My 5th grandchild was born today with a bilateral cleft palate. He will need several surgeries to correct this with his first one being in one month. His parents don't have very good insurance and could use some financial help. I was wondering if any of you have experience or ideas on how to do a fundraiser. I have checked the internet but don't have ANY experience with these types of things. Any guidance or info you can give would be greatly appreciated!

First...sending up a prayer for your precious grandchild! Now...some of the fudraisers that I have done are Coke sales, raffles with donated items or 50/50 raffles, car washes, bbq plates, and t-shirt sales. Local grocery stores will sometimes let you have a group bag groceries for tips and set up donation jars or sell raffle tickets, baked goods, etc at the entrance to the store.

Not sure what state you are in...every state has different agencies...but here in GA we have a program called Children's Medical Services that helps with medical expenses and coordinates services for children with special needs (birth - 21 years old). To find out what agencies are in your area, contact your local health department.

Christy-Thank you so much for the prayers and the info. I will check on these things tomorrow.

I went to a fundraiser last month for a woman who has breast cancer. It was at a bowling alley. From what I understand, the organizer rents a certain number of lanes. For this one, the cost was $15 per person and that included 2 games of bowling, shoes, pizza and pop. I'm not sure what the cost of the lanes were.

They also had a raffle where people donated things and they sold tickets for $1 and you put your ticket in a can in front of the prize you wanted. At the end they drew for the winners. There were store gift cards, sports tickets, all kinds of gift baskets, & several other items. I donated a cake up to a $50 value.

There was also a donation bucket and a 50/50 raffle going on.

It was very successful, while I don't know the total, what I saw was 16 lanes of bowlers, a lot of tickets being sold, the 50/50 was $600 and the person who won donated her share back.

Hope this helps. I will also keep your granddaughter in prayer.