My hometown is trying to raise money to refurb the local Opera House.

If anyone has any ideas on really good ways to raise non profit loots please post them here.

This is a very small town just over 300 peoples in the town, so its gonna be tough.

you could try doing a music benefit, with raffles or silent auctions.. all proceeds go to the opera house..

We have raised mega dollars doing that for various families that needed help with medical bills after a death or medical issues.

Just have to get people to donate things and time that would be sought after for prizes. Good ones are like Hair or day spa type places with gift cards for services, jewelry, electronics (some places will donate for things like that)

Best of luck

take me to the car wash oh yeah car wash.... have chicks in there shorts and swim suits lol

Bingo. ( the game )

Community Farmers Market - if you are rural, thats where ppl donate flowers/veggies/herbs/time/etc and take it to a nearby market. If you arent paying employees or taxes, and people are donating time, water, etc - you can take a really small pool of money and turn it into a much larger sum if you do this right.

Seeding and growing cell packs, and selling 6 packs of tomatoes etc can be your best bet, even better than selling the veggies. Seed is cheap, cell trays are cheap.

Link sale and carwash. Can be done at the same time weather permitting. Or sell bbq dinner plates.

Free beer and hookers for donations of more than 50.00

whos buying the hookers? and what type of jobs do the hookers get to do for free?

Get some guns and womens stockings for two or three of you, drive your car up to a bank leaving the driver there whilst you go in with the stockings over your heads and the guns in your hands and ask nicely for a donation. You just have to be polite.

nice joneb

I was involved in a local theatre rennovation some years ago ... also done primarily through donations, albeit a much large city.

Best best, try and get local media to cover the effort ... especially a rag that may cater to the arts & entertainment, if such a rag exists ... perhaps in your closest larger city.

We aquired a number of donations by chopping the work up into smaller chunks & giving a plug to the benefactor ... whole rows of seating with the name of the contributors on a small brass plaque on the exterior arm rests ... along with a wall of contributors names ... if you can get the word out, you may find some wealthier patrons of the arts who just love having their name on the wall.

The Glasgow Film Theatre is a small cinema that champions, British and foreign (but mostly non Hollywood mainstream) arthouse and independent movies. It has its share of funding problems but it did the seat sponsoring thing and many big names sponsored. Robert De Niro has hosw own seat there. It made a big difference.

You should check out www.grants.gov
Usually there is something that would fit the "really good non-profit loot" description, and in your case, it would probably fall under arts or promotion of the humanities.
As long as the group overseeing the restoration has a 501(c)3 status, they should be eligible for most, if not all, of the grants listed.
You have to check the site every day, as a number of the grants appear and disappear quite quickly.