I'll have a 5th grade girls travel team this year. I want to do at least one fundraiser to help the girls offset the travel fees.

One idea I have is to do a "layup-a-thon". (I know, I need to get a fun, creative name for it.)

The girls can go out and get pledges for a flat donation or for $x for each layup made. Then one night we'll block out the last 30-45 minutes of a practice, the girls can invite their donors to come watch and we can maybe do a short scrimmage, then get a girl at each main hoop, put a minute on the clock and let them see how many block to block layups they can make to raise money.

Does anybody have any experience doing something like this? Any pointers or little tidbits are welcome.

Also, feel free to throw out other fundraising ideas.........keeping in mind that this is 5th grade girls.

Thanks!

Here are some of the fundraisers that have worked for us:

-Corporate sponsors. My work threw in $ and I asked some of my vendors if they would help with small donations. I also asked the parents if their work might be able to throw in donations.

-Local restaurants - I partnered with a few pizza joints that would give us money for anything over a predetermined dollar amount for a specific night of the week (always a week night). We put out flyers, spread the word on media sites and usually could get a decent check out of the deal. Win/Win as they potentially receive new customers out of the deal and more money on a slow night.

-I asked local restaurants that I frequented if they'd be willing to give me a small donation. I did eat there a lot and if they gave a donation, I asked the parents to stop by for a meal when they could to tell the owner thanks.

-Butter Braids - look it up to see if there's one in your neck of the woods. These things sell like mad and you can usually make a decent amount of money.

- ARC trucks - Where I live the local ARC/Goodwill stores allow teams to run a fundraiser by filling a truck with donated items. Ask a local middle school or high school if you can use their parking lot for a weekend. Put the word out and you'd be surprised how much money you can make.

-The quickest way is to get a real corporate sponsor. I never did this, but knew teams that would get everything paid through a local business. The local business had patches on the warm-up jackets and advertising on the bags, etc. So, if you know of any businesses that might want to advertise, you could go that route. You could even get a few of them and offer to sew patches on the warm-up jackets for a sizable donation.