Team 433 needs help

[Joe Matt]

Sending this off to my dad (Alicia knows how close we live to 433!)

[looneylin]

haha. of course!

[DotCom]

Hey, it's another all-girls team! Awesomeness!

Some people have already said this, but probably the best thing to do would be to go for all the small local companies. They're usually very eager to sponsor teams, since it gives them more publicity. So just write a few letters and spend a day walking into small businesses...

(Food companies aren't that bad either...)

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Again, try getting other local companies to get behind you for this year. It sure gets a kick for people to read your name if it's like 4 or 5 lines long. (975 from Midlothian, VA has like 6 or 7 lines of sponsors). But I would also recommend applying for a big grant from a big sponsor pretty soon (Like Texas Instruments or UTC or Alion or even Comcast so you would have it in '07. Hey, since you guys are in the Philly area, it would make a lot of sense to get Comcast to help...after all they are Philly based.

If all else fails, get a bunch of other teams to pitch in. It's Gracious Professionalism in a really true sense.

[RoboMom]

Lots of unique fundraising ideas on these forums. I have cut and paste a lot of them into a running list that I can send to you to distribute to your entire team. The format isn't pretty.
email me at jbeatty@usfirst.org if you are interested.

Good Luck!

[karinka13]

Thanks to everyone who's posted, we really appreciate it.

And here's an update:

We just received $1000 from a local company owned by the father of a girl at our school. YAY! Only $5000 to go!!

Karen <3

[chris31]

Contact your regional director. I know sometimes they have money that corporations want to give awa and they just need a team to claim it. Also if you give them a heads up now that you dont have your 6k and you explain why maybe they can give you an extension past Dec 7.

[efoote868]

I've found in fundraising that going big (usually) doesn't yield as many results... asking 100 major cooperations for $5000 will likely return less results than asking 100 small companies for $300-500, especially if the time frame is extremely small.

Also, going to restaurants is good too. Chipotle last year gave my team on the order of 800 free - burrito cards, and we sold more than 700 of them, getting about $3500 (mind you, it did take alot of work selling, but we did).

Some restaurants are also willing to set up like, "Help Support the (your name here) night!" where like, 25% of all purchases go towards the team. These fundraisers are usually easier to set up, too. (hopefully this helped you out... and best of luck to you!)

[karinka13]

Another update: We just got a promise of $1000 from another local company!


$4000 left to go!

[Meredith Rice]

Alicia (and Karen)

Hopefully you got all of my emails (I sent 5 emails to different companies and 1 university asking for help). I sent so many to Mr. Foell that his email account is regecting my email because it reads it as SPAM, haha.

I know each of the contacts from the companies personally, so I think there is a good chance they will do anything they can to help the Firebirds out. Do not hesitate to send your fundraising email to each one of them and I am sure you will get all the money you need! But act fast!!

The Firebirds rock no matter what happens (and we have always managed to pull through this far). My fingers are crossed.

Lots of love chicas!!
~Meredith

[karinka13]

Thanks Meredith!

And guess what? We actually managed just yesterday to raise $4700 (shocked? I was) and we only need $1300 more! I'm certain we'll have no trouble getting the rest, as we already have some promising contacts at other small businesses.

Thanks to everyone for their support!

[BandChick]

Congratulations girls! As a long-time supporter of FIRST, I was sad to hear about this. But it really looks like you have gotten things together, and managed to stick it out! I am SO proud of you! I reccomend if you have time hosting a spaghetti dinner. Get as many local (and not so local) teams to come out. If 56 can do you, you girls certainly can!