Martin:

When I was with a volunteer with one fire dept we had some creative ways to raise mony for the department. This was helped by having a great local government and favorable laws.

1) Call out and training honorariums
Each person who responded to call outs was paid a $20.00 honorarium by the local gov. Training nights/sessions were $10.00 per person. This money was paid to our firefighters association which in turn "donated" the money to the fire department.

2) Training burns
There were always a few old houses/barns that people want removed. Once all the legalities were taken care of, we would go in and use the building for a few small practice burns then a complete burn down. These were burned down for a modest price of anywhere from $500.00 to $1000.00 which the owner did not mind paying as it was much cheaper then having a demo crew come in tear down and cart out the building rubble. It was also good PR for the local community to see and appreciate the training and equipment needed to properly run a fire dept.

3) Forestry Contract. (This may not apply depending on where you live.)
This department is located in a wildland/rural interface area. With many forest/bush/field fires, Forestry often asked for manpower and equipment assistance. We had an agreement that paid for fire fighters and truck/equipment on an hourly basis. The typical cost was $25.00 per fire fighter per hour and upwards of $1000.00 per truck per day.

4) Human created incidents
The people who decided to try and burn their fields/lawns, tree/wood scrap piles etc that always seems to get away on them.
They would call the fire department, we would do our duty and save their properties then ask them to make a modest donation for our efforts. Most people had no issues with this. The difficult people soon found a letter in the mail from the local gov's lawyers. The letter would outline the people's negligence and our costs and the danger we faced along with a request of the name of their insurance company. These people usually made a donation at this point...Those who did not faced the wrath of the insurance company.