Fundraising Ideas.

[BaileyJoseph166]

One of the favorite fundraisers that our team does is a haunted house every October. Our town has a local "Halloween Party" for the kiddos in Merrimack, and we are able to take over one of the buildings on the property. We design a new haunted house every year, coming up with a new theme (last year it was Frankenstein's castle, the year before was a creepy circus).

Its really fun to build all the cool elements to the haunted house, and then spook all the people that come to it. Even without access to a building like we do for the event, I don't see why it would be unreasonable to build something like what we do that would serve the same purpose.

A haunted house I think is just a great way to raise some money, as we usually have tons of interest and sell cider and hot chocolate as well. We have done a demo at the same time as well to show off your robot as well!

[messer5740]

Thanks guys for all the help!

[rutzman]

Keep your eyes on this page throughout the year for grant opportunities.

https://usfirst.submittable.com/submit

[fhobart]

Out of necessity several years ago--a student started a rumor we were going to a Hawaiian regional and POOF! 70 potential team members--I bought a simple screen press and taught myself how to print t-shirts. I intended it simply to defray the team's cost, but with no marketing, I am always busy with shirts. We have grossed (not netted) about 4000 in 2016. I have a local golf outing's shirts to print still and there's more on the way.

Was it the easiest thing to do? Did/do I often wonder why I'm mashing ink through a screen? Those questions are there, but it has gotten easier now that I'm training team members. There is a start up cost and you definitely get what you pay for. It is an investment though if there's any stick-to-it-iveness.

A second one we fell into was, due to our proximity and the graciousness of our FBLA group, Notre Dame football concessions. The team and parents/friends/relatives sign up and work one of the many concessions stands. When all was said and done, we made a good chunk of change and we're in for another season.

The kicker is that I cannot bribe a student or team of students to put together an entrepreneurship submission.......

[mdituri]

Get your teacher mentor (must be a teacher and in the U.S.) to use DonorsChoose.org and put projects up. People WANT to buy classrooms stuff and they really want to buy robotics teams stuff.

You can private message me and I will give you/your mentor my email. It is SUPER simple and there are match codes many many many times throughout the year. This is my main source of fundraising, besides selling about 5000 boxes of fruit by the foot.