Sports play an essential role in a well-rounded education. However, athletic programs require funding. While some of that funding is obtained through various fees paid by students and their parents, those fees may not be enough to cover all of the program’s needs. That’s where fundraising comes in.
Fundraising is a great way to raise money for your sports team. It’s not without its challenges, though. Fortunately, SuccessFund is designed to help with some of the common fundraising pain points like getting the fundraiser approved, sharing it, collecting payments, and tracking results. Some fundraisers work especially well with SuccessFund. Continue reading to learn more about different fundraising ideas for sports teams.
Car washes are great warm weather fundraisers, making them perfect for fundraising efforts happening from late spring through early fall. You can quickly raise a lot of money for your team while incurring minimal costs (soap, water, sponges, buckets, and towels tend to be pretty inexpensive). A car wash fundraiser is a perfect way to get the members of your team working together and bonding while having a good time. It also gets them interacting with community members, which can garner goodwill that may lead to even greater support later on.
But, how should you price it? It’s tough to find a good price point that encourages people to contribute, but also doesn’t keep the more generous individuals from donating as much as they would like to. Want to maximize your donations? Make your car wash free and let people donate whatever they feel like.
You may be thinking, is that a good idea? While some people will certainly take advantage of the opportunity for a free car wash and come through without paying a dime, those who do donate will probably more than make up for those who don’t. Allowing people to donate whatever amount they wish takes advantage of a well-researched psychological principle called reciprocity: people don’t like feeling in debt to someone else’s generosity. In other words, people will donate! SuccessFund makes it easy to donate whatever amount your supporters feel like at any point during your fundraiser. So, feel free to start collecting donations a couple of weeks in advance if you want.
Food-based sports fundraisers are pretty popular options–everyone needs to eat, after all. Common examples include big bags of Idaho potatoes, chocolate bars, and Krispy Kreme donuts. You can even sell concessions at events as a fundraiser.
SuccessFund makes it easy to do this by letting you set prices, quantities, and variations in the products you sell. Those who buy from you will pay a $1.00 convenience fee at checkout and receive an emailed receipt. Payment is easy, thanks to SuccessFund’s ability to accept modern payment methods, including Venmo. Just make sure whatever you’re selling is in line with your district and SuccessFund policies, and that it follows local, state, and federal law.
As a sports team, you’re attending games, tournaments, meetings, etc. You can easily turn those into fundraising opportunities with SuccessFund. Sell tickets in advance or at the door.
If you’re running an event like a competition or a tournament that requires registration to enter, you can sell that through SuccessFund as well, along with any other event products. Not only can you sell through SuccessFund, but you can also spread the word easily through text with a link that takes people to your page to make their purchases.
Events offer businesses an opportunity to market themselves while showing their support for their local community. Ask local businesses to sponsor your group or purchase banners that you can hang at your event. You get monetary support and the business gets the opportunity to advertise locally, as well as showcase their goodwill. It’s a win all around!
Whatever sort of event-related fundraiser you choose to do, SuccessFund makes it easy to track sales. That way you can easily provide a list of orders to providers for sponsorship products. You can also easily give students credit for the donations they bring in. Simply add a leaderboard with a list of student names and tell your supporters to choose the appropriate name.
Have you ever considered simply asking people to donate money to your fundraiser? This is called a no-fuss fundraiser, and it’s a great alternative to selling goods or services that people may or may not want. Plenty of people prefer the simplicity of donating money and being done with it, rather than waiting for a good to be delivered or a service to be rendered.
As an added benefit, no-fuss fundraisers let the program running the fundraiser pocket even more of the donated funds; after all, with a no-fuss fundraiser, there is no need to rent out a space or purchase supplies. When running a no-fuss fundraiser, resist the temptation to suggest a donation amount. It may seem like a good idea to encourage a minimum donation amount, but doing so may backfire and cause people to donate less than they otherwise would. Let them surprise you with their generosity instead.
Running a different type of fundraiser, like a bake sale or car wash, but still want to accept no-fuss donations? SuccessFund keeps a donation button on your page for this exact purpose, no matter what the fundraiser is. That way, if members of the community cannot attend the event or do not wish to purchase your goods or services, they can donate straight to your cause instead.
Not all types of fundraisers can be fully and completely supported with SuccessFund, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still benefit from using SuccessFund. Take an auction fundraiser for example. SuccessFund doesn’t manage the bidding process, but it can be used to collect the winning bid once one has been made.
Similarly, if you were to run a pledge fundraiser, you wouldn’t be able to use SuccessFund to track and aggregate pledges. You could, however, use SuccessFund to process payments once an amount has been determined based on whatever variable outcome you are using. In this way, SuccessFund doesn’t fully integrate with fundraisers like auctions or pledges, but it is still a great tool that organizers of such fundraisers can use to great effect.
SuccessFund is designed to make fundraising for sports so much easier at every step of the way. It doesn’t matter what sort of fundraiser you choose: most fundraisers can be supported by SuccessFund in some fashion. You’ll love how easy it is to get approved, raise funds, and track results–so much so that you’ll never want to do it any other way again!
Are you ready to begin fundraising for your sports team? Click here to create your account and start using SuccessFund for your sports fundraising efforts today!
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