Posted by Patrick Dingle.
Student on team TBA from Cornell University / Ithaca High School sponsored by Cornell University.
Posted on 11/17/2000 12:38 PM MST
I am a former member of team 190 Mass Academy & WPI, and now am in the process of starting a team here in Ithaca, NY. I was wondering if any teams have any innovative fundraising idea, especially ideas that high school students can have a role in.
Thanks,
Patrick
Posted by Jessica Boucher. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #237, Sie-H2O-Bots, from Watertown High School and Eastern Awning Systems & The Siemon Company.
Posted on 11/18/2000 7:09 AM MST
In Reply to: Fundraising Ideas posted by Patrick Dingle on 11/17/2000 12:38 PM MST:
Hello, Patrick!
Ooh, Cornell. Great start with them as a sponsor. Trust me, the name will get you noticed.
Anyway, fundraising (especially on a rookie team) is horribly tough. We’ew in our third year, and we’re still fundraising year-round to reach our $50K goal.
Last year we had to raise $48K…and we ended up recieving all but $18K from random corporate sponsorship…the rest, we raised ourselves.
How do we do this year in-year out? We’ve created a couple of funding traditions these past few years, starting before the school year starts here with our annual bulb sale. I dont know how we make a profit each year, since bulbs do come back up, but they still sell. Look for a company that will give you the most profit, if you want I can refer you to the one we use, though its kinda late in the year to sell.
We also utilise the events going on in our town to their fullest extent. These things are double blessings: you make money & get your name out. Our first event like this is the annual Oktoberfest. Here we set up a booth, do demonstrations (we had a pack of kids constantly around the robot), and sell various things, such as baked goods, leftover bulbs, and make-your-own-buttons (people love this. Charge $1 a button). We also do raffles: a normal raffle and out ‘thingamabob’ raffle, in which you pay $1 to guess the number of parts in last year’s robot (yes, you have to count…we have three count & average them)…the winner recieves 50% of the money.
Though we have many traditions, we also aren’t afraid to try something new. ALWAYS do this. People get bored with the normal fundraisers year after year, and who knows, maybe that strange fundraiser will make more money than you expected. Our rookie year we had a ‘smash for cash’, in which we took a beat-up car and paid $3 a whack. This didnt work too well due to the fact it was at the High School bonfire and the football players decided to flip the car. Last year, we sponsored a minor league wrestling event. This gave us our first piece of negative feedback from the town (too violent), so we’re never doing that again. This year, we’re holding a ‘Battle of the Bands’, where we have a local band with a lot of following headlining, and other local bands competing against eachother after the headlining set. This should be our most profitable yet, due to the fact that the headliner already has a faithful crowd that will pay to see them, wherever they may be.
Oh, goodness, I’ve written a lot. If you want more info, dont be afraid to email me.
-Jessica B, #237
Posted by Brian .
Student on team #56, Robbe Xtreme, from Bound Brook High School and Ethicon Inc…
Posted on 11/18/2000 8:47 AM MST
In Reply to: Fundraising Ideas posted by Patrick Dingle on 11/17/2000 12:38 PM MST:
Well Team 56 has started their fundraising for this year and without corporate sponorship we want to raise about $20-30K so we have our work cut out for us. Last year we started a couple activities that helped us out last year, so we are going to get the same things and more going for us again.
For example tonight we are hosting a concert in our schools auditorium, one of our robotics members is in a band and they are going to play a benefit concert to which all the profits go to us. Then last year we started a student vs. student tournament and the winner of that plays the winner of out engineers & teachers vs. engineers & teachers. Entry for each team is 10 or 15 dollars I cant recall what it was last year. Then we have fundraising sheets that sell advertising space on our t-shirts, our website, on the robot, or in the pit area. All of these seem to work well and it gets the whole school involved so therefore it all goes to our benefit.
thats all for now
Brian
Posted by Trevor McCulloch.
Student on team #349, The Robahamas, from International Academy and Ford.
Posted on 11/18/2000 3:33 PM MST
In Reply to: Fundraising Ideas posted by Patrick Dingle on 11/17/2000 12:38 PM MST:
One word: Robobucks!
Our team has a little coffee/hot chocolate
concession at school. We buy cups, lids, coffee,
hot chocolate and creamer (essential to the best
hot chocolate) in bulk and make the coffee/hot
chocolate every morning and sell for about a half
an hour before school starts. For the time it takes,
it’s a pretty good fundraiser, we can make
anywhere between $15 and $30 a day, and it’s not
a very large school. The biggest up front cost is a
large coffee maker, which cost us about $300. If
you can do this at your school, it’s a nice way to
constantly raise money.
Trevor
Team 349
Posted by Jessica Boucher. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #237, Sie-H2O-Bots, from Watertown High School and Eastern Awning Systems & The Siemon Company.
Posted on 11/19/2000 6:55 AM MST
In Reply to: Re: Fundraising Ideas posted by Trevor McCulloch on 11/18/2000 3:33 PM MST:
: Our team has a little coffee/hot chocolate
: concession at school.
I also have to add, concessions are one of the best ways to raise funds in your school. We buy wholesale candy & chips (Hot fries, Doritos, stuff like that)…stuff that is popular but can’t be found in the vending machines. We also buy Dew in bulk, and that stuff goes FAST (probably since the school doesn’t sell soda)…all candy, chips & soda are $.75, and juice boxes are $.50…team members can also sign out a certain dollar amount of candy (paying the money beforehand to the team to relieve confusion) and walk around with it in classes, to sell it there (the students that sell get the money credited to them).
A couple things about concessions. First, find stuff that will get a large draw but isn’t sold by the school (no need to get the school angry)…second, if you sell soda (or anything else contravercal), make sure they keep it in the classroom or area you sell, no need to get in trouble…third, keep on top of happenings at school, and use them to your advantage. Once, a fight broke out at our school’s basketball game, and a kid got thrown into the only candy machine of the school and broke it to pieces…so, there went our competition…we made a killing. :
: Sure, it might not be the nicest thing, but I’m glad we saw an opportunity when it arose.
Ok, I’m done for now,
-Jessica B, #237
Posted by S. Krussell.
Coach on team #349, Robahamas, from International Academy and Ford Motor Co…
Posted on 11/20/2000 6:26 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Fundraising Ideas posted by Trevor McCulloch on 11/18/2000 3:33 PM MST:
You could also scout around for a used one.
Posted by Nate Bulthuis.
Student on team #107, Team ROBOTICS, from Holland Christian High School and Metal Flow Corp…
Posted on 11/21/2000 7:00 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Fundraising Ideas posted by Trevor McCulloch on 11/18/2000 3:33 PM MST:
Sounds great. How much do you charge per coffee cup/hot chocolate cup?