Exotic fundraising.

[Ronald_raygun]

I've been snooping around the forums and most fundraisers that teams conduct are the traditional bake sales, car washes, sponsor acquisition, etc.

cMarket (www.cmarket.com) is an online auction site where FIRST Teams can potentially auction off any goods donated by their individual communities as well as a selection of goods provided by cMarket (www.cmarket.com/cmarketplace). The goods they provide include vacations at wholesale prices, extraordinary trips/adventures (fly a fighter jet!!!), etc.

Has anyone else looked at the possibility of government grants for non-profit organizations? Surely there are some grants out there which FIRST teams qualify for right?

[Jeremiah Johnson]

QC Elite has gotten some grants. Although I'm not sure they were government. We got a portion of the Riverboat Grant from the Davenport Schools when they applied, but of course everything we used the money on is now owned by Davenport Schools, which includes the laptop we can't put any programs on. We also got a grant from Alcoa for our community services.

One exotic fundraiser that 648 had attempted to do in the past was a psychadelic toilet. We painted a toilet tye-dye. Really tacky, too. And the idea was to place it in people's front yards and accept donations to move it to someone elses yard of their choice. Of course, it never got off the ground b/c it was accidentally broken but it was fun painting it.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

You may want to consider any small print things first...auditionally, how many people in your community would feel comfortable with the web thing for your team (some might not be).

Have you considered silent auctions in the area? Similar idea, without the internet hassle (you have to ship stuff don't you for that?)

[DanDon]

Have you tried the banks in your area? I think that they are required to have a foundation for public organizations in the area. And some banks have grants set up too.

/dan

[KenWittlief]

I think if you search on ebay fundraising you will get some threads.

Selling stuff on ebay can be a blast, esp if you set the auctions up to end at 2 minute intervals, and have an ebay-party when they all end.

[DanDon]

Just remember, when using eBay or other online auctions as fundraising, to take into account shipping when planning it all out.

[KenWittlief]

Yes, if you sell stuff on ebay make it clear in the listing "Buyer pays actual shipping costs"

[DanDon]

Also, you could specify one shipping company, and link to their shipping cost calculator.

[Adam Richards]

Also, you could specify one shipping company, and link to their shipping cost calculator.Be sure to include your zip code you'll be sending it from. I've had fun instances where I've tried to calculate shipping for a listing with the shipping calculator the seller lists on the item page, but the seller has neglected to include what their zip code is, or even a rough idea of what part of the country they're in... (WORLDWIDE, USA is a very sketchy location...)

[Carol]

MOE uses grants to (partially) fund their FLL/JFLL/VEX tournament each year. There are many corporations that have them but sometimes it takes a bit of searching to find them. Be aware that you have to specify either a school or your 501c3 EIN number to qualify - you probably won't be able to specify FIRST's EIN number.

That said, there are many that you can try. Here are some that I still have bookmarked (although they haven't all given us money:)

Verizon http://foundation.verizon.com/04007.shtml
Daimler Chrysler http://www.fund.daimlerchrysler.com/
Nestle http://npd.nestle-watersnasponsor.com/
JPMorganChase http://www.jpmorganchase.com/cm/cs?pagename=Chase/Href&urlname=jpmc/community/grants/obtain/contact
Wachovia http://www.wachovia.com/inside/page/0,,139_414,00.html

There are others that I don't have the sites: JCPenny, Bank of America, BestBuy (they give products only), Target. We haven't seen any government grants but then we haven't looked either.

The online grant process is tedious but you can get money this way.