Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Cheerleader Fundraising: Those Little Outfits Don’t Come Cheap

Let’s give it up for cheerleaders and their endless supply of PERK. It takes a lot to be that cheerful and peppy and jumpy and human pyramid-y. And let’s not forget knowing how to man those pom poms – handled incorrectly, you could lose an eye to a rogue streamer. But beyond the physical stamina required to “ra ra” and “FIGHT! FIGHT!” They often bear the emotional burden of wondering where their next tiny skirt is going to come from. Because maintaining a cheerleading squad, if they are or want to become any good, takes quite a bit of cash. Cheerleader fundraising is necessary to keep those girls on the field doing what they do best.

It can be tough for schools to scrounge up the money needed to fund uniforms, coaches, travel expenses for away games, and so on. And the better the cheerleading team is, the more expensive they become – what a kick in the spankies. If they’re good enough to perform in competitions, then costs skyrocket with transportation, costumes, and hotel stays. So having some great cheerleader fundraising ideas in your back pocket is the untold secret weapon to any team’s success. Because it doesn’t matter how much raw talent is lurking in that student body (something less creepy than it sounds)– if you can’t afford things like uniforms you’ve just got a bunch of crazy girls in Abercrombie & Fitch interrupting a football game to bust a move.

As with all fundraisers, it’s important for your cheerleader fundraising campaign to net you the most profit for the least amount of effort. Time spent somersaulting door-to-door takes precious hours away from other methods that both spread the word faster and can be implemented more easily. Also, remember that you’re raising money for a cheerleading squad, something that’s synonymous with fun, excitement, and spirit. If your fundraiser is lackluster and boring then it doesn’t jibe with what you’re ultimately trying to achieve. You’ve got a herd of plucky little teenyboppers that live to get people pumped up, so get them as involved as possible! The first step to any successful fundraising campaign is getting the word out so people can rally behind your cause.

There are lots of ideas at your disposal to pick from, as long as you keep things creative and choose something you know will get people excited (and excited to GIVE). You could auction off dates with the cheerleaders (teenage boys are so easy) or make (tasteful…nothing that looks like it should be hanging in a mechanic’s garage) calendars of the girls, maybe in conjunction with football team. Or, tapping into peoples’ love of oversized novelty everything, sell cheer accessories like giant foam fingers at the games. And if you’re looking for something a little different, have the girls hold cheering classes for younger girls who want to be cheerleaders when they get to high school. Not only does it work as a cheerleader fundraising idea, it helps train a brand new crop of future superstars.

Now that you’ve got your cheerleader fundraising idea picked out and ready to go, it’s all about seeing it through as effortlessly as possible. Before you begin, register the fundraiser online so you can reach people where they already are (and let’s face it, spend 80% of their day) – email, Facebook, Twitter and so on.

Odds are the girls on the squad are seasoned pros at social networking, so having them with their friends (and their friends’ friends, and so it goes. Long live the viral power of the Internet!) will do most of the promotional work for you. People can fundraise on your behalf by linking to your donation page on the site, where you can receive donations directly to your account. And since you’re running everything from one hub, you can keep track of your cheerleader fundraiser’s success, and where you’re getting the most donations from. So you know JUST who to hit up next time you need to replace those scraggly pom poms.

Yup, the life of a cheerleader isn’t always smiles and blindingly white shoes. Keeping a team running doesn’t come cheap, and sometimes busting your butt offthe field is required to raise money. But thanks to the lot of fund cheerleader fundraising ideas and the newfound ease of online fundraising, you don’t have to bust your butt as hard as you used to. Unless you’re trying to break the record for longest door-to-door somersaulting campaign. Then have at it.

Raise money online for your cheerleader fundraiser the easy way today with free fundraising tools that allow you to create and manage a number of cheerleader fundraising campaigns while tracking their success. Cheerleader fundraising is easy with access to all the fundraising tools offered by a free and simple-to-use online fundraising platform.

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