Fantastic Fundraiser #3 - Parent's Night Out

Need fundraising ideas for your cheer or gymnastics teams? Here are 4 easy fundraising ideas that you can do at your all star cheerleading or gymnastics gym that actually make money!

Step 1: Price Uniforms To get started with Uniform/Warm Up Sponsorship you’ll need to price the cost of uniforms and warm ups to your team members. It’s important all costs are taken into considerations so the team knows exactly how much they need to get sponsored. Now that you know the total cost, break it down for the individual portions of the uniform or warm up, such as the arms, legs, logos, and more. Check out the examples from Cheer Force Arkansas below for ideas on how to break down the uniform and warm up cost. Once you have the prices ready you are ready for the sponsorship form! Step 2: Create Sponsorship Form The second step of the Uniform/Warm Up Sponsorship fundraiser is creating a sponsorship form that explains the parts of the uniform and corresponding prices. This is also a great place to include instructions for the benefit of both the sponsors and team members. Be sure to provide pictures of the uniform or warm up so that sponsors have a better idea of what they are investing in. It’s also a great idea to provide an option to sponsor the full cost of the uniform, if a business does this consider offering them an advertisement on your website or social media. Take a look at the sample sponsorship form and instructions from Cheer Force Arkansas. Tweak them as you see fit for your team’s needs and use your new forms to go out and find some sponsors! SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONS: 1.Individuals or Businesses may sponsor all or part of the uniform. 2. Make checks payable to CFA 3. If a Business sponsors the entire uniform (cost of the uniform, shipping, and sales tax) they will receive the following in advertisement: a. Once all sponsors are accumulated, we will list their name under “Thanks to our Sponsors” on a Cheer Force Facebook post. 4. All money is due no later than Mon., August 17th.

How does a Restaurant Partner Fundraiser work? Many restaurants offer local sports teams opportunities to fundraise at their establishments. The way this fundraiser works is to partner with a restaurant that will donate a percentage of sales (usually 10-15%) to your group on a designated night. This helps you raise funds and the restaurant gets the advantage of increased sales and advertising. A restaurant fundraiser requires very little planning and investment and can be very lucrative for your group and the restaurant! Curious as to how to run this fundraiser? Follow the three easy steps below to earn towards your goal and give back to your community! 1. Find Your Partner There are plenty of ways to find a restaurant for your gym to partner with. Maybe there is a local restaurant that you have worked with in the past, or a member of your team has a connection, or maybe you just reach out to a favorite restaurant of yours. We recommend trying to partner with local businesses, however many chains such as Chick Fil A and Chipotle offer fundraising partnerships that may work for you. Once you find your partner, you can discuss what your fundraiser will look like. You’ll need to decide whether your fundraiser will focus on to-go or dine-in, whether your group will assist in serving or preparations, and what date will work the best for everyone. This process will look a little different for everyone, but you’ll be able to work out a deal that will help out everybody! Once you get the planning out of the way, you’re ready to start advertising. 2. Advertise your Fundraiser Now is the time to spread the word about your fundraiser! Your restaurant partner may have media for you to share or you can make your own. Be sure to determine whether or not you need to make coupons or meal tickets to sell or give out to participants ahead of the fundraiser night. There are plenty of free, online assets like Canva that may help you make flyers, coupons or social media graphics! Spread the word on social media and encourage your team members to share and to invite their friends and family. If you need tips on how to advertise your fundraiser during a pandemic check out our blog post 5 Steps to Running a Safe and Successful Fundraiser during COVID-19. This is the most important part of your fundraiser — the more people you reach and invite the more your team will earn and the more business your partner gains! 3. Hold Your Fundraiser The night of your fundraiser has arrived! What happens now depends on what you worked out with your restaurant partner. Your team may be working the counter as “Celebrity Servers” or you may simply collect your earnings at the end of the night. Your hard work promoting your event is coming to fruition. Be sure to thank your restaurant partner and all your attendees for all of their help! Now, you can rest easy knowing you’re that much closer to your goal and you’ve done your part to help out your community! A Restaurant Partner Fundraiser is a simple, yet effective way to help out a local business and raise money for your team at the same time. If you haven’t done Dream Team’s pillow and bed sheet fundraiser Click here to request an info packet! Looking for more fundraising ideas? Don’t stress! There are more fantastic fundraisers to come so check back often for awesome ideas on how to achieve your team’s dreams!

This easy fundraiser involves collecting gift cards from participating team members for a gift basket. Then you make your profit by raffling off the basket. This fundraiser has a high potential for profit and provides both value and fun to your buyers! Read on to find out how to run this fundraiser in 3 simple steps. Step 1 — Gift Cards Begin the Gift Card Extravaganza by having participating athletes donate $25 in gift cards, this can be one $25 card or five $5 dollar cards or any combination in between. Set a goal in mind for the value of basket based on the number of participants on your team. 20 athletes each donating $25 means you’ll have $500 in gift cards! If you exceed your goal you can make additional, lower value baskets to raffle off as well. Everybody loves having more chances to win! Encourage your participants to get creative with their gift cards! Add a personal touch by choosing a favorite store, restaurant, or activity. Having a broad variety of gift cards means you can appeal to a wider section of buyers. You can even increase the value by adding vouchers or discounts for classes at your gym! Step 2 — The Basket Now that you’ve got your gift cards, it’s time to arrange them in your gift basket! Be creative in your design to entice more buyers. Think about your goals, the season, and your team when designing your basket. You may be able to create a theme based on an upcoming holiday or event! Arrange it so everyone can see the array of different gift cards they can win! Take photos and post them to social media to get the word out about your fundraiser. Encourage your participants to do the same so their friends and family can learn about the fundraiser! Step 3 — The Raffle Now you’re ready to sell raffle tickets to win the Gift Card Extravaganza. Set a price point that you think is fair, usually between $5 and $10. Have your participants sell raffle tickets and put the proceeds they make into their booster club or gym account. Set a sales goal for each athlete based on the cost of what you are trying to achieve. The more tickets they sell the more money they raise for their uniform, competition fees, etc. Buyers can purchase multiple tickets to support an athlete and increase their chances of winning! Place all of the tickets in a drawing pool and draw the winners beginning with the most valuable basket. Keep the community involved by drawing the winners on a live video on your gym’s Facebook or Instagram page. Set up a time for winners to pick up their baskets and you are all done! In only three easy steps your athletes have gotten so much closer to achieving their goals! Are you looking to run this or any fundraiser soon? Check out our recent post, 5 Steps to Running a Safe and Successful Fundraiser during COVID-19, for tips on how to keep yourself and your community safe while still working towards your team or squad’s financial goals! Don’t forget Dream Team Fundraising offers the opportunity to achieve your dreams by selling our luxurious, wrinkle-resistant sheets and pillows. Click here to learn more and request an information packet on how to launch a profitable, stress-free fundraiser with Dream Team. Check back often to find more awesome fundraising tips and ideas!

Our goal at Dream Team Fundraising has always been to help you make your group’s dreams a reality by making the fundraising process as easy and profitable as possible. Times may be uncertain right now, but our goal is still the same! Let us help you make your group’s dreams come true with these 5 steps to running a safe and successful fundraiser during COVID-19. 1. Download the .jpg copies of the Brochure & Order Form Just because you may not be meeting face to face as often doesn’t mean you can’t keep your participants informed about your fundraiser! Download the digital brochure and order form as a way to stay connected with your participants without the spread of germs! If you still want us to mail you physical order forms, let us know how many you need. If you would like to use only the digital copies, write 0 in that section of the form and you or your participants can print the order form yourselves to limit physical contact. These digital copies are conveniently available for you in .jpg image format for anywhere and any way you choose to distribute them — which brings us to our next point! 2. Share the digital copies with your participants/parents for them to download. Staying connected is easy in the digital era! You can email the brochure and order form to your participants/parents or post them on your website or social media for them to download. Consider creating a Facebook group for participants to stay in touch, this way you can share not only the digital brochure and order form but also fundraising tips and information your participants may need to know! 3. Have your participants post the digital brochure on social media and use messenger/email/text to contact their potential buyers. Encourage your participants to use social media and digital messaging to their advantage when promoting your fundraiser. Post the digital brochure on social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, for friends to see and share! Don’t forget you can view all 15 beautiful colors available for our incredibly soft, wrinkle-resistant sheets on our website . Soon, your entire friend list will be ready to support your group by purchasing these luxurious sheets! 4. Encourage your participants to take orders through digital communication and to use a free online payment system like CashApp, Venmo, Apple Pay, etc. to collect the payments. Your participants have shared the fundraiser online and the orders are pouring in! Encourage them to use digital messaging services like Facebook Messenger, texting, and email to take orders and keep in contact with buyers. Don’t forget to keep track of all those orders on the digital order form you downloaded in step one! When it’s time to take payment, there are many secure, contact-free, online payment services participants can use such as CashApp, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and more. When sending money through these services, buyers can even leave a note specifying exactly what they ordered. Secure payment systems and apps are an awesome way to keep your participants and buyers safe while still making a profit! 5. Once your fundraiser is complete and you have received your order, have your participants deliver the products through a non-contact meetup. Congratulations! Your fundraiser is complete and you’ve raised quite the profit for your group! That’s great! Now, it’s time to deliver the products. It’s important to follow local guidelines on masking and physical distancing while making deliveries. Luckily, it’s possible to deliver your products safely with a non-contact meetup. Be creative in ways you can reduce contact and remain safe, such as encouraging the buyer to remain in their vehicle while you place their order on or near their car or, if the buyer is a close friend or relative, delivering the product to their doorstep. No matter what method you choose, your buyers will end up satisfied with our amazing products and you will have gotten that much closer to reaching your dreams! In 5 easy steps, you can hold a safe and profitable fundraiser to achieve your dreams — even in the middle of a pandemic! Are you interested in starting a fundraiser with Dream Team? Visit our information page to launch your fundraiser or request a free info packet. If you would like to learn more about protecting yourself and others from COVID-19, be sure to check out the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and research local guidelines.