<p>I am HS Sophomore(African-American) interested in starting a fundraiser for underpriveleged kids in Africa specfically vaccines and food. Any ideas on how i can start this project any suggesting are appreciated.</p>
<p>Several schools in our area, collect computers for African communities as well as travel to help them set up and learn how to support them, themselves.
<a href="http://www.gbengasesan.com/papers/franklin.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.gbengasesan.com/papers/franklin.htm</a></p>
<p>as far as vaccinnes and food goes, that is a big interest of the Gates foundation they might have a way for you to help through them.
<a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/default%5B/url%5D">http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/default</a></p>
<p>My d. is doing a series of benefit concerts for the African Great Lakes Initiative, which does trauma healing work with displaced persons and refugees caught in the Rwanda-Burundi genocide.</p>
<p>You might not have a single person around with that kind of talent to draw an audience, but if you look among your friends and acquaintances, you might be able to get something together. You could hold a dance, or an evening of rap, with contributions toward the cause.</p>
<p>And you might decide that raising money is less important that raising awareness. American awareness of current issues and needs in Africa is extremely low, and in the long run, raising that awareness may be more importnat than the money you raise.</p>
<p>Borders Bookshop offers a fundraising option starting around Thanksgiving and going til Christmas.......they'll give you a table and giftwrap. You giftwrap books, etc and keep your proceeds. You might need to be a non-profit. It's a very easy fundraiser.</p>
<p>One of my most successful fundraisers was "Breakfast and Tiffanys". Tiffany Jewelers will donate a % of the sales from a fundraising shopping event that you sponsor. They pretty much handle everything for you and you just spread the word and invite people. When I did this we raised $18k. This is obviously geared to adults.</p>
<p>Son is part of a group that did a sporting events fundraiser....an evening with the Philadelphia 76ers.....</p>
<p>Silent auctions are great. Art dealers will normally donate a couple of pieces if they can also display "for sale " items.</p>
<p>Fashion shows are popular - the clothes are donated for the event.</p>
<p>Cooking fundraisers are always popular. You could sell tickets to an event where various "cooks" agree to come with enough of their signature disch to feed X number of people. People would walk around the room adn sample food from your various cooks. Add a cookbook sale componenet for more returns. We added an "after party" for an extra fee. </p>
<p>If you hold an event, don't forget to hold a raffle to bring in extra cash. A piece of donated art is great for the raffle because the art vendor gets promo time. </p>
<p>Another option, which is one I really like, is the famous dinner guest option. You plan a dinner party and invite big draw guests......you plan to have a named "special guests" at each table and allow your patrons to pre-select at which table they want to sit.....I've been to one of these recently where I sat with an Ivy University Professor. Other guests were a newscaster, a famous chef, several politicians, a musician, a couple of authors, an NFL player, etc. The tickets were pricey and the venue was very cheap (I think the hall is normally about $500 to rent). I like this fundraising idea a lot because it appeals to so many different people. I also like like to cooking/tasting party idea because everything but the location is donated. </p>
<p>Of course, I'm in Philly so we also have cabarets. But, I have friends who have moved here form other places and they make funny faces when I talk about cabarets (they hate the idea of carting food). </p>
<p>There are surely good books on how to fundraise.</p>
<p>Perhaps you could sponsor something like a fun run or a dance-a-thon or exercise-a-thon.</p>
<p>I think that your idea is wonderful. There are many parts of Africa where the people are experiencing catastrophic need. Unfortunately, this is getting little attention in the US. Even if what you do is mainly raise awareness, that would be making a difference.</p>