Kiss The Pig – Sign up a few local celebrities or business owners to participate in this one. Make some jars with their photo at it, and at whatever event you have, put those jars out for people to put money in. After a fixed period of time, make the person with the most money in their jar kiss a pig at one of your events. People are voting with their dollars and can get very involved!

Charity Goat Raffle – This is one I’m going to be doing as part of fundraising for a mission trip to inner city Los Angeles in the spring. The idea is that you register people in a contest to win a goat, and then make them pay $10.00 (or whatever amount you want) to purchase “goat insurance” to prevent themselves from being entered. When they buy the insurance they also get to give away three raffle tickets to other people and the number of people the charity reaches will grow exponentially.

Adult Spelling Bee – Hold a charity adult spelling bee with an entry fee of $10.00 or $20.00. Have some sort of prize for the winner. People will have a lot of fun and you’ll bring in some good money if you can publicize the event well.

Pink Flamingos – Put 20 or 30 plastic pink flamingo’s in people’s lawns and then make them make a donation to your charitable organization to remove them. After they make a donation, allow them to specify someone else to receive the flamingos on their lawn.

Silent Auction – Have business owners and community members give car donations and other items for donation and then hold a silent auction and sell off the items to the highest bidder. This can be a significant amount of work, but it can also bring in thousands of dollars for your charity.

If you’re going to raise money for a charitable cause or non-profit organization, don’t just call people and ask for money or for them to donate cars or other items, have fun with it and more importantly make it fun for them!

Creative Fundraising Ideas for Your Non-Profit was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Already being in debt and then being taken for a ride by some fly-by-counselor would be utterly devastating to both you and your financial situation. It is essential you do your homework before you commit to any credit counseling company. The first step is to check out the US Department of Justice website. They provide a list of companies who are approved to assist client with their debt. All counselors who are on the approved list must be non-profit organizations and are subjected to criminal background checks. They must also comply with governmental training and experience guidelines in order to be placed on the list. Included in the governmental guidelines is a company’s requirement to be bonded, or carry insurance in the event a company employee causes you to lose money because of their own mistakes or criminal intentions.

When contacting a credit counselor for an initial consultation, keep your ears open for some red-flag warning signals during their pitch. Any company who tries to force you into committing to a payment plan outright should be a warning. Legitimate counselors should want to help you explore all of your options, including the option to reduce your debt on your own by altering your budget. A counselor’s goal should be to initially go over every detail of you finances and then help you decide which method would work best for you. Imagine someone forcing you into declaring bankruptcy, when in reality all you had to do was simply adjust your budget.

Counselors who charge upfront fees that seem ridiculously high should be more-carefully evaluated. Many companies will require a monthly processing fee ($25 is average) and some charge a nominal set-up fee to get you started. A good way to reveal a dubious company is if you state you can not afford the fees and they immediately turn you away. The dishonest companies will also require a large sum payment in order to move forward with the company. On average, any company you deal with who has a fee over $50 on a monthly, administrative basis, should be considered and researched carefully.

For a list of reputable, approved counseling companies, visit the US Department of Justice at http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/ccde/index.htm.

Fed up with scraping the pennies together at the end of the month? It’s time to get impartial debt advice from professionals in debt management to help you get out of debt through an IVA, a consolidation loan or another debt solution tailored to your money needs.

CHECKING OUT COUNSELORS OF CREDIT was created by and is property of American Consumer News.