Briefly describe this fundraising event:
You get students to get pledges and/or flat donations, they go and bowl a game, give you their score, and then you mail out a bill to each sponsor.

Organizing the event:
You need to first call a local bowling alley, set up 2 dates and times at the least, then to pass around sign up sheets, and have people sign up for a date and time. That way you don't get everyone there at one time and on one date! Then about 2 weeks before the bowling dates, pass out the pledge sheets. Tell them that they are due back at least 3 days before you NEED them (for example: if you want them on Nov. 4th, tell them the deadline to turn them in is Nov. 1, that way you get them ALL turned in before they bowl). Then on the bowling dates, someone needs to be there to get each student's score and you need to record it. ASAP you want to start doing the billing process, which is the hardest part, but collecting the money in this way assures you of not having students lose the money between them collecting it and turning it in. So get some people together to help you out on this part. When we had 80 pledge sheets to do, I got 7 people together to help and it took about 3 hours. You need to make out a slip thanking and telling the sponsor how much they owe and where to mail their check to and who to make the check out to. You need to make one of these slips for the sponsors that pledged per point and those that made a flat donation. Then you need to make a return slip that you should request to be mailed back with the check, stating the sponsors name and the amount they owe and a little slot indicating the amount they want to give, that is if they want to give more than they owe! :-) Then inside the envelope also mail a pre-addressed label for them to mail the check and return slip back in it. As the money comes back in, record who the money came from and who they sponsored. Keep track of which sponsors did not mail their money in so that you can try to get it.

Capital possibilities:
We had 80 people participate in it last spring and raised $5,000.00 from it! :-)

Degree of difficulty:
All the hours of work that it required to make it go smoothly!

Other suggestions or comments:
Last spring, when I was a junior in high school, our school marching band was in DEBT and our school board was making cuts in our budget. We needed FAST money. We decided to do a bowl-a-thon. It was a lot of fun. I organized it all, and formed a student fundraising commitee to help me out with it. We did 2 bowling dates and met off and on to see how things were going with the sign ups and pledge sheets. I'll be honest with you, it took AT THE LEAST 150 hours of mine, but it was worth it ... everyone had fun! Any questions, feel free to e-mail me at: Chickity16@aol.com