All-Star Tips For Fundraising Success...

[cheercurl]

I was thinking of trying to get sponsors for my cp. I am talking about on a small individual scale not like a cheerlebrity type endorsement obviously :D. If you are someone who has raised money for competition and travel this way please give me any tips you might have. Did you personally deliver a letter or have you had any success branching out to bigger sponsors through the mail.

My hours for the next school year have been cut for the first time in 16 years. If this economy is rebounding...I am not seeing it here in NJ. I also had some serious surgery that put me out of work for a month. I have always kind of thumbed my nose at fundraising and put very little serious effort in to it. This year I realize it will become some what of a necessity. So I am looking for all your very best ideas!

 

[callmecoach]

I was thinking of trying to get sponsors for my cp. I am talking about on a small individual scale not like a cheerlebrity type endorsement obviously :D. If you are someone who has raised money for competition and travel this way please give me any tips you might have. Did you personally deliver a letter or have you had any success branching out to bigger sponsors through the mail.

My hours for the next school year have been cut for the first time in 16 years. If this economy is rebounding...I am not seeing it here in NJ. I also had some serious surgery that put me out of work for a month. I have always kind of thumbed my nose at fundraising and put very little serious effort in to it. This year I realize it will become some what of a necessity. So I am looking for all your very best ideas!

In my experience personal delivery of the letter by a CP herself works best (obviously with a chaperon). My advice would be to personalize the letter and also be specific about what gym you cheer for, what competitions you will be attending, and what expenses the sponsorship will pay for. The more a sponsor can relate to what they're giving to as well as understand specifically how their contribution will help your CP, the more likely they'll be to want to help.

If you are talking about business sponsors you will want to think about communicating how the sponsorship will benefit the donor. Does your gym have a fundraising program through which they thank donors by including their advertisement somewhere or displaying their name/logo somewhere in the gym? I know this is not always possible but again, a businessperson is more likely to give if it also benefits their business in some way.

I haven't found much success getting corporate sponsorships through the mail and would imagine it would be even tougher on an individual rather than team/gym level, but it is always worth a shot! Many big corporations have a philanthropy section on their website that will guide you through the process of asking for a grant or sponsorship. I'll try to remember some I have used in the past and post them here!

Hopefully this is the kind of advice you were looking for! Good luck!

 

[cheercurl]

In my experience personal delivery of the letter by a CP herself works best (obviously with a chaperon). My advice would be to personalize the letter and also be specific about what gym you cheer for, what competitions you will be attending, and what expenses the sponsorship will pay for. The more a sponsor can relate to what they're giving to as well as understand specifically how their contribution will help your CP, the more likely they'll be to want to help.

If you are talking about business sponsors you will want to think about communicating how the sponsorship will benefit the donor. Does your gym have a fundraising program through which they thank donors by including their advertisement somewhere or displaying their name/logo somewhere in the gym? I know this is not always possible but again, a businessperson is more likely to give if it also benefits their business in some way.

I haven't found much success getting corporate sponsorships through the mail and would imagine it would be even tougher on an individual rather than team/gym level, but it is always worth a shot! Many big corporations have a philanthropy section on their website that will guide you through the process of asking for a grant or sponsorship. I'll try to remember some I have used in the past and post them here!

Hopefully this is the kind of advice you were looking for! Good luck!

Thank you so much...that would be great!

 

[CheerAunt]

Does her gym have an active booster club? Since you haven't had much interest in fundraising previously, you may have a great opportunity right there! CP's gym has sold suckers, detergent, and cookie dough in the last 3 weeks, and she'll receive approximately 30-60% of the totals to apply to anything mama would like except gym tuition. There are several booster club parents in her gym that are able to fundraise 100% of the "extras"...cheer mama is desperately trying to be like those cool cats.

As far as personal fundraising, is there anything you or your cp has a talent for making/ creating? Family and friends are usually willing to buy up a cute keepsake that they know will help "their girl" do something she loves. Right now we are selling bow chains and bows to our group, and for a little sale watching and effort she makes $2 profit a pop...it adds up quickly. As far as letter writing, would that be to folks you know, or businesses? Either way can work, but unless you know the business owner personally, you'll likely have to be pretty creative on what the owner gets out of the deal. Example is you can't promise your gym will put their name on a competition shirt, but you can promise you and cp will wear their shirt to local events or 4 tickets for them to see her compete.

Last suggestion is to see what ideas cp might have. Can't hurt, and for our family it has been a good learning opportunity in regards to what things cost/how to make it happen.

Sorry for the word vomit-I just happen to be knee deep in fundraising for Relay for Life. PM me if you need any more help:)

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[cheercurl]

Does her gym have an active booster club? Since you haven't had much interest in fundraising previously, you may have a great opportunity right there! CP's gym has sold suckers, detergent, and cookie dough in the last 3 weeks, and she'll receive approximately 30-60% of the totals to apply to anything mama would like except gym tuition. There are several booster club parents in her gym that are able to fundraise 100% of the "extras"...cheer mama is desperately trying to be like those cool cats.

As far as personal fundraising, is there anything you or your cp has a talent for making/ creating? Family and friends are usually willing to buy up a cute keepsake that they know will help "their girl" do something she loves. Right now we are selling bow chains and bows to our group, and for a little sale watching and effort she makes $2 profit a pop...it adds up quickly. As far as letter writing, would that be to folks you know, or businesses? Either way can work, but unless you know the business owner personally, you'll likely have to be pretty creative on what the owner gets out of the deal. Example is you can't promise your gym will put their name on a competition shirt, but you can promise you and cp will wear their shirt to local events or 4 tickets for them to see her compete.

Last suggestion is to see what ideas cp might have. Can't hurt, and for our family it has been a good learning opportunity in regards to what things cost/how to make it happen.

Sorry for the word vomit-I just happen to be knee deep in fundraising for Relay for Life. PM me if you need any more help:)

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Yup we will be doing all the cookie dough, pizza, etc... but that is the hardest for us. We don't have any family in the area and there is only so many times you can ask your neighbors and co-workers. LOL I am sure she will be tagging/canning but again how much does that really add up to? Maybe more than I think? I like the idea of selling maybe a friendship bracelet or something she can create as a fundraiser. We will have to think about that and she could even donate half that money to a great cause like "Relay for Life" or "Make A Wish"...puts it all into perspective.

 

[CheerAunt]

Trust me....already over the cookies/pizza/etc. Lol! I'm so over it that I now just hand over the cash equivalent so I have freezer space.

Bows and knick knacks add up waaaaay faster than you would think. We make a pretty basic one ribbon bow or chain at a cost of .50-.75 each roughly, and sell for $3. When we first did these for RFL, I figured we'd sell a few in gym and make $50-no biggie. We spent a girls night watching a movie, making some bows, quick posts to social media, and a flyer. 3 hours tops. In five minutes of our posts, we sold 3 bows. In a week we had sold over $100, and to date we have sold about $400. It's the little things some times.

I think it'd be great to get your daughter splitting with a charity or Relay! I got involved with a local cancer center my mom worked at, and it has been special to share it with my niece and get her thinking outside her little bubble in life.


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[Eyes On The Prize]

I don't know if your gym has this opportunity, but when I cheered, I worked at the concession stands my gyms booster club had. We had a stand at the minor league baseball park during the spring and summer and a stand at the Dome (Syracuse Universitys sports arena) for the fall and winter. I worked as much as I could and managed to raise about $4,000 by myself in two years. That was on top of school, crossing over, tumbling classes and friends. I'd suggest doing that. It's a great way to get to know the gyms parents too!

If your booster club doesn't have that, I'd suggest that they look into it. It's a fantastic way to pay off cheer expenses and it could help a lot if families out. I always had a blast when I worked there.

 

[cheercurl]

I don't know if your gym has this opportunity, but when I cheered, I worked at the concession stands my gyms booster club had. We had a stand at the minor league baseball park during the spring and summer and a stand at the Dome (Syracuse Universitys sports arena) for the fall and winter. I worked as much as I could and managed to raise about $4,000 by myself in two years. That was on top of school, crossing over, tumbling classes and friends. I'd suggest doing that. It's a great way to get to know the gyms parents too!

If your booster club doesn't have that, I'd suggest that they look into it. It's a fantastic way to pay off cheer expenses and it could help a lot if families out. I always had a blast when I worked there.

Wow! Now that can add up...I will definitely ask about that.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

As everyone else has said, check to see if your gym has a booster club. Ours does some pretty unique fundraisers that sell more than the typical pizza/cookie dough. In the past we have done:

1. Spirit cups. These sold like crazy and one of my girls sold almost 100 in a week. SpiritCups for School & Sports Team Fundraisers | BRAX Fundraising

2. Origami Owl. Great for around Mother's Day or Christmas time. Origami Owl

3. Movie tickets. Our booster club bought rights (or something like that) to a movie called Summerhood. A theatre in our town will be rented out and a screening of the movie will be shown before it is released. I think tickets were $15 a piece and the athlete got $5. People could buy tickets by texting a code to a specific phone number and the charge went on their phone bill.

Tagging is usually pretty successful. Dress your daughter up in uniform or her practice wear, stick a bow on her head and put her at the local WaWa or grocery store. I've heard these are particularly successful in NJ because there are so many gosh darn people.

Someone posted on here that they rent their kids out to do the younger athletes' hair and makeup on competition day. I don't know how old your CP is but that could be an option.