Have you been given the job of organising a fundraising event and are stuck for ideas? Heres seven great and simple ideas that you can organise to raise funds for your chosen group.

Cookie Dough fundraisers

This is an ideal fundraiser for all times of the year. Just take orders and sell tubs of delicious cookie dough to your group. Profit margins 30-50%.

Fundraising Cookbooks

Often described as a recipe for fundraising success (groan!) creating a personalized cookbook is ideal for groups such as churches, schools, charities and hospitals. New publishing techniques make it easy to profit from selling just a few or even hundreds of cookbooks. Profit per book from $3-$10.

Pizza Fundraiser cards

People will be happy to pay for these cards which entitle them to free pizzas. If your group is spread out geographically, this may be ideal. Ideal for small groups due to small minimum order requirements. Profit margins 70-90%.

Scratch card fundraising

Easy to order and can be printed to link to your group e.g. basketball, baseball, high school, etc. Each person in your group begins fundraising with 1 scratch card. They simply approach friends, family, and neighbors and ask them to scratch too! Profit ranges from 90% upwards.

Fundraiser candles

Everyone loves candles and especially scented candles! Simply take orders from friends and families these items are especially good for Christmas fundraising. Profit margin 50%

Candy fundraising

Ideal for easter or summer fundraising events sales of candy can be profitable. You can sell the chocolate at school, pep rallies, sports events, businesses or just person to person. Profit margin 50-60%.

Fundraising brochures

Brochure fundraising allows you to raise money by offering products from color brochures to family, friends, neighbors and business associates. Ideal for Christmas fundraising. Profit margins 40-55%.

These fundraiser ideas are great, for:

• high school fundraising
• college fundraising
• cheerleading fund raising
• fundraising for youth groups
• sports group fundraising

Set yourself a target, establish a plan of action, involve parents, teachers and students and go for it!

For further easy fundraising ideas, visit Simple Fundraising Ideas

This article was submitted by Jennifer Carter, author of How to write fundraising applications

¶ 8:14 PM 0 comments

Nasal obstruction is one of the primary reasons men and women choose to have rhinoplasty, or nose surgery. Most cases of nasal blockage are normal, temporary conditions, however others can be persistent, frustrating, and even cause problems with breathing. Nasal obstruction can cause swelling in the nasal linings and other side effects that interfere with the way you breathe.

If you are experiencing nasal obstruction and it has become an ongoing problem, you may need to visit a cosmetic surgeon skilled in nasal obstruction diagnosis and treatment. There are many possible causes of nasal obstruction, so it is imperative that you find a physician who has the technology and background to deliver an accurate diagnosis.

Potentially dangerous nasal obstruction may begin as a simple sensation of stuffiness that gradually worsens over time. You may experience intermittent stuffiness that comes and goes unpredictably or at regular intervals. Causes of nasal obstruction can be either anatomic or nonanatomic:

Nonanatomic causes include sinusitis, allergies, birth control medication, and overuse of nasal spray
Anatomic causes include deviated septum, foreign objects in the nasal canals, enlarged adenoids, nasal polyps, and turbinate bones

If the blockage seems more prevalent during certain seasonal periods or after eating certain foods, it may indicate allergies or other environmental reactions. If blockage stays localized on one side of the nose, or if the blockage has been present for quite a while, you may be dealing with an anatomic cause. Snoring and other obvious breathing differences are often indications of anatomic blockage.

Reshaping the nose to correct abnormal airflow is the goal of nose surgery carefully reshaping of cartilage, tissue and bone your physician will also take into account the ideal structure to allow correct airflow. In designing your rhinoplasty procedure to relieve nasal blocking, the reshaping will first depend on the specific cause. If the septum or turbinate bones are affected by anatomic blockage, the abnormalities will need to be addressed in surgery. The goal is to. In cases where a foreign body is discovered to be the root of blockage, the removal of the item is the first treatment, and surgery may be recommended if nasal tissue has suffered damage.

For more information on nasal obstruction diagnosis and treatment, talk to experienced rhinoplasty surgeon, Dr. Howard T. Bellin. Dr. Bellin is a New York-based cosmetic surgeon who has performed over 4,000 rhinoplasty procedures.

¶ 3:55 PM 0 comments

It is no secret that Open Source has gone mainstream. You'd have to be Steve Ballmer to not agree.

The question is "why?" Knowing buyer motivation is key to knowing how to market any product. iPods didn't sell because they were new or great technology. They sold because Apple marketers tapped into the emotional motivations of music junkies. So too must software vendors, and the Open Source movement supplies interesting insights into IT buyer motivations.

In a study conducted by Forrester, companies in the North America and Europe were polled about their adoption of, and views about Open Source. There were a set of completely unsurprising motivations for evaluating and adopting Open Source solutions. These attributes are not completely peculiar to Open Source, so every software vendor should take note.

Among the top attributes of Open Source that buyers found important were support for open standards (78%), low use restrictions (76%), and lack of vendor lock-in (79%). Two of this top-three list (standards and flexible use) are traits that even proprietary offering can (and should) adopt. Not surprisingly, the community aspects of Open Source (access to source code, participating in development, etc.) were the least important to buyers.

On the flip side, the concerns expressed by these same IT buyers were compelling. The total cost of ownership (TCO) was the least of their worries, which dispels one of the mythical selling points of Open Source in general and IT in particular. Service, support and security were the top concerns. But these are the same concerns IT buyers have with proprietary vendors, which makes gives Open Source a comparative advantage. And despite SCO an Microsoft's best efforts, only 43% of the respondents were bothered by legal and intellectual property issues.

The telling detail was that more than half of the respondents were using Open Source for mission critical applications. This wasn't limited to infrastructure either. Though Open Source is still climbing the hill to run the top-most critical applications, there is little ... and less ... reluctance to use Open Source for heart-of-the-business needs.

The last non-surprise was that 75% of the respondents are using Open Source to consolidate IT skill sets. This isn't surprising because in our work with SuSE Linux years ago we discovered this was a primary CIO/CTO motivation (see our white paper titled "What CxOs think about Linux" at http://www.siliconstrat.com/white_papers/paper-reg.php?papername=cxolinux).

Today's marketing strategy lesson is this: the market finds a way. Like life, the market adapts to provide what is really needed. Open Source is meeting key and long standing needs of IT buyers, and software vendors will need to ante-up and meet the top buyer motivators to survive.

Guy Smith is the chief consultant for Silicon Strategies . Guy brings a combination of technical, managerial and marketing experience to Silicon Strategies projects. Directly and as a consultant, Guy has worked with a variety of technology-producing organizations. A partial list of these technology firms include ORBiT Group (high-availability backup software), Telamon (wireless middleware), Wink Communications (interactive television), VA Software (enterprise software), SUSE (Linux distributions and applications) and Novell.

http://www.siliconstrat.com/white_papers/paper-reg.php?papername=cxolinux

¶ 8:26 AM 0 comments

The Apple Ipod now has fierce competition from it's Microsoft counterpart, The Zune. Mirosoft's answer to portable media and entertainment, the Zune was designed to be used with an online music store such as Ipod's Itunes. Zune quite frankly is the heavy weight underdog in the ring with the undisputed champion, The Ipod. With an extended viewing area and Wi-fi Zune to Zune access, The Zune is becoming the favorite runner up with the possibility to take out the competition. Those Apple Ipod users need to know, the Zune shows more maturity than one might think!

According to Microsoft, The Zune connects to their version of the Itunes store called the Zune Marketplace. Microsoft has announced that it will purchase songs from Ipod users who are switching over in an effort to get them to convert sides in this portable multimedia war. Zune's marketplace places strong emphasis on the indie rock band as well as featuring tons of local artists. Music provided for the Zune Marketplace is taken care of by big giants such as EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group. Apple's storefront continues to grow in it's selection, however, With Microsoft lavishing advertising dollars to buy Ipod users songs, Apple better not turn a blind eye to the supremacy Microsoft is trying to set.

If Microsoft's extended marketplace was not enough, then letting users connect their Zune's to their Xbox 360's just might sweeten the deal. Allowing the users to download their songs directly to their 360 is a rather genius move on Microsoft's part. You do not have to create two separate playlists when Zune user's can create it on their PC's once and once only. This can only supplement your party tricks as you can use the Xbox visualizations as party eye candy without having to set up your music all over again on your Xbox. With the Zune's player compatibility with it's cousin the Xbox, downloading and sharing music throughout your home will be simply standard for any serious household entertainment system.

The reality of the situation, however, will lead users paying monthly for their Zune Marketplace subscription. Songs can either be bought individually or have an unlimited download option for just a few extra dollars. With premium content and an emphasis on local artists, finding what you want to listen too will be a no brainer hassle. On the swing side, there are other distribution networks that only require a one time fee for an unlimited lifetime of downloads. These programs range in their prices and quality but still offer a Gold standard in comparison to the Zune's default network. Having used Microsoft's store, users are continually switching to these options as viable sources to keep their Zunes and their wallets full. For a complete listing of these programs that offer the most, visit

Enter Zune Download Reviews to experience the power of Zune's network.

http://www.zunecontentreviews.info/

Matthew Desmond is lead webmaster of http://www.Yawk.info and writes reviews for products worth having on your hard drive.

¶ 3:25 AM 0 comments