Have you a spare pothole to sell? You're set for creative fund-raising

A small college sold phony shares in a campus landmark, the old water tower, and raised over $80,000. A town in Oregon sold potholes to residents for $10 each. Twenty dollars got you a photograph of your pothole and your name engraved on the asphalt used to fill it.

The Better Business Bureau Foundation in Buffalo, N.Y., sponsored an ''un-luncheon'' at $20 a plate. Contributors mailed back a card that said: ''YES! I'd love to miss the First Annual Better Business Bureau Foundation 'un-luncheon' 12 noon, Sept. 32, at a prominent downtown hotel. Even though I'll be eating somewhere else that day, I wish to reserve places at $20 per plate in support of the BBB.''

In hundreds of ways, fund-raisers for nonprofit agencies are learning how to be more creative. Creative fund raising is the subject of a week-long workshop to be held May 7-11 at Wheelock College here.

The workshop will be sponsored by the Grantsmanship Center, a fund-raising training organization. During its 11-year history, the center has trained more than 30,000 nonprofit and government agency staff members.

''There are more than 250,000 nonprofit agencies competing for charitable dollars,'' says Norton Kiritz, Grantsmanship Center president.

''But that's not the complete story,'' he adds. ''Now government agencies are also looking for private contributions. For example, public school districts that create fund-raising foundations raise almost 10 times as much in private contributions as those that don't'' set up these foundations.