Fundraising

[Katie Atiyeh]

Hi,
I know it seems early to talk about fundraising, but some teams (like us) start in August. My question to everyone is what do you do for fundraising, and what is most sucessful? We start in August, that’s where we kick everything off. Last year we had 2 car washes (pretty successful!), a booklet where local businesses paid to put in adds, the booklet was a summary of the 2000 season, we sell candles (we do it during the holiday season late November/early December) it works really well, and that is really all I can think of. Thanks. Good Luck!
-Katie

[mike o'leary]

its really never occured to us to do fundraisers like carwashes and stuff. mostly we try to get money from companies (unsuccessfully)

[Carolyn Duncan]

Last year we didn't have too much trouble getting money from sponsors, I think that was due to our contacts. Other than that we sold tye-dye t-shirts we made and had a donation jar out at large school events (back to school night stuff). The best thing I can think of is to get a non-profit status and ask for donations or do exhibitions and have a donation jar out. Sometimes you can get paid for doing exhibitions.

[A. Leese]

Besides our adults going and begging companies for money, we have all sorts of different fundraising things we do. One thing we're doing soon here is going to Publix (a FL grocery store) and showing off our bot/asking for donations during Kid's Day. We also have done car washes, spaghetti dinners, and sold Papa John's Pizza coupons. Our rumage sales are the best, though. We have people donate stuff to sell then have a big rumage sale twice a year in my school's front parking lot.

~Angela who didn't do any fundraising herself this year and still didn't have to pay more than a deposit to go to nats..hehe

[EddieMcD]

We have a few car washes and last year, we held a dance and a speghetti supper.

What I like about the car washes is that usually, it's snowed befor one, so all the cars are dirty, and we do ours indoors.

[David Kelly]

Originally posted by EddieMcD
We have a few car washes and last year, we held a dance and a speghetti supper.

What I like about the car washes is that usually, it's snowed befor one, so all the cars are dirty, and we do ours indoors.

what kind of place allows you to do it indoors?

hmmm... maybe i got an idea

[mike o'leary]

car washes indoors?

[EddieMcD]

It's a huge (and I mean huge) garage with 3 entrances & 3 exits. We only use 2 of each, but still, at mid day, we are packed.

[Clark Gilbert]

I wish the "TechnoKat Shop" had a big drain in it....then it would be really easy to have a car wash..

[mike o'leary]

around here we always do them in parking lots

[Carolyn Duncan]

In Virginia it was common to take over a gas station. Free water, plenty of space, and traffic.

[EddieMcD]

The garage we use is off a busy road. Plus, when it snows, cars get dirty, and we don't have to be out in the cold to wash them.

[Libby Ritchie]

Besides writing many grants and getting some corporate sponsors, our best fundraisers are dances. This past week we had our annual town "festival" and we built mini robots and did a battle bot booth. We came up with a very simple game and you could play for two minutes for a dollar. It went well. We also set our robot at the booth with a can on it. We made about $80 in a day and a half just with donations in the can!

(I also want to say that our float that we entered in the parade won TWO prizes!! Now that was exciting!)

[Joe Ross]

Our two main fundraisers are garage sales and a spaghetti dinner.

We typically bring in between $500 and $1000 per garage sale. We do several each year, generally one in the fall, one in early january (usually the day of kickoff) and one after florida. We ask for donations from team member's, their friends, family, as well as the school in general.

Our other big fundraiser is a Spaghetti Dinner. We do this in the fall and mainly advertise to the school. A lot of the food is donated from local businesses, so our cash outlay is minimal. Along with the dinner, we raffle off a DirectTV system. One of the parents on the team works for DirectTV and is able to get a system a year to donate to a NPO. Between the raffle and the dinner, we get between $1500 and $2000

[patrickrd]

Last year, our team tried a number of small fundraisers (can drive, spaghetti dinner)... These were successful since we brought in money, but in a very limited amount. This fall, we may try some fundraisers with much larger potential such as raffling off a laptop computer or palm pilots (in addition to raffling off many small prizes donated by local companies). I have heard of teams that have brought in more that $5000 w/ a raffle.

In addition we will be placing equal effort into making public demonstrations and seeking out corporate sponsors.

Patrick