Obtaining The Food

• Relayforlife.com has several suggestions for how to get the food you need for your barbecue fundraiser, including counting on members of your organization and local businesses. Ask each member of your fundraising group to purchase a certain food item that will be needed for the barbecue fund-raiser. Post a sign-up list several weeks before the fund-raiser and ask that everyone sign up at least a week in advance. Another idea is to visit local grocery stores or butcher shops. Offer to post their fliers or other advertisements such as posters at your barbecue fund-raiser in exchange for donating meat, condiments and paper goods.

Add Value To Your Barbecue

• Fund-raising-ideas-center.com suggests adding additional value to your barbecue fund-raiser by including more than just food. Create some simple games for children such as ones where they try to toss a ball into a bucket, or pick floating plastic ducks from a pond for prizes. By charging small fees for these games, this can increase the profit for your barbecue fund-raiser. Another suggestion the website had was to invite local bands to play and ask them to play for free in exchange for allowing them to sell their CDs and promote their shows. By adding these additional forms of entertainment, you can make your fund-raiser an all-day event with both lunch and dinner available.

Planning Considerations

• Womensforum.com offers several suggestions for planning your barbecue fund-raiser. The first step includes checking if any permits are needed to host your event. This should be done several months in advance. Your local county government is a good source for this information. Think about adding additional events to your fund-raiser such as a hot dog eating contest and a contest for homemade barbecue sauces. Once you have your plan organized, the final tip that womensforum.com offers for marketing your barbecue fund-raiser is coming up with a slogan and creating advertisements that you can post around town. Places include church bulletin boards, grocery stores and any other businesses that are willing to allow you to advertise, especially those that are donating supplies.