Have you wondered what some of the best cheerleading fundraisers are out there? Well, the Forest Hills cheerleading team discovered that it’s a shoe drive fundraiser. Kristen Turner was the coordinator for the fundraiser. She was searching for fundraising ideas for cheerleaders on Google. And, then she came across an article that listed several kinds of fundraisers. But, the one that caught Kristen’s eye was a shoe drive fundraiser. She called the offices of Funds2Orgs, which is the largest shoe drive fundraising company in the nation. After she spoke to one of the coaches, she decided that it was something that the team could do.
Also, when teams do this type of cheerleading fundraiser, there are several benefits, which include making a social impact.
- No one has to ask for money. In a shoe drive fundraiser, the fundraising company issues you a check for the shoes collected in the cheerleading fundraiser.
- The shoes collected stay out of the trash and landfills. In other words, when people no longer need shoes, many throw the footwear in the garbage. But, this is a big mistake and hurts the environment. Shoes can take a lifetime to decompose in a landfill. So, a cheerleading fundraiser like this helps our planet.
- Finally, this cheerleading fundraiser makes an even more significant impact. The shoes get sent to micro-entrepreneurs by partners, such as Credential Shoes. The small business owners need commerce opportunities to help themselves out of poverty.
Our team interviewed Kristen and asked her about her successful shoe drive fundraiser. Here’s what she had to say.
Who are the Forest Hills cheerleading team?
According to Kristen, who is one of the moms of a cheerleader, said of the team, “They are very active athletes. As of last year, Pennsylvania recognizes them as a sport. The team works all summer long. They only have one month off all year because it’s practice during summer and then football season, basketball and wrestling. They have a very rigorous schedule from fall-winter where they compete.”
Kristen helps the team organize new and unique cheerleading fundraisers, which is why the shoe drive fundraiser caught her interest. Cheerleading, it turns out is expensive. For example, some of the expenses for cheerleaders include uniforms, training camps, coaches, pom poms, and travel, etc.
How to promote a cheerleading fundraiser
As Kristen said to us, “The point of the cheerleading fundraiser was to raise funds for the varsity and JV teams. It was slow in the beginning. They started with a basket social and asked parents and friends to bring shoes to that. They also promoted it a little on their Facebook page. Parents and coaches both participated in the fundraiser.”
To get rolling on the cheerleading fundraiser, they decided to push on social media, especially Facebook. Because some had an understanding of design, they started to create Facebook posts. What’s more, Kristen developed a Facebook business page that was exclusive for the cheerleading fundraiser. Also, she boosted some posts to spread the word within the community. Because of the small town, it worked in their favor. Nine businesses, two fire stations, and schools partnered with them. These partners became drop-off locations for the shoes. Finally, they got featured in a newspaper article and on local radio stations. Kristen got interviewed at one of the drop-off locations!
Coach support for cheerleading fundraisers
One of the reasons why this cheerleading fundraiser was a success was because they had a dedicated coach to help them. Kevin, who partnered with Kristen and the team “was a huge help.” They got to know each other through email and phone conversations. Getting great ideas from Kevin about how to promote the cheerleading fundraiser was such a positive for her. She feels like the Facebook page helped considerably. In other words, they took full advantage of social media. Also, they had a private message board between the parents of the team, so they remembered to solicit people for shoes and to give them updates.
Tips for success from the cheerleading team
If you decide to do one of the cheerleading fundraisers that involve collecting shoes, then Kristen has some suggestions.
- Once drop-off locations got identified, they got hyperlinked in every Facebook post, to that business’ Facebook page.
- They tried to keep the posts short, to make the drop-off location list more visible.
- For the cheerleading fundraiser, they pinned an individual post containing only the drop off locations, at the top of the Facebook page.
- The cheerleaders decorated the boxes in the businesses, so they were bright and eye-catching.
- They printed off the flyers and had the schools distribute them to every student to take home to their parents.
- The cheerleading fundraiser was advertised on their school’s website.
- Finally, once they learned that people could donate cleats to the cheerleading fundraiser, they got many of them!
We’re happy to have partnered with this fantastic group of people, including Kristen. And, if you want to discover one of the unique cheerleading fundraisers that actually raises money, look no further. You can find all of the details about a shoe drive fundraiser here.
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