WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUNDRASING?

[rmadsen55]

Hi all,

WOW! After month of anticipation the time has finally come. FIRST 2002 season has officially started. during these times with the economy doing what it is money is tighter with our sponsor corporations and they are not able to kick in as much as they have been able to in past years in light of this I am asking for your help buy sharing ideas for fundraisers you do. I am sure we are not the only team facing this additional challenge this year so I will also share with you what we do.
-Coffee Sales through Boston's Best CoffeeBOSTON"S BEST COFFEE
-A raffle of donated Items
-Local Bussiness Donations
-take and bake Pizza sales through a local pizza place

I thank you for your help and good luck to all in the 2002 season.

-ROBIN MADSEN

[Katie Reynolds]

Usually our team sells candybars fro VandeWalls... we get them fro 50 cents and sell them for a dollar. Students buy them!! Another thing we did this year was selling poinsettas before Christmas. During our city's Octoberfest celebration we set up a booth to show off our robot and FIRST and also sold candybars there. Our team helped out at a regional FLL tournament so we sold concessions there and we hosted the Wisconsin state FLL tournament which we also sold concessions at. The total amount raised from the regional and state competition was close to $1000, plus we got to help out with FLL (an added bonus!) After the build we will be doing carwashes and such to raise more $.

I hope this helped!

- Katie

[Marc P.]

A relatively quick and easy fundraiser that works for a quick $800-$1200 is a pancake breakfast or pasta dinner served in a public facility. In most cases, the pancake batter or pasta can be donated or purchased at a discount, and charging whatever you would feel a comfortable price would bring in a rather good profit.

Just two cents from team 38.

Marc

[joe_balint]

Raffle $7000 (net)
Murder Mystery Dinner $1000/show minimum
Working concert venue concession stands during the summer (8 shows) ~$11000

The raffle idea we leveraged from another team. We purchase a used laptop, digital camera and PDA and make that our top three prizes with many additional donated prizes (this info is printed on the ticket). We sell tickets from print time until the open house on the saturday before ship when we draw the winners. Last year we sold raffle tickets for about a month and we netted ~$7000 (after ~$1700 for main prizes) This is a must do. It sells itself. $3/ticket or 4 for $10. I recommend this fund-raiser to all teams! Just be sure to get a raffle license/permit (usually costs ~$70) and then you are totally legal. Our team ended up raising enough so that each student only had to pay $50 each to go to the National Competition! Try it, you'll like it! -Joe

[AWiser]

For a little quick cash, I would suggest In-N-Out Burgers. We sold around 300 in about an hour. And this was while competing against all the other clubs on Club Day at our school! We were able to buy them at half off and make a good profit (but only a couple hundred dollars).

~Alex Wiser~

[Rick]

our team is famous for its mid-winter car washes. We have many connections through parents and obtain the use of a huge heated garage. We usually wash 6-8 cars at a time. Typically an all day car wash (9-4) will rake in some cash. We also organized a dance at our school which worked well too. A total cost per student comes to about 150 to go to all events.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally posted by AWiser
For a little quick cash, I would suggest In-N-Out Burgers. We sold around 300 in about an hour. And this was while competing against all the other clubs on Club Day at our school! We were able to buy them at half off and make a good profit (but only a couple hundred dollars).

~Alex Wiser~

What the heck is an in and out burger?

[rmadsen55]

Thanks all for your suggestions! Keep em coming, They're great.

Reguards,

Robin Madsen
Vice President
KHS FIRST Club
team 213 Dirty Birds

[AWiser]

Originally posted by Elgin Clock


What the heck is an in and out burger?

Please tell me you're joking...

[turbidum]

Hey, just thought we'd let you know what we do for fundraising:
-See's candy bar sales (although it sounds lame, our MESA club at school has about 30 people and we sold about $800 worth in about 2 weeks, and our robotics team is still selling). Also, we've found it's easier to sell the kind that come in boxes, ready to sell (24 per box, $1 each, $.50 profit per bar), rather than the kind that people need to order.

-Raffles. We have made about $2000 in two raffles, selling tickets at school and outside of school, and at school sporting events. If you need prizes and don't feel like buying them, ask around at local stores and see if people will donate items. Also, in order to excite more people about the raffle, we've found that drawing for little items throughout the course of the raffle (and announcing the winners to the school, i.e. over the intercom) helps to draw interest.

-Silent Auctions. We made a few hundred dollars in one silent auction which occured during the run of our school's production of Rumors (people bid before the show, during intermission, and after the show). If you don't know what a silent auction is, you get prizes for people to bid on and have sign up sheets that allow people to place bids on items (don't forget to set a minimum bid) and, eventually, you close the biddding and the highest bidders pay what they bid.

-Refreshments at sporting events. Although we have not done this yet, many other teams at our school have done this. Basically, we volunteer (only people 18 or over, i.e. seniors and parents) to serve refreshments at local events (in our case, it's at the San Jose Arena), and we get a share of the profits. This may be unique to our city, but I suggest that you check around to see if anything like this is available.

-Looking for sponsors. Yes, it's true that the NASA grants have already been awarded (and we got one, luckily), but there are many other corporations out there looking to sponsor teams, so ask around. Also, local stores may also give you donations (e.g. food, supplies, etc.), so ask them too. But, also remember, if a business sponsors you, RECOGNIZE THEM. So, put their names on t-shirts, on banners, or on your web-site.

I think that's all we do for fundraising, but it is getting us money. We know that the hope that no one will have to pay full price for nationals is an impossible one, but we are trying to cut down the cost for our members as much as possible, so everyone can go who wants to.

[turbidum]

Oh, another question! We have a local In n Out burger, but what exactly are you talking about when you say you did fundraising through them? Did you serve burgers and get some of the profit. Also, if you did, how did you do this (i.e. how did you go about asking them)?

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally posted by AWiser


Please tell me you're joking...

No, hes probably serious, cause I was wondering the same thing....look at where youre coming from and then look at where we're coming from...seriously, expliquez, I'm curious.

[turbidum]

Just for those of you who DON'T know, In n Out Burger is a chain of fast food restaurants (much like McDonalds, Jack in the Box, Burger King, Carl's Junior, Wendy's, etc.). They believe themselves to be a better restaurant because they claim their ingredients are "fresher" and "healthier" (personally, I prefer Burger King).