Welcome to Fundraising - Difficult but Essential

Today I came across an interesting way for those in the LA area to make money for their group or organization. By just attending the live taping of a television show like America’s Got Talent, then your group or organization can have a nice little fundraiser. Here’s the details from the On Camera Audiences website:

About Group Fundraisers
On Camera Audiences provides studio audiences for various television shows around the Los Angeles area. We are constantly searching for quality people to participate in those studio audiences and in exchange for their participation, we donate money to their organization. We feel that this fundraising opportunity is the most fun for your group and it is definitely the most profitable for your organization! Our “per person donation” will exceed all other fundraising efforts that you have done so far. Groups have had great success working with us over the past 10 years. We work closely with each group in order to select the proper show for them. Our goal is to make sure that everyone’s fundraising effort is enjoyable and profitable!

Although the TV Show Fundraising concept is not new - it may be a refreshing change to the usual fundraising tools available. Our company is known for providing our groups with a quality experience and prompt payment. You can read more about this fundraising concept or register your group at their website or the contact information below:

Phone: 818-295-2700
Email: groups@ocatv.com

The news is all over the place that the economic crisis that were experiencing is starting to hit high school athletics and other organizations. Does this mean that sports teams are going to stop playing? In some cases, this might be the case, but my guess is that in most cases sports teams are just going to have to be more creative in how they approach funding their favorite sport. A well executed sports fundraiser will be key to the success of much of the amateur and in particular high school sports world.

This is nothing new for those of you who have played in “lesser” sports like hockey or rugby. You’ve been having to fundraise forever with little or no help from the schools itself. In fact, many of them aren’t even recognized by the school (which is why I call them lesser). The crazy part is that we’re heading into a time when all high school sports are going to have to start raising their own money to play. Kind of crazy to think about, but it’s just the reality of the times. Raise money or stop playing. I think we can all agree that stopping play is probably the worst thing that could happen.

I always like simple, but good ideas about how to raise money for an amateur sports team. Today I came across the idea of purchasing an inflatable football tunnel that the players can run out of at the beginning of the day. Then, you just put advertising on the tunnel. Not a bad idea at all. Here’s an excerpt from the article.

Are you exhausted from doing the same old fundraising ideas each year. Let’s see…. wrapping paper, candy and pizzas. The list goes on and on and they have one thing in common…Dull!

You’re probably wondering what sports tunnels, inflatable helmet tunnels and inflatable mascot tunnels have to do with with simple fundraising ideas. The real truth is, you’re about to find out about a great way to raise funds AND raise team spirit by doing something everyone will love.

Have you ever seen big league players run onto the field or court through an Inflatable entry tunnel? There’s the expectancy of watching and waiting…in many cases you will first see a few seconds of fog coming out of the front and then as expectation grows, here comes your favorite team charging through the tunnel!

These entrance tunnels come in all shapes and sizes and they are custom designed to match your team colors and graphics. But…is it possible to make money?

It’s simple. All the inflatable tunnels are designed to hold advertising banners. Before you even buy your blast tunnel, post a letter to local businesses proposing a chance to advertise their company at the start of each game. Before you realize it, you’ll have enough money to buy your sports tunnel…and you’ll pull in an income year after year without having to do anything at all.

Summer is the time that sports teams and organizations start really preparing to make the most of their fundraiser. It seems like there’s a million different things that you need to do in order to make a fundraiser successful. However, it’s just so unfortunate in this connected world that fundraising has to be made so difficult. There are so many great fundraising options that can be done online that just haven’t come to fruition. I think that will start to change in the next 5 years and in the next 10 years fundraising offline will almost be non-existent.

If you are someone who wants to work to build the best online fundraiser in the world, then contact me by commenting on this blog. If you’re a team or organization that wants to fundraise online because you hate traditional fundraisers, then comment on this post and let’s talk.

Fundraising shouldn’t be as hard as we make it.

Sports fundraising is a very interesting arena. However, it benefits from one very key benefit. Sports fundraising usually has a large group of athletes that it can use to raise money for their team. Sure, this can also be extended to bands, cheerleaders, and other large groups, but it’s unique when compared with many non-profits. Plus, this large group of athletes changes every year. Each year you get a new group of student athletes that can raise money for your team. Sure, there is some overlap on who various athletes know, but at the end of the day it’s a different group of athletes raising money from a different group of people.

From what I’ve seen most sports teams require their players to raise a certain amount of money to even participate on the team. I think high school sports teams are even more serious about having their players raise money to participate. That gives fundraising organizations a unique ability to raise money for a team. The key is to be able to give these athletes the tools necessary to raise as much money as possible. Of course, making sure that coaches have to do as little fundraising as possible in the process. Coaches should be coaching and so sports fundraising should be as simple and hassle free as possible.

I’m planning on highlighting a number of different methods of sports fundraising. I also want to highlight the sports fundraising market and the various needs of sports fundraising. Since this is a fundraising blog I hope that people will participate in the discussion. I’m sure that some of my readers are more informed in sports fundraising than I am.

Please also let me know if there is a topic you’d like me to cover. I’ll admit up front that I’m currently working on an amateur sports fundraiser that I think will rock the sports fundraising world. The point of this blog is to gather my thoughts and understanding of sports fundraising in one place. Let me know what you think.

Well, I think that there’s no need to say that I’ve been quite busy lately and this blog has suffered from that. Turns out that my idea for a fund raiser has re-entered my plans now that I’m nearly done with my master’s degree. So, you can expect to see a lot more posts about fundraising and in particular sports fundraising on here in the future.

I’d love to here thoughts from people that are in this area. Right now my major focus is to get as much information as possible as I try to enter the fundraising market. Should be fun!!

I must admit that I really love the website the Robin Hood Fund. I fell even more in love with the website after the past 2 weeks. People have been supporting people’s wishes left and right. A wish for a stem cell transplant raised $1341. Also, a bunch of wishes were granted:

Don’t know where else to turn… Family in dire straights.. - Donations Received: $744

my son to have the chance to go to special ed summer school - Donations Received: $625

Help Baby with Medical Expenses April 16, Appointment - Donations Received: $10

An Ergo Baby Carrier - Donations Received: $7

That’s a lot of giving. The internet is literally changing the way people make money.

I got an email from Ashley Gatewood the Marketing Coordinator for a disaster relief non profit using Mission Fish. Here’s what was said in the email about this fundraising opportunity.

I work for a nonprofit that powers the eBay Giving Works program (which allows nonprofits to raise funds on eBay). One fantastic aspect of our program is that anyone can sell an item on eBay and donate 10% to 100% of the final sale price to one of the over 9,600 nonprofits registered with us (there is a $5 min. donation if the item sells).

To date we’ve helped nonprofits raise over $40 million dollars, and the post-holiday season can be a great time for nonprofits to fundraise with eBay Giving Works.

I think it’s the perfect idea for eBay to do something like Mission Fish. I know I’ve made pretty good money doing the eBay affiliate program. It’s really just an extension of an affiliate program.

I think this could be great for sports teams, church organizations, Boy Scouts and a number of other organizations needing to raise money.

My brother-in-law works as a PE teacher and coach at a high school that got rocked by a scandal involving some of the players. It had to do with some hazing being done that went way too far. It was all caught on camera so there wasn’t much to hide. Luckily my brother-in-law wasn’t involved in any way shape or form.

Well, he raised an interesting point. It is much harder for this high school to raise money for its sports program. Not many people want to put forth money to support a sports team that can’t control their athletes, be disciplined and athletes that would do something so vial (and no I don’t want to go into what the boys did).

It sure raises an interesting question. I don’t have all the answers to recovery. However, I do think that there is something really significant to say about the fund raising program I’m creating. It could just work for this school. Why? Because it employs internet technology which would allow this school to fund raise from people all around the world. That means grandma and sister and auntie who live across the country could all log in to the website and participate in the fund raiser for the team. Of course if they live across the country they won’t have heard about the scandal probably and therefore won’t have that barrier to giving to the sports team.

Anyone else have ideas on how a sports team can raise money after a scandal?