Fundraising Ideas for Team Sports

Guest Post by Jennifer Lawton

More girls than ever are participating in team sports like soccer, softball and volleyball. Whether connected to their school or recreational leagues, team sports often have high fees or expenses associated with playing on the team.  So many teams offer some kind of fundraiser to pay for travel to away games, tournaments and equipment.

Here are three fundraising ideas that are great for team sports:

Photo Fundraisers

Sports teams normally have team and individual photos made anyway.  Why not choose a photography provider that actually gives back to the team?  Your team can use the services of a portrait fundraiser program to offer great photos and also raise funds to purchase equipment, snacks or uniforms.  You may be able to find someone locally who would provide this service for you.  A national provider of this photo fundraiser service is Picateers.com.

Another fun photo fundraiser for a team is photo button sales.  Each player has a close-up photo made when team photos are made, so have these put on buttons.  The best photo button fundraisers are fancy decorated with ribbons and other emblems.  Parents and grandparents like these and can wear them at the games.

Spirit Gear

Another fundraiser that fits very naturally with team sports is spirit item sales. These are items that school team fans can buy, wear or use to show their support.  T-shirts, stadium seats, noisemakers and buttons are just a few of the popular spirit items.  These items are sold at pep rallies, through fliers sent home with students and at the games.  You could even have a special t-shirt made up for a special game, like parent’s day or a tournament.

Discount Cards

Money saving promotions like discount cards are very popular in the community. Many school groups and sorts teams sell these cards that are valid for the entire school year.  You can also have them made up to be valid for the calendar year instead, or any other period depending on your season.

One of the great things about these kinds of promotions is that the school group can earn up to 90% of the face value of the discount card.  With discount cards you earn more per card when you can sell a higher volume of them, so it is best to sell these cards league-wide or for the entire athletics department of the school, rather than just one team.  The great thing is that since you can keep track of how many cards your particular team sold, the money will go just for your team.

So these were three different fundraisers that a girl’s sports team could use: team photos, sports spirit items and helping people save money with discount cards.  Did you notice anything in common with these suggestions?  All of them involve things that people are likely to want to buy anyway, so you are not having to twist anyone’s arm to sell something they don’t need.