Fundraising Tips
Starting a FIRST Lego team can cost alot of money. Don't think you have to fund it by yourself. Fundraising and sponsors are a great way to get the money.
Lets start with Sponsors. We started by asking the companies we worked with. Most places like to support their employees. The next thing we done was to look up local companies and asked them to help fund our team. We sent out letters to the local places but the best way we found was to call or even go in person to ask. Its harder for some people to say no when they have to-do it to a real person. One thing to remember money is not the only form of sponsoring. You will need materials to build the practice table plus some stores will give gift cards. The cards can be used to buy team materials you use for meetings or events. Remember some sponsors will like their name on your team shirts or signs so be sure to ask if they would like that.
Fundraising can be alot of work but also brings in good money. Here is a short list of some we done. I will share about how much we made at each but remember the money raised will be different for each group.
1. Bake sale. Having your team and their family make baked goods to sale in front of a local store is a good one. We had a good time setting up in front of our local store for about 4 hours. We broke the team up into groups so no one had to sit there all day. We made just under $200 with the bake sale. All the baked goods was donated so the only cost we had was buying the kids some drinks so they didnt melt in the heat. Warning be sure you team don't eat up all the bake goods unless they pay for them. This includes the coaches!!
2. Car Wash. Finding a busy street with a gas station or store to host a car wash is another great money maker. We set up at a gas station. The station let us use their water and we had to bring the hoses, buckets and towels. We didn't set an amount for each car we left it up to the person driving to just make a donation. The team raised about $200 and that was on a cold day. We did have to buy some soap and buckets which cost about $20 but you could find people to donate those to your team. This was another 4 hour event but this time most of the team was there the whole time. The team made signs and the kids walked along the street to draw the people attention. Havng 2 hoses helped to keep the line short.
3. Garbage grab-a-thon. A what?? you are asking. A garbage grab-a-thon is much like a walk-a-thon but instead of people donating per mile you walk they donate per peice of trash the kids pick up. This was our big money maker. About a week before the event the kids went around asking friends and family to donate a certain amount for each peice of trash the kids picked up in a 2 hour time frame. Most people decided not to donate per peice instead they just donated a flat amount. The average donation was about $15 flat rate and then for those who donated per peice was about .4 cents/peice. This made well over $500. We walked up and down our towns bike path picking up trash. We had to buy trash bags and gloves for the kids plus after wards we took the team out for ice cream to cool off. One thing to note that some of the people who said they was going to donate really didnt but that was a very little amount of people. This is a great fundraiser but also helps your local town stay clean.
There are many ways to raise money if your team has a good one email us so we can share it also, If you are wondering what all the money goes towards Below is a example budget for a new team.