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Wow, $20,000 is a lot to fund raise on weekends and after school. I have done fund raising for years, and the most my kids ever raised (with a concerted effort....and all year long!) was about $4000. That's over the course of a whole year.
Why don't you go to individual businesses in your area, and ask for donations with the stipulation that you add their business logo to your T-shirts, to your robot, and to your shipping crate. And so on. I don't see that your main sponsor could complain about this, since it is exremely difficult for a group of kids do come up with such a whopping sum with bake sales, car washes, and such.
One other idea that some teams use, and which is very successful is to sponsor a raffle. You need a state license, and you could sell a limited number of tickets, say a couple thousand, for $5 each. Each of these tickets entitles the buyer a shot at 3 or 4 different prizes. Good prizes are things like a good laptop, a digital camera, and palm pilot, and other electronic items. You could spend approximately $1200 - $1500 purchasing the raffled items, and could easily sell up to $15000 worth of tickets. Even if you didn't make the amount you planned, you could then convert the raffle to a 50/50, with half the money going to the raffle winner.
You need all the kids on the team and their parents and relative helping with this, but it could be well worth it.
Good luck.
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