Balancing the books on a month to month basis to ensure you continue to serve the local community with all the fantastic club activities which you have to offer can always be a challenging task.
Fundraising for sports teams can be a daunting task but one that really is enjoyable especially with the support system you have around you. Create a dedicated team within your organisation that takes it under their wing to help your club thrive throughout the community. It does require efforts and endeavours from everyone within the programme but with enough motivation and inspiration, it can be made fun and engaging for everyone involved.
To provide you with that inspiration, here are our top 5 ideas for fundraising which we feel you, your athletes, family, friends and community will enjoy
1. Buddy Up
It’s a double whammy kind of fundraising and one that the entire team will be a part of. It can benefit by bringing funds into the gym both on short and on a long term basis.
Buddy up is where you would ask all of your athletes to invite a friend along to training for them to experience the activities going on first-hand. Rather than chucking them in at the deep end, you would base it more around fun than the competitive aspects of the sport, treating them as an opportunity to sell the sport to that potential athlete. Get the parents involved as well. Have your team’s current team parents present offering them a good old fashioned cuppa and introducing them to your world. Show off the enjoyment, share the experiences.
How on earth is this fundraising you say. Well, you would charge each buddy a small fee to attend, say £2. You suddenly then have a significant increase in turnout to your training. If the ‘Buddies’ are impressed with what you have to offer, it will boost the chances of bringing new members into the programme. As you already know, more members equal more monthly revenue into your club and much more opportunities that you are able to offer as a team.
2. Portrait Day
So the best way we can describe this is if we tell you how we do it.
Do you remember the ‘School Photo Day? Well, this is Club Photo Day! Where your entire team gets the chance to get all dressed up looking like you are about to compete and we then individually and as a team capture your athletes in several different poses at a high definition quality in a more relaxed and enjoyable environment surrounded by friends and cheer family.
From here we provide everyone in attendance with a unique passcode for each individual athlete to which you will be able to view and have the opportunity to purchase one of many packages of prints.
From here we provide everyone in attendance with a unique passcode for each individual athlete to which you will be able to view and have the opportunity to purchase one of many packages of prints.
This is the part that explains how you guys would benefit from this.
1. There is no charge for JPAD Cheer to come and perform a ‘Cheer Photo Day’
2. You have an enjoyable photography experience in a relaxed, familiar environment
3. All of our photographers are enhanced DBS certified so there is a little security for you.
4. You receive high definition photos in the print format of your choice
Again you wonder, how on earth do you receive funds from that. Well, that’s the hidden fifth point. Once all of the expenses have been taken out you actually receive a commission from the total sales. So as well as the photography company advertising, the more you assist with the push of these sales, the commission you can earn as a club.
This idea is always and a great way to document the season and if you time it right within the year you can certainly be rewarded. For example, if you were to do it around Christmas, parents are always looking for the updated photo to send to relatives.
For more on Portrait Day and how to book yours today – CLICK HERE | Let us help you with fundraising for sports teams
3. Open a Club Shop / Pro Shop
So you’ve got your members, you’ve got your supporters. Now let’s kit them out to look the part, show off that they are those things and help with fundraising for sports teams.
Selling merch, uniforms & casual apparel can not only increase the funds of your campaign but when others in the community see a certain item being worn or used it also creates a moving billboard for your club. The more they see the more they are intrigued and actually start to look into what it’s all about. This potentially moves into a ‘Buddy Up’ night which in turn leads to membership
Loyal fans are always eager to showcase their love of your club. Sporting an item of clothing with your club emblem on it is one of the most popular means.
This one requires a level of initial investment; printed t-shirts, hoodies and beanie hats are not that cheap to come by in small numbers – but it can lead to long-term profit.
Plus, you may think this is yet another job to add to the list of things you already do. Don’t worry, there are companies out there that will manage these things for you and you can sit back and relax. A few for you to consider are as follows:
Merrrch.com | Powernation Cheer LTD | United Cheer Apparel | Elite Athletics Apparel | Rock the Dragon | 360 Dance & Cheer
We do something very similar, where we create a yearly calendar for clubs and teams. We manage orders and delivery so the team doesn’t have to and then at the end of it a cheque in the post. With calendars, you can make it a fun opportunity to introduce to the athletes. Hold a competition to see who will represent which month and who will be on the front cover. Failing that, create a collage for each team for each month :).
You can also include sponsors within this as well, so have your local businesses sponsor a month and help raise more funds for the team/club.
4. Family Fun Day / Showcase
Engage with the local community by inviting them to your club for a day of food, games and fun for all the family. Events like this will also be of interest to local businesses – so create some space where they can sell their service. Local crafters, your own merchandise shop, a tuck shop and other small businesses. These spaces would turn into a vendors area in which you can charge a small table fee of saying £15 which can either go towards the running of the day or into the fundraising pot.
Use family fun days as an opportunity to sell your club to potential new members. Parents are always on the lookout for ways to keep their kids occupied, and sport is one of the best ways of doing so. Paint your club as a friendly, active means to stay healthy, and you’ll soon find new members that could stay with you for an entire lifetime.
You can also use this opportunity to show off what you’ve been working on. For instance, if you are a dance academy or a cheerleading Gym. Show off your performances to the crowd and let them see in person what you have been working hard on throughout training and preparing to take to competitions.
These kinds of events don’t have to be a once a year kind of thing. People are always looking for things to do during the holidays so bear this in mind. An example would be to host a family day/showcase around Christmas time and then again at either the end of your season or the start of the summer.
5. Hire out your facilities
Take a look around your club, do you have any facilities that members of the local community might be interested in using?
The obvious one is training pitches. If you’re lucky enough to have an all-weather surface, recoup some of the cash it took to build by hiring it out to locals who want to have a game of five-a-side once a week (this is particularly effective when targeting local businesses with 20+ employees).
Elsewhere, a pot of potential income is waiting for clubs who have a big enough clubhouse for renting out. There’s never a shortage of birthdays, retirement dos or Christmas parties – and many of them will be on the lookout for venues.
For those with gyms and studios, is there a local instructor providing classes that you don’t that could benefit from the space that you have available?
It might take a bit of initial cost to give your clubhouse a lift, but serious funds can be raised from venue rental costs and additional drinks purchases.
So there are 5 tips and ideas for you that we feel can really benefit you and your club when it comes to fundraising for your teams. We hope it is helpful and that you can put it into place to make your club thrive. Let us know your thoughts and if you have any of your own tips and tricks.
Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you with fundraising for sports teams by simply by CLICKING HERE
