Athletics, fine arts and other extracurriculars all need funding. Each group chooses its own method for raising the money they need. Methods vary from selling chocolate bars to campaigning for donations on social media. But is there a better way?

Many activities contact companies asking for money in exchange for promotions. These sponsorships usually include things like featuring the company’s logo on a poster or shirt and announcing their name before a game or meet. 

“We’ve had clubs do sales of stickers for their chromebooks [and] t-shirt sales,” said Bookkeeper Stephanie Cory. “There’s a lot of different ways clubs and activities can do fundraisers.”

Fundraisers must be approved by their staff adviser before they can be started.

For example, the designs for shirt fundraisers must be approved by class sponsors before contacting the design company. Once the design has been approved and sent to the printers, then students can be alerted to the fundraiser. But shirt sales will vary between classes and sports, giving more money to some sports and less money to others.

An idea that has been suggested is when fundraisers are started, the money goes to a communal fund for all sports, activities, and clubs of Kennedy, instead of individual activities.  The funding would be then dispersed based on the needs of each activity.

However, this method would likely cause a decrease in donors or sponsors. Cory has noted that sponsors and donors have a pattern of donating to activities with people they have a connection with.

“I feel like if [sponsors] have a personal connection with a student in that club or organization they’re more likely to give to that club or organization”, Cory said. “It might be smaller denominations because you hit them up several times but again, they’re more likely to give more throughout the year for those different groups.”

People tend to donate when their money will have a direct impact on the life of someone they know. In donating to the school instead of a certain activity, it doesn’t ensure their funds will have a direct impact on the student.

There is still a way to get the best of both ideas, to get similar funding while evenly distributing the money earned. 

If each activity sets a maximum amount of money accepted, then the extra money would go to the clubs that don’t meet their fundraising goals.

Athletic Director Aaron Stecker said, “I know we are going to be pursuing more opportunities for businesses and families to sponsor our teams.” But the question still remains, how should we use these opportunities to help the school as a whole?