Gather your brushes, paint and canvas. Collect your saved Popsicle sticks, pull tabs, newspapers, buttons and old wrapping paper. Put on your play clothes and grab an apron. It’s time for a Green Art Show! When you have a passion for art matched with a love for your planet, you can hold a unique art show that pulls people in and makes them appreciate the Earth.

Start by inviting your friends and family. Ask them to create their own masterpieces with recyclables. Now encourage your town to join in. You can let teachers at the local schools in on the fun - have the students collaborate to make signature pieces of art from recycled materials. You can even hold a short drive in the week leading up to the art making to bring in stuff that otherwise might end up in landfills. Make it a challenge to create beauty out of old items.

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Open those doors and windows. Dust out those cupboards and linen closets. It’s springtime, time for renewal and fresh starts! What better way to give those old linens a new start than by creating something new out of them. Instead of throwing them away to end up landfills, try creating useful objects which can be used around the house. This is a green approach to recycling what you have, and turning it into something someone else can use.

If your group or organization has a few people who know how to run a sewing machine, you can easily produce some wonderful items. First, canvas the community for materials – sheets, pillowcases, towles, and old curtains can be laundered and used as raw material for many projects! Set about making potato sacks, hanger holders and onion sacks. Your ultimate goal in creating these new purposeful items is to host a kitchen and laundry helpful items fundraiser.
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With the advent of the popular cables series ‘Clean Sweep’ and other de-clutter shows, people are finally letting go of the stuff they don’t need, including even high-end items and collectibles. Most of these are donated to charity - why shouldn’t that be your organization?  Perhaps the folks in your town would be willing to donate their own attic treasures for a “Green Fundraising Event”; effectively reusing these items in a clean, green way!

Silent auctions are a great way to promote a fundraiser. Many donors have a set amount they come to the auction with, and you can set up the auction where the highest bid wins the item, with the remainder of the bids coming in as donations to your cause.
There are a few ways you can go about holding a silent green auction. You can host the event yourself, ask a local auction house if they’d donate the time and place for an auction, or commission an online auction house to hold the event for you.

If you chose to hold the event yourself, you’d need to seek out a location to host it, send out invitations, put out flyers, run an ad and arrange for all the items to be housed, photographed and cataloged. Then you’ll need to make sure you have a sign in book where the bidders can place their bid. This can be an expense, but by getting as much material, time and space donated as possible you can host your own silent auction which enables you to suggest a minimum price for items.

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Spring is a great time to have a party at the park!  If you are looking for a fun, green fundraiser, it’s a great time for that, too. Try something simple this year, and go back in time to when fundraisers were more about fun…

A box lunch social used to be the way a town raised money to pay for new hymnbooks for the country church, a furnace for the schoolhouse or lumber for a neighbor’s barn raising. This can still be a fun community get together that puts the ladies’ cooking skills to the test.

The job of the women is simple – cook a scrumptious lunch and decorate a box to hold it. Put a cooler block in the bottom to keep the food fresh, and choose foods that are best chilled – cold fried chicken or chicken salad, fruit or potato salad, fresh bread and homemade cookies or a wedge of pie or chocolate cake! All the wives know what their husband’s favorite dish is, and as for the eligible unmarried gals – well, this si their chance to spread some gossip about their best dish.

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A terrific fundraiser can be set up that is Earth friendly and engaging at the same time. Since it is a well known fact that people are nuts for pictures of their children, why not hold a photo shoot fundraiser?

Environmentally friendly photo paper and ink now exists that makes taking pictures greener than ever. Digital cameras and photo printers eliminate the need for film, and cut down on misprints. All you need is a location, a laptop, a transportable printer, a few digital cameras and plenty of batteries. Get a local office supply to donate the green paper and ink, or write a letter to one of the many manufacturers detailing your upcoming fundraiser and requesting a discount – usually all you have to do is ask!

Make sure your location has good lighting, and figure out some backgrounds and props.  Different colored sheets tacked to the wall and some children’s furniture (benches, a rocking horse, etc) can make the perfect photo studio. Add a few costume accessories like a cape, a feather boa, a crown or tiara and a cowboy hat, and you will be ready to start shooting!

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Ever been to the AYCE chili night hosted by the volunteer fire department in the small town down the interstate, or the charity dinner held at the civics center to raise funds for a local clinic or women‘s shelter?

You too can cash in on people’s desire to gather together and eat, drink and be merry! All it takes is a little planning, a thorough spreading of the word, and a few good cooks. Local businesses are usually happy to donate supplies, and volunteers can chip in as well.

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Remember those old plastic or spiral bound cookbooks with Grandmother’s church ladies’ association name on the front? Collections of recipes are coming back into style, and you can easily host a green fundraiser by making a collection of the best and tastiest recipes your community cooks have to offer.

Step one is the legwork - if you can, make the rounds of the senior centers and visit the shut ins and relatives of your group who lived in the time before the microwave oven. They will love the company, and you can collect some special secret recipes sure to please! Call your Aunt Daisy upstate, and get her famous jelly roll recipe, and find out once and for all what Grandpa puts on his ribs to make them taste so good.
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It’s that time of year again! Spring is well on its way to being here - in many parts of the country the last frost is already past, so we need to start thinking about our flowerbeds! This means it’s also time for another plug for the Art in Nature fundraiser.

This terrific ‘no minimum order’ brochure style fundraiser with a huge variety of seasonal flowering bulbs appropriate for any home or garden. You can offer supporters of your organization the chance to fill those flowerbeds and beautify their surroundings with a catalog selection 24 beautiful flowering bulbs - and every single one is guaranteed to grow and bloom.

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A great way to help the environment and boost your group’s income for the year is by getting innovative with natural products and educating your local community about how to clean green! Many people have dozens of cleaning products in their home that may do a great job of cleaning, but have some bad side effects. They can harm the environment either while being used (as with many aerosol products) or else wash into the water table and cause harmful agents to be released.

A great way to raise awareness is by selling natural, homemade cleaning products!  The ingredients are cheap, and many can be found at your local grocery. Check out your local dollar stores for oversized salt shakers with large holes and plenty of plastic spray bottles (don’t forget peel and stick labels!) Grab some simple plastic buckets - clearance Easter baskets and cheap sand buckets work great. If you can convince the stores to donate the items, even better!

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It’s almost time for shorts and tank tops, swimsuits and flip flops!  How many people have children’s stuff from last year that just won’t fit anymore, and will have to upgrade? There are countless other items to that become unneeded by one family, but might just suit their neighbors’ needs.  It’s the perfect time to host a ‘re-use’ rummage sale, to help pass things along to new owners and keep them from being thrown out.

Designate a location and specific days for people to drop off items, and get your local print shop to donate  flyers. Start a week or two in advance, and let the community know that you are collecting items for your rummage sale. Your local radio station might be willing to remind folks in the morning about going by to drop off items in selected days.

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