My wife and I recently held the first of three (or more) Spanish Dinner for Obama events. The idea came to mind when the schoolmaster at our Montessori School suggested we auction off a full traditional Spanish Dinner as a fund raiser for the school. We did that and it went over well, and I figured since Spanish cooking is starting to gain some traction around here, it sounded like something that could work. People could get a night out with like-minded people, enjoy a good meal and help change the world for about the same prices as getting a nice restaurant meal.
We did some very simple no-brainer advertising. We started with the my.barackobama.com site. It has quite a few organizing tools. I just searched for groups in our area and joined every group that seemed interesting. Then we created a Fund Raising Event, picked a date and wrote up a description. We suggested people contribute $50/person, and then sent the invitations to all the groups we had registered with earlier. Then we sent invitations to our friends, put up a few flyers, and within a week we had sold out our maximum capacity for two dinners. We held the first dinner last night, and just added a third night.
This is a very simple bit of fundraising that anyone can do. Maybe you're not fully up to speed on Spanish Cuisine, but I bet most people have something that they can do that's just as good. I've seen people do debate watch parties with nothing but pizza and drinks. Use your imagination, and I'm sure you can come up with something. If you want to get involved and don't know where to start, contact me via my Web Page. If you're in the Seattle area, I'll even teach you how to make Spanish food.