Thread created automatically to discuss a document in the White Papers.
Team Fusion 364 - Golf Tournament Fund Raising Packet by dfava
What you guys did looks really amazing and i’d like to congratulate you. I have been passing this paper around to my whole team and they are also similarly amazed. We are probably in the same boat as you corporate funding wise, so this has great value for us.
Anyway, the first two things that came to my mind were 1. Where do you get so many golfers? and 2. Where do you get so many parents? (it seems like there was a very large parental involvement in your tournament, and im not so sure we could match this)
Answer 1: You will need to get the ?WORD? out in the golfing community for the 1st year. Do this by running the idea by your local golf courses and asking your parents, who golf, about it. We now, in our 5th year, turn away at least 8-10 teams yearly. We have a large waiting list for golf teams and use this ?leverage? to make sure that they return next year and hopefully with more sponsorship money! ?
You might think that this is CRAZY - but by limiting the number of golfers, you make sure that they are well taken care of- which is a priority to build something that people WANT to attend and gives your team something that can MAKE money for you.
Answer #2: Parents - The Parents on my team play as important role as the engineers. This is something that your team must EMPHASIZE! My parents are involved in every aspect of the team and understand their role, but your team must clearly define these roles and make sure that they are substantial.
If all you ask of your parents is to feed the kids during the work nights of the 6 week build process, then that’s about all you will get from them (and that is a SHAME!) With the golf tournament, they provide the primary contacts for sponsorship, help get donations of food, drinks, paper products etc. They are challenged to make sure that enough money comes in to do the things that we need to do - plus keep membership on our team totally FREE for all students. The rise to the challenge - but maybe they have no choice! 
Another reason that I use the parents in this type of capacity is to MAKE them learn as much about us (Team Fusion ? our goals, accomplishments, our mission statement) and about FIRST as possible ? as quickly as possible. If they have no reason to KNOW ? they WONT! This also increases your sphere of influence ? we find that most of our sponsors come through parents, students and engineers JUST talking with people about what we do. ALL FIRST teams have extraordinary stories to tell ? why not have a LOT of people telling those stories.
My take on things: Because of the involvement with the Golf Tournament, I believe we are a closer, more driven team. EVERYONE (Engineer, parents, students, teacher, and community) has some ownership via this project. By developing something that gives “US” the opportunity to control our own destiny (makes us enough money to participate yearly) , I think we work a little harder and we all have something to be very proud of. We tried the “nickel and dime” approach - 20 small fund-raisers throughout the year - but we found that it took important time that could be used more effectively (like teaching kids more about the JOYS OF ENGINEERING!) PLUS - how much pride comes from selling doughnuts and doing car washes ??? Together we’ve built a professional level tournament put on by a professional group of individuals.
Good Luck and contact us if you need any additional help.
David
Max,
Additional for Answer #1:
Check out the sheet that has the cash breakdown for the tournament.
You’ll notice that the “real” money is made via t-signs and banners - not necessarily golfers/golf teams. Altough you can do just the opposite and run a 4K-6K $ golfers only tournament with no t-signs or banners.
First off I would like to say that what you have done is absoloutly amazing! It is much better than car-washes 
I just have one question, t-signs, are thoes like ad’s in the tee-boxes?
Francis,
yes - t-signs are small corrugated plastic signs with wire stakes that you place directly off the tee box. I’ll get my students to take some pictures (and measurements) and post them to our website - for t-signs and banners. Your best bet is to get in GOOD with a local sign shop - if you can get t-signs and banners donated (for sponsorship) then that’s ALL profit.
Let us know if you need any additional help.
PS - We do this golf tournament on what most golfers would consider a “goat ranch” (I’m laughing!). I say this only because many of YOU can and will make MUCH MORE that 23K and we look forward to hearing your success stories.
Sincerely,
David F.
Above post reported.
BUT
This is an awesome thread to resurrect.
I was just visiting CD to see if there were any interesting discussions and I see this in the portal… “What???”
But you’re right though… our team STILL uses this as our main source of fundraising each year. Also, like Mr. Fava said in his post above, it allows the team to learn how to cooperate in a professional business atmosphere.