From promoting physical activity to learning how to overcome challenges, there are so many benefits to organized sports. However, running a quality sports program can put a major drain on finances. Between expenses like equipment, uniforms, and travel, costs add up rather quickly. What’s more is that with budget constraints, team funding at schools are increasingly at risk of being cut. The reality is that sports teams rely on fundraising more than ever to keep their programs afloat.
Luckily, when fundraising for team sports, there’s an idea for every team, whether you’re an athlete, a coach, or an enthusiastic fan.
Fundraising For Teams – The Power of “Together”
Fundraising for teams gives you a perfect opportunity to take advantage of an already bonded group. These teams can strengthen their group identity by doing something good together, and since they already function as a team on the field, they make a natural fit for team fundraising.
How Does Fundraising for Teams Work?
Every successful team fundraiser needs a goal. Why are you fundraising? Is it to replace old equipment? Fund travel expenses? Once you’ve nailed that down, determine how much your team needs to raise in order to meet that goal.
The second step is to come up with an idea that will inspire your team and rally your supporters. Consider the age group of your team, your bandwidth, and your budget. Some fundraising ideas require a heavier investment of money and time upfront compared to others.
How Do Sports Teams Raise Money?
From organizations like the NFL to school sports teams, they all have something in common when it comes to raising money. Sports teams typically generate income through concession and ticket sales, sponsorships, and selling merchandise. However, unlike the NFL, many local sports teams don’t have access to bigger funding sources or sponsors that professional leagues do – which means they need to get creative on ways to fund their activities. This article has all the creative ideas you could ever need!
Fundraising For Teams: 35 Ideas
Whether you’re planning a competitive challenge or hosting a more laid-back event, here are 35 great ideas to get you started.
1. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Unlike traditional fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraising relies on your supporters to collect donations on your behalf by reaching out to their personal and professional networks. Proven to be an effective fundraising strategy, peer-to-peer fundraising quickly scales your campaign, helping you reach your goal in far less time.
Peer-to-peer fundraising has been a staple for years; fundraising walks and runs have operated on peer-to-peer principles for ages. If you decide to go the peer-to-peer route, consider running your campaign online for a simpler and more cost-effective approach. The start-up fee will be the cost of the fundraising platform you choose. From there, have participants create personal and team pages, determine their fundraising goal, and share on social media.
For sports teams in particular, peer-to-peer fundraisers can be structured to create teams amongst the wider group. For example, let’s say you’re fundraising for a football team. You could do a challenge and break your team up into smaller groups based on position (i.e. offense and defense) to generate some friendly competition and raise more money.
With the potential to raise twice as much compared to other digital fundraising campaigns, you’ll hit the ground running in no time!
2. Branded Merch
Searching for a convenient and on-brand way to boost revenue? Try setting up an online store with branded merch. While it takes work upfront, your customers will appreciate being able to browse your entire catalog online, at their leisure. Remember to promote your store by including it on email blasts or by sharing it on social media.
There’s no shortage of branded items you can sell when you’re fundraising for teams, especially a sports team. Consider branding the following items with your team logo:
- Stickers
- Jerseys
- Travel mugs
- Caps
- Reusable water bottles
Every time someone uses their branded water bottle or wears the team jersey they bought, not only does that inspire a sense of affiliation and pride, but they increase visibility for your team without any additional effort.
3. Restaurant Give Back Nights
Partnering up with a restaurant to host a give back night is a low-maintenance way to fundraise for teams. Give back nights don’t require a huge investment of time or money, and it’s a wonderful way to establish community ties.
To get started, reach out to restaurants in your area to see who would be interested in hosting a give back night in which a percentage of food sales generated from a specified time and date will be donated back to your team. Generally, this percentage usually ranges from 10%-20%. National chains will likely have a program in place but local restaurants are great options too.
Promote your restaurant give back night in advance on social media, in email blasts, or pass out hard-copy flyers. Let your audience know in advance they’re helping support your team.
4. 50/50 Raffle
A 50/50 raffle is an excellent option when fundraising for sport teams. They’re versatile and low to no cost. They can be held at any time during the year as a standalone event or in conjunction with a larger, planned event.
While they’re like any other raffle, the difference with a 50/50 raffle is that you don’t need to procure a prize. Instead, the prize is half the amount raised through ticket sales. For example, if you sold 1,000 tickets at $1 each ($1,000 jackpot), your team keeps half of the proceeds ($500) and the winner takes home the other half ($500).
5. Water Balloon Fight
Beat the heat and raise funds by hosting a water balloon fight. Charge per water balloon or have a fixed entry fee for each participating individual/team. You can structure this as a tournament or have it be a free-for-all. For additional revenue, pair this with selling drinks and snacks. Encourage participants to help clean up after and offer a prize to whoever picks up the most balloon scraps.
6. Team Calendars
As a means to build brand awareness throughout the year, custom printed promotional calendars make a highly personalized and relevant fundraising tool for any type of sports team. Depending on quantity, paper, ink, size, and turnaround time, the overall cost to produce a calendar will vary. Take pre-orders online or have the calendars as an item for purchase in an e-commerce store. To save time, we recommend working with a commercial printer who can print and mail your calendars in-house, all within budget.
7. Live Silent Auction
Silent auctions are also another cost-effective team fundraising idea. Unlike traditional auctions, a silent auction does not have an auctioneer. Instead, items are displayed for people to browse through and anonymously place bids using an assigned bidding number. At most silent auctions, there’s usually a minimum bid amount and a minimum bid increase. Once the bidding has ended, winners can complete their transactions and collect their items in a designated area.
With auctions, you’ll need to procure auction items or packages. These can be as small or grand as you’d like but keep in mind that it does take time and planning. Typically, some local businesses will be happy to contribute something to the auction. For sports teams, you can get creative by auctioning off signed memorabilia from your players.
8. Online Silent Auction
As an alternative to hosting a live silent auction, you can also throw a successful silent auction entirely online. Virtual silent auctions have unique advantages – you do away with physical bid sheets, bypass overhead costs like a venue or catering, and anyone can participate from anywhere. With a virtual format, you also have the flexibility to extend the bidding period for a few days or even a few weeks, giving your supporters more time to peruse your items.
9. Walk-A-Thons
We mentioned peer-to-peer fundraising earlier as a means to harness the power of your supporters. Well, walk-a-thons are an extremely popular type of peer-to-peer, especially for student and school teams. Even if you haven’t participated in one before, you’ve likely heard about them. Walk-a-thons bring together your community and promote health by getting people active. In a walk-a-thon, participants encourage their networks to pledge a fixed dollar amount for every mile, kilometer, or lap walked. You can also supplement pledges and raise more funds through sponsorships or by selling branded gear.
10. Golf Tournament
Golf tournaments are a staple in the fundraising world due to the plentiful avenues to raise funds for your cause. There’s a lot that goes into planning a golf tournament including logistics, promotion, and reserving a venue. We recommend starting 6 months in advance of your anticipated event date. When it comes to raising money with a golf tournament, consider offering bundled golf packages that teams can purchase. For example, you could charge $50 for a standalone ticket, $90 for couples, and $120 for a group of four. Other revenue opportunities you can add include hosting a raffle, having additional games with prizes that participants can play for a fee, or stocking a cash bar with snacks and beverages for purchase.
11. Text-to-Donate
With 50% of charitable donations made on mobile devices in 2021, text giving is here to stay. Text-to-donate is an easy and convenient way that lets your supporters donate right from their mobile devices. Using their phone’s texting feature, your supporter texts a keyword to a five or six digit shortcode (“Text GIVE to 99900”). From there, they are redirected to a mobile donation page to complete their transaction.
Getting started does come with a cost – you’ll first need to choose a third party vendor. You may incur set-up and transaction fees, not to mention any costs from the phone carrier.
12. Text-to-Give
Text-to-give is a lot like text-to-donate, with two major distinctions. Text-to-donate is form-based, redirecting your supporters to a donation page via a link. Text-to-give on the other hand is carrier-based which means the donation amount is automatically added to your supporter’s monthly phone bill.
Also bear in mind that unlike text-to-donate, text-to-give has static donation amounts such as $5 or $10, depending on the carrier. This means that your donors can’t choose how much they want to give – they’re limited to a predetermined amount.
13. Backyard Barbeque
Fire up your grills and smokers for a backyard barbeque! Pair your BBQ with live music, drinks, and other staples for a full event. Keep your guests entertained and have games such as cornhole or KanJam set up. Raise money by selling tickets in advance or at the door, and stir up some friendly competition by having attendees vote for winners in certain categories (i.e. best ribs, best sauce, best side, etc.).
14. Yard Sale
Yard sales can help you raise funds, declutter, and give your unused items a new home. While they traditionally take place in-person, consider hosting one virtually. Once you’ve gathered up and cleaned your items, take quality photos in good lighting and from different angles. If you’re using Facebook, post the photos in an album to get your virtual yard sale up and running.
Be sure to describe each item in detail, including condition, measurements, brand, size, and price. With any event, decide on an end date for your virtual yard sale. If certain items haven’t sold close to your end date, you can always mark them down or offer delivery to appeal to any buyers who are on the fence.
15. Obstacle Course
Obstacle courses are the perfect combination of fun and fitness. Plus they are fun for teams! Build your own obstacle course or rent inflatable equipment to put on this family-friendly event. Charge participants an entry fee to run, jump, push, pull, or lift through your course. Also, don’t forget to have your participants sign a liability waiver!
16. Zoom Trivia Night
Hosting a virtual trivia night is a great way to reach new audiences. With Zoom, attendees can join the game from anywhere and the app’s breakouts feature allows you to break teams into their own room to work on their questions. What you’ll need for this fundraiser is to download Zoom, prep your questions, and select a moderator. Once you’ve got that down, send out invites and have a way for people to register to play.
If in-person trivia is more your style, you can do that too. You can host your own or partner with a local trivia company.
17. Gourmet Popcorn Sale
With dozens of flavors to choose from, popcorn is a popular and fun fundraising for teams idea. Traditionally, popcorn fundraisers are sold in-person through brochure order forms but they can be done online as well. Rather than a hardcopy brochure, an online link is given to customers. With both live and virtual popcorn sales, buyers purchase the popcorn to be delivered to a specified address. At the end of the sale, the sponsoring team receives a cut of profits, which generally ranges from 40%-50%.
18. 10,000 Step Challenge
Whether you enjoy walking or running, moving more is the key to unlocking better health. This particular challenge encourages participants to log 10,000 steps a day – which equates to 4 to 5 miles – everyday, for an entire month. The 10,000 Step Challenge can be run as a peer-to-peer campaign. Create your fundraising page, start tracking your steps, provide your supporters with updates, and ask your friends and families for donations as you complete the challenge.
19. Kickball Tournament
For another physically active option- which of course is great for sports teams- consider hosting a kickball tournament. Plan for a space that can accommodate this type of event. If it’s a small tournament, you might have one game going on at once but you may also opt to have several games happening simultaneously. School gyms, your sports field, community centers, and parking lots are all good options. To raise money, collect an entry fee from each team. Additional revenue generators can include sponsorships, raffles, selling concessions, or specially branded event materials.
20. Food Truck
Similar to a restaurant fundraiser, a food truck event is where you partner with a local food truck that is willing to donate a percentage of their sales for the day. This not only supports the food truck by getting its name out in the community and bringing in new customers, but you’re also raising money for your team. Consider having a food truck set up shop during a planned team game or event. Alternatively, if you don’t want to request a percentage of sales, you can also charge a flat fee for a dish by selling meal vouchers in advance.
21. Local Business Partnerships
Partnerships aren’t limited to food! You can always partner with different types of local businesses to further your mission and raise funds. Examples of this include print shops, spas, etc. where a percentage of goods and services sold go back to your team. You can also have local businesses purchase advertisement banners that you hang around your sports field or gym.
22. Game Night
A game night is a fundraising event that works for all ages and has the potential to attract a huge crowd. Game nights are incredibly versatile. To start, you would need to secure an event space. Next, you’ll need to choose which games (card games, board games, video games, etc.) to play. Depending on whether you’re doing a tournament or hosting a more casual gathering, you can provide the games or opt to have attendees bring their own. Charge each participant a small entry fee to raise money. You can also set up a donation box or have a QR code to solicit additional gifts.
23. Murder Mystery Dinner
Who doesn’t love a good murder (mystery)? A murder mystery dinner is a themed event where guests pay to dress up and work together to solve a “murder” which occurs during the party. The neat thing about murder mystery events is that you can host it at home, at the office, or at a private event space.
Your guests will be dying to experience this killer party idea while simultaneously raising money. Planning a murder mystery is doable but it does have a lot of moving parts and can get complex, fast. If you don’t have the bandwidth, check to see if there’s a company in your area that specializes in hosting these types of parties or find a party pack online.
24. Field Day
For a fundraiser that’s geared more towards family and children, try a field day! In field day events, participants engage in an array of outdoor games such as water balloon tosses, tug-o-war, and sack races. You can raise money through this event by charging an entry fee and having food and drinks available for purchase.
25. Car Wash
Car washes are a classic go-to when you’re talking about fundraising for teams. For a car wash, you’ll need to plan ahead. Secure an appropriate location (like a parking lot) with access to water and all the necessary supplies (i.e. sponges, hoses, squeegees, etc.). Assign volunteers to hold up signs in a high-trafficked area and assign others in groups to do the actual washing. You can charge a fee for every car washed or advertise a suggested donation. Plan to take both cash and card using an online donation form.
26. Push-Up Challenge
Push yourself and your team with a push-up challenge. It’s simple and can be done from anywhere! Get together with your team and decide how much you want to raise collectively, then break this number down to each individual. Every dollar raised equates to completing one push-up (i.e. $10 for 10 push-ups or $100 for 100 push-ups). Set up a team fundraising page with your team goal and an individual fundraising page with your individual goal. Encourage your network to donate a dollar for every push-up you do and post a video of you performing your push ups.
27. Dance-A-Thon
Lose yourself to dance by turning your next fundraiser into a dance-a-thon! Similar to other a-thons, dance-a-thons are a form of peer-to-peer fundraising, where participants solicit donations from friends and family. In return, the participant pledges to dance a certain number of minutes or to a certain number of songs. Dance-a-thons are particularly engaging for young teens and since dances are typically held inside, you won’t have to worry about inclement weather.
28. Fantasy Sports League
What’s more fitting when fundraising for teams than a fantasy sports league? Start a fantasy football, baseball, hockey, or basketball league and charge an entry fee to participate. You can have a prize at the end for the winner or use a portion of entry fees collected as the prize pot. If you go this route, remember, the more people who participate, the larger the prize pot. Your winner can also opt to donate their winnings to your team too!
To run your fantasy league, use a free hosting platform such as ESPN or Yahoo! Sports that will automatically track player and team stats for you in real-time.
29. Potluck
A potluck is a tasty way to get people together without having one person shoulder all the work. With some planning and foresight, a potluck can also be an awesome revenue generator. You can pre-sell tickets for the event. Have a sign-up sheet so there’s no surprise in who’s bringing what. Also, not everyone has to bring food. If you have guests who don’t like to cook, have them bring utensils, packaged snacks, or drinks. To take it a step further, pick a theme for your potluck – like appetizers or Mediterranean – and have your guests bring an item related to the theme.
30. Christmas Tree Sale & Delivery
This seasonal fundraiser is perfect for the holidays when fundraising for teams! Due to high-demand, they can be extremely lucrative. Depending on the type and size of the tree, your team can expect to gross anywhere from $20 – $100 per tree. As an added convenience, offer to deliver for an additional fee.
31. Tie-Dye Station
Get colorfully creative with a tie-dye station! Tie-dye is a simple all-ages activity. To get started you’ll need a tie-dye kit, rubber bands, water, and gloves. You can charge each participant an entry fee and provide the option to bring their own items to tie-dye or have cotton items available to purchase.
32. Birthday Fundraiser
This year, forgo presents and ask your friends and family to donate to your sports team instead. Setting up a birthday fundraiser is simple. You can create a dedicated fundraising page or raise money via Facebook. If there’s a specific reason you’re raising money, include that in your appeal and use social media to share out.
33. Rent-A-Team
Let community members rent your team (or members of your team) to help with tasks such as yard work, household chores, or grocery delivery. You don’t want to expose your team to toxic chemicals or heavy machinery so create a list of approved tasks based on the age range of your group. Typically, this type of fundraiser works best for high school athletes. Choose a day that works for both the customer and your team and in exchange for their efforts, ask for a donation or set a flat fee for each activity.
34. Pancake Breakfast
A pancake breakfast is a delicious way to start off your morning right and raise funds. The concept is simple – have your team volunteer to host and cook breakfast for guests. The ingredients to a successful pancake breakfast include having a place to host the event (community centers and school cafeterias make great venues), purchasing the necessary breakfast food and supplies, and having a way to pre-sell tickets. Of course you can always sell tickets at the door, but selling tickets in advance will give you a better idea of how much to buy and how many people to expect.
35. Coach Challenge
Bring your coach into the fold by setting a fun, ambitious (but achievable) financial target! Once the target is met, your coach will agree to do an activity. Whether that’s getting pied in the face, completing a viral dance challenge, or wearing an outrageous costume, the possibilities are endless.
Go Team, Go!
Fundraising for teams can be incredibly rewarding. Beyond raising money, you’re team building off the field by coming together towards a common goal.
With CauseVox’s event ticketing and peer-to-peer platform, fundraising for teams has never been easier – your next fundraiser is guaranteed to be a hit. What are you waiting for?
