Fundraising

[oiuyt]

Hi all,
I'm looking for suggestions for methods of fundraising that have worked for your organization (fencing related or otherwise).

UMass Fencing is going to Florida in April for the National Collegiate Club Championships and we need a way to pay for it. Right now each of the three weapon squads are responsible for coming up with ways of raising money as well as our team officers for team-wide initiatives. Various ideas have been tried from selling things (homemade soap, bakesale, christmas ornaments, etc.) to working as refs at high school and USFA tournaments to selling magazines (currently we're selling 2-year subscriptions to ESPN the Magazine for $40, normal subscription price is $52, news stand price is about $207, pm me if you're interested).

These programs have worked to varying degrees, but none have really brought in the amounts of money that we need to be raising. What have YOU done that worked well? That was worth the time invovled.

Does anyone know of any grants programs for sports teams that might fit our situation?

Thx for your suggestions.
-B :)

[buccaneer]

turn to mama, papa and the world bank - sorry -
i know how hard it is - the only wealthy club i know was in a rich dude's will, ah yes another one was sponsored by a pub.
Probably they got some free drinks for wearing their logo

Some individuals are supported by the army, but even the top people have to pay there airline tickets themselves over here

equipment vendors are the only ones who might be interested in sponsoring you -
but the best fundraising activity is a big party

[thyme_daniels]

talk to your school and see if you can go around and sell things. you could sell food (always good), have a massive carwash. we had a group at my school have a fundraisert hat was an open-mic coffee house sort of thing backstage at our school, and they made a whole ton of money. just a few suggestions.

[Swordsman]

Try the UN; they seem ready enough to give everybody else money!!

[DHCJr]

Cut out the middle man. Where do you think they get a large portion of their money. Go to your Uncle Sam.

Seriously, when I went to high school, we had a fund raiser at the local radio station. The students acted as DJ's for a day, sold adds (and got a percentage) for the Senior Class. This also be good advertising for fencing in general. I don't know if this will work everywhere. This was a small town with not much else.

This probably would not work in your area, unless you had one of those game shows visit where you are. In Southern California a fund raiser is to get a large group (over 50) to be audience members, mostly on game shows. Depending on the show and the numbers you can make money. One afternoon we made over $800. The shows want to be sure when they pan the audience that there is a full audience.

[a517dogg]

throw a party, charge $10 instead of $5 at the door, maybe even get kegs donated to you for tax deductions or something. say you make 4 dollars profit per ticket, 200 people should up and thats $800 in yourp ocket.

[MikeHarm]

One great way to raise funds is parades. Some of the cities/towns pay upwards of 500 bucks a parade unit to participate. My folks take their horses out to about 100+ of them a year to help pay for expenses at their farm. Not bad pay for a walk down the street. I've always thought if you had something set up like a little fencing strip that you could tow with your car and had people fencing bouts as ya went down the street it would be great advertising (free tv coverage in many cases) and the crowds would love it.

[135711]

The guy with the party idea has it. Don't do a keg please! Write your list of invitee's. Send invitations with RSVP. Serve either a dinner [seated] or buffet. Either casual or dress. Tell them it's a fund raiser and people may be able to be more generous. Count up your replies and plan your menu. If stand up/buffet go with finger foods; if sit down; you can be a little more elaborate. See if your Alumni Association has a venue you can borrow.

[Dav3ey]

Two thoughts:

1. A wet blanket warning -- check out what the low down is on charging admission to an event where you're serving alcohol. While it may not be the local authories' top priority to enforce these rules, once someone reports a tax deduction to the IRS for a keg to your group, the effects are less clear. If your organization is already a 501(c)(3), it may be quite simple to get a permit for the "event" so you can be on the up-and-up. (I know......so square.)

2. You might try to find some prof.s who are well known/well liked/not-so-well liked and have fenced (or maybe not) to fence your team in a "tournament" at your event. Could be fun and funny.

[Aoife]

You might try to find some prof.s who are well known/well liked/not-so-well liked and have fenced (or maybe not) to fence your team in a "tournament" at your event. Could be fun and funny.

Yes! I've been trying to pursuade my school to let us do this for Comic Relief (aka Red Nose Day.... it's a UK thing ).

Other than that... there's alway the old 'chucking-wet-sponges-at-teachers-for-a-fee' idea... which normally raises a bit. How about a talent (or talentless) show? Sponsored walk? Sponsored silence? Sponsored fence? Cake sale? Bring and buy? Karaoke night? Full Monty? (obviosuly, a University wouldn't want anybody doing the Full Monty, but having some of the more desired male pupils strip down to their boxers has raised loads at my school )

[135711]

several ideas could be formalized by a group of event planners and scheduled throughout the year;

for example in the winter have an indoor fund raiser, with a door prize;

in spring a sponsored walk, run or fence off is an excellent idea.

in the summer you have an outdoor picnic event, with entertainment - i'm not sure about the dancing bears thing, unless you bring harvards' hasty pudding [do they still do that?] a silent auction?

[Cyrus]

you could always auction off the members of your club to the community to raise funds...if bought the people could do chores for whoever bought them...hmmm sounds like slavery but i imagine it'd actually be fun if you could get the members to participate and set it all up.

[jusplainfencing]

write to oprah she`s always givin money away......

[The_Claw]

For fun.