SCZ London Cheerleaders

T- Shirts

Get a set of tees or vest tops printed with a cute slogan that relates to your university, but not to the cheerleading squad specifically. Eg, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to (insert uni name)". Shop around for the cheapest possible deal on them. You can then sell them around campus and make a profit.

Pros - I know this works from experience. Just have a maximum of fifty printed (remember, small sized adult t-shirts aren't usually very small) and sell off the bulk of them to your squad as practice tops. If lots of people like them you can take orders for more, and then you won't make a loss. Practice tops, and profit. Win win.
Cons - Your union may object to it, saying it's in conflict with college merchandise. Talk it through with a sympathetic sabb first. Offer to put the union logo on them if they like and remind them that this is a fundraiser for the squad, so all money is going to the union really...

50 50 raffles

A 50 50 raffle is a raffle where the winner gets half the raffle takings and you get the other.

Pros - You can't make a loss. If the raffle gets going start putting a running total up on a union noticeboard to get more people interested.
Cons - It's possible that only one person buys a ticket and you make 50p. Also some unions have weird regs about what they class as gambling so you'll need to check that out.

Silent Auctions

Local businesses will give you freebies as prizes for an event if you promise to slap their logo all over the publicity and the proceedings. Hold a silent auction of these prizes. You can put a description of prizes up on a uni website or message board before hand and get people to email in bids. Whoever sends the highest bid gets the prize, of course they have to pay their bid for it. Present the prizes at an event like a performance or a big match.

Pros - Money, free money.
Cons - People make rubbish bids. Persuade squad members and sports teams members to make sensible bids to avoid this.

Selling snacks at games

Nick a decent table and set up a refreshment stand at games. You'd be surprised how readily hot drinks are consumed at freezing rubgy matches.
Pros - Makes the time pass quicker at matches when you're not cheering, and everyone will love you for it.
Cons - You're not licensed to sell food. You can give it away though in exchange for donations, aha. Other problems include getting the equipment to make refreshments and the union getting all antsy because they sell food too.

Sponsorship

Get the man to pay for everything. Getting a sponsor takes major legwork. Make yourself a sponsorship pack with pictures of you doing events and performances, with a list of where the money will go, and what you're willing to do for it. Send it out to every business you can possibly think of, and then ring them up about it three days later. Eventually one will bite.

Pros - Loads more money than you could make at a bake sale.
Cons - Your union may have policies about who is and isn't allowed to sponsor clubs on campus. You may not be allowed to be sponsored by a local pub or club because they compete with the su bar. Check this out first, and ask whether they have any official sponsorship forms. Other cons include the evil nature of business. Never order anything with their logo on it until the money is in your hands. Do not put company logos on your shells or skirts, as they may not sponsor you next year. Get them on cheap practice tops, and tell the company you wear them more anyway.

Calendars

Get pictures of your lovely selves printed on cheap calendars and then sell them for profit.

Pros - Exposure for the squad and money.
Cons - The possibility of no one buying them and you being left with a debt. Plus you may have to compete against other established sports' teams calendars. It might be a good idea to team up with a bunch of other teams and the profits. If you're going to do one of those calendars which involves you wearing nothing but your poms, beware, this can generate ill feeling from not as hot female sports societies. And never pay a professional photographer to do your photos, get someone from the photography society or equivalent to do them in exchange for beer.

Carwash

Traditional cheer favourite. Make sure you have permission to use the space you are parking the cars, that you have easy access to water and that it's a nice hot day.

Pros - It's just like being in Bring It On!
Cons - Doesn't have a high profit margin unless your uni has a lot of car owning boys with a carwash fantasy, is actually quite difficult to organise and you may accidently ruined the paint job on an expensive car. Good luck.

Carboot sale

Get squad members and friends to donate junk to sell at a local carboot sale.

Pros - Depending on the quality of your donations and your gift of the gab, you can make a reasonable turnover.
Cons - You probably will have to pay for the selling space. There's always Ebay.

Website based schemes

If you don't have a squad website, get one. You can sell advertising space on it. Free sites like Tripod have an Amazon add-on that allows you to make a little money every time some buys something from Amazon buy linking from your page. Get everyone you know to make sure they always redirect from your site if they're going to buy stuff. Also you can set up PayPal on most sites to allow people to buy any merchandise you might want to produce. Remember, most cheer companies don't sell merchandise for adults. Take advantage of the gap in the market by designing your own and selling it to university cheerleaders.

Pros - Be a dot com millionaire!
Cons - Websites need to be maintained.

Cheer for hire

Cheer for a corporate or club event and ask the organisers to make a donation to the squad. If you have a website, you'll probably receive offers like this via email. As always get the money in your hands, or at least a promise of it in writing, before you do anything.

Pros - Gives you a chance to show off your routines before competition.
Cons - Events organisers are incredibly unreliable and sometimes cancel at the last minute. You also have to faff around with getting to the event and back. Also find out what you're insured to do. I strongly recommend going to the venue and checking out the performance area to make sure the ceiling isn't too low etc.

Doing an event at the SU Bar/ local club

Union events are a great way to raise cash. Go to the ents officer/union manager and say you want to do a night. You provide the entertainment and the publicity in return for getting a small percentage of the box office, or whatever the bar makes above the average for that night. Great themes include: Grease Night (hire a kareoke machine and do a Grease Megamix routine), The Prom (everyone comes dressed up and you have a Prom King and Queen competition), Cheese Night (everyone loves a poptastic sound track, and the TomCats got over £100 selling Gouda and Edam at an event like this) and Superhero Night (do a routine with Superman lifts etc). Always have a few cheerios shaking donation buckets on the dancefloor. People are more willing to part with their cash after a few drinks.

Pros - The love and respect of your fellow students who attended your fabulous night.
Cons - Organisation. Make sure you don't have to cover any of the night's losses.

Sign a cheerleader

Run a competition where the person who manages to sign the most cheerios wins a prize. Advertise the event for a week before hand, then one day have all your cheerios go out in uniform with buckets for donations. Only people who make donations get to sign a cheerleader. This is best done on Freshers Week when people are out and about on campus.

Pros - Getting to know more of the student body.
Cons - Getting to know more of the student body and it trying to get to know yours.

Popcorn

Is your college licensed to show films on its premises? If so, do a screening of Bring It On, or some spirity film and sell popcorn to the audience.

Pros - Great for rainy days.
Cons - Annoying film copyright nonsense. Getting your hands on a projector. And the whole are you allowed to vend foodstuffs issues.