Every charity group, student club, school class, etc. loves to show some group spirit! Why not do it and earn some money for your cause at the same time? There are online create-on-demand stores that allow you to emblazon your logo or design on nearly anything - shirts, mugs, mouse pads, underwear, etc. You can even set up an online storefront where you can set prices for each of these items. As items are ordered, they are created by the company and shipped out. There's nothing to process on your end.

In my opinion, the best example of a website like this is CafePress.com. A family member used it with great success.

As the holiday season or a big event nears, it would be easy to encourage your group's stakeholders and friends to purchase their group gear (for themselves and as gifts) through your group's storefront on this website. As they purchase items, they not only help to get the word out about your group's purpose, they also contribute to your group financially by purchasing items at a cost greater than what it cost to make them.

Here's an underutilized idea: Online affiliate programs.

Nearly everyone has to do some form of holiday shopping. Why not set up a basic website and apply for some affiliate programs that target holiday shopping? If it's ok with each affiliate program's terms of service, it would be easy to encourage friends, family and group members to use your website's affiliate links to do the same holiday shopping they would normally do online and offline. The affiliate commissions could go to your group! Good luck!

This fundraising idea is great for a school fundraiser. It encourages large participation and enthusiasm among students.

Assuming that students are organized into homerooms or other groups, each group (or grade) serves as a team. Each team is asked to bring "silver" change (quarters, dimes and nickels) into school to donate to their team. The change is then put into large, clear jugs (water jugs work best) in a public space within the school (the cafeteria is a good option). Members of other teams can then bring pennies into school and put them into OTHER teams' jars. Silver change counts FOR a team while pennies count AGAINST a team. Thus, in the end, the team with the largest donation MINUS the pennies is declared the winner. The winning team can get to select the charity or the cause that receives the money or can be awarded a pizza party or other fun event. Also, for extra enthusiasm, be sure to announce the daily totals over the school loudspeaker. Enjoy penny wars!

Note: When it comes time to convert the change into dollars, it's easier than you think. Coin Star machines take a hefty percentage of the money one runs through their machines, but Commerce Banks generally have what they call a "Penny Arcade," a machine that counts change and allows you to convert it into dollars without taking a cut.

A bake sale is a tried and true way of bringing in a few dollars for an organization. It's simple to organize and fun for those involved. First, get a few parents together (assuming it's for an elementary school group) and ask each of them to prepare a certain dessert. Make sure to coordinate so you don't have a lot of duplicate desserts. Then, get the word out with posters, school annoucements and notices in school bulletins that a bake sale will occur. When the time is right, set your prices and start selling!

It's a fact; people will pay to see other people get embarrassed. When fundraising, try using this to your advantage. In schools, a great prize for a good job fundraising (whichever homeroom raises the most money for a particular charity, for instance) could get to select an administrator that has to get his or her head shaved, has to kiss a pig, sit in a dunk tank, etc. Have fun with it, just get the administrators to agree ahead of time. You'll be surprised how great of an incentive to fundraise this can be!