WAG Fundraising Ideas

[coachmolly]

I know there are some other fundraising threads floating around, but as this is referring to a HS team rather than a club program, I am hoping some posters can offer some more specific ideas.
Our team is in need of matting to comply with HS regulations and the school district is unable to pay for them. So we are looking into a fundraising option that would allow us to raise about $2000. It would need to be raised relatively quickly, so ordering items to sell or working with a catalog company or something might not be the best bet at this point. We also want to make it so the parents aren't basically just funding everything anyway (they already have to pay for warm-up leos, warm ups, grips, etc. which doesn't seem like a lot for club parents, but I guess is a pretty sizable amount for a HS sport).
So I would be happy to hear any suggestions or experiences. Thanks!

 

[Muddlethru]

My oldest daughter's soccer team raised $500 on a garage sale, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Bake sale and carwash raised $200 each. The easiest and most profitable fundraiser is getting sponsors. At your first meet, give out a program or even just a flyer with all the sponsors names etc. Your girls or boys will have to go from business to business or approach the business they regularly patronize, dentist office, restaurants, stores, anything. You will need to give them something acknowledging their donation.

 

[JBS]

I know there are some other fundraising threads floating around, but as this is referring to a HS team rather than a club program, I am hoping some posters can offer some more specific ideas.

Not sure what the local demographic of your area is? Around here...the high schools are very successful when they lay out a plan and just ask for the money. Our upgraded football stadium was funded by $500,000 from the school district and $1.9 million in private donations. This same school also has it's own ice arena which was funded by a single $2 million private donation.

Yes...I know...football always gets the money...but our gymnastics team just received several thousand in donations for a rebuilt spring floor.

The key is to ask for small amounts from many...local businesses and grandparents are always great. Be sure to post their names somewhere. For example...website list of all donations...$100 and up donations get listed in the home meet program...$500 and up get added to the gymnastics sponsors plaque in the gym at the school. Check this link out...Sponsors | OSBC...how about this...name your gym if it's not already...Naming Rights Opportunities | OSBC.

When asking for money have a very clear plan as to what the money will do...pictures are great. Once the money is collected...purchase the equipment and call the local news in to say "thank you" to the community. Mail a "thank you" to all donors.

If done right...this way works...the local community is very proud of their teams...just ask for help.

 

[wallinbl]

I would think that a high school would have a pretty good shot at businesses making donations or sponsoring the team. Public schools are easy to drum up support for; much more so than a private club gym that people perceive to be for rich people's kids.

 

[coachmolly]

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions!The HC and I really like the idea of asking businesses and have drafted a letter, but we need to get it approved by the school first. So we are planing some back up options just in case.
We are currently looking into restaurant fundraisers, does anyone have any experience with these? We are contacting Chick-fil-a, CiCi's, and McAlister's Deli to see if they have any availability in the next 2ish months. Does anyone have other suggestions that they have done or attended that worked well? We have a good number of chain restaurants locally (Chili's, Applebee's, Outback, fast food places, etc.) and are willing to call around to see what works. Preferably something that would be appealing for HS aged students and their families. Thanks again!

 

[MaryA]

I know that, in some areas, Applebee's will do a "flapjack fundraiser" for breakfast. I think basically you provide people to wait the tables and such, and pay a minimal amount to cover the staff that they have to pay to make the pancakes and clean up, they donate the pancakes, and you sell tickets. I looked into it when I was fundraising chair last year and they don't offer it in our area, but many do. Worth looking into, and HS girls would be old enough to wait the tables and such themselves.

 

[2gymmies]

We have some places around here that will give a % of the days sales of everyone who brings a certain paper or mentions a certain event. I think Orange Leaf does this sort of thing and Noodles and Company, Chick-Fil-A, and I'm thinking I saw one for Cheesecake Factory. What about a spaghetti dinner or a fish fry? Do something with National Gymnastics Day coming up (cartwheel a thon?) Just throwing out ideas...

 

[iwannacoach]

I know that, in some areas, Applebee's will do a "flapjack fundraiser" for breakfast. I think basically you provide people to wait the tables and such, and pay a minimal amount to cover the staff that they have to pay to make the pancakes and clean up, they donate the pancakes, and you sell tickets.

My son's USATF track team did this. It was pretty easy to sell the $5.00 tickets, and they ended up making about $750.00. All in all it was pretty painless, a nice social event, and a lot of fun being served (for once) by the kids.

 

[gym monkeys mom]

We did car wash that we did pretty well on.

Instead of doing typical drive by we and recruit cars to be washed. We had gymnasts families sell tickets. basically books of 10 tickets please sell half $5 each ticket. We made about $600 off a team of 35 kids. Gave a $5 gift card to top 3 sellers.

I do think solicitying businesses for school program should work well.

Good luck!!

 

[coachmolly]

Thanks so much for all of the great suggestions! Unfortunately the asking for donations idea was shot down by the school, bummer! I guess individual parents can ask their personal employers if they would be interested in donating, but we can't really do anything like that on behalf of the school. It stinks because there are quite a few local businesses that I think would be willing to help us out.
We ar enow looking into restaurant fundraisers and McAlister's looks promising. They give 10% of proceeds and put out tip jars which you get 100% of at the end of the night (for anyone else looking for some fundraising ideas). I just found out the official quote is $3100, so we won't be able to raise all of that, but anything helps. And apparently the school board looks favorably on groups that work to earn their own funds and might be more willing to help us out financially if we take this initiative.
Our team is pretty small (about 9 returning and 4 freshman who were part of our 8th grade program last year), so anything requiring lots of manpower- like a car wash- will be hard as it would require 100% participation and that is hard to do with high schoolers. But it is a good option if we can somehow rope everyone and some parents in.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we have a lot of money to raise in not much time (season starts the first week in November). Thanks again!

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

Garage sales, bottle drive can be done with relatively small people (we did it with 9 or 10 girls and parents driving, and got around $1200), silent auction (get parents to collect donations, sell tickets and look into local bars or pubs to host it in), sell cookie dough, chocolate almonds, moms pantry, etc. Also around here you can set it up with Boston Pizza (they have those in the states?) that you hook up with a few in the area and ask anyone who goes to bring their receipt in to you and then bring them all in and they will give you 15% of the total bill values.

 

[JBS]

Thanks so much for all of the great suggestions! Unfortunately the asking for donations idea was shot down by the school, bummer! I guess individual parents can ask their personal employers if they would be interested in donating, but we can't really do anything like that on behalf of the school. It stinks because there are quite a few local businesses that I think would be willing to help us out.
We ar enow looking into restaurant fundraisers and McAlister's looks promising. They give 10% of proceeds and put out tip jars which you get 100% of at the end of the night (for anyone else looking for some fundraising ideas). I just found out the official quote is $3100, so we won't be able to raise all of that, but anything helps. And apparently the school board looks favorably on groups that work to earn their own funds and might be more willing to help us out financially if we take this initiative.
Our team is pretty small (about 9 returning and 4 freshman who were part of our 8th grade program last year), so anything requiring lots of manpower- like a car wash- will be hard as it would require 100% participation and that is hard to do with high schoolers. But it is a good option if we can somehow rope everyone and some parents in.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we have a lot of money to raise in not much time (season starts the first week in November). Thanks again!

Just go around the school...

VIP Spaghetti Dinner...$50/plate...same concept...they are supporting the program...but they are actually purchasing spaghetti.

It's all about how you sell it.

 

[wgagym]

We did a Tramp-o-thon when my high school needed to raise money for a spring floor. We were able to set up one of our backyard trampolines at the local mall. And we took turns getting up there and jumping and flipping. We raised a bunch of money. we had people donate in the same format as a walk-a-thon, and then people just donated as they walked by at the mall.

 

[Muddlethru]

One of our more successful fundraisers is a raffle. First prize was an iPad, second was an iPod nano and third was iPod shuffle. We bought the items after we sold the tickets We raised over $1,500 Even if we bought the items first, it only cost less than $700 and people seemed more inclined to purchase the tickets if they had more than one chance of getting something. The google tablet is under $200 and is claimed to be a pretty powerful tablet. iPads are only $400. Kids love those things. My formula would be if the total prizes are over $500, each ticket is $10. If under $500, $5.00/ticket.

Also, are there any championship sports going on? The football pool is always popular. I know we are months off, but just thought I'd throw it in there.


Must be pretty frustrating with such limited options. Getting sponsors is such an easy fundraiser. Good luck.

 

[coachmolly]

One of our more successful fundraisers is a raffle. First prize was an iPad, second was an iPod nano and third was iPod shuffle. We bought the items after we sold the tickets We raised over $1,500 Even if we bought the items first, it only cost less than $700 and people seemed more inclined to purchase the tickets if they had more than one chance of getting something. The google tablet is under $200 and is claimed to be a pretty powerful tablet. iPads are only $400. Kids love those things. My formula would be if the total prizes are over $500, each ticket is $10. If under $500, $5.00/ticket.

Also, are there any championship sports going on? The football pool is always popular. I know we are months off, but just thought I'd throw it in there.


Must be pretty frustrating with such limited options. Getting sponsors is such an easy fundraiser. Good luck.

I was talking to a local HS soccer coach and he mentioned his team made quite a bit doing a Vera Bradley raffle and I thought it was a great idea. I love the ipad/ipod type device idea, or even just collecting things locally/having each family contribute a gift card, valuable coupon book, or some other local, decent valued item and putting them together into sets to raffle (nice bag with local soaps, lotions, candles; gift card to family restaurant, kids movie, and gift card to local mini golf or play place; etc.). I suggested this to the HC but she didn't respond to that idea, but I think it might be something the girls could get behind.
We are having a meeting on Monday so I think I'll bring it up then, we have some pretty connected families so I'm hoping they are willing to help us out.
Thanks again for all the amazing tips and suggestions!

 

[vagymmomma]

One more idea that our local high school did a few years ago. They hosted a "school holiday" dance/gymnastics camp to raise money. They sent flyers home to students at all the elementary schools who feed into the high school. For example, Columbus Day is coming up and a lot of parents still have to work. I can't remember the exact charge but I want to say it was $40 - $50 for the day per child and they gave out a t-shirt. The girls on the team helped with a very basic intro to gymnastics and dance, and they did a show at the end of the day for the girls to perform for the parents. The team participated in the show as well. They had to make significiantly more than a thousand dollars. With the heightened interest in gymnastics this year because of the Olympics, it could be a big hit.

Also, you don't have a lot of time to plan this, but National Gymnastics Day is next Saturday. Maybe you can do a similar "exhibition" during the day giving kids a chance to try different events and see a demo by the team. Not sure how much you charge for a few hours though.

I would really try to get some sort of notice to elementary schools though so you can get some good foot traffic.

 

[Natasha]

We just did the Applebee's fundraiser. THey have a link on their website with information. It was very easy and we cleared over $1000 with minimal effort. You sell the tickets for however much you want (we did $5.00) and Applebees charges you $2 per plate served. We also had tip jars and made quite a bit on tips. We had quite a few people that bought tickets but did not come to the breakfast, so that helped as well as we made the whole $5 on those tickets. Many people are willing to just contribute $5 to the cause.

 

[coachmolly]

Thanks! The team actually did a clinic for younger kids in the past, we did one at the end of the season last year to make up for some overspent funds. It worked well, but the coach supporting this program (assoc. with local rec. gym program and school system) is no longer involved. And I seem to recall even she was unable to get local elementary schools to hand out flyers. It is definitely an option, though. The current HC and I were very hands off in the process last year, just showed up on the day to coach, so we would probably be pretty clueless. All the more fun I guess!
The Applebee's Breakfast could be good, I might try to give them a call tomorrow to see if they offer it in this area before passing it along to the girls.
All of this is just so overwhelming! It would have been nice to have a little more notice that all of this needed to be happening.

 

[GymBee97]

Our HS team made money selling candy bars. Sam's Club have Hershey Fund Raising boxes that cost about $30 each you make $22 per box selling them for $1 each. Our HS girls did this carried them around school ect and each sold a good 5 boxes each in a 2 week time. We have just under 30 girls on the team and made $3000 in two weeks. We stopped selling not because we couldn't sell the candy anymore but because we made the money we needed.

Also Applebee's Restaraunts will do All you can eat Breakfast fundraisers for groups. The only thing you need to do is Sell the tickets and advertise it. The tickets usually group sell for $10 each. $ 5 goes to Applebee's to pay for the supplies, cook and wait staff. The day of the event you only need Greeters and girls outside holding up signs to get folks to turn in. We made $1500 on that event for very little effort. At $10 each its is a harder sell than the candy bars but folks do purchase the tickets.

 

[coachmolly]

The candy bar idea could be good, especially if we could get the AD to let us set up at a sporting event or something after school. I wonder if Costco sells the same fundraiser box? There isn't a Sam's Club around here. I will definitely bring up that option at our meeting tonight. The HC and I aren't too keen on selling stuff, but if it can make us the full $3000 in just a few weeks, it might be worth a shot!
I called the local Applebee's and they do offer the pancake breakfast fundraiser but are book for the rest of the year with the exception of Nov. 17th, which is a possibility but doesn't fall at the most ideal time.