successful fundraising

It can be so frustrating trying to raise the money for your adoption. We are adopting from Guatemala, and it has been very dicouraging. We have found a few things that work okay...Antiquities Studios (google search) a woman named Carol Loudermilk will tell you all about it and send you the supplies. Basically you sell coupons and set up a portrait appointment. It's very easy, b/c the pictures sell themselves.We also did 4 garage sales last summer, and we even had our church donate items for it. It was HUGE! We sent out a "Family and Friends" letter, and asked the local schools to participate in the scratch card fundraiser. It is very successful if you can persuade a large school or church to participate. We are researching public, and large corporation grants right now. There was a previous thread about it, but we haven't been very successful in getting the details of the process. You can go to your local library and get books like "Foundations of (state)" or "Grantmakers of (state)".My library didn't have them, but they are able to order them from another library and have them here within 3-5 days. I also read a post about a car wash. Instead of having people pay at the car wash, you have a youth group or school go out and ask for donations, kind of like a wash-a-thon. And then, you wash as many cars as possible, advertise FREE CARWASH, and you go back to collect the pledges later.Hope this helps a little, it's a long road to haul, and very discouraging at times, but we have found so much strength just praying our way through it. I hear it's worth it in the end, so I'm excited to feel that way! Stacy