Make your income and expenses public information. Print your budget, and your list of donors in your newsletter, and have a financial report at your office available to anyone who wants to see it. (Don’t worry about being swamped with requests — people generally figure if you are willing to be public, you have nothing to hide.)
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If you’re looking for a profitable and fun way to raise money, staging your own (legal) kidnapping may be the answer. In this “kidnapping” you put one or more people, one at a time, in a “cage,” holding them there for “ransom.”
Your “victims” should be well known and respected people with a good sense of humor who will cheerfully go along with your plans. For a church fundraiser, the pastor and his wife are good choices, or a church council member, a deacon, the associate pastor, etc. (For other groups, choose a city council member, TV personality, local music celebrity — the list is endless.)
