Common Sports Fundraising Issues

“Help! How do we get our message out to all teams? We train and compete at different times on different days, sometimes even at different places.”

Go online to get your message out!

Sporting clubs have a real challenge that schools don’t. Unlike the set hours of school, team training and competition take place at different times on different days in different places. You and your enthusiastic volunteers could organise to be at every club training session, handing out flyers, and then hassling to collect orders. In fact, you may need to resort to this ‘in-your-face’ approach but it is time and volunteer intensive… A 21st century way of doing the same job is to go online! Here’s how:

1. On sign-up day make sure the paperwork captures current email addresses of parents (and teens – they’re old enough to do their bit!). This becomes the makings of your database.
2. Establish a web presence for your club. Commit to this website being regularly updated (not just the competition ladder!).
3. Use group emails to send out bulletins and fundraising flyers (don’t forget to use ‘blind copy!).
4. Set up a Facebook page for your group. An executive committee member has the authority to click on ‘Create a page for a celebrity, band or business’. Or you can create a ‘group’ and what’s referred to as an ‘unofficial fan page’.

• Either way, upload your club logo, photos that show your club’s activities in a positive way; even a short video clip.
• Use your database of group members to tell everyone that there’s a FB presence they need to check out.
• Use ‘what’s on your mind?’ as a prompt to provide progress reports – whether it’s a countdown to an event, a reminder to get orders in (or pick them up!), or a call for volunteer help. Every time an update is made, ‘friends’ will get the advice as News Feed.

5. Become a ‘fan’ of your club’s Facebook presence. Thanks to Facebook’s News Feed, friends constantly learn what pages others ‘like’ (to use FB-speak). Curiosity prompts them to take a look – and voila! If they like it, they’ll become a fan too.

 

“Our season’s practically over before it starts. How can we possibly fundraise?”

You’re in luck! Product drives are best run short and focused. There’s a kick-off (or launch), a couple of weeks to drive home the effort and wrap-up. Choosing a direct sales product drive – where the product is in club members’ hands ready for immediate sale – definitely overcomes this concern.

Our families are stretched. What with uniforms and club membership costs, they don’t have money to burn. Focus on selecting a product that may be part of club families’ normal spending and then change where the money is spent, that is, through the club. That way the club’s not asking members to bust their household budget.

For example:

• A family may go to a photographic studio for a Mother’s Day sitting. Instead, organise a photographer at the clubhouse and receive a commission.
• Instead of shopping at the local bookstore, or online, encourage families to order from a fundraising book catalogue.
• Buying water? Don’t go for commercial brands: put your club’s name on customised labels and sell your own vintage H20.

You might also be interested in:

• Fundraising Ideas for Sports Clubs
• Does anyone have advice on running a free breakfast club for students?
• Thanking Volunteers
• How does your P&C manage bookkeeping and inventory?
• Virtual Volunteering