Many charitable organizations run fund raising activities from time to time during the year. Let's face it, fund raising is the main reason these organizations are in business. Most of these groups have someone inside of then who is an expert at fund raising and knows all the ins and outs. But every once in a while you get a room full of people who don't know where to begin. For those of you who fall into that category, these fund raising tips should be enough to get you started and in the right direction.

One of the most common fund raising activities is the spaghetti dinner, or any dinner for that matter. Tickets are usually sold in advance but can also be sold at the door. The dinner is usually held in a lodge or temple where the organization doesn't have to pay for use of the building. Tickets should be sold for an amount that will leave them enough profit for each dinner served. Most people who come to these know that they're doing this for charity and aren't expecting a meal fit for a king.

Another common fund raising activity is the walk-a-thon, or bowl-a-thon, or dance-a-thon. This is where a large group of people get together for an extended period of time, each one with a number of sponsors behind them. These sponsors pay these people based on how many games they bowled or how long they danced or how many miles they walked. Some people just donate a set amount regardless of how long you held out. These are usually very profitable.

Another common fund raising activity is the raffle or auction. This is where a large number of tickets, hopefully anyway, are raffled off for a particular item. The more valuable the item the more tickets you have a chance of selling. Most of these items are either donated by companies who are looking to make charitable deductions from their income tax or people who belong to the organization who make something special for the raffle. The hardest part about these type of fund raisers is getting the item.

Another great fund raiser, similar to the raffle, is the tricky tray. Tricky trays, which used to be called Chinese auctions, are very hard to run and very time consuming to pull off. With most tricky trays you're looking to raffle off several hundred items and not just the one or two with a regular raffle. A tricky tray can take several months to a year to get all the items needed for the event. For this reason, tricky trays aren't run as much as they used to be as so many other fund raising activities are so much easier to pull off.

And of course, with a little imagination, there are other things that you can do such as running holiday parties where people bring donations to the party and in return get a wonderful evening of food and drink as well as some great door prizes.

There are many ways to raise money. All it takes is the will to get it done.