Chief deputy district attorney Jeff Rosell announced Oct. 28 that unless additional information is forthcoming, no charges will be filed.

“We recently received follow-up investigation by Scotts Valley Police. Unfortunately, there is still insufficient evidence to determine who is responsible for the theft,” he said.

Both Scotts Valley Police and the D.A.’s office had been cautious about their chances of prosecuting a suspect. Although police confirmed the investigation named a single individual, no name was released.

The evidence is circumstantial and faces a high burden of proof, attorneys warned previously.

The stolen money — about $13,500 in cash and $12,000 in checks — was raised by the Harbor High football team over the summer and was being held by the team’s coach in his office when it was taken from his locked desk in late August just as school began. The coach was eliminated as a suspect after passing a lie detector test, Scotts Valley Police earlier confirmed.

Nothing else was taken or disturbed in the office.

The loss is covered by the Santa Cruz City School District’s insurance policy, district officials have said.

During challenging economic times like these, successful fundraising is vitally important because it gives athletes the resources they need to achieve their goals.

Here are some costly mistakes that doom most fundraising campaigns:

MISTAKE #1: Asking your athletes to sell products or services

Expect dismal profits and a lot of aggravation if you select a fundraiser that requires your athletes to sell products or services. Why? Athletes HATE selling stuff. They find it time-consuming and uncomfortable.

Selling is challenging even for trained professionals with years of experience. For student-athletes, it is nearly impossible, and very few reach their sales goals. Some athletes succeed, but the majority will fail.

Avoid selling if you want to have a profitable fundraiser. It has caused more campaign failures than anything else.

MISTAKE #2: Letting a fundraising company take 50% or more of YOUR money!

The magazine publishers, cookie companies, and candle makers love to turn your athletes into a sales force for their products and they get to keep half of the collections. What a great deal … for them!

Can you imagine collecting $5,000 and then dumping $2,500 of it in the trash?

Also, don’t be fooled by promotional sales pitches that promise you’ll “earn up to 90% or more,” because that usually requires your athletes to make an unrealistic quantity of sales. Make sure to read the fine print. Any offer that sounds too good to be true usually is.

Remember, the total amount of money you collect at the end of the campaign is a meaningless number. The more important number, and the one you should always focus on, is the amount of profit you will keep after paying all expenses. Aim for profit margins of 65% or more.

MISTAKE #3 Asking supporters for less than $20

Before you select a fundraiser, do the math and you’ll quickly see that you are wasting a great opportunity to maximize profits when you collect less than $20.

Simply work backwards from your goal and it will be clear that the huge quantity of low dollar amount transactions makes it nearly impossible to succeed.

For example, if your team of 15 athletes needs $2,000, you would need to sell 4,000 candy bars for $1 each – amounting to 267 sales per athlete. Likewise the same amount would require 333 car washes at $6 each, equaling 22 cars per athlete. It’s not happening!

It’s a common mistake: a family friend – who would be happy to donate $50 or more to your cause – buys a $5 raffle ticket and your team loses out on earning an easy $45 extra.

MISTAKE #4: Organizing multiple fundraisers during the same season

This approach never works: selling cheesecakes in January, holding an auction in February, hosting a bake sale in March, selling Easter baskets in April, canning spare change at the mall in May, and so on.

Too much time spent fundraising wears everyone out. Each fundraiser does worse than the one before because coaches, parents, and athletes run out of time, patience, and enthusiasm. We call it “fundraising fatigue.”

Instead, focus on a concentrated effort to accomplish your goal in one shot that takes hours instead of days, weeks or months.

People work much harder and with more energy when they know that a fundraiser will be completed quickly. You’ll find that everyone is supportive and more productive. One quick and profitable campaign per year allows you and your athletes to concentrate on their schoolwork and winning games, not on becoming fundraising professionals.

MISTAKE #5: Allowing fundraising participation to be optional

Don’t be a fundraising wimp! If you’re taking a team trip or purchasing equipment, every one of your athletes is going to benefit. So, why would you allow participation in your fundraiser to be optional?

Equal participation should be a requirement. On every team, there are always some athletes who refuse to pull their weight or parents who don’t want their children to contribute. When this happens, your response should be the same as it is when an athlete announces he or she won’t practice, but still expects to play in the game.

Coaches who demand full participation – and require that every athlete give his or her best effort in competition and in fundraising – always get the best results too. Coaches who present a fundraiser as an optional project and without any importance usually fail miserably.

MISTAKE #6: Taking on too much financial risk

Avoid any fundraiser that requires you to pre-pay the full amount due for products or that heavily penalizes you if you fail to reach your sales goal. Be sure to ask yourself, “How much will we owe the fundraising company if we fail to reach our goal?”

Too many coaches pre-purchase food (candy, cheesecakes, donuts, hotdogs, etc.) or custom print their team’s logo on products (sweatshirts, hats, bumper stickers, etc.) only to discover that the unsold items cannot be returned for a full credit.

Your fundraising company should invest in your success, not hinder it.

MISTAKE #7: Neglecting the strong connection athletes share with their supporters

Selling to strangers is always a mistake. An athlete’s family friends, relatives, and adult personal contacts are much more likely to contribute — and contribute in higher amounts — to your campaign than a random person or business.

In conclusion, the most important question to ask when selecting a fundraiser is Which project will generate the largest profit with the fewest transaction in the shortest time?

Do not make your selection process any more complicated than that. I am available to assist you with you and help make your next fundraiser a huge success. Contact me anytime!

updated 10:20 a.m. PT, Tues., Aug 4, 2009

Wade Payne / AP

Watching your child play soccer may be priceless, but in David Haase’s case, he must pony up at least $135 so his 11-year-old daughter Morgan can play at her public school in Knoxville, Tenn.

Soccer is good exercise, good for developing coordination and just good fun, but if David Haase wants his sixth-grader to play it at school, he’ll have to come up with $135 to make it happen.

What will he get for his money? The use of a uniform for 11-year-old Morgan, and the privilege for her to attend practice. He must also supply a ball, cleats and shin guards if she wants to join the team at Karns Middle School in Knoxville, Tenn.

“It may get expensive, but I would rather give up something myself than I would give up something for our child,” he said. “Those school activities are so important to a child’s growth.”

While parents have always had to pay for private piano lessons and cough up Little League fees, such pay-to-participate and pay-to-play charges imposed by public schools around the country are on the rise, often as a worst-case alternative to canceling activities altogether in the bad economy.

The practice has gone up and down since the recession-tainted 1970s. A 2004 USA Today survey found 34 state high school associations required participation fees. Now, dozens of cash-strapped school districts are relying on them to supplement squeezed budgets and fatigued PTAs.

$50 for this, $100 for that
In May, the board of education in Hartford, Conn., approved a budget that relies on parents paying $100 in participation fees, with a $200 yearly cap and a family cap of $400. In Manchester, N.H., schools are considering charging parents $50 to $100 for extracurricular activities per child.

Parents in Richmond Heights, Ohio, may have to pay up to $1,000 in fees next school year. It will cost $350 for a student to participate in a sport, band, choir or cheerleading. The charge for other activities, including the National Honor Society, will be $100.

Wade Payne / AP Sixth-grader Morgan Haase loves to play soccer. Before she can join the team at her public school in Knoxville, Tenn., her dad must supply a ball, cleats and shin guards.

Robert Kanaby, director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which counts more than 7.3 million participants in school sports around the country, said the trend is disturbing but still better than the alternative — dumping athletics and other activities for lack of money.

“The educational value in school sports in incredible,” he said. “We believe it’s an important part of growing and maturing.”

Others in school athletics agree, but they said fees in schools not only sting parents. They put coaches and kids in tough spots, too.

Jerry Snodgrass, an assistant commissioner for the Ohio High School Athletic Association and the former athletic director at Findlay High School, where Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger played, posed this predicament: If a benched student pays to be on the team, should he or she be guaranteed significant game time over starters?

“Your mindset may become, I’m an eighth man on a team, I’m not going to play that much so what’s the point?” Snodgrass said. “Schools can really struggle with their numbers.”

Bake sales, jewelry sales, walkathons
Some parents have banded together for a slightly different approach to paying fees per child or per family.

Last year, parents in the Wantagh school district on New York’s Long Island mobilized under a threat to cut extracurricular activities. A dad, Don Desroches, led the charge, raising more than $650,000 for sports, music and drama. The fundraising took a few months and included endless bake sales, walkathons and jewelry sales. As a result, the activities stayed.

“You name it, we did it,” Desroches said. “We really had no other choice.”

When the budget passed this year, there was no threat of cancellation, Desroches said.

Relying on parents in bad economic times sometimes becomes the norm in a school as families resign themselves to paying extra year after year, Kanaby said.

“In some situations schools are charging students to participate regardless, a practice that’s accepted … from class to class and generation to generation,” he said.

That’s what happened at Karns Middle School, said Haase, who mentors student athletes at the University of Tennessee. The soccer fee was in place at Morgan’s school when he moved to the area years ago from New York, and parents have accepted it as part of life, he said.

“I think a lot of parents have just gotten so accustomed to it,” Haase said. “You’re going to pay for it and you’ll make the sacrifices of other things, in some other area.”

For Morgan, it means the chance to play sixth grade soccer and hone her midfielding skills.

“She really loves to play,” Haase said. “And that’s important.”

Fundraise At Your Sports Games and Events
Have you ever thought about selling products in the stands during games, tournaments, and other events? The reason this works is because since there is high foot traffic at these events you have a great opportunity to get people to support the team. Another benefit is you can raise more in less time. A lot of groups use this strategy every year and change out the product each year to have a variety. Supporters look what is being sold at each game and event. For example: sell customized sport bracelets in your team colors at your games, tournaments and all season long.(http://www.fasttrackfundraising.com/silicone-awareness-bracelet-fundraiser.php) This sports fundraising idea shouldn’t be overlooked, as it could make or break your sports fundraising goal.

Tue Jul 21, 2009, 05:41 PM EDT

Bridgewater – Middle school sports have fallen victim to the Bridgewater-Raynham regional school district’s budget crisis.

The budget finalized by the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee on July 15 eliminates all district-sponsored middle school sports in both towns, school board member Gordon Luciano said.

“Some tough decisions had to be made. There’s a dramatic downside to the cuts,” Luciano said.

Last year, both middle schools offered basketball, soccer and baseball. All three have been eliminated.

The district charged students users’ fees, but they didn’t “come close to covering the cost” of the program, Luciano said. Expenses include transportation, equipment and stipends for coaches.

School Committee member Stephen M. Donohue said the district will save a total of $60,000 by eliminating the program in both towns.

Elaine Watson of Bridgewater, who coaches soccer at the middle school, asked if there is any possibility of allowing the program to continue if it could be self-funded through users’ fees and fundraising.

Middle school sports were eliminated in 2004 during a previous budget crisis, he said.

That time around, parents groups hosted fundraisers to keep the program afloat. The next year, the school district restored funding.

“The feedback is it was an overwhelming undertaking and beyond the capability of volunteers for more than a year,” Luciano said.

He said the district would still sign the contracts with coaches and be the official sponsor and would be on the line for the cost of the program if the fundraising efforts fell short.

Detroit’s All-Star outfielder, who scored the winning run in last week’s All-Star Game, will become a wine taster for the evening, welcoming teammates Edwin Jackson and Ryan Perry for a Passport to the Wines of the World this Thursday at Big Rock Chophouse/The Reserve in Birmingham.

The event will feature over 300 wines from five continents, including local wines from the Detroit area and the state of Michigan, as well as a silent auction of sports memorabilia, wine and entertainment package. The evening includes a bachelor auction, where the highest bid will win an elegant dinner for two with Granderson, Jackson or Perry.

Noted young comic Jeff Dye, third-place finisher in last year’s edition of NBC’s Last Comic Standing, will perform a standup set and serve as the auctioneer. The Seattle native won the 10th annual Giggles Laff Off in his hometown last year and has performed in the Just for Laughs Festival the last two years, including this year in Chicago. His comedy is clean but has been described as charmingly twisted.

“I am really excited to have Jeff come out and perform at this event,” Granderson said last week. “I am positive that all in attendance will enjoy Jeff’s comedic style and he will add a great energy to the evening. Plus, he is a big baseball fan, albeit for the Mariners.”

The festivities begin with a VIP reception hosted by Granderson, beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET. A 7 p.m. champagne toast precedes the main event at 7:30 p.m. The bachelor auction will start at 8:45 p.m.

Proceeds from the evening will benefit the Grand Kids Foundation, which helps students and schools in Michigan’s inner cities by purchasing school supplies and books, establishing baseball programs, providing equipment and helping improve facilities.

Tickets for Passport to the Wines of the World run $85 for general admission and $135 for a VIP package, which includes admission to the VIP reception as well as special VIP wines and a souvenir wine glass. Members of the Detroit Wine Organization receive a $10 discount on both VIP and general admission tickets. Membership is free at detroitwine.org.

For more information or to purchase tickets, log onto curtisgranderson.com/passport.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

The organization will roll out its familiar red kettles and bell ringers for the campaign, which it’s calling Christmas in July.

Volunteers, and in some cases mascots from local sports teams, will be manning the kettles at numerous locations in Center City Philadelphia every Wednesday next month.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/06/29/daily14.html

The state-of-the-art facility will provide varied opportunities for study, sports and play. The 6-to-10 p.m. fundraiser will feature musical entertainment from 2009 American Idol contestant and Brentwood resident Ashley Mendez, a putting contest and food from Brentwood Fine Meats.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12704346