So… this is something simple, but still something I sorta need to fill in. Basically, I got a story involving a group of cheerleaders trying to raise funds for some charity cause. Issue is… what cause? I’m not so well informed on either field, so whatever suggestions you may have that think may be interesting are totally welcome. Please and thank you.
Is there a cause one of your cheerleader cares a great deal about? Many lives have been affected by cancer, or other diseases. Or maybe, depending upon where they live, it could be a charity that deals with homelessness or poverty. This could be something that directly concerns them, OR could be something that doesn't affect them at all. If they come from rich families, it could be seen as an attempt either to understand and empathise with folks less fortunate, OR simply as a 'do-gooder-brownie-point' exercise—the cheerleader equivalent of the beauty contestant's wish for "World Peace." Perhaps this charity work might eventually promote real understanding, though? I'd say don't just choose a charity at random. Make the choice relevant to the story you're telling.
It depends on how important the event and reason for the particular charity is to your story. If it's just a mechanism for having the group come together to work on something, it could really be anything. It could be raising funds for the cheerleaders to travel to a national competition, or it could be to get new computers in the school library or something. If there was a teacher or student who died from an illness or a drug overdose or a drunk driving accident or something, they could raise funds for that. Or for a scholarship in that person's name -- maybe a longtime teacher who retired might have a scholarship in their name for a student or something. Or it could be for an after-school program for poor kids, or a food bank. Is the crux of your story related to getting people to rally around a particular cause or to show that a cause is particularly important? Or is it related more to getting this group of characters to interact, and the focus is more on an unrelated issue?
for cheerleaders, something close to home would make more sense than a national or international charity... such as: an injured/ill member of their sports team or other classmate/teacher a local family whose home burned down local homeless/battered women's shelter local child needing costly medical treatment something the school or team needs badly but can't afford disaster relief if local area suffered a flood/tornado/brushfire/whatever
I pretty much like mammamaia's battered women's shelter suggestion; mine is for instance fundraising for the blind or deaf people.
Local animal shelter desperately needs new kennels, or extra kennels since that disaster earlier in the year when a lot of pets became homeless (similar to what happened in Katrina).
