My boys have dual citizenship and will be playing on a national team this summer. They are looking for fund raising ideas. Have you seen any great ideas that you can share? A few that have already been suggested - programs, raffle, t-shirts/clothing... Thanks!
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A team or just your kids? how many if it's just your sons.
Fund raising for the teams. It will probably be a squad of 20 and they are talking about getting a committee together for the fund raising. Since we live so far away, I want to be able to at least contribute some good ideas.
Golf tournament (if there is enough time and a course is willing to host), talk to retailers and restaurants. I know places like Papa Johns around here allow teams to sell cards which can be redeemed for a pizza. The team usually gets to keep 15-20%. Last year we bagged groceries at our local grocery store where the players collected tips and also sold flowers which were to be delivered just before Mother's Day. Both were brought in a decent amount. If grocery store sell brats/burgers in the parking lot on occasion the people running those are usually fundraising groups. Try to get in on those as the store provides everything and the group gets to keep a pretty good chunk of the profits. Those opportunities fill up quickly though. We also sold bags of salt a couple of years ago and kept a dollar for every $3 20 pound bag of salt we sold which was a lot.The year before that we sold mulch and that was equally successful.
I agree with the Golf tournament suggestion. Contact your local golf course on how to go about setting it up. Given enough time to plan for it, it can be an excellent fund raiser and a lot of fun too.
Golf tournaments can raise a lot of funds, but they are a lot of work too. The biggest challenge is getting hole sponsors followed by having enough teams to make it work.
One fund raiser my son's old travel team did that was quite successful for minimal cost was a bowlathon. Requires a little work before hand - basically have the kids get commitments - either so much per pin (like a nickel or a dime) or flat out donations ($20 is a good minimum). With 12-13 "bowlers" the kids raised about $2800.
We found car washes to be hit or miss. If you happen to do one on a cloudy day, it usually wasn't successful. Plus every group seems to do one every weekend around here.
Mulch sales can raise a good amount of money, but are a lot of work - on the backside when you have to deliver the goods. Just make sure of the logistics - how you're going to pick up and deliver the mulch. My son's boy scout troop did this as an annual fund raiser and you'll need a lot of pickups and trailers. I think one year they sold about 25 pallets of mulch. Fortunately one of the parents had access to a heavy duty flat bed truck and a few others had heavy duty double axle trailers. I was usually worn out by the time we finished on delivery day - not to mention a sore back. But it was usually worth it.
A very successful one we have done is partnered with Goodwill. They bring out a semi trailer to whatever location you've chosen. You get out the word early that you'll be at xx location taking Goodwill donations. They usually start you with two trailers and will bring more when you fill them. They pay you by weight (usually around $1500 per trailer). We always did it over a weekend. We also had access to a small box truck, so we looked on Craigslist for free stuff (there is a lot of it) and went and picked it up to put on the truck. mainly furniture and other heavy stuff. Likewise, if you send someone around the neighborhood to garage sales that are close by and talk to them, you will find a lot of people willing to let you have what they don't sell on Saturday afternoon. Last year we filled five trailers this way. The average is one-and-a-half.
We used to take donations of goods for a few weeks, store them in my basement and have a rummage sale. However, that was a lot more work and we made a lot less $$.
I'll add that car washes are hit and miss and don't generate a lot of $$ but they are very good for team bonding, both kids and parents, especially on teams that haven't been together a long time.
Our program has been successful in selling water softener salt
I'm in Colorado. Wonder if I can sell pot as a fundraiser.....
maybe you could sell chips outside of the pot stores - you know, munchy cures
ok, if you take this serious, I will be disappointed.
Rent a dance hall, set up a Casino night. Advertise and serve free alcohol. Let the whiskey flow. Once things get roaring, have the local police/sheriff park a car outside with parking lights on. Have the sober parents outside and offer $500 cab rides home to the Casino participants.
I suggest you investigate "crowdsourcing" options. I've used razoo (as a contributor). I think they take a flat 5% from the donations. Very little work to get it started. Just watch out for companies who have minimum charges, subscription fees, or other hidden costs.
We did Yankee Candles. They are easy to sell. Now you can do everything on line, they even do the shipping for you. I think you make 40%. We would average $100 profit per player.
Dodge ball tourney.Hold it the Sunday before super bowl.Start with 4-5 grade combined.Then go by class up to 12th grade.Also have open division over 18.When crowning braket down to best of class then to best of school(jr. high...high school...open) It can be fun to have high school vs. open champ if time.Sell food along with snacks.Find a friendly high school you may get gyms for just the janitor costs.Typically you can't get out of that one.charge the teams entry fee.Charge small entrance fee.This is something you should do yearly at the least not one time as you will not believe if done right the growth(and money) you will need to either get volunteers to officiate or pay(volunteers best there free) Its a lot(% wise) coming in not much going out.Make sure whomever is in charge of the food takes it seriously.You want people to want to eat THERE not to leave.
Thank you all for your great ideas! I really appreciate it!
Community service pledge drive. Have boys get sponsors to pledge ($ per hour, or straight donation). Take 1 day and hit up as many things as you can...contacting libraries, park districts, forest preserves, police, fire, city/town government...see what can be done. You can have multiple levels go out and do things separately (freshmen go do something, sophs/jv go another place, varsity somewhere else). Great way to do multiple things: raise funds, have the boys give back, and get your program good publicity in media.
