Cheerleading fundraisers are the ultimate in small group fundraising. Cheerleaders possess boundless energy, determination, and loads of contacts (for potential supporters).

Harnessing all this energy and enthusiasm can be a challenge,but having the right cheerleading fundraiser is a great start. You want to leverage their skills by giving them an exciting fundraising product to sell.

So, what cheerleading fundraising ideas will generate excitement?

In this article, we’ll consider three types of cheer fundraisers. Each involves doing something a little different, each of them are easy to do, and each fundraiser packs a profit punch.

Cheer Fundraiser #1
One unique approach for a cheerleading fundraiser is offering custom posters of school sports teams or of the cheerleaders themselves.

For instance, feature the team photo of the football team, or use a series of action photos. Each can be turned into a wall-sized poster or a fundraising calendar.

Add some allure to these cheerleading fundraisers by including your game schedule or team slogan printed on it in a contrasting color.

You could also design one to celebrate your championship teams, commemorate your previous titles, intensify a cross-town rivalry, recognize all of your school’s sports teams on a spirit poster, or feature the cheerleading squad in action.

Any of these items is sure to be popular with a wide range of students. Local businesses will often buy one to put in their front window. Players will want a souvenir copy suitable for end-of-season autographs. Proud parents and grandparents will want their own keepsake copy.

The posters can be sold easily at pep rallies, sporting events, through the school store, and by the cheerleaders themselves via a merchant table at a high-traffic location on a weekend.

Think of creative ways to design and market your own unique set of cheerleading posters. Consider adding merchant sponsor logos to reduce the cost. You could also cross-promote with another school on a rivalry poster and double the overall market.

Cheer Fundraiser #2
Another idea for cheerleading fundraising is selling customized Holiday Greetings CD’s. This is a brochure or order-taker sale of a personalized selection of holiday music favorites.

One of the nice things about this product is that a purchaser selects their ten favorite holiday songs by checking off boxes on a list of thirty classics.
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Car wash fundraisers are a proven money-maker in virtually every community. All you need are willing volunteers, a high-traffic location with good visibility, and some attention getting signs.

You can put a car wash fundraiser together on short notice, but they work best with a little planning. Here’s how to get started…

Things To Do List
1- Line up a location with good main road frontage
2- Ensure it has suitable water access
3- Assemble supplies list – hoses, buckets, wash towels, dry towels, squeegees
4- Assign each volunteer an item from the supplies list
5- Make 8-10 poster board signs in high-contrast colors
6- Arrange your volunteers in 2-hour shifts
7- Get advance publicity, if possible

How To List
1- Organize your group into teams – Promotion, Sales, Wash, Dry
2- Promotion team attracts new clients with signs
3- Sales team explains offer (use flyer for quick info) and up-sells clients
4- Wash team soaps, scrubs, and rinses each car
5- Dry team gets water residue off, vacuums, does tires, etc.
6- Have at least two lines so you can wash two or more cars at once
7- Wash cars for six to eight hours (Saturday 9:00 to 3:00 preferred)

Your fundraiser’s success will depend on the weather. If you can wash 12 cars an hour (one every 10 minutes in each line), you can raise $500- $1000 in one day.
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Have you realized just how much fundraising is going on these days? There is fundraising for little league, school fundraisers, and the college fundraiser, as well as church fundraisers. Day cares need more funds, hospitals need new equipment, and cheerleaders need to fundraise for their costumes. And to think up new fundraising ideas that will be successful is becoming more challenging every day.

On a good note, it shows that people do care how others live and cope with their lives. However, it also means that, because we are always being asked to donate to one good cause after another, we are not always able to help. Despite our best intentions, our own funds simply will not stretch that far.

However, if we request the donation of items instead of cash, that is often a relief to a potential donor. People will often gladly donate a can of food for a food drive, or a kitchen item they have never used for a sale, whereas they would not donate cash. And there are many kinds of fundraising ideas you can use to hold sales based on items collected.
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Location, Location, Location!

There are few things that are more important than location. It not only
applies to real estate, but to fundraising too.  Here are some tips to
expand your horizons when trying to maximize your fundraising efforts.

Traditionally, fundraising efforts are concentrated on:
-Friends
-Neighbors
-Relatives
-Co-workers

Besides the usual suspects, there is a whole lot of money in other places right under your nose.

You have to go where the money is. The big money in fundraising is being located where people are shopping. They are out and about with cash or checkbooks in hand.

There’s no better time than that for offering a quality fundraising product at these locations:
-Drugstores
-Home Improvement Stores
-Grocery Stores
-Shopping Malls

Drugstores – Nice entry-level sales spot. Generally have good sidewalk space available.

Home Improvement Stores – Big weekend traffic spots. Lots of do it yourselfers diving in to their next project.

Grocery Stores – Prime hunting grounds for product fundraisers. A small, high-quality food item does real well here.

Shopping Malls – Hard to get approval for outside space, but a location near the food court is golden.

And don’t forget the 800-pound gorilla: Wal-Mart – The Holy Grail of fundraising locations. A day spent fundraising in front of this high-traffic retailer is like being in fundraising heaven. You’ll have more potential prospects than you can shake a stick at.

Because of the sheer volume of Wal-Mart shoppers, you’ll
need oversize signage to get your fundraising message across quickly before
your prospects hurry on in

Casing the Joint Ahead of Time
You want the best location for your weekend fundraising table. Scope out the lay of the land. Check which entrance gets the most foot traffic.
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