Science Olympiad Fund-raising ideas?

Question

I'm captain of a science olympiad team, and our principal paid for us to go to the regional and state competition, as long as we paid it back before June. We are a first year team,[second technically], but have no idea what to do for fundrasing ideas. Any help?

Answer 1

Hi Pinkfloyd,

Aestatisa has wonderful ideas here...great organizational info as well. These are just add on for possibilities:



1. Try calling around to local restaurants to ask if they have fundraisers for groups. Places such as McDonald's, Waffle House and Cold Stone Creamery often offer Group Nights or Group Saturdays in which some of the students and parents will volunteer to work a few hours and a part of the proceeds made during that time are donated to the group. I believe Dominoes has fund raising opportunities as well...such as selling personal pizzas at school lunch or other festivities.

2. Some other restaurants offer things like scripts and buddy cards: coupons good for discounts.

3. And some stores such as Elder Beerman around here (a Bon Ton store) offers Community days...where the group sells discount coupons for a certain sale day and the group receives a profit.

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 2

Any of the normal fund-raising ideas will work for you.  Try a bake sale or a car wash.  Do a dinner night (like a spaghetti feed).  For baked goods, it can work well to sell to students at other school events or during the lunch hour.  

A hint on dinner nights:  My coach always used to say that asking for donations and offering a free dinner always brought in more money than just charging for the dinner.  I don't know if this is actually true, or if this works in your area (I was from a small town).  The way it works is that most people will give the suggested donation (the same amount you'd charge anyway), some will just get a free meal or only drop in a dollar, but a small number with donate large amounts.  Be sure to get invitations to come to all of the friends of your families--they'd be more likely to donate than not.

All of these require a few basic organizational steps:

1.  Set a location and a day.  You should be able to use school property for free, and if you belong to any other organizations, you might be able to use their facilities (a church would be a good example).

2.  Figure out who is going to work at the event, who is going to prepare ahead of time, and who is going to clean up afterwards.  As the captain, you're probably stuck being involved in all stages to make sure that they go smoothly.

3.  Find supplies.  Someone has to do the baking or the cooking.  Someone has to get the sponges/hoses/etc. for the car wash.

There are also a number of other opportunities available to you, but they are more difficult to set up without having any contacts already.  Things like selling wrapping paper, candy bars, etc. door to door are usually organized with a large company.  You could ask your principal about those possibilities.  You should talk to your principal about ideas and bring some of your own to the meeting, too--it shows that you're serious about getting this taken care of, are willing to do work, but would like to get the advice of someone with more experience.

Auctions and lotteries can work, too.  The hard part is getting things to auction or lottery off.  Visit local stores and restaurants to get prizes for free.

It's also possible to set up work in the community for a fee.  I'm not sure how this gets set up--I just know that I did it for some groups that I was a part of.  You'd clean up the trash in a park or a cemetery, and your team would be paid a fee for it.  You could just do cold-calls to find these opportunities.  It might even work to offer to take care of an "adopted" mile of a road for a month for a certain fee.

There's also a lot of great fund raising that can occur over the summer.  None of the students are worried about classes or about competing during the summer, so they have more time to dedicate to it.  The fourth of July or any other big event like that that brings people out of their homes, and in the mood for spending a little money, can be a great opportunity for selling baked goods or running a lottery or an auction outside.  You could also set up a kid competition, and charge a small entry fee.  If you get a local business to donate prizes, it costs you nothing.  The fourth of July is obviously out for you this year, but you might suggest that the team hold a fund raiser this year to prepare for next year's competitions.