[FTC]: Fundraising Using Social Media

Other FIRST Tech Challenge
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Our team FTC 5070 N.U.T.S. qualified for the FTC World Championship. We are in the process of fundraising to cover the cost of the trip to St. Louis. In one of our fundraising efforts we set up a web site (http://www.gofundme.com/29v0pg) to accept donations and we are trying to promote it using social media.

We are looking for suggestions on how to spread the word about our fundraising efforts. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

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We find that fundraising is best done by directly contacting the people/companies that you have targeted. We offer a ‘sponsorship package’ offering signed pictures, kudos on our website and sticker on our robot for different pricing levels. Sometimes instead of asking for money directly, we ask for them to pay our shipping, or buy us giveaways. Sometimes this is easier for some companies than giving cash.
We would be glad to send our fundraising letter with you if you like.

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Thank you for your post. Please send me you letter, we can use it as a guide. Thanks.

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I’ve been watching this thread because I think that there is probably a role for social media in fundraising. I’m just not sure what it is yet. It is certainly one way to develop relationships and build credibility, but there are some businesses doing some really creative things with social media. For example, my sister follows a purse company. The owner makes one custom purse per day and then everyone who wants to buy it submits their name. She then draws the name of the “winner” who gets to then be the one to buy the very expensive purse! I’m not sure how that translates into fundraising for FTC teams, but that might be my off-season project! :smiley: If I come up with anything, I’ll keep you posted. Keep me posted if you come up with anything!

Best wishes. We’ll see you at Worlds!

N.

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I just realized that I forgot to mention that the purse “lottery” is through Facebook each day. N.:o

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Social media in fundraising is untapped right now but has the potential to raise huge amounts of money very quickly. Do a Google search on crowd fundraising to see how social media is being used not only to fundraise but to get funding for various projects.

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