Fundraising???

[Monkeygirlsmom]

we had a meeting today and it looks like we need things now!
we are going to have to cut back on coaches salary (bummer to me as they are the ones keeping our kids safe but they seem willing)

I just love our club, The kids are happy and we are family type gym my kids love going and seem to feel soo good there I love how they love being there and how comfortable they and I feel about them

anyhow any good ideas to help our club make money quick???

[gymnasticcoach]

Hi, i am a coach so i cannot access the parent forum but would like to offer help to monkeygirlsmom in the parent forum who was asking for fundraising ideas.

Some ideas that have proven successful in the past at a club i coached at when i lived in Canada.

COOKIE DOUGH...we raised a phenominal amount of money with this.

BUSINESS SIGNS...our former club president's father owned a sign painting business so we sent out sponsorship letters to every business in our community.

1 year for x number of dollars and smallest sign size.
2 years for x number of dollars and next largest sign size
3 years for x number of dollars and largest sign size.

ADOPT AN ATHLETE...this was used by the gymnasts at the University of Alberta. Each athlete went out and found as many people as they could to adopt them.

x number of dollars...adopter would recieve team t shirt and athlete photo and profile
x number of dollars...adopter would recieve same as above plus one seasons ticket to university sporting event
x number of dollars...adpopter would recieve same as above plus team track suit

I would appreciate if someone with access to the parent forum could relay this to that forum or monkeygirlsmom.

Thanks

Don

[gym law mom]

Some very good ideas from Don, but it is hard to make money almost immediately. Many of these companies that have you sell their products to make money need "lead" time to get all the info to you, have your families sell and then get the product and money back to you. Also the fundraisers with restaurants can take a few months to get going.

What kind of money are they looking at? Just as much as possible?? Things you could do right now(not saying you'll make alot of $) as a start until other things can be set up would be car washes(as in a whole weekend), bake sales(Wal Marts in some areas let organizations sell outside)---little girls in cute leos are hard to resist! and a used leo sale. The leo sales are easy---put up or email notice of date you need the used leos. set a price for all(we do $10--much easier than pricing each one!) and do your sales for a few days before/after practice. I also knew a dance studio had parents bbq outside and sold hot dogs, brat, hamburgers etc. with a bag of chips before/after practices. They did it over several weekends and did bring in a decent amount of $. Probably the biggest challenge is going to be getting the parent volunteers you need to pull these off.

[Monkeygirlsmom]

wow thank you for all the great ideas! I will def be mentioning these!!
and thank you Don for posting this on the coaches board!!

some of the coaches agreed to do some coaching for less! (we have the best coaches) I just love our gym and want to see it keep growing! my girls feel soo good about themselves when they are there and to me that is soo important.

basically our rec program has gone down and we need the money to help cover the operating cost

[Gym mum UK]

How about a 'car wash' at a local supermarket or shopping centre.
You charge people for washing/hoovering the inside of their cars whilst they are doing their shopping.

Also, some groups here (scouts, cubs, cheerleading groups etc) pack shopping in supermarkets for donations. I dont know if anybody packs your shopping into bags in the USA but here you have to do it yourself. There are often groups of kids collecting money for packing the bags.

[nettyinpa]

I was thinking car wash, too! Or sell hoagies through a local deli? How about a yard sale? Every year our gym does one right outside the gym. We're in a pretty busy area and there are a lot of patrons. Then, all money goes back into the gym. Or sponsor a Coke Wagon (sponsored by Coca~Cola) at a local Wal*Mart or Sam's Club. That takes some planning, like months in advance, but it might be something to think about for the future. We make tons of money with it. Just need volunteers.

Some other big fundraising ideas are cookbooks. You can input recipes on-line now so anyone involved can put their own in. Or Car Magnets?

Coming up with something quick is tough. Fundraising often takes a lot of planning. Good luck!

[midwestgymmom]

Quote:
Originally Posted by gym law mom Stay away from Cherrydale. We did a cookie dough fundraiser with them and they shipped the dough unrefrigerated, then didn't want to reship a new order and it ended up they just refunded our $. I actually had people that wanted the stuff and 2 mos later had to give them their money back.

Yikes!!!

[catesmom]

We also host 2 meets per year as our major fundraisers, one a club meet and booster club gets concessions, the other a state meet and we get everything. A state meet can bring in $15,000+.

We also sell wreaths at Christmas and ads for the two programs we produce. I'm sure there are more but these are the ones we makes big $$$ at. I know they sell candles and Papa Murphy's pizza cards, but you can only ask people to buy things so often or they turn off the lights when they see you coming, lol.

[Gymmonkeymomma]

Coming back to report on our clothing drive!

We collected 5977 lbs of clothing, purses, shoes, linens, toys and filled a truck. We made $877.01 in one day!!!

[Monkeygirlsmom]

wow thats a lot!!
way to go!!