Our fundraiser ended on September 16 after being open for about 2 weeks. We did end up extending the deadline by two days, because we were waiting for some people who had promised to donate to the cause. We ended up selling 64 t-shirts and raising $803.84 for P.A.W.S.. Of the total amount, $249.85 came from selling the shirts and $553.99 came from donations. Below is the graph of how many people bought a shirt each day. We found that the increased spikes in sales happened when we advertised better or posted something on social media that day. Overall this was a great project. We had a lot of fun designing the shirts and visiting the shelter to take photos and video. We were really proud of how much money we raised and can't wait for everyone's shirts to arrive.
If there was one thing we could have done better it was probably advertising. Also, we found that if we asked people directly if they wanted to buy a shirt they usually wouldn't say no. We could have asked more people we knew to buy one, but we were afraid of bothering people.
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Our Current ProgressDuring class one day we went to the P.A.W.S. Shelter to take photos and video to highlight some of the animals on our fundraising page once we launch it. (P.A.W.S. is the shelter we decided to donate our profits to) The staff and volunteers were very friendly and showed us around the shelter. They have a room for adult cats and a room for kittens. They also had some cats in isolation who were either new, sick, or had allergies and needed to be on a specific diet. All of their dogs and rabbits have to stay in foster homes because of a zoning issue. We played with the cats and got some great footage for our video. The next day in class we compiled all the clips and edited them to make a cute video for our fundraising page. CustomInk suggested to include lots of photos and video of the cause, because people are more likely to buy or donate. Below is our final video. After we had the photos and video for the fundraising site, we were finally able to start setting it up to get ready to launch the shirt. We wrote up a little bit about the shirt and our cause. We included links to the P.A.W.S. website. We finally were able to launch the shirt on Monday, August 31. We advertised on Twitter and Instagram using some advertisements that I made on Photoshop. We also made a post in the New Pal Parents Facebook page and the New Pal Community Facebook page. P.A.W.S. also made a post on their Facebook page. I also made a poster on photoshop that we hung up around the school to advertise. After four days of the fundraiser we have sold 45 shirts and raised $210 for the shelter.
Initial Project Thoughts Next year, when I go to college, I want to pursue a career in Veterinary Medicine, so helping animals is something that I am very passionate about. I knew I wanted to do a project that would benefit animals in need. Animal shelters are always in need of donations. They operate on little funds and rely heavily on volunteers to stay open. Shelters are constantly paying expensive vet bills and purchasing supplies for their animals, so even a small donation can go a long way. We wanted to collect money to donate to one of our local shelters here in New Pal. Our first idea was to make a competition between homeroom classes by collecting cash and change, and the homeroom who collected the most would receive a prize. With COVID restrictions, it was going to be very difficult to coordinate this, and would become impossible to coordinate if our schooling went virtual. We decided we had to go a different route. While I was using Customink.com to design shirts for cross country this year, I discovered a fundraising option on their website. This option was perfect, because it would allow us to design the shirt and sell it online through Custom Ink. The orders would be printed after the fundraiser was over, and orders would be directly shipped to the customers' doors. This solved many of our initial problems, such as: having to handle money/shirts with risk of COVID, having to pay for all shirts up-front, and having left-over inventory. After we decided the best way to raise funds was through a Custom Ink Fundraiser, we knew our shirt design had to be outstanding so people would buy it. Our idea was to include some iconic places of New Pal on the back of the shirt. We thought this would appeal to many community members, because our community has a lot of town pride and these places would mean a lot to each of them. Proposal & Pitch Day Objectives Our goal for the project is to raise funds and awareness for local shelters by getting the community involved. We also wanted to create even more pride within our community. Logistics Step 1: Get permission from some local businesses to take pictures and include them on the back of the shirt. Step 2: Take the pictures. Step 3: Use software to generate the pictures into a design to incorporate on the shirt. Step 4: Design the shirt on customink.com and launch a Fundraiser Page through their website. Step 5: Advertise on social media to spread the word about shirt sales. Step 6: Collect additional funds by setting out collection jars in local businesses. Here is additional information about the Custom Ink Fundraiser Page. Slideshow Above are some of the slides we shared with classmates and administrators on pitch day. I was nervous to propose our idea in front of some of our administrators; however, the presentation went well and everything ran smoothly. The feedback we got seemed positive, which was reassuring for us. Mr. Voelz suggested that we ask for donations from the businesses that we put on the back of our shirt design. We are planning on looking into this. Shirt Design Here are some of the photos I took of iconic places around town. From left to right: B&C's Hideout, The New Palestine Museum building, the Kelso Stadium box. After the photos were taken, I edited some basic light and color settings in Lightroom and then uploaded each to Photoshop. In Photoshop I made each building look simpler, like a cartoon, and merged them all into one final composition. Above is the finished product. This is our final t-shirt design. We are hoping to launch the fundraiser sometime next week.
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Contact InfoBrenna Shaw |