Fundraising in the Oddest Ways.

I work in the office on Tuesday and Thursdays, and work Monday through Friday coaching the kids at the boat house. Usually on Tuesday and Thursday I get gas for the launches, clean up, respond to emails, pretty basic office-assistant stuff. However, now that the team's season is starting to pick up and races are starting this weekend I am also starting to do more and more work for the athletes during my time in the office on Tuesday and Thursday.

We've been trying to raise money for the team so that the kids can go to more races out of state throughout the season and become more competitive. Last week we started our first fundraiser, which is a letter writing campaign. A letter writing campaign is basically where each person on the team gives several addresses (between 3 & 10) and write letters asking for them to donate to the team. With 21 athletes, are goal for this fundraiser is 3 thousand dollars. With this money we would pay for plane tickets, transportation, race registration fees, gear, and new equipment for the team. Last year we raised $3,700 but also had more people on the team at the time, so we adjusted the amount to fit the size of our current team.

The athletes did a good job of bringing in their letters with the addresses provided, but in order to make the letter look official and ensure that the money is sent back to the team and not the athletes - I have to mail the letters through the city with city envelopes.  Since all athletes turned in roughly 5 or more letters, I had about 100 envelopes to address and mail during my shift on Tuesday. It took forever. Literally my entire shift was writing address and sealing envelopes so that they could be mailed out.

Our online site (https://fundly.com/ttlr-juniors-2015-fundraiser?showsteps=1)  is also opened just in case someone does not want to send a check or cash through the mail. Using and online fundraising website, people now have the ability to donate any amount online whenever they want to. This helped us bring in the most money last year, so we did it again this year because of the positive response it received. Hopefully within the next month letters will start to come back along with the online fundraising website getting some money.

Some of the other fundraising events that we are doing this year is an Ergathon at Tempe Market Place on March 21st. An Ergathon is an event that most of the teams on Tempe Town Lake do in order to raise money for the team. We bring our ergs, which are stationary rowing machines (they are in most gyms), and we set them up on the stage at Tempe Market Place outside Dave and Busters. While half of the team ergs, to show that we are "working," for the money, and the other half is out standing in front of the stage or in the walk ways with signs asking for donations. Usually the Ergathon brings in roughly $800.

If athletes or parents of athletes feel uncomfortable having their kids fill out letters to family or friends or asking strangers for donations, we always offer the kids a buy-out option. A buy-out option is where the athlete can be a sum amount to make up for not participating in the team fundraising. This way, they are still contributing to the teams fundraising, but don't become uncomfortable.

The last part of our fundraiser is a dinner night at Dave and Busters on April 9th. A dinner night is where the team goes to a local restaurant and part of the proceeds from their meals (and other diners, if they bring forward their receipt) will go towards the team. This is not our most profitable fundraiser, but is a great way for the team to come together and get to know each other better.