A sports team will rack up the expenses quickly. Therefore, the need to fundraise will come up from time to time. A sports team is like an institution, so it requires money to run its programs.
Mostly, sports teams need money for the following needs:
- Buy new uniform for the team
- To buy new gear and equipment
- To fund sign-ups for tournaments
- To be able to offer sports scholarships
- To fund the team’s travel needs
- Many others
Luckily, there are as many fundraising ideas as there are needs. Therefore, whether you are a coach, a player or an interested party, you can benefit from some of the top 12 baseball fundraising ideas that we will share here. These ideas can be used to fundraise for any sport.
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1.) Look For Sponsorships From Local Businesses
This is the age-old method that has been used by many teams to raise money. It will require you to have good cajoling skills, but hey, if you approach local businesses, they will agree.
Sponsoring a local team not only feels patriotic, but they feel they are getting something for their money. When you are requesting sponsorships, you must offer something.
You can try several things. One of them is to offer to have the name of the business on the jerseys of the team, if that is allowed.
You can also offer to sell them a banner space on the team’s website, on the page that gets most traffic.
But jerseys and online placement are not the only options. You can even offer to give the business a sponsor shoutout during the match break.
Many local sponsors cannot resist that kind of brand promotion, in a stadium full of people.
Be sure to offer different levels of sponsorship with the business that is offering the most getting the most. Also, this encourages small businesses to fun your team because you might have a level that fits their budget.
2.) Selling Team Merchandise
Like looking for sponsorship, even the selling merchandise method really works because people feel they are getting something for their money.
You can make selling the team merchandise a continuous, rather than a one-off process. That way, you will not be caught by events without money.
Create a strong social media presence and run your fundraising campaigns from there. For this, you will need to go heavy on good pictures and videos.
When the team is playing, that is the perfect day to sell the merchandise. Americans love their sports and most are ready to support such initiatives.
The only disadvantage with this method is that you have to approach it like a business. You must spend money to print or embroider your merchandise. Some things you can print and sell include:
- T-shirts and jerseys
- Mugs
- Bags
- Hats
- Hoods
- Bats, or other sports related merchandise
You can try to negotiate the printing price with the team that is going to do the job. If you are contracting a local printing shop, ask them whether they can do it for free for charity. Thy can tell you yes, or no, or offer a discount.
3.) Do Something For The Community
Get the team to go all out and offer the local community something in return. Most people are willing to give towards the support of the local teams. They just need you to show a good initiative and they will surprise you.
Think what the team can do for the community as a whole. If it is possible to do something noticeable such as a cleaning drive at the local park or knowing lawns, people can give their money easily.
You may even organize car wash days, where you get to wash people’s cars for a fee. Most people have no problem with this because they would have had their car washed anyway.
4.) Discount Nights At The Local Eatery
For this deal to go through, the restaurant has to agree. This is a good deal for the restaurant and the people you hope to raise money from.
Generally, the restaurant agrees to let the team invite their family, friends and other people to eat and pay.
The restaurant then agrees to sponsor the team with a certain percentage from what every person pays during that night.
This kind of deal works out best for all people on the slow nights, when the restaurant experiences slow business.
The team should go all out to invite their families to come eat and pay to support them. They should disclose that this is a charity drive, but they are asking you to go, eat and pay, and a percentage of your bill goes to the team’s kitty.
This is hard to resist because either way, these people would still have eaten food anyway, only that this time, you are requesting them to eat at a given place for charity.
5.) Go All Out And Solicit For Funds Directly
Let the players and the supporting staff sit down, list down all of their family members, friends and extended relatives.
They can then go all out and compose text messages, asking for support towards their baseball, hockey, football, basketball, or handball team.
At least, here, you know that the message got to the intended recipient. Most people who get this message respond within the day, with most sending whatever amount of money they can afford right away.
This is one of the most effective ways of raising for funds, and it often works when you need to raise money fast.
6.) Sell Sports Photos To The Team
This is like having the sports team buy its own photos. However, it is their parents who will be doing the buying.
This should be a continuous process. Every event that the team participates in should be documented in high quality pictures. Later, when you need to raise funds, ask the team members to sell the photos to their parents.
Every parent would like to see his or her child in action, so this method works very well. Ensure the photos are of high quality to make them worth their while.
7.) “Punish” The Coach
Fundraising can be a lot of fun if you are daring enough to try many ideas. One of the most thrilling ideas that never seems to go out of fashion is punishing the coach.
Here, you can play dirty with the coach if the price is right. It does not need to be something extreme.
Make it something like pie on the face, or dunking him in a tank of water several times. Sometimes, the audience can choose the kind of “punishment” that they want to pay for.
8.) Crowdfund Online
As the name suggests, here, you are going to ask the crowd to contribute towards your campaign.
To do this, join a crowdfunding site, create a page with a good background story, explaining why you need the funds.
Include a few, high quality pictures of your team in action. When the page is ready, encourage everyone, including people outside the team, to share it widely on different social media networks.
Summary
Today, there are more than 100 ways to raise money for a sports team. As the coach, you will need to try several of them. Even if your team has good funding, reaching out is better so that you can initiate many programs.
To get funds fast, try the sourcing ideas where you give people something in exchange for money.
For instance, if you deploy the whole team to go and mow the lawns around for a fee, they will come back with money.
Most people are willing to give money, even for the smallest service. They feel that they are paying for something, but they will always go overboard and donate more than needed.
