-of-season or other unwanted merchandise you could sell
• Preparations:  Start requesting merchandise donations at least three months in advance through free community papers and the media.  Designate a central collection point.  Create a donation receipt.  Sort Through merchandise as it arrives to keep the job manageable.  Price individual items using preprinted tags.  Place similar items in a large box at one price.  Advertise the sale dates in free community newspapers and on free bulletin boards.  Send a news release to the local media. 
• Execution:  Set up your merchandise and enjoy the rush of rummagers.  Have volunteers sell refreshments like coffee and doughnuts to keep shoppers energized.
• Tips:  time the sale for spring cleaning season or before the holidays when people are looking for a last minute charitable tax deduction;  Donate leftovers to another organization
• Variations:  Try setting up a trading post and charging participants an entry fee to come trade their unwanted items for some else's treasures. 
• Pilot Club of Belen NM has a space that has been donated to them that they have created a Pilot Store and is open once a month in conjunction with a neighboring associations monthly flea market.  They average $300.00 per month in sales and they receive donations through the month that are gone through and organized prior to the monthly sale.  They have never lacked in merchandise or their faithful monthly customers!!!