Note well: This page contains advice from participants, not officially-sanctioned guidelines. Your mileage may vary. If you have personal experience or advice that you'd like to add to this page, email MattElder or JohnathanSkinner.

If you and your team qualify for Global Finals, you'll need to raise over $500 per person in under two months time to pay the cost of attendance. Many teams can find support from their school, but many others have to raise the money for themselves. Some teams are school-supported, but still want to raise money to buy state pins. Some teams balk at this challenge, and decide that it's not worth the effort. I (MattElder) think that going to Global Finals is well worth whatever effort it requires, and patronizingly waggle my finger at those teams that do not. Patronizingly! Competing at Global Finals is simply the most fun, exciting, and enlightening experience I've ever had.

Raising the money may be difficult, but it's considerably easier than the central challenge your team has already solved. The trick is this:

Use the same creative problem-solving tools you've already learned!

View the need to raise money as a challenge. It's similar to a central challenge, except that the RulesOfInterference don't apply. So, gather your team, and all the family and friends who might be able and willing to help. Explain to them whatever Brainstorming Tools your team has learned to use, and brainstorm solutions to your fundraising problem. Be sure to consider any particularly salable skills possessed by those among you. Then, narrow your focus, pick a few ideas that you can implement, embellish them, and perform!

Here are some things that our team did to raise money. Add anything that you've tried here, and how well it worked, and why it went well or failed. Remember, this is a challenge where you can use all the help you can find!

• We - the students - asked the school for money. Even those years when the school was unwilling to fund us completely, we were able to get about $1000.
• We were able to get about $500 from our high school coffee shop.
• We sold chocolate bars from Sam's Club. We bought them around 35 cents a piece, and sold them at school for $1.50. Over four weeks, this alone was enough money to buy our pins that year.
• One of the mothers of our team is a nurse. She was able to borrow a machine to perform bone-density scans at our high school; the team went around to the teachers and administrative staff and got. I think she charged about $20 a piece, which is apparently a great bargain. This was extremely successful.
• My mother is a florist, so she arranged to make small floral arrangements as Valentine's Day gifts. We took preorders at school, got roses and assorted greenery and small vases in bulk, and sold a few dozen of them. We didn't make much money, because we didn't start taking orders until two or three days before Valentine's. Poor planning.
• My favorite fundraiser, even though it didn't make much money: Lots of people had already noticed our (striking, funny) shirts around school and asked where they could buy them. We finally decided to take orders and print a second batch. I think we sold about twenty, at a $5 profit each. Still, that was a surprisingly easy $100.
• We asked lots and lots of companies for donations. We got donations on the order of $500 or so, from several places; though most of the companies said no. Do explain exactly what the money is going to be used for - a lot of companies are trying hard to find programs this worthwhile to give money to. And don't be quickly discouraged; it's easy to be turned down nine times in a row; but when that tenth company actually donates money, it's almost always enough to make all of the asking worthwhile.

Anyone else have their own stories? How has your team raised money in the past?

Also, you can order and sell DI Stars Bars, for 50 cents apiece, and sell them at a suggested dollar.

Has anyone tried this? I don't know how large or attractive or tasty these bars are. You have to buy no fewer than 24 cases, and it takes 64 cases to get free shipping. If you know someone with a Sam's Club membership, or other such bulk store, it's probably cheaper to buy name-brand candies for the same purpose. On the other hand, the Stars Bars actually have the DI label and graphics on them, which is conceivably a benefit. Choices, choices...