Question: Fund raising help/ finding sponsorship

Fund raising help/ finding sponsorship

This summer I'm going to Bolivia for a 3 month internship working for an NGO (a nonprofit). As you can imagine the trip is going to be very expensive: approx $1,300 for a plane ticket, $1,920 for tuition, then another $1,000 or so for living expenses and transportation, and then all the miscellaneous stuff (passport, medical vaccinations, visa etc). My guess is that it will cost $4,500 give or take a couple hundred. And I won't be making any money while I'm there, it's full time volunteer work. I have some money saved up and I will be working this semester but I will still be about $1,500 short. ________________________________________________________________________ So I needed ideas on how I could get money. I was thinking that maybe I could write letters to companies that are related, or semi related to my project. And if a few of them sponsored a few hundred dollars I'd be set, and they could write it off on their taxes. ________________________________________________________________________ Do you guys have any suggestions on ways I could fund raise? Do you think asking stores to sponsor me would work? How should I ask them? And when should I do it- like before April or after April? (i'd be leaving the first week of may) all ideas would be great! Thanks :)

Date Posted: January 24, 2008 Tagged Under: fund raising . sponsorship . education . Money
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yeah I talked to my dad and he said that unless you're doing something really extreme like hiking mt everest or biking in the tour de France, companies don't usually donate to people.

I appreciate your ideas, but I think basically I just have to work and earn it... This internship is an "extra" thing-- it's not like I'm in a desperate situation.

So thanks for all the tips! I think I'll have to take up some odd jobs like babysitting and such like you suggested. :)

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Just another thought, maybe all the students who are going could sponsor some sort of "Thon"...Walk a Thon, Sing a Thon, ect, etc and have the students sponsor you. You'll have to check with your administration to be sure it would be ok.

Another idea, could you set up a booth and sell something there around school...you know kids are always ready to buy goodies!

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Here's an idea I just had...Radio stations love a good story and to help people out for good causes. The other thing that they are really good at is fund raising. I would contact all the radio stations in your area and maybe even here in Colorado and ask for their help. Make your "story" exciting and make sure to ask for their help and ideas. Just a thought.

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Thanks for you comments and ideas guys!

It's actually not through my church, it's through my school. The group that I'm going with is about 7 or 8 people, but we're not all going to be in the
same city. so I might be with only one or two other students.

I'm still not completely sure what work I'm going to be doing. At the moment I'm translating my resume to Spanish so my facilitator can contact the NGOs that students worked for in the past.
The ones that I'm looking at the most are ProMujer, Save the Children and CARE. If I were to work for ProMujer I'd be working in a clinic type place, weighing and measuring babies & children and checking for malnutrition. With almost all the organizations I'd be giving nutritional discussions.

There are also programs that focus on diseases such as HIV/AIDS awareness.
Or I might work with the Andean Rural Health Care, working in clinics and conducting research on acute respiratory infections (ARI), which is a big killer.

I won't know what I'm doing for about another month. We're meeting together in mid Feb, and by then it will be more set in stone.

I'm not exactly positive, but I believe the as a group we will be researching some aspect of health behavior, but that's one of the things we will be talking about in Feb. In the previous years the students met together every weekend and compiled their information and came up with ways to improve the work the NGOs were doing.

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Is this project sponsored through your church? If so you might try some fundraising through the church. Some ideas, whether it's through church or not...

- Babysitting with the money going to help defray the cost (maybe it would be a tax write off for those paying you

- Doing odd jobs for people, again maybe the cost would be tax deductable

- Planning some after school, evening or weekend events that would provide a fun and safe environment for elementary students

-Maybe you could provide some tutoring for students who have having difficulty in a subject or two that you are very good at.

- I like the idea you have suggested as well, give it a try!

I would start right away, as it will take a while to raise that much money and you don't want to feel pressured at the last minute

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What type of volunteer work is it? Also is it just you or are you doing this with a group of people? This information might give me some ideas as to how to find additional money. You should start asap as company's will need time to figure out if they can do it and if so how they are going to do it. I will think about how you should ask and other fund raising ideas.