Motivating Parents to PITCH IN for new Mats!!! (?)

[Brother John]

I've told you all that my children's Judo Club is a competitive Judo Club and that there are LOTS of kids involved. There's plenty of teen and adult players as well, but Sensei really excels with children AND he teaches at a local "Community Rec Center" in order to make sure that Everyone can afford to come to Judo!!!! (trust me, MOST full time MA instructors would drool at the number of bodies in his classes)

But the biggest issue holding the club back is MATS!!!

The club's floor space is MORE than adequate! But the mats are smallish and VERY OLD. Sensei's very concerned for the kid's safety and knows that with more WORKABLE mat space we'd have Safer practices as well as better practices because they'd not be running into one another...
But HOW to get parents to pitch in??????

The Club NEEEDS new mats. Primarily for safety, but also because we want to host Shiai!!!! ....and could, if we had better mats.

PLEASE: Give me ideas on what we could do to help motivate people to pitch in...

Thank you in advance!!

Your Brother
John

 

[Jade Tigress]

You could get them involved by holding a bake sale/craft fair with the proceeds going for new mats, or you could hold a tournament, or demonstration of some sort, tickets can be sold with the proceeds going for new mats. Good luck! :asian:

 

[Tez3]

A sponsored silence for the children is always popular with parents! Have an open afternoon where you can do dislplays, have stalls, a raffle and other competitions. Our instructor did a sponsored tile smash (roof tiles) and did 200 in something like a minute and a bit.That was for mats too. We had a couple of big name MMA fighters come down as well as friends of Mick's ( my instructor) who did karate and weapon displays.Showly but it's the sort of stuff that is good for displays.

 

[MJS]

Host seminars as the school, with the proceeds going to the mat fund.

 

[shesulsa]

Start a boosters club.

There are TONS of opportunities to raise funds. Hold a car wash, have a kick-a-thon, sell payback books. There are certain grocery stores that will give you a kick-back for everyone in your school who buy certain products, Script fundraisers (gift cards where you purchase them and you get free money towards the school), sponsorships.

Start a fund there and call it something cool and host a spaghetti dinner towards the benefit. Have the kids serve everyone.

Conduct a benefit demonstration, put a nice program together (see if you've got a parent that will lend his/her desktop publishing skills) and sell advertising space in the program for local vendors.

Tell ya what, google "Fund raising ideas kids" and you'll get some great ideas. We do a lot of stuff in scouting to pull money together.

It will take some time, coordination and a little sweat, but you'll be surprised at how much you can accumulate - especially if you just do these things as regular events and keep that fund open. It could be for improving the training hall, scholarship funds for families who can't pay, tournament travel and entrance fees, etcetera.

And when you tell the parents that these fundraisers help to keep the cost of tuition down, you're more apt to get some to volunteer to help out or even open their wallets again.