I thought about that as well, but felt it was wrong. The people don't ask me to do this, I choose to.

What I do is I put out a creepy chest, and collect food/items for the dog shelter/pound here in my town. People tend to give more, & it makes me feel good.

If you really want to do this, make up a person, holdind a pumpkin bucket. close off the top, & cut a slit in the top. Make a hole in the bottom with a closure, so that you can empty each night.

I like this idea, thanks! ok now to find a pumpkin bucket...

Garage sales. I've gotten about 15 so far this year already. $.25 or less.

If you get an awful lot of visitors just to check out the display, it kind of makes sense to ask - if it's a donation area for people to donate only if they want to, it feels less pushy. I've seen people who do huge electrical christmas displays that draw tons of people just driving by or walking by and a few who ask for donations. The best I saw was a lighted "wishing well" with a big sign politely asking for donations if folks enjoyed the display to help defray costs and make improvements. The well was a solid looking homemade structure that would be difficult to break into or make off with what was inside (there was a locked down top over the opening with just a slot to drop money in. And the well is certainly an adaptable enough idea for Halloween as well.  Heck, if you rig some kind of sensor activated prop for when people donate - people will do it just to watch/ hear the prop.

I am trying to work on somthing like that. Still not sure what it would do. I use to have a small coin bank that when you put a coin in, a hand would come out and grab it. Maybe i can find someway to do somthing like that.