I am looking for companies that will offer fund raisers to local teams
ideally these would be national companies with corporate fund raising policies that can be applied locally. If you know terms from them it would be even better
ex: Home Depot www.homedepot.com -offers gift cards …
any suggestions?
WC
Barnes and Nobles has a bookfair type fundraiser where teams get part of the profits for the night.
I can’t find the exact link, but it’s somewhere here.
Kinda like this.
Wal-Mart offers grants, although they point you to the local store for the details.
http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=435&contId=4436
some of these may help:
Try Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club. Local managers make the decisions.
these are great, keep them coming
Taco Cabana is a restaurant chain in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico that will work with groups. They put a fish bowl on the counter and anyone who eats that night between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. puts their receipt in the fish bowl. The group gets 10%.
Another chain is CiCi’s Pizza and they will also work with groups, helping with fundraisers. We had a great time with them last year. The students invited their parents, classmates, and teachers. We also invited a couple of potential contacts and we took some of our smaller robots with us to join in the festivities.
A helpful hint:
When asking local companies for a grant, limit your initial request to $ 500 to no more than a $ 1,000.
The $ 500 number is big enough to make a big budget impact without hurting the business too much. That level is also low enough that it doesn’t require too many signatures in the company for the grant to be made.
Explain to the potential donor the team ‘business plan’. After the season you should report to the donor the results of the season. If you demonstrate impact and progress, you may be able to repeat the request for the next season, but at a higher level of financial commitment.
If your team doesn’t have a business plan, then that should be your first order of business. The reason for having the plan is to help you and your team members get your head around what you want to do, and how you want to accomplish it.
Plus, if you do it well, it can be submitted for the Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award.
But remember, the first goal of the plan it to help the team achieve it’s goals. The Award is the icing on the cake.
Good Luck !!
Ed
PS. If you carefully study the Lowes submission criteria, you will notice that it is forcing you to plan your activities. Plan, Plan, Plan
Sonic Hamburgers does something similar. You have your team members be the car hops and they get to keep all the tips. The management also donates a percentage of the food sales for the night.
I want to stress the point below in particular for all fundraising sources. It is crucial to hold on to your sponsors, even the ones that give you that $100 check from year to year. Send them your newsletter, invitations to your open house, or send a student to drop by and say hello. If a company invites your team to a dinner or an event, make sure a student or two is available to represent the team.
Though it seems like it’s extra effort, constant vigilance can maintain your sponsorship year to year! Good luck!
Krispy Kreme allows you to buy boxes of donus from them that you can then re-sell for a profit. For a whole-team morning of work, I think we netted a few hundred dollars from several hundred donuts. You can also sell them at school. Here’s an idea: give a free krispy kreme donut to anyone that’ll sit through a team-made video from the previous year if you’re recruiting.
A bonus was that there wasn’t a Krispy Kreme in Peterborough, so it was actually a novelty for most of the people buying them.
keeping this thread alive- anybody else have sources for the list?
I see your ideas and raise you with this link…