Fundraisers
 

Hey Everyone.
My name is Samantha Richmond and I'm from team 1084. I am currently running into problems with my team alread and the "session" hasn't even started yet. My team is not willing to give me ideas on fundraising. I need help. I am out of ideas for fundraisers because the ones we ran last year didn't work. Any Ideas?

I know what you are going through ... my team is totally unresponsive to fundraisers .. meaning no ideas and even the ones that i do find through threads on CD, no one is willing to volunteer there time to participate in them. all i can say is if you want ideas on fundraising, there are a lot that can be found in this section. some of the ones that i can think of off hand are:

: yard clean- up
: car washes (or the varied .. car wash-a-thon http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ar+was h+thon )

: collective yard sale
: bake sale

i know that there were many more, so just have a look through the threads

hope that helps :)

shyra

It might be helpful to give us an idea of what you've tried in the past that hasn't worked so you don't get repeat ideas.

Basically we've tried raffle tickets, we tried coin drops. we even tried to say if we raised enough money our teacher would shave her head.

Right now we are doing one of those catalog sales and we are selling beef jerky during school.

I would not recommend the catalog sales thing, well not as a main fundraiser. I would personally recommend dances. Even if you have to have a dance at another school, they will usually let you if it is for charity.

-Greg The Great

Walmart is a great help, they will match however much you earn up to like $1000 or $1500, so if you get $1000 at a car wash, they'll give match the $1000 so you walk out with $2000... you just need to book ahead of time, but you could try contacting them. Bucket drops also have helped a good amount. You could try to get on board at like your christmas parades and such and sell like the glowsticks and such, good fundraiser. Depending on where your workshop is (we are in a mall) open up your doors and throw a sign on the door saying "Come on in and see what we do", people will wander on in and like to see the robots running and such, and occasionally you'll get someone who will say "I have a machine shop" or something that's willing to help you out, which will reduce your building costs. That's all I can think of right now.

Nice idea, also check local places that may sponsor indivigule members in return for the member waring there pin or something.

-Greg The Great

I don't think the walmart thing would work in Canada. They aren't the worlds nicest people. As for the parade thing Thanks for the idea. Thanks for your help. If any one comes up with more ideas let me know and we can share.
I HATE being team leader of Public Relations

Hmm... if your in Canada, I'd recommend calling FIRST... I know that when a member of our team went back to Germany after being here for the year, he went to try to start a team, and they helped find sponsors. Since your in Canada, there might be some sponsors willing to help out but don't have a team near them, so maybe FIRST could help you... even if they can't, it couldn't hurt to ask.

I am not familiar with your city, but going door-to-door might work if you have the right size city. People always support the "kids" of the city. I would think if the team did it together, they would be able to make a few thousand in a couple of hours with diligence and vigor.

-Greg The Great

it's a little late to do this now, but at an off-season try doing a 50-50. mention that you're trying to raise funds to start your season and since most people attending competitions are already supporters of FIRST, they're more likely to spend more money. plus, they get half the cash you raise.

last year, in november 2002, 1089 attended Brunswick Eruption and we held a 50-50 total we raised for ourselves a little less than $400. i know it doesn't sound like a HUGE sum, but every penny counts. :)

hope this helps. if you need anymore ideas, feel free to email me and ask more about what 1089 found worked last year.

I have also done something like this (Non-FIRST related) and it worked out well. If you really stress the "helping the community" thing, you can raise a lot of funds that way. It might be easier to just say...

1ST Place- 100 Dollars
2ND Place- 50 Dollars
3RD Place- 25 Dollars

Then if you really "work the fundraiser" you will make even more then fifty percent.

-Greg The Great

50-50 don't work in my school. Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes i'm not used to typing with 2 fingures. i slammed my fingure in the car door. fun.

so

if you do something like a car wash or a baked goods sale, have your previous robots there to show them off

people will donate money even if they dont purchase whatever it is you are selling.