Ideas for fundraising for 'special' teams?

[Amanda Morrison]

Here at Ball State, I've ran into so many brick walls with funding that it's no wonder my head hurts. I decided to see if anyone had any ideas for good fundraisers... but here's the list of conditions that they have to follow (hence the brick walls...):

> If any Muncie or US business is solicited by Ball State, we can't even speak to them about donating or sponsoring.

> Classic Fundraiser: selling candy. Doesn't work here, though- we get a meal card good for an amount of money per meal, good at any time per day. If someone wants a candy bar, they get it with the money left over on their card.. so selling candy is pretty useless.

> Most types of food stuff, i.e. Gordon Food Services and Market Day, are already solicited by BSU, so those don't work.

> Selling candles, which is a good one, doesn't work, because we aren't allowed to have candles in the dorms.

> Raffles are great... but not a lot of kids have a ton of money. That, and most of the major businesses around here are already solicited, blah blah blah.

> Our high school kids (The Indiana Academy) aren't allowed to sell things during school hours... and they've got even less money than the BSU kids.

Most 'order form' fundraisers don't really work because college kids really don't have any money. These aren't the only restrictions, either, but they're the majority that I can think of.

Any ideas?

I spoke to a fellow team member of yours the other week, and he told me how you guys tried to hit up David Letterman for money, if I were you guys, Id keep going after him. He graduated from your school, and heck he said he would give 10 million dollars so that I-465 in Indianapolis would be renamed to "The Letterman Loop" why not sway some money towards something useful?


Tell him that Jay Leno gave money to a competitor...that might spark his attention

[AdamT]

What about doing any of these funraisers at the high school BSU is working with? College fundraisers rarely work...

The one college fundraiser that DOES work:
Step One:
-Get a table to sit up outside

Step Two:
-Set that table up outside a major lecture hall or acedemic building...that or in the middle of the dorms

Step Three:
-Krispy Kreme has a fundraiser plan where they will deliver X boxes of donuts to a certain place in the morning

Step Four:
-Sell donuts to college kids...they will buy them like they were an addictive substance *which they are*

Step Five:
-Repeate weekly in the same place...people will come back.

Step Six:
-Love the profit!

Otherwise, I'm sure you can look in this forum for idea's that have been already posted.

[Joe Matt]

ADAM! You stole my idea!!

Oh well, us Richomnders love Krispy Kream....

[Amanda Aldridge]

the Krispy Kreme fundraiser won't really work down there. they have Krispy Kremes at all the gas stations, and all over the place. also, as Amanda said, the students at Indiana Academy can't do many fundraisers because they aren't allowed to sell anything during school hours. the Indiana Academy is, in essence, a boarding school located on the campus of Ball State University. so, there are no parents to help, and most of the students don't have a lot of extra spending money.

i'm looking Amanda. i'll let you know if I find anything that you guys might be able to do. don't give up though. you've done an awesome job so far, and i think you'll be able to pull through

the other Amanda

[AdamT]

The reason I suggested the KK fundraiser is that it doesn't matter if there is KK at all the gas stations, most people who live in dorms and walk to class never see those places. And where's the gas station in the half an hour between classes? As for money, donuts are cheap...sell them for $.25 or $.50 a donut *I can't remember the right price.* Seems to work well on campus here even though there's KK in all the gas stations.

It's all about the convenience factor.

Also, like I said, look in the other threads. Our yard cleaning fundraiser has work really well, $1150 in three Saturdays!

Speghetti dinners work well...

As for material (aluminum, screws, nuts, bolts, every little thing counts) or small tools and not money from businesses. Usually you'll get a better response.

Most fundraising will have to be done outside of school *other then KK* anyways.

And I repeat, search previous threads.

[team222badbrad]

http://www.elemonadestand.com/

[Amanda Morrison]

thanks guys! these are great ideas.

we have thought about most of the fundraisers mentioned on these threads and have ruled almost all of them out for one reason or another.

any other ideas?

[pauluffel]

One of the ideas my team was thinking about this year that was partially for money, but mainly to get kids to join the team was a mini-battlebots type competition. There were two ways we were thinking about doing this.

1.Groups of students could buy a kit that would include some minor materials (small extruded aluminum and lexan or some other plastic base material) and our team would mentor the building of the robots. We would get a profit off of their buying the kit from us and we would get kids inspired about building robots. We could get a lot of kids involved because high school guys love to destroy things, but it would probably be too expensive to get kids to buy the kits.

2.We put on a battlebots type competition made up of groups from our FIRST team and charge admission. This also relies on high-schoolers destuctive drive and the fascination with technology. If all of the competitors were working together, we could plan some good matches (such as having a set number of 'good' robots and just have them compete against crap robots that look like they"re good but really have minimal time and money put into them, thus minimalizing waste) and still acheive our objectives of recruiting students and getting money, but if no one showed upo to watch the matches, it would be a waste and it would also be a hassle trying to find a place for the matches to take place.

We might still do one of these next year if we have a bigger funding base, but right now they"re just fantasies that some one else might be able to put into action.

[Jay5780]

You said that you can't go after anyone solicited by the college. Does this mean that the team in general cannot or just the college members of the team?

Anyway here is what the Aztechs did back in 1997...

1. We did the candy bar thing at a couple of Wal-Marts
Wal-Mart matched us dollor for dollor so instead of making .50 cents per bar we made $1.50 per bar. Also give a box to the members parents to bring to work the average team member slod about 2 cases yes cases (I think 100 bars per case)

2. We did the "booklet" thing (ie. wrapping paper, candle, etc...)
This never works that great anyway.

Now you've said these things don't work because of your restrictions, but if Wal-Mart isn't solicited by the school I say go for it and why can't the HS students sell the candles and stuff?

Here's the BIG #3

3. The school typed up a "solicitation" letter for all the students to give to there parents to bring to there bosses and for the students to bring to there bosses. The letter basically said how much it costs for a student to participate in FIRST. This cost included travel expenses to competitions, food, etc... this worked great! we did it just for those going to Nats. We each had to raise $1000 each. My mother's company cut the school a check for the whole amount and my Stepdads gave half.

Also the team went to pizza, sandwich, and donut shops and got the to sponsor the team by giving them food in return for there company name listed on the team shirt, website, and press releases. Remeber you need to tell the sponsor what THEY will get, they wont give you a dime if you they don't get anything.
Heck put there logo on the bot...


Good luck to your team,

[Amanda Aldridge]

Originally posted by angel55
the Indiana Academy is, in essence, a boarding school located on the campus of Ball State University. so, there are no parents to help, and most of the students don't have a lot of extra spending money

those are great ideas though!! some other teams will definitely be able to do those!

[ROB at RAGE]

Here is an idea that was used by one of the other teams in our area. You don't solicit local stores, resturants, car washes, oil change centers for money, you solicit them to offer discounts that you print on a discount card (which is valid for like one year) with your team name, a list of participating places and the discount. Then you sell the cards for like $5, $10 or $15 pure profit, except the cost of printing. Price acording to how many sponsors

This team had discounts like:

Buy 1/2 dozen donuts, get 1/2 free
Buy one get one free pitiza
1/2 price car wash
10 percent discount at hardware
Free icream sundy with purchase of meal at Dairy Queen
$4.00 off ail change
Buy one meal get second free or 1/2 price
1/2 price mower, or snow blower tune up

A lot of merchants will give you the same deal they comonly print in coupon adds and mailers, and both local and national chains participated. Some are unlimited offers and some are one time (where they punch or cross off a box on the card). The great thing is it cost the merchants nothing unless some one comes in to redeam, and then its no less then they commonly give out in other permotions. So you are not soliciting them for money in any way, just having them give you permittion to advertize for them.

If you sell 500 at $10 you make $5,000.

Rob at RAGE

[Aaron Lussier]

Originally posted by pauluffel
One of the ideas my team was thinking about this year that was partially for money, but mainly to get kids to join the team was a mini-battlebots type competition.

Our team does something like that. There are a bunch of kids on our team that are really into making one pound ant weight battlebots, they have even gone so far as to build a field complete with hazards. We are working on the possiblity of having a competition, and putting out flyers that say something like BUILD A ONE POUND BOT AND BATTLE IT. We are chargeing admission and an entrance fee. not sure on the exact #'s but it seems like it will work.