Team fundraisers

Fundraising is the hard part. It truly needs a mix of creativity, audience understanding, and luck to succeed. But for college students, there’s no limit to the methods you can try.

Jocelyn from Penn State made a good point that you should make your fundraisers simple enough and create them in a way that serves your band members best. Many band students are busy with academics and other clubs when they're away from practice, so holding some fundraisers at rehearsal or around the same time makes it easier for people to attend, such as ability to carpool to a percent night after rehearsal.

Here are some group fundraising options to try, some of which other bands have done repeatedly. There are some that require simple setup by the team leaders, and some that are more activity-based for the team to participate in. All of these can use details specific to your band or your team to boost your team's recognition.

• Physical Materials:

  • Buttons/Pins of Band Staff (sold like crazy!) - The USC music Greeks created button pins with the faces of the band directors, grad assistants, and senior staff members printed on them. They sold for about $3 a piece and were only available on a specific day after rehearsal. Although this wasn't a Dance Marathon fundraiser, I took note of it because the line to buy the pins was endless. I still see band students walking around campus with them on their bookbags! See if your staff members are open to the idea! :)

  • Calendars - Take Penn State Blue Band’s example of creating calendars to showcase a section each month of the year. They arrange a presale (for close to the regular price, around $23) to know how many to order, then buy them at a deal through VistaPrint on Black Friday (around $16 per) and distribute before the new year begins. This approach to fundraising is very simple and one of their more successful ones.

  • Stickers - Spencer from Ohio State described ordering multiple sets of stickers of popular Ohio State band icons through stickermule.com during a sale (50 stickers for $15 bucks). By selling them for about $4 each, he made about $250 for his team doing this!

• Competitions/Activities:

  • Section Coin Wars - The gist of coin wars is that each section has a container. Band members are asked to contribute spare change (coins or bills). Participants can strategically place coins in their own team's jar to gain points or place them in other teams' jars to sabotage them. Pennies are positive points, while other coins/bills are negative points, depending on their value (example: a nickel is -5 points, a dollar is -100 points). At the end of the designated period, the team with the highest remaining positive total wins a prize. Despite gaining mostly just coins, this fundraiser racks up some funds fast!

  • Percent Night - Everyone has heard of these. Chains like Moes, Chipotle, Panda Express, etc. or local restaurants may be open to supporting your team. Keep in mind, the chain locations typically have a sales minmum in order to benefit from the arrangement (around $150 or so).

  • Craft Night - A fun group activity for around holidays, to make themed crafts, ornaments, etc. that can be sold for $1-2 each.

  • Tabling - The Univ of Central Florida (UCF) has done tabling as a team, specifically bake sales.

  • Cookies and Caroling - UCF's idea for instrument caroling and a bake sale combined, around the holidays.

  • Krispy Kreme - Ohio State sold donuts to the band sections and parents for early call time gamedays. They made a minimum purchase of 15 dozen to get each for half price, then sold donuts based on the typical price and made about $250.

Team activities (mostly on campus)

• Campus Events - Attend events hosted by your Dance Marathon org! For example, Spookathon (USCDM) is a trick-or-treating event where the Miracle Kids come to campus and play games and get candy from USC students. These events are a fun and easy way to show off your team and get more involved.

• Push Days - USCDM's push days have a lot of activities, live music, tabling, etc. that org members are encouraged to go to while they fundraise throughout the day. Stop by and get to know other teams and staff members.

• Dodgeball - UCF recommends participating in exec-hosted events like dodgeball tournaments, basketball games, etc. These are a fun way to rep your team and pull in people who may not want to show up for other events.

• Banner Painting - USCDM has every team paint a banner to hang around the gym for Main Event. Although this isn't a fundraiser, it's a great way to get your team together and give everyone something simple and creative to do!

• Hospital Tours - USCDM offers tours of the children's hospital to students in the org. Check with your staff if there are any opportunities for this! They may have group tours or just access for captains- both would be a great experience and a way to build your knowledge of what you are supporting.

Communication methods

There are so many ways for a captain to communicate with their team, specifically online. Although a simple platform like GroupMe could be enough for you, some teams, like UConn’s, prefer more functional options like Slack. Penn State's captain prefers Microsoft Teams, since they use it with the entire Dance Marathon staff already. Consider how you want to share information (in person, group chat, email, texting, phone calls).

Team meetings

In terms of face to face communication, some teams prefer occasional meetings and others have never tried them. Regardless of if you establish regular meetings every few weeks, scheduling events is a good way to get your group together, to fundraise or get to know each other throughout the season.