By Claire Frank

As high school students, I think we’re all familiar with CustomInk, the website that allows users to order custom shirts, jackets, hats, water bottles, etc. Many of us have shirts from the company; Tuscarora clubs use the site to order their t-shirts. I have at least four or five. The site is user-friendly and offers a ton of features. They recently added a new one: Booster.

Similar to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Booster is an online fundraising site where organizations can raise money by selling t-shirts. Since it’s run by CustomInk, the shirts are individual to each cause.

Groups create a shirt design and upload it to their own Booster page. They set the price the shirts will be sold at (ranging between $15 and $35), a minimum number of shirts they want to sell, and a deadline for when the campaign ends. After the details are ironed out, the groups advertise their campaign. Once the campaign ends, the organization receives a check and the shirts are either mailed to the group to be distributed or directly to the backers themselves.

The site is used to raise funds for a variety of causes. Scrolling down the featured campaigns page, everything from Help the Philippines to Animal Adoption to Independent Films to cancer awareness was represented. Band shirts were even on the site.

Booster is a great idea for fundraising, especially for clubs. Usually when clubs decide to get shirts, they have to fill out paper order forms with everyone’s sizes and manually input the information. That process is time consuming, and mistakes can be made. Booster cuts out all of that work by having each member insert their size and address; the club doesn’t have to distribute, and size mistakes won’t happen. The information can be easily shared via Facebook or links can be emailed.

Website link: http://www.customink.com/fundraising/group-fundraisers