Fundraising ideas needed for dd's Lego Robotics Team

[Sheila in Oregon]

Hello Everyone,

Here's a little background information: my daughter's all-girl, all-homeschooled Lego Robotics Team will be competing at the World Lego Competition in Altlanta, GA, mid-April. We need to raise as much money as possible between now and then to cover costs, which we have been told usually runs $10 - 12,000 per team. We are from Oregon, so driving is not an option.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? What strategies did your team use to raise donations? Did you find that certain businesses were more open to solicitations than others? What sort of proof did you provide companies to make them realize you were legitamate? Do you think our Lego awards letters is sufficiant? Our team is associated with a tax-exempt, non-profit homeschooling group (a 501 c3), so any donations would be tax deductable.

If you have any suggestions about fundraising strategies, our team would greatly appreciate guidance from people who have been there and done that before.

Before I close, I just want to put in an enthusiastic plug for the Lego Roboitcs people. They provide such a wonderful engineering opportunity to children, and are especially supportive to girls who want to participate. Oregon had over 380 teams participate in the state competition; of which, the two of the four top teams were homeschoolers, and two of the top four teams were all- girl teams. This is a great place to get your daughters and sons interested in science and engineering. If you want more information their web site is http://www.firstlegoleague.org/. Thank you again for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,
Sheila Graves

[mrscopterdoc]

My daughter's Taekwondo team fundraises all the time. We've never raised quite that much money! But here are some of the things we have done ~

*yardsales - everyone brings in their junk to sell. The night before we have a pizza party to sort and price everything. The next morning is the yard sale. At 2PM we knock off and what we don't sell people with pickup trucks cart off to Goodwill. All the money goes into a "pot".

*candy bar sales

*car washes

*Boston butt sales - we were able to borrow a huge pit BBQ for free. We presold tickets for the boston butts for $10 and they had to be picked up on a certain day between a certain time. We got the boston butts at Sam's club cheap and all us parents donated seasonings and tin foil to wrap it up in. Messy and hard work but big pay off.

*Golf Tournament - one of the parents just happens to run a golf course and this makes it easier for us but if you know a golfer who knows the owner, they love tournaments and usually love to help out kids. This is our Big money maker. Teams pay $300 to play, they pay for eagles, etc. All us parents go around to restaurants and local businesses and ask for coupons, donations etc and those are the prizes. We also do a raffle.

Good luck.

[Capt_Uhura]

FOr that much money, I would go to area businesses such as technology business, engineering businesses etc and ask for them to sponsor your team. You can even put the companies logos on your team's shirt for the competition. Many of the teams had sponsors. Also, what about women's organizations that support girls in science,math and tech? Perhaps it's not too late to get something like that. These organizations don't have to be in your area.

good luck!

[Sheila in Oregon]

These sound like some great ideas! Thanks for the help.

Sheila

[Stacia]

In the past, I know the Charleston Symphony has done a fund-raiser where they sold raffle tickets to win a car. The tickets were $100 each, and limited to a fairly small # sold -- around 500, I think. The car was a nice, sports car of some sort. Maybe these days, a hybrid might be a nice option. :)

If you had an 'in' at a car-dealership where you could get a slight discount on a decent car, this would be a fairly quick, easy way to get most or all of you $$ in a lump sum.

Figured I would toss this idea out there, just in case it might be viable for your area.

[talexand]

I've recently been teaching and coaching lego robotics in Oregon. That is a very impressive accomplishment! I especially love that the team is all girls. Good luck in Atlanta!

I watched the First High School Robotics tournament today in Portland. These guys have to raise that much each year. Many of them had sponsors on their t-shirts. I'm guessing that kind of money was raised mostly through donations. It would be a lot of cars to wash. But actually washing cars isn't a bad idea even though its just a little money. It a contribution that the girls can earn and feel good about being part of the solution.

Also google "women in technology Oregon" and similar searches. There are organizations that are dedicated to increasing the numbers of girls interested in technology careers. Search them out and contact them.

Maybe the girls could write letters to relatives and family friends asking for a donation? Only if you think its appropriate but I have seen this done before in other situations. My extended family was really happy to contribute to a math fund raiser we were involved with this year. They are engineers and its rare that they get to make such a direct contribution to something that they think is important. Some of them work for companies that match donations to education and that doubled the amount. In Oregon, I know that Intel and Nike does this, maybe Tektronics too.