Schedule a friday night to have a fundraiser themed towards the senior citizens in the church. Set it up in the fellowship hall or some other open area.
If there is a DJ or music-savvy person in the church, see if they wouldn’t mind DJing for you. You can burn a cd or two with several songs and maybe even set up a litle dance area if the space is there. Also serve food that is somewhat associated with the time period like baked chicken, cornbread, greenbeans, and mashed potatoes.
Keep the music playing constantly with the DJ offering trivia as to who sings the song coming up. Another good idea that we did is have a 8 person checker tournament with the winner getting a prize (we gave em a brand new checkerboard). Another thing we did was give a prize to the most energetic person in attendance (a little girl won and we gave her a “Lassie” DVD).
One more thing that should be a big part of your “40’s/ 50’s Night” is the exhibit area. Use another open area (we used our biggest classroom) and set up a walkthrough showing some of the wars, pop culture, artifacts, and photos from that time-period. Have something big at the end of the exhibit such as a “Wall Of Honor” that honors all of the veterans in the church.
Hope this helps. We used it to raise funds for a mission retreat we’re planning. We sold about 80 tickets for 6 bux each and made a net profit around $400. God Bless. -peejay