Here are some possibilities to consider:
- Car wash
- Dominicks, Jewel, etc. Shopping Days
- Candy sales
- Coupon book sales
Here are some links to other ideas:
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Here are some possibilities to consider:
Here are some links to other ideas:
Larry,
Why don't we think about what we want the money for (e.g. more Lego NXT sets ;-) and then approach a vendor/manufacturer for donations? That is, if a club can get a donation as a non-profit organization via MVCC. Most bigger companies have to have their donation go to non for profit organizations for tax purposes.
Take care,
KJohn
Yes, knowing what we want would be a great place to start… ;-)
The Battlebots group started down the path to figuring out what they want yesterday (though I think they still have some research to do). We've got access to quite a few RCXs and NXTs already - let's shoot for something else…
What say you club members? This is your club - and we can go quite a few places with the club if enough people get involved in getting things rolling! Now that the Battlebots group has started meeting, is it time to form an external competition sub-group? I would think that activity would be the next major thing that will define what our needs are.
http://www.vexlabs.com/hexbug-fundraiser.shtml
Heres something I found….anyone hear of it?
Oh n by the way…
Too bad I ran across this bug now. We could have purchased a couple and had them on display at the competition, got a pre order going! Thats not bad markup on it either. Id go 15.00 each, but depends on how big etc…
Summary of ideas thus far (with my comments in italics):
- We need to figure out what we need money for (I agree)
- Find an online search engine that we can send family/friends to for funds (I'm not sure what that means)
- Sponsorship/donation from local computer/hobby stores (We can't go to this well too often, let's think about what we need and when it would be best to approach them - and what is in it for them)
- Jewel/Dominick's Shop and Share Days (This will only successfully generate money if we get a lot of family/friends to do it - but it would not involve that much effort on our parts other than giving the slips to everyone we know)
- Corporate sponsorship (We would REALLY need to pin down what we need the money for - and it would need to be attractive to the corporation)
- Grants (What would we be applying for - these are typically for a specific purpose? When asking for donations, sponsorships, or grants we need to keep it foremost in our minds about what we can offer the sponsor)
- A Robotics Convention (Let's take some baby steps first - I would like to see evidence that we can pull off some small and medium size efforts first…)
I don't for this to sound so negative. To an extent I am being devil's advocate here, but I am also emphasizing that we need to be realistic and keep in mind the level of effort and involvement required for different types of efforts.
So with most of the ideas I threw out, reading over your replies in italics…maybe we dont need any sponsorships?
It is sometimes good to play devils advocate, this shows both positive and negative of each idea and can "weed out"
what we really should or not do.
Re the online fundraising search engines…Ill post a link once I remember the sites name so you all can look at it.
Jewel only gives 5% of each purchase. Takes a lot of family and friends to do this. Most people shop at discount places…I personally shop at Jewel.
even though I kick myself after I see my bill each week! (ouch!).
Like I posted before - I think If we built this ground up as far as the robots, it would be easier to get cash and donations for this stuff.
can we find a online site that we can send to friends and family members so when they use that earch engine site, money goes into our pocket. I know of a private school that uses this site, they make money off it, but i really dont know the details on how much. All i know is the organization gets money from the advertisers. We may want to check into hobby shops. Couple in orland Park, theres one or two in Oak Lawn, What about computer companies that are local. The thing I have learned about sponserships/corporate donations is usually they have to be within the area of the organization, or else they will feel that people are not patronizing their business that they put money out for. At least I have seen this with elementary school corporate donations.
What we desperately need, in addition to ideas, is someone to volunteer to serve as the fundraising chairperson and a bunch of other people who are willing to go out and actually implement the fundraising plans. Money isn't going to magically appear…
Of course, if we are content working with the LEGO RCXs and NXTs that is fine too. We don't really need much (if any) money for that. It all comes back to what people want to do beyond LEGO robotics - and then the dedication to back those other ideas with the time and effort necessary to raise the money that is needed.
Keep me in mind for the chairperson….
Does that mean you are volunteering?
I can get Jewel shop and share days going. I can pick up the paperwork…Dominicks is a pain to deal with since they changed ownership.
I have time this week to stop at the hobby shop in Oak lawn to see if the guy is intrested/let me leave flyers.
The monies collected are to get new sets…correct? Can we apply for a grant some how looped thru the college?
I think trying to go thru retail stores such as TOYS R Us will be hard becasue mnost of the time (previously found out while working with a school district) you have to go to corporate, and these companies usually donate to their local community, usually not based here in Illinois.
legos may be hard to promote to get monies for funding. I think if we actually built up these robots from scratch, we'd be able to get some bigger corporations (Radio Shack etc…) Think of it like the "Boss" car. They went to GM and Cat to ask for donations…they gave them the frame etc, and monies becasue its a huge impact on technology. Heck- the Lexus corp (I believe owned by GM??) had their auto parking car shown on Oprah the other day. these companys want to see the technology at work…since they may eventually want to use it one day in the manufacturing of their autos.
Just playing devil's advocate - dont like to . But this is what ive seen while seeking out corporate donations.
What about LEGO Corp??
What If we do something in the college center? What if we do a ROBOTICS CONVENTION, and ask the group KJohn is involved with to help us out? We can hold it at the Orland civic center…or school… charge a couple bucks to get in, charge for refreshments, get some promotional give aways (theres where you can get donations from…) and if not making a TON of $$ we can get the word out, make a little $..convince others to try it. maybe get Legos to sponsor us??
We'd be hard pressed to get Chibots to participate in running a Robotics Convention as this is a very time consuming task. Attending is one thing, running is another. Right now our main focus is on getting more members building robots.
Chibots has instituted a "focus contest" hopefully starting this Sunday. In this contest, most of the 3 hours we spend once a month in meetings will be used for actual build sessions leveraging the more experienced builders when the less experienced builders have questions. This also helps out in contest participation as everyone is in the same boat and the comradery tends to help keep things moving.