How to raise funds for a non-profit?

I work for a non-profit that provides pre-school programs, adult education, and after-school programs to low-income families. Anyone has ideas on how to raise money for these types of projects?

We have done well with spaghetti dinners, and other types of dinners.

The most successful one I was involved with was an auction. It involved everyone collecting a total of a couple hundred donated items to be auctioned off, and we provided a pre-auction dinner for $15 per person, $25 per couple admission fee(Basic convention fare prepared in a borrowed commercial kitchen). We gave away a couple of items, but we also had most of the small items placed for silent auction. We still had the larger items auctioned off by an amateur, but experienced auctioneer(meaning he wasn't a bonded auctioneer, but since it was for a nonprofit we were able to get a permit). We made more in that night than 15 spaghetti dinners. It was very successful.

Another time we did a raffle, also tied in with a high priced dinner, and did rather well, but it would depend on how your community views a raffle, because some see it as gambling.

The usual i guess. Car washes, bake sales, candy sales, donut sales, hot dog cook out, People will always buy food.

You can try to look for grants for your non profit

The best resource for this is Foundation Center http://www.fdncenter.org . They have a very good database covering all organizations giving grants and you can find foundations that are interested in supporting your type of cause. However, it's a subscription based website ($19.95 per month I think is the cheapest subscription price). But it certainly is worth the fee. You can subscribe one month, and make sure you get all the info you need and then stop the subscription.

If you want to try federal sources, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov - these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants.

CFDA has several ways to search for grants. I suggest you search by beneficiary and select Private Non Profit Organization and you can find listings of grants available http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALO...