Sports Fundraisers - How To Raise Money for Your Team

Raising money for sports teams is easier than you may think for two reasons: 

1) The community loves to help its young people have something productive to do, and

2) Sports lovers want to support kids playing sports. 

Learning to capitalize on those two groups (the community at large and sports lovers), will help you to earn the money your team needs.

Because the expenses of sports teams are ongoing, it’s important to be careful not to rely on fundraisers that feel like you are asking for donations.  For example, selling candy bars, calendars and other items, while not completely ineffective, can become almost a burden to those who are continually being asked to buy something. 

Another option is to instead rely on one or two big events a year, and then use the more typical fundraisers on a smaller scale to fill in the gaps.  Below are two ideas for annual events that will help to ease the day to day financial and fundraising burden from your team. 

1.        Celebrity Game

You don’t need big name celebrities to make this one a success.  Local news anchors, radio deejays or even popular school teachers are often enough to bring the crowd needed to make a celebrity baseball game or basketball tournament a success.  On game day hold raffles and sell lots of food and soda.  You can ask local businesses to sponsor the event and sell advertising in the program if you offer one.  Since the size of the crowd will determine the success of the event, it will be well worth it to spend some money on advertising. 

2.        Dinner and Auction

Because the community loves to support sports teams, an annual dinner and auction is a great annual event at which big dollars can be earned.  Ask businesses to donate items for the auction.  As with the first idea, it would be wise to do some advertising as the larger the crowd, the more money will be made for your team. Some groups choose to do a silent auction, where the bids are made secretly. Others opt for the live auction in which an auctioneer runs the show while participants outbid each other on the auction floor.  In order for this to be a successful event, a substantial investment of both time and money will be required.  Because this is such a large event with a lot of details to consider, you may want to enlist the help of an event coordinator.  Remember that you will be selling tickets to the event, so if necessary you can use the money from the ticket sales to cover the cost and the auction proceeds can go to the team.  Remember, this is an event that you want people to attend year after year.  For that reason, it’s important that the event be a lot of fun for the participants. By spending a bit more on the event, you can help make sure it is one that the community looks forward to year after year. 

By opting to hold big annual fundraisers, the team will be freed up to concentrate on training and winning instead of having to focus on fundraising all year or all season. Go team!

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