Fundraising Issues...
 

Now that school's starting back up again, I've learned of some new policies at my school that apply to fundraising. Our district is getting rid of all candy and soda in our school, with the rules applying to fundraisers as well. This means that we no longer can have our well known (at our school) fundraiser of selling donuts during Midterms and Finals, but also means that we cannot sell Soda, Candy, or anything else considered non-nutritional at any fundraising events that we hold at school.

This adds to the set of rules that already prohibits any games of chance, making raffles or anything like it to be out of the question on school grounds. Our school district also does not allow sponsors for clubs with a school account for all of their funds, so until the booster club that we're working on us up and running, we really have no way to accept large scale donations and sponsorships, even if the donor or sponsor is interested.

I was wondering what other teams are doing for fundraisers that wouldn't violate these rules. I'm starting to run out of ideas, especially ones that can still be allowed to do on school grounds. And with so many clubs in our school (over 60 at least), many will start trying to do the same fundraisers. I've already been told for another club that we can't sell pretzels as many days as before because other clubs will probably need to sell pretzels at well. As you can see, fundraising is going to be an issues for a lot of clubs in my school, so I ask if any teams have any fundraisers that would be able to help us through this.

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

Hey,

To avoid the issue with the school holding money for the club that was received from sponsors, can the sponsor give to FIRST on your behalf. Such as by using a commitment letter.
Look Here
Good Luck!

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

With the issuance of our school's ban on candy, soda and the like, they published an extensive list of approved snacks. If your district has a list like that, you can still opt to sell some of those items. Some of the items on our list would still satisfy the sweet tooth. Just think beyond the pretzel! Maybe you can sell fancy dips to go with everyone elses pretzel sale. Mustard, cheese, fruit dip, chocolate sauce (low fat low sugar style) would all be yummy. Ok, now I'm hungry! :p

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

I can think of two right off the top of my head.

1) The robot. You've got one in the storage room. Get some poof balls and a corner goal, and make up some sort of challenge. (Whoever rounds up the most poof balls in one minute over the course of a lunch period, say, gets a T-shirt.) Batteries might become an issue, as will wear and tear, but you should be able to rack up some considerable cash this way.

2) Mini golf. It's been done before, so build a few holes (or even one), get some balls and clubs, and let folks take a swing at things (literally).

There's plenty of ways to get the money; you've just got to be creative about it.

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

Hang a tire. Mark a line far away. Charge people to throw a football through the tire. Give a good prize if they make it. You could also do basketball long shots.

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

We do an annual spaghetti dinner for part of our fund raising. but if you are accurate in saying
Wouldn't that mean that you could sell those banned items and hold raffles and such as long as its off campus?

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

(This is really Allison K posting, I didn't notice Jason was signed in)

A few teams I've worked with in the past have sold glow products from This company They have high quality products and fast shipping.

My team is going to try selling glow stuff at Football games this fall. It won't make a ton of money but it's easy enough that it's worth it.

~Allison

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

Yeah, we could do that. So say if we have a spaghetti dinner like you do at a restaurant or someplace that isn't at school, then we could sell those items. For raffles it gets a bit tricky though. We wouldn't be able to sell tickets in school, which would be the easiest way to get a lot of people to buy tickets. We also wouldn't be able to put up posters advertising a raffle out of school, because it's not a school approved fundraiser and all posters must be approved by the activities director before being posted. We were thinking of doing larger community raffles for bigger prizes, but we're waiting until we get our booster club up so we have an organization that can handle the funds from it.

I love the mini-golf picture though Billfred. It was actually another one of my teammates that set that all up in our lab, so it's entirely possible to do. We made the course out of unused parts for the robot and a small pratice green that our Tech teacher uses in his room during his spare time.

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

We do the rubber wristbands that say "Chiefdelphi.com" on one side and "Team 47" on the other you could do something like that. You could also sell team t shirts or make bumper stickers. Dog tags would also be a good idea, maybe a car wash?. See if your school will allow you to accept money for your team advertising a company. For example: Say GM, Chrysler, Ford or someone else gives you so much support as in money or engineers put thier company on your team shirts or even the robot just an idea to get by the rules maybe? :) Good Luck :) :) :)

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

The frozen food company Schawnn's will work with grtoup in a fundraiser that allows the team to go out and sell the products and then schawnns delivers the food. I am not sure on other details but i know my group has considered this for this fall.

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

I think PA has new legislation regarding this- Our candy and pop is gone (including the wonderful Hershey's fundraisers). As far as raffle tickets go, I think in PA you must be 18 or older to sell them. We used to have a raffle, and parents had to sell the tickets. But I think we originally made considerable money.

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

Our school is doing the same thing. Now I am not sure how that is really gonna affect our fundraising, but I know it will affect clubs such as the marching band and football club and so on. Although our school cares more about those clubs and what not than Robotics in our school *tear* It's pretty sad. I can't really recall doing any fundraiser through our school. We just go out there, as a team, and have fun. Heck, go play paintball ya know. Get a paintball gun (not an expensive one) and have people pay to take a couple shots at ya. I know it's a hit in Wildwood at the Boardwalk haha. Just a thought. Paintball is always fun =)

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

Our school has the same rule and is cutting back on soda and sweets this year. Our team sells Pizza and Candy AFTER school. Not only does this feed the sports teams but also the students exiting the building.

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

theres this thing Ive heard about, where you have these people come and take your principle away, and they lock him in a room behind bars, and take his photo

then everyone in the school has to pay money to get him back.

Whats it called again....... uhmm....... oh yeah: Kidnapping!

(ok, I got nothing! but Im thinking about it)

maybe your club could sell all those pretzels to the other clubs?

how about bagels and cream cheese?

ebay party?

Re: Fundraising Issues...
 

We've decided to go a little more high tech then paintball... One of the things we plan to do for this year is a team Laser Tag trip. But that's more of a team building activity for us to do a bit later in the year. We did it this year after IRI and it was awesome.

We also make rubber wristbands that say "Dawgma 1712" on them. We usually give them away as promotional things, and we still have hundreds in bags I think.

The pizza thing actually really sounds interesting, I'd really like to hear more about that. Unfortunately, the rules apply to all fundraisers on school property, no matter what the time. It really affects me for a class fundraiser where we are having a dance... we can't sell any sodas or candy, so we'll wind up selling water and pretzels for that.

One of the things that I forgot to mention about sponors is that according to our district, no club or sport can wear the logos of companies that give money. It's allowed that we can put company names and logos on the robot and on banners in our pit area, but not on our team shirts. But in that regard, we have a system in place to honor those who help us financially and with other services. The problem is (and this is another strange policy) all donor forms must be pre-approved by the school district if they are to be placed in a school district account, and any donations over a certain amount must have a request to donate money form filled out. I made one as build season was coming up last year, but due to the political process, it has yet to be approved by our school district's budget committee. So at the moment, even though we already have the system in place to have sponsors and donors, we have no real way to recieve large donations until either the form is passed, or the booster club I'm helping create along with parents and teachers starts itself up.

But enough about my problems... Thanks everyone so far who responded. It's really great to see what you all think.