Cheerleading Fundraiser

As with most groups that have to travel to participate in events, fundraising is an important part of group activities, and for cheerleading this is no different. Organizing a cheerleading fundraiser, indeed any fundraiser, can be stressful, but we aim to remove some of that stress here at Practical Fundraising.

Try to find a fun activity that everyone will enjoy, or an interesting or useful product, because then you will get a lot more volunteers to help you, and of course a lot more people will participate and your funds will increase.                                              

Getting Set For An Easy
Cheerleading Fundraiser

Most organizations need to have extra funds, and cheerleading teams are no exception, but when it comes to fundraising, it can be hard to find the time while keeping up with exercising and routines as well as school work and games.

The first thing to do for your cheerleading fundraiser is to set some goals ahead of time. In fact the first question you should ask is What are your goals? How much do you need? What will the funds raised be used for? Who will be involved in making the fundraiser work? How long are you prepared to take to raise the funds you need? Is there a fixed deadline, or are you fundraising all year round?



Once you have the answers to these questions, it is easier to see what kind of fundraiser you need. For example, if you need $10,000 for uniforms and travel, and you intend to raise money by washing cars, then at an average donation of $5, say, you need to wash some 2,000 cars. Is this something you can achieve? How many cars could you wash in one weekend? So how many weekends are you going to be washing cars?  If you wash say, 50 cars a day, then to reach your goal you would need to be washing cars 40 days during the year. Is this a realistic goal? It is a huge commitment, but only you and your cheerleading team know whether this is possible.

That is just an example, of course. You need to plug in your own numbers, after you have a list of suggested fundraising ideas, so that you can eliminate those that are not going to help you reach your goal in a timely manner. Work out how many volunteers you have available too, as this will help your fundraising planning.

Ok, so what are some fundraisers that cheerleading teams can use? There are those selling chocolates, magazines, or coffee. Because of having to watch our weight, chocolates are not as easy to sell as they used to be, and there are so many fundraising groups that do sell these that it does make it a hard sell. Not everyone drinks coffee, although those that do might be glad to help you out, but it might depend on their tastes in coffee.

Something that is much easier these days are candle fundraisers. Candles are now used in many homes as part of the decor, they are not just basic white emergency candles. And there are aromatherapy candles for every need, many different colors to choose from, and they make lovely gifts. This provides your team with many options for people to choose from, as there is bound to be something that people can buy to support your cheerleading fundraiser.

By selling candles, you can also limit the length of the fundraiser, to say, two or three weeks. You don't want it to drag on forever, and most team members will be able to get their orders in during that time.

Now, you can also take payment for the candles when the order is placed, so that you don't have to go round chasing up non-payments. Take the order and the payment at the same time, and then you can just drop off the candles when the orders are filled.

So, that is what we recommend as a cheerleading fundraiser, and if you don't choose to sell candles, you still have some tips about how to go about your next cheerleading fundraiser.