Alright,
so to raise funds, the team must commit to selling an ‘item’, which will aid us in raising the $13,000 needed for next year. Realistic ideas that were posed today were as follows:
*hex bugs (student store, but more likely to parents and at grocery stores)-hex bug sales have been successful at other schools, but the teenage appeal is generally low, and they aren’t really useful for anything
<http://www.hexbug.com/>
*lollipops (sports games, student store)-low risk, palatable, but small demand and a generally low priced item
<http://www.fundraising.com/fundraising-products/candy-lollipops.aspx>
*T-shirts-high appeal, low profit margin
<http://site.despair.com/despairwear/>
*lottery scratch cards/raffle-good appeal, can potentially generate large profits, but a high risk endeavor
<http://www.fundraising.com/fundraising-products/scratchcard-fundraisers.aspx>
*Bittersweets-intriguing, but low profit margin and demand is questionable
<http://www.despair.com/bittersweets.html>
*Entertainment books (parents and relatives)-a classic item, in high demand, recession friendly, but not terribly relative to teenagers or robotics
<http://www.entertainment.com/discount/home.shtml>
We generally agreed on the idea of ‘vinyl adhesives’, which are essentially stickers. These would contain demotivational, cynical messages. They would be the most low cost item, but, if we play our cards right, have high teenage appeal. A video would be made, that would ‘not’ be a completely ripped off version of the video here:
http://devas.despair.com/
So, any questions, comments? Additional suggestions for me to add? Keep in mind that voicing interest implies that you yourself would be willing to contribute to selling the product
Not quite sure about this one, but maybe a spaghetti dinner/auction?
I know it has potential to bring in profits via the auction and maybe individual donations by attendees (Issaquah ended up with about $6000 in one night), but there would be lots of planning involved (like getting the word out and figuring out what to auction)
mmm… a spagetti dinner in itself would not attract that many people, however an auction could
if we got word out into the PTSA, it could possibly work, but I don’t know if it is feasible(?) to organize something like that, or if the administration would let us…
I heard that carwashes were also generally successful, a thousand dollars in a day from Redmond Robotics. Plus, we could do it in the summer, when a lot more ppl have time. =D
Also, for fundraising, I think (i’m not sure tho) that we could do some advertising (and possibly a bit of selling) at the 24-hour relay. Big event with plenty of ppl too!
Well, Issaquah (somehow) got their spaghetti dinner organized in about a week, and as I said, they ended up with more that $6000 just from that day…
The 24-hour Relay would be a good place to advertise/sell, but I’m not sure how that would be organized.
Something else that Issaquah did (lol idea stealing ftw) was sell “art bots”. Similar to HexBugs, they’re small “robots” that we could glean a little profit from. Basically, it’s just an off-balance motor with a marker and some legs attached, so it randomly moves around on paper to make weird designs.
The “art bots” were styrofoam cups with three markers for legs and two batteries and an off-balance motor (and maybe a switch).
I’m pretty sure everyone who would buy their stuff knows about despair.com by now, so I question the validity of re-selling their products. Unless, that is, they granted a sponsorship. This is something you guys could look into, maybe you can spin yourself as the team that never does well and is therefore fitting for a sponsorship by the people who allegedly trademarked the smiley face.
Future Problem Solvers is trying to raise $17k in less than three months, and they talked with Benzinger, so I suggest you talk to them (or to Peter) about fund-raising protips. Maybe get DECA to give you some good ideas.
Maybe you can sell yourselves into doing menial labor? Organize a cleaning squad and roam suburbia looking for people who would pay to have their yards cleaned or something.
The argument for the stickers was actually that we would not purchase them from despair. Robert apparently has some deal with a printing company by his house so that we could make our own ‘vinyl adhesives’ on the cheap. We were thinking of only ripping off their dramatized commercialization of what are essentially stickers, and ‘maybe’ some of their slogans. It is however a valid argument that the idea may not be original enough, but I believe that of all the proposed items, the stickers have the highest peer appeal and profit margin.
uhhhh… just fyi, the fps got tips from yours truly Ed of robotics for fundraising.
I had emailed the PR/FR people a while back, asking for suggestions.
Here’s a few things the freshies decided on tho:
1) dinner+raffle
2) street performing+sale on memorial day @ seattle center
3) food sale at lunch
I think the entertainment books would be a good investment. For sure, at least the parents would buy it. I think the street performing would be pretty fun, a lot of us are musicians, but I’m not sure it would raise money? The sale sounds interesting though.
What would we put on the stickers or sell? Personally, I think a bake sell would be really fun, just not robotics related xD
We will be having a parent dinner that by the way needs to be planned. If the attendance rates are high, then a raffle may be a good idea.
When it comes to ‘charity’ dinners, the best way to get donations if to provide dinner, but only enough dessert for one table…
…and auction it off
If you’re printing your own vinyl stuff, it’s probably worth looking into. Maybe even selling generic “saints spirit” stuff, although you’ve probably got a whole bunch of clubs/groups doing that. If you’re going to be putting out a product like that, might as well try marketing it via internet. See if you can advertise in other schools if you have a great idea for edgy/disaffected stuff that would appeal to high school students. Try making a contest out of it, the winner would get their design featured and get some of them “professionally printed” for free.
1. get people who want stickers
2. print and sell at a markup
3. ???
4. PROFIT!
Hi, cool post. I have been wondering about this topic,so thanks for writing.