Daughter with Fundraisers - How Do You Find Golfers & Sponsors

I agree with Denise... go with your daughter to the local businesses that are A) In the same area where the golf tournament well be held B) near the school that your daughter goes to and C) businesses close to you. Dentists, hardware store, local family businesses... those are usually the places you can easily talk to the person who makes the call to pay for things. Come prepared with cost(s), dates of event, and all other info that is needed (if you have not gotten all the info for the event talk to whomever is in charge, the more info the prospect advertiser gets the better chance of them actually sponsoring).

Fundraisers I would just go to neighbors, family & friends... if you want others to support your daughter then be prepared to support others to when the time comes. Give & Take. If you do not want to buy from their child then do not go around and just dish out the money yourself. If you belong to a church but something in the bulletin about looking for businesses or people to sponsors golf holes... also any other group your daughter is involved with have her always bring her fundraiser stuff along (I always buy from kids in my church, chocolate, cookie dough and so on).

Wow, that is a big job.

I am President of our cheer booster club. We make money by producing the football program, selling ads, etc and then selling clothing with school logos. We host cheer clinics so the cheerleaders can teach some basic cheer moves, etc to younger girls. That did well for us last year.

We usually take 2-3 girls dressed in one of the uniforms and go selling to businesses for our ads. It is important to do this in PERSON....works better that way. Another thing I do, when I go to a place of business, I take my ad forms and an example of the program and appraoch them while I am doing business.....alterations lady, dog groomer, dentist, etc. A HUGE supporter for us are Driver Ed schools because we are their prime target 14-16. Our program has a lot of driving schools advertising. Just approach the people you do business with regularly.

We have not had a lot of success with chains like McDonald's, Palm Beach Tan, etc because of the franchise "rules". We do have shopping centers that advertise.

A golf tourney is a big project. My hubby is a golfer and we belong to a private country club. If you contact a golf pro, even at a public course, they might be able to help you find your target audience.

The school has a cookie dough project but I just don't send my daughter to neighbor's selling. it is like extortion because they feel obligated to buy something they don't need . I am still hit up routinely by neighbor kids selling cookie dough, candy, etc. I do buy from children in my neighborhood.

Good luck! Isn't it fun being a cheer mom!!

Do you attend church? Or any type of extra curricular classes/groups? Those are great places to find people. Other than that, you'll just have to enlist the help of neighbors and family. Do you have a close family member who works at a large office? I know I spent years selling for my nieces!!! I'm the only one in the family who works at a big company. I sold for them for years and years. =0)

If you have family in the area, do you have any uncles or distant relatives that play golf? If not, then if your husband or friend's husbands play golf, they might want to put together a team of 4. If you still can’t think of anyone you might know (even through others), then I like the idea of contacting a few golf pros to see if they’d be willing to pass out flyers with the information on it to some of their contacts.

As for sponsors, I agree with going in person to talk to local businesses with your daughter having the information in hand. Ask for the person that makes donation decisions, tell them what school she's with and that it's to help support the cheer program and ask if they'd be interested. You never know until you ask. You will possibly get 8 No's to 1 Yes (I think that's the average these days). Keep at it. I agree that it's best to talk with places that know you first. It's harder to say no to a frequent customer. Even talk to local sports places (from mini-golf, gymnastics, batting cages, cheer training, etc). All you can do is try, I think you'll be able to get a few sponsors that way. And if not, you tried and turn in all the businesses you asked that said No, so the cheer team knows you worked at it.

As for selling cookie dough and other items, we only ask family, because it is a cycle to ask neighbors unless you want to start buying everything they sell too. You can only do so much. And being on a number of fundraising committees, every little bit helps.

Good luck.
~ J.

Take your daughter dressed in her cheer uniform. Go to local businesses. stay away from chain businesses as they usually don't do this sort of stuff. But local restrautns shops etc are more likely too. have a letter on the team letterhead paper stating exactly what you need. and plan on having copies of the letters to leave with them if they donate so they can have the letter stating what they gave to write off their taxes. also plan to have thank you letters to send later along with a photo of the cheer team.

Go personally (with your daughter) to local, neighborhood businesses as she asks them if they would like to sponsor a hole for $XYZ. Avoid fast foods, etc. and aim for dentists, doctors, local hardware store, neighborhood cafe, etc. Maybe they would appreciate reasonable advertising.
As for the fundraisers...family, friends and neighbors is about all you can do.

Personally go to local business where you shop or go for services, like a local restaurant, doctor, dentist, hair salon. You can also try franchised businesses like Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, gas stations. Avoid the big corporate chain stores.

Where is the golf tournament at and when? My husband plays golf alot and might be interested in playing.