Ok, here we go....
1. The first things I tell my teams in MA as they qualify for STL is to call the airline, (pick one) and tel them you are a (sprots) team that has just qualified to go to the World Championships in STL. What can you do for us to help get there as a team? Most airlines will bump people form the particular flight youwant to make oroom for the entire team on one flight. AND you won't get charged the horrendous $1200 pp seen many times when you book a flight within a week or two of departure.
2. This is a little tricky---If youhave a mentor on the team that is willing, have them call VISAor MC or Amer Express, whoeer is their favorite credit card company, and ask if they will raise their debt limit to say $50,000 for a short period of time, like 3 months. If their credit score is good, the Visa will do that. Then you can put the hotel and airline tickets on one card and pay back that card holder. It is a risk for the card holder, but if you have some finances in place and people are trust worthy, it is a handy way of doing business. As a bonus to the card holder, if there are any freqwuent flyer miles attached to the account, you get to keep them! (one of Rosie's mentors did this last year and his daughter who is attending FIT fly home a few times for free!)
3. GO TO THE MEDIA! Get your story out there!!!! In print on TV, on the radio...do interviews, promote promote promte! Go to the schoolboard. A lot of times the Superintendanet or principal has discretionary funds they can kick in towards registration. If they can cover the $5k, that frees up funds to pay for travel.
4. And the normal fundraising ideas....pasta dinner if promoted correctly and over a large enough area, can bring in $3000. Light bulbs...yes, FIRST does still have light bulbs. Letter writing campaign to ALL local businesses.
www.firstnemo.org has a LOT of ideas!
5. Did I say GO TO THE LOCAL MEDIA? Oh, yeah, I did. See #3 above.
This has been free advice from your local FIRST Senior Mentor, always just an email away. (dhenry@usfirst.org)