MEMO OF TRANSMITTAL

To: Wyatt Pettyjohn

From: Mathew Donnelly
Date: March 7th 2016
Subject: Recommendation Report on fundraising tactics for Cal Poly DOTA2

Attached is a recommendation report detailing possible fundraising options for Cal Poly DOTA2
Club. The purpose of this report is to inform Cal Poly DOTA2 Club on tactics they may employ in
order to increase the funds available for club events.
Recommendation
There were two main options investigated in this report. The first of which was broken into two
sub-options. They are as follows:

Sell club T-shirts through a teespring.com campaign.

Order and sell club T-shirts through Leftcoastprinting.
Host a stream event through twitch and ask for donations.

Methods
In order to create an informed opinions I utilized the following research methods:

An interview with Wyatt Pettyjohn

An interview with Daniel Paje
A poll of the Cal Poly DOTA2 Club members
Teesprings website
Leftcoasts website

Findings
The data collected can be found under the RESULTS section and a detailed analysis of ech
option can be found within the CONCLUSION section.
Final Recommendation
I recommend that Cal Poly DOTA2 create a campaign through teespring in order to sell shirts to
club members. This method will be by far the easiest to execute and if repeated every year
should give the club the funds it needs to continue to operate and even expand.

RECOMMENDATION REPORT
Fundraising options for Cal Poly DOTA2 Club

Prepared by: Mathew Donnelly

Prepared for: Wyatt Pettyjohn

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..1
BACKGROUND.1
METHODS2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Interview with Wyatt Pettyjohn.2

Interview with Daniel Paje.2
Poll of Cal Poly DOTA2 members on interest of club T-shirts2
Teespring.com.2
Leftcoast.com..2

RESULTS..2-3
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Interview with Wyatt Pettyjohn.2

Interview with Daniel Paje.2
Poll of Cal Poly DOTA2 members on interest of club T-shirts2
Teespring.com.3
Leftcoast.com..3

CONCLUSION3
1.
2.
3.
4.

Teespring3
Leftcoast.4
Stream event4
Summary.5

RECOMMENDATION5
REFERENCES..6
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Teesprings t-shirt design web page.4

INTRODUCTION
When I entered Cal Poly as a freshman back in 2014, I was fortunate to find an exciting and
active club for one of my favorite games. Cal Poly Dota2 is a moderately sized but tight
community that continues to grow every year thanks to the boards dedication and
commitment to its members to make all events as exciting and friendly as possible. With events
almost every other week including quarterly LAN1 events, Viewing Parties, in-house
tournaments, and general hangouts, the increased club population has caused the supplied
$500 per school year budget to be spread thinner[1]. To insure that Cal Poly Dota2 can keep up
the quality of its events as well as expand into new and greater ideas, the clubs budget must
expand as well. Ive made so many great friends through my involvement as a Board Member
for Cal Poly Dota2 and I want to ensure that incoming freshman can experience the same great
community as I have. In this research document I will explore the options of creating and selling
club T-shirts to members through different printers and services, evaluating each on speed,
ease of use, and of course profit margins. I will also explore the possibilities of potential
corporate sponsorship for free supplies for events as well as the possibility of promotional
events such as a 24 hour stream in which donations would be accepted.

BACKGROUND
Cal Poly Dota2 has not just now realized the need for additional funds; there have been
attempts at budgeting and fundraising previously. One such attempt at fundraising was through
the partnership of a local frozen yogurt shop. The deal was that on a certain day, any customer
that mentioned our club had 20% of their purchase go to the clubs funds. However, one catch
of the deal was that we had to create and distribute flyers for the event ourselves, giving us an
initial deficit. On the day, we had about 16 club members purchase yogurt, resulting in about
$20 of funds, much lower than the cost of the flyers. In the end the event was a success as just
a club hangout, however in terms of funds it was a net loss[1].
Cal Poly Dota2 has also made attempts at just budgeting events by reducing the amount spent
on prizes for LANs and food. One tactic that has helped us reduce costs has been charging for
food at our Viewing Parties. While this is usually a small amount to help us get close to breaking
even, it usually reduces the attendance. Cal Poly Dota2 wants to make its events fun and
exciting for everyone so making sure our events stay free is a big part of ensuring a strong and
growing community. With a growing community, food costs for the club have increased due to
the quantity so budget cuts have had to be made in other areas such as LAN prizes. With our
LANs being the main event of each quarter, we want to make each event as great as it can be;
however a reduced budget means we need to pull back on our raffle prizes when wed like to
be expanding and making each event greater than the last. Currently our raffle prizes mostly
consist of items donated by our board members with only one or two big items purchased
through club funds such as Mice and Headsets [2].
1

A LAN(Local Area Network) event is an event where participants bring their computers and play games all in one
area instead of over the internet.

METHODS
In order to learn more about the current state of Cal Poly DOTA2s finances I talked to my fellow
board members Wyatt Pettyjohn and Daniel Paje, both more senior members than myself,
about how budgeting has been handled in the past and what options have already been
explored. I also posted a poll on the Cal Poly DOTA2 Facebook page to gauge interest about
club T-shirts, then I explored the options of companies through which to provide club T-Shirts.
1. INTERVIEW
a. Interview with Wyatt Pettyjohn, President of Cal Poly DOTA2 on 27/2
b. Interview with Daniel Paje, Secretary of Cal Poly DOTA2 on 28/2
2. POLL
a. Poll of Cal Poly DOTA2 members on interest of club T-Shirts.
3. WEBSITE
a. Leftcoastprinting.com
b. Teespring.com

RESULTS
6. INTERVIEW
a. Interview with Wyatt Pettyjohn, President of Cal Poly DOTA2 on 27/2
i. Discussed the current funding state of Cal Poly DOTA2, confirmed the
budget as 500$ per school year.
ii. The approximate costs of LANs are about 200$, with approximately
130$ going towards food provided at the event and the remaining
going towards prizes for winners of the raffles and the tournament
itself.
iii. One more LAN confirmed for spring quarter for an undetermined
date, as well as other various events with yet undetermined costs,
quantity, and dates.
b. Interview with Daniel Paje, Secretary of Cal Poly DOTA2 on 28/2
i. Red Bull can be contacted to provide free Red Bull for LAN events as
long as they are advertised in event promotional material.
ii. Club membership fees of 20$-30$ have been largely successful for
other clubs such as the Cal Poly League of Legends club; however it
has created a small percentage of event participation.
7. POLL
a. Poll of Cal Poly DOTA2 members on interest of club T-shirts.
i. 40 out of 41 club members who responded to the poll said that they
would indeed be interested in purchasing a Cal Poly DOTA2 club Tshirt.
2

WEBSITE
b. Leftcoastprinting.com
i. Orders must be placed in person and prices not displayed.
ii. Hundreds of options for type of shirt and shirt design assistance
provided with order.
iii.
c. Teespring.com
i. A front and back two color design would cost about 10-12 dollars
depending on the size, quantity ordered, and complexity of the
design.
ii. Shirts can be purchased easily through the website and will be
shipped directly to purchaser.
iii. Shirts will be printed and shipped all at once and without going
through the Cal Poly DOTA2 Club Board, leaving no middle man or red
period.

CONCLUSION
In order to solve Cal Poly DOTA2s budgeting issues, I looked into two main options; the sale of
club T-Shirts and a 24-hour stream event. For the sale of T-Shirts, I looked into which companies
to work with using the criteria of price, ease of use for the club board, ease of use for club
members to purchase shirts, quality of shirts and print, and freedom of design.
Teespring

The first T-Shirt printing company I looked at was Teespring. Teespring is very easy to
use for both board members and club members. On their website you can upload your images,
create your design, set your price, and then sell through them with just a link. Teesprings
online platform makes it extremely easy to create and sell, club members can access a page
created and place orders directly through Teespring, and after a set amount of shirts have been
sold or time has passed, they will print and ship, giving the profit of our set price straight to our
account. Having no opportunity cost of investment means the club can continue to fire on all
cylinders and simultaneously invest in other fundraising options. It also reduces any risk of
investment by only printing however many are ordered, removing the possibility of being stuck
with large inventory. However, Teespring does have a smaller selection of shirts to pick from
and its price of about twelve dollars per shirt isnt exactly cheap [4].

Figure 1: Teesprings t-shirt design web page

Leftcoastprinting
Another shirt printing company I looked was a local company, Leftcoastprinting.
Leftcoast has the largest selection of shirts and offered free local delivery, however orders had
to be placed in person at their offices. Leftcoast does not place prices on their website; a design
must be submitted before they can give a price estimate. Based off of their special
advertisement where they offer 48 shirts with one color front and back for 8.00$ each, 40 shirts
with 2 color front and back will cost significantly more as it is not on special, lower quantity, and
more complex design. Overall, Leftcoast presents a lot more hoops to jump through in order to
create T-shirts. And without a design and a serious inquiry, it is unknown if they would even be
a cheaper option. Based off of their advertisements it appears that prices to teespring would be
rather comparable and if they are indeed cheaper it seems by not significant enough to
outweigh the hassle [5].
Stream Event
Besides T-shirt printing, a 24-hour stream where donations are encouraged was another
option investigated. Streaming events have been common practice on Twitch.tv for quite some
time, often for some sort of charity. While events like these have been fairly successful for
other organizations in the past they had many advantages that Cal Poly DOTA2 does not have.
The first disadvantage is the lack of an established viewer base. Without having provided
content before, there is no initial audience for the stream. Nearly all viewers would have to be
walk ins who saw advertisement for the event on social sites such as reddit or referred by
club members. Secondly, the amount of effort involved. Planning and managing an event with
many community members takes a lot of man power for the Club Board. While it may be
difficult to run a profit from a 24-hour stream, it could very well be a fun community event, and
while viewer base may be initially quite small, a quarterly or yearly event could eventually grow
larger and become easier to run, turning into a profitable event.
4

Summary
As for the sale of shirts, Teespring offers the easiest use and avoids any possibility of a
stock of inventory by having all orders go through them. Eliminating any management by club
board besides setting up the page can allow for further investigation of other fundraising
possibilities. No opportunity cost also eliminates the possibility of having a lack of funds during
the period of production, ensuring that all currently planned events can still happen. A 24-hour
stream charity event could be run in tandem with the Teespring campaign; however the
likelihood to turn any sort of profit on the first iteration is small. As an investment, it is rather
risky with a slow turnaround, certainly not an immediate answer to the clubs budget issues.
RECOMMENDATION
I recommend that Cal Poly DOTA2 create a t-shirt campaign through Teespring. Every year a
new shirt design can be sold for approximately 250$-300$ of profit, ensuring that events can
continue to run at the quality expected and expand into new possibilities of club events. Cal
Poly DOTA2 should also begin establishing itself as a brand by creating a unified twitch.tv
channel where club members can create and share content so that an audience can start being
established for events such as a fundraising 24-hour stream.

References
[1]W. Pettyjohn, "Interview with Wyatt Pettyjohn, Club President", San Luis Obispo, CA, 2016.
[2]D. Paje, "Interview with Daniel Paje, Club Secretary", San Luis Obispo, CA, 2016.
[3]"Interest in purchasing Club T-shirts", 2016.
[4]"Teespring - The best way to sell custom shirts on the Internet!", Teespring, 2016. [Online].
Available: https://teespring.com/. [Accessed: 25- Feb- 2016].
[5]"Left Coast T-Shirt Co, San Luis Obispo, Screenprinting, Embroidery, Promotional
Products",Leftcoast.com, 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.leftcoast.com/. [Accessed:
25- Feb- 2016].