TargetTalk

Gentlepeople.
I coach a small precision air rifle team. 6-8 shooters, this is a high school team. My kids shoot very well but the arms race is killing us. Most every team we shoot against has much better equipment. I am looking for ideas for fund raising. since it is a small team we have difficulty with some things for instance we did one car wash and will probably do it again but we work very hard for relatively small amount of money. Part of this is with so few people we couldn't have many people out with signs and still get the cars washed. Selling things can be difficult. The school has a lot of successful programs so for instance the Chorus has the candy bar market locked down. Selling food items during school is severely restricted unless the new administration lightens that up. What has worked for ya'll.

Groups I have worked with have had very good luck selling " coupon books or cards". The group buys them for $5 each and sells them for $10

In WI we use a company called Pocket Peelers http://www.pocketpeelers.com/cards.htm check your area for something like that.

It is a easy sell in our area because the buyer gets their money back if they use only 2 of the coupons (stickers) and after that it is free money (as we call it) to them.

One of the things we did was compose a letter requesting donations and explaining what we do and, need. We embellish it with all the positives of the sport and its positive development for the kids and the tax exemption information. Each family would be asked to send out x amount of letters. Letters are sent to businesses, friends and family. Keep a list of the businesses so they aren't overlapped.

If you have the facilities to host one, a macth is a great way to collect funds and promote the sport.
Invite the teams near you, talk to local business in regard to advertising or even sponsoring the event.
Local councils (depending on where you are in the world) could also provide financing.

Hope this helps

shawn706: How well did the letter-writing campaign work? How many total letters, how many responses, how many US dollars?

Don't know exactly for the rifle team, all donations went to the school. We did something similar with my BB team to raise money to go to nationals. I would estimate about $2000 from the letters. We gave each family 10 letters, but I cant say for certain that they were all sent out or that no one made copies and stent out additional letters. We also did a carwash, sold Krispy Kreme donuts and held a 50/50 raffle. Raised around 4-5 grand in about 4 weeks.

Contact a local gun dealer and ask them to help you buy a gun at cost to use as a raffle item.

I usually spend between $300-$700 depending on the gun and then sell raffle tickets. Usually $5 per ticket or 5 tickets for $20. Usually brings in about $1200-$1500 for a profit of almost $1000.

If the club you operate out of has a kitchen, you can also run a Spaghetti Dinner night or breakfasts.

You can go to neighborhood businesses and ask them to 'sponsor' the team. If them make donations of various levels, you can offer advertising in response. $100 they get a mention on the club-team website. If they donate $500 they get a plaque with the team picture and a link to their business from the website and a 'sponsor recognition plaque' you can hang in the range.

ETA: I didn't notice that you are a high school team. Maybe the gun raffle won't work as well for you. ;)

Your team DOES have an endowment account with the Midway Foundation correct?
Larry and Brenda have done more to ensure the financial success of shooting sports teams than any other program available.

Put in a grant request with the Friends of the NRA. Check the FNRA website for details and application timing. They prioritize Jr & Women's programs.
Our Jr club has been awarded equipment grants for the last 3 years.

Call local ranges in your area and see if they will donate their range brass. Then try and find a recycler that will give you a good price. You would be surprised how much it can add up to.

Also hit up your local Tractor Supply stores, if you have a Chick Fil-A they run fund raisers where you simply show up and they give you a percentage of the nights receipts. Wendy's burgers also does this, as I found out, along with Chilpotle, among others. I generally also hit up the local gun stores, and as mentioned even though you are a school team the LGS may just give you a donation, or let you leave a donation jar. Lastly as previously mentioned if you have not already find your local Friends of the NRA representative, get your yearly grant sheet filled out, and offer to help them run a banquet. And absolutely join the Midway Foundation.

Hope this along with the other suggestions help out.

P.S. Our team did a gun raffle with an AR at one of the traveling through Gun Shows and made over $2,000.00 as our local gun store sold us the rifle at cost, and like a previous posted mentioned we sold the tickets for x per, or you got one more for the $20.00 donation.

Casey

Some things that worked for us in the past
- Packing groceries at the stores
- Fun shoot at the local range
- Get some free publicity with the local paper (articles about your activities) and don't forget to mention that are missing/in need of this or that piece of equipment. You never who's going to read that stuff
- I' guessing your school must be setup as a non-profit organization... which can give tax-receipt for donations? Always help for big items

All great ideas above. We started a "Parent" Booster club and I wrote up some bylaws and and appointment letter and we have a parent who was able to go around and w/letter he just solicited donations and we'd do a thank you letter signed by all the athletes. That worked pretty good.

Also, another good money maker is find local concert/sports venues and find out about working in concessions for a cut. Watch this one I've heard very good (Lakewood Amphitheater) and very bad stories (GA Dome).

One thing we did that was REAL easy was hosted a professional wrestling show in our school gym. No overhead, parents donated for concessions and worked the concession stand and we got 100% of concessions and went 70/30 on the ticket sales made about $2000.

I second Casey's suggestion: my son's elementary school partners with local restaurants to have fundraising nights just about monthly. They work with chains (CPK, Chipotle) as well as a local pizza place. Typically it's a win-win, where the kids passing flyers for the fundraising night helps bring in customers that might not normally dine there (advertising) and the school gets free money.

marky-d

For those that don't know about the best program out there to help shooting teams here it the link:
https://www.midwayusafoundation.org/start-your-account

Larry Potterfield from Midway USA has created a program that has outstanding value to ensure the long term viability of shooting teams.
1. How much does it cost to participate? Our fundraising items are FREE to our active shooting teams and partners. There is no cost associated.
2. Do we have to have an account balance to participate? No, we offer our items to help teams grow their account. As soon as your account is active, you can register for a fundraising item.
3. How much money do we have to raise? All item details vary, please see the Letter of Intent for each item to review the expected funds to be returned to your endowment account.
4. What if we send back more than the minimum requirement, is that all matched? Yes, we currently match every dollar sent back to your endowment account.

START YOUR TEAM ENDOWMENT
Join the over 3,000 youth shooting teams and start funding your team, today.
Starting your team endowment is easy and free. Your team does not have to be affiliated with a high school or college to open an endowment. You simply need to be reputably organized and made up of primarily high school or college age youth. Please review our definition of a team. Club teams, such as 4-H, Boy Scouts, FFA, etc., or those affiliated with your local gun club, are eligible. Once your endowment is active, you can start growing it immediately.

The bottom line is:
1. He GIVES you the merchandise.
2. You do the fundraising.
3. Keep 1/2 of the money for team expenses.
4. Send the other 1/2 of the money you raised from the products he GAVE to you go back to YOUR endowment account.
5. He MATCHES your deposit into YOUR endowment account.
6. You withdraw 5% each year for team expenses, FOREVER!

Some people don't see the tremendous value of this. I refer to those people as financial Darwinians.

• In our area, if your youth group signs up to sell items in front of a WalMart, then the store will double your profits.

• One area to consider up front is that not all the kids are going to want or be allowed to get involved. You can't have partial participation, and then share the money equally across "the team". What our Scout group did is set up a virtual account for every boy who participated. Then that Scout could "charge" the cost of any activity or item from the Scout Store against his account. In this way we also controlled what the funds were used for. If the boy left the troop, all money reverted to the Troop. Too make accounting easier we zeroed all accounts at the beginning of each season.

• One of our easiest fund raisers was selling coffee, hot chocolate and doughnuts the morning of the town's annual parade. All the participants and floats are sitting there in a parking lot for an hour waiting on the start of the parade. You've got a captive audience with no other vendors in sight. We would clear $300-$400, and the best part is it only lasts 90 minutes.

• If you do decide to have a gun raffle, then do not publish any individual's name in association with the raffle. We have an annual event to benefit a local women's shelter. One charity leader decided to raffle 10 guns to supplement the other fund raising efforts. It was going well until the recent Florida school shooting got highly publicized. Then this person started getting very ugly harassing phone calls at work and home at all hours. They ended up closing the raffle and making refunds. The charity actually lost money. So remember the "social justice" types are out there; very vocal and very annoying.

Have a postal match, Ill enter

make some T shirts Ill buy one.

have a Pennies for Points event and have the shooters go get sponsorship for a score you shoot for the local press. If your kids shoot 350/400 a penny is worth $3.50, a nickel is worth $17.50 and on. This model is how our local track team raises money, they get so much a mile and run a 10 k...... This is a great way for you to introduce your team to the community and also show a scholorship path to an NCAA Shooting Program.....

And Ill sponsor your shooters a bit