Every year we do a "No Show Ball".  We send invitations to our entire mailing list asking them to not attend an annual fundraiser.  The idea being that the money they save by not hiring a babysitter, not buying tickets, not bidding on audition items, etc. can be sent directly to us instead.  We target a single fund raising goal with each (new curtains, new headsets, etc) and people are quick to respond.  Last year with the goal of burning the mortgage, we raised more than $16,000, all for just a few hundred in printing and postage. 

We paid off the mortgage 2 1/2 years early thanks in large part to this effort.