Great Cheer Fundraiser Idea - Best Fundraising Program for Cheer Teams
Most American middle schools, high schools, and colleges have organized cheerleading squads made up solely of students. Several colleges that compete at cheerleading competitions offer cheerleading scholarships. School-sponsored cheerleading promotes school spirit and motivates the players and fans as well as enjoyment for the participants. A cheerleading team may compete outside of sporting events (local, regional, and national competitions), and cheer for sporting events and encourage audience participation. Cheerleading is quickly becoming year-round, starting with tryouts during the spring of the preceding school year, organized camp as a team, practices, attendance at various events and ending with National competition season, typically from winter through spring.
School cheerleaders also compete with recreational-style routines at many competitions year-round. They practice hardly for them and come up with a no greater than 2 minute 30 second routine to show off at the competitions. Like other school-level athletes they compete to win their league title and move on to bigger competitions eventually reaching nationals the ultimate title for a school squad. The advantage to a school squad versus an all-star squad is cheering at various games. For some squads the level of competition on the weekends can equal that of an all-star squad.
The tryout process sometimes takes place over many days. The cheerleading coach usually will arrange for a cheerleading clinic, during which basic materials are taught or reviewed before the final day of tryouts. The clinic gives returning cheerleaders and new cheerleaders an equal chance of becoming familiar with the material. Skills that coaches look for include jumps, tumbling, motions, and dance ability. Tryouts often take place during the spring, so that the coach has the team chosen in time to attend summer camp as a team.
Great Cheer Fundraising Program - Best Fundraiser Idea for Cheer Teams
Middle school cheerleading evolved shortly after high school squads started. In middle school, the squads serve mostly the same functions as high school squads and usually follow the same rules and regulations. Depending on how advanced the squad is, they usually do similar stunts to high school cheer squads. The cheerleaders cheer for basketball teams, football teams, and other sports teams in their school. They also perform at pep rallies and compete against other schools from local competitions all the way to nationals. Cheerleading in middle school sometimes can be a two-season activity: fall and winter. However, many middle school cheer squads will go all year round like high school squads. Middle school cheerleaders use the same cheerleading movements as their older counterparts, yet they perform less extreme stunts, ranging from simple elevators, knee stands, and extensions to harder stunts such as the heel stretch and scorpion.
In high school, there are usually two squads per school: varsity and a junior varsity. Some schools also include a freshman level of cheering in order to develop skills as the athletes continue to mature. High school cheerleading contains aspects of school spirit as well as competition. These squads have become a part of a year-round cycle, starting with tryouts in the spring, to year-round practice, to cheering on teams in the autumn and winter, and to cheerleading competitions. Most squads practice at least three days a week for about two hours each practice during the summer. Many teams also attend separate tumbling sessions outside of practice. During the school year, cheerleading is usually practiced five- to six-days-a-week. During competition season it often becomes seven days with practice twice a day sometimes. The school spirit aspect of cheerleading involves cheering, supporting, and "pumping up" the crowd at football games, basketball games, and even at wrestling meets. With this they also make posters, perform at pep rallies, and bring school spirit to the other students. In May 2009, the National Federation of State High School Associations released the results of their first true high school participation study. They estimated that the number of high school cheerleaders from public high schools is around 394,700.
Collegiate cheerleaders for the University of Florida perform a high splits pyramid during a Gators college football game
There is year-round practice, cheer camps, and competitions throughout the winter. There are different cheerleading organizations that put on these competitions; some of the major ones include state competitions and regional competitions. Many high schools will often host cheerleading competitions, bringing in IHSA judges. The regional competitions are the qualifiers for the national competitions, such as the UCA (Universal Cheerleaders Association) in Orlando, Florida every year. The competition aspect of cheerleading can be very enduring; styles and rules changing every year make it important and difficult to find the newest and hottest routines. Most teams have a professional choreographer choreograph their routine in order to ensure they are not breaking any rules and they will be up to par with the other teams. For a list of rules visit AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators). All high school coaches are required to attend an IHSA rules meeting at the beginning of the season. This ensures their knowledge of rules changes and their compliance with these rules. Routines usually last around 2 minutes and 30 seconds and always require cheer, dance, jumps, tumbling, and stunting portions.
Not all high school cheerleading squads compete in competitions. Cheerleaders dress in matching uniforms, to look like a team while they are performing.
Many non-profit organizations receive some annual funding from a financial endowment, which is a sum of money that is invested to generate an annual return. Although endowments may be created when a sizable gift is received from an individual or family, often as directed in a will upon the death of a family member, they more typically are the result of many gifts over time from a variety of sources.
Non-profit organizations also raise funds through competing for grant funding. Grants are offered by governmental units and private foundations/ charitable trusts to non-profit organizations for the benefit of all parties to the transaction.
A capital campaign is when fundraising is conducted to raise major sums for a building or endowment, and generally keep such funds separate from operating funds. These campaigns encourage donors to give more than they would normally give and tap donors, especially corporations and foundations who would not otherwise give. A capital campaign normally begins with a private phase before launching a public appeal.
Great Cheer Fundraiser Idea - Best Fundraising Program for Cheer Teams
Charitable giving by corporations is estimated to be $15.29 billion in 2010.This consists of corporate grants as well as matching gift and volunteer grants. 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer employee matching gift programs and 40% offer volunteer grant programs.These are charitable giving programs setup by corporations in which the company matches donations made by employees to eligible nonprofit organizations or provides grants to eligible nonprofit organizations as way to recognize and promote employee volunteerism.
Special events are another method of raising funds. These range from formal dinners to benefit concerts to walkathons. Events are used to increase visibility and support for an organization as well as raising funds.Events can feature activities for the group such as speakers, a dance, an outing or entertainment, to encourage group participation and giving. Events can also include fundraising methods such as a raffle or charity auction. Events often feature notable sponsors or honoree. Events often feature a charity "ad book" as a program guide for the event, but more importantly, as another fundraiser providing members, supporters and vendors to show their support of and to the group at the event by way of placing an ad-like page, 1/2 page, 1/4 page, stating or showing support. Events and their associated fundraisers can be a major source of a group’s revenue, visibility and donor relations.
While fundraising often involves the donation of money as an out-right gift, money may also be generated by selling a product of some kind, also known as product fundraising. Girl Scouts of the USA is well known for selling cookies in order to generate funds. It is also common to see on-line impulse sales links to be accompanied by statements that a proportion of proceeds will be directed to a particular charitable foundation. Tax law may require differentiating between the costs of an item verses its gift value, such as a $100.00 per person dinner, for a $25.00 cost meal. Fundraising often involves recognition to the donor, such as naming rights or adding donors to an honor roll or other general recognition. Charity Ad Books are another form of donation for recognition, sponsorship or selling of ads often in an event related program or group directory.
When goods or professional services are donated to an organization rather than cash, this is called an in-kind gift.
A number of charities and non-profit organizations are increasingly using the internet as a means to raise funds; this practice is referred to as online fundraising. For example, the NSPCC operates a search engine which generates funds via Pay per click links, and Better the World operates tools allowing funds to be raised via members viewing ethical ads on a browser sidebar and/or blog widget.Save the Children's Dave Hartman wrote after the $1 Million Operation Sharecraft online campaign, "We may have reached our mark, but this is just the beginning of a new era of fundraising and using social media and digital technology to better the world."
Some of the most substantial fundraising efforts in the United States are conducted by colleges and universities. Commonly the fundraising, or "development" / "advancement," program, makes a distinction between annual fund appeals and major campaigns. Most institutions use professional development officers to conduct superior fundraising appeals for both the entire institution or individual colleges and departments. Examples of this include athletics and libraries.
Great Cheer Fundraising Program - Best Fundraiser Idea for Cheer Teams
The donor base (often called a file) for higher education includes alumni, parents, friends, private foundations, and corporations. Gifts of appreciated property are important components of such efforts because the tax advantage they confer on the donor encourages larger gifts. The process of soliciting appreciated assets is called planned giving.
The classic development program at institutions of higher learning include prospect identification, prospect research and verification of the prospect's viability, cultivation, solicitation, and finally stewardship, the latter being the process of keeping donors informed about how past support has been used.
