Fundraising Ideas for Your Child’s Sports Team
Sports aren’t cheap — especially children’s sports, which rarely have the same sponsorship opportunities as higher-level athletics. Many children are only able to participate in sports activities thanks to fundraising efforts, which allow family and community members to pay for expensive items like jerseys, sports gear, training equipment, coaching, field reservations and more.
If you are trying to think of ways to fundraise for your child’s sports participation, here are some ideas to get you started:
Team Merch
There’s a reason professional sports teams sell merchandise with their team name and logos: Merch makes money. You can produce all kinds of team merch for your child’s sports activities, and the surrounding community is likely to buy up a significant amount. Not just the kids participating in the sports and their immediate family members, but extended family, neighbors, close friends and more should happily don team T-shirts, hang team pennants, use team noise-makers, drink from custom team logo water bottles and do all they can to show their support.
To make sure your team merch stands out, you might try to ensure the design of the team logo is special. You could have an artsy member of your child’s team draw the team mascot, or you could ask a graphic designer in your network to create something trendy and eye-catching. The higher-quality your team merch is — and the better looking it is — the more people will contribute funds.
Social Media Challenges
Perhaps the most successful social media fundraising event of all time was the ALS ice bucket challenge, which earned more than $115 million for ALS research and educated the world about ALS. The premise was simple: pour a bucket of ice water over your head and nominate others to do the same or else donate to the ALS Association.
Social media challenges come in all shapes and colors these days, from choreographed dances to athletic feats to unexpected foods and more. For a social media challenge to catch on, it needs to be simple enough for everyone to be able to do but difficult enough to prompt people to try it for themselves. In your first challenge videos, you need to make it clear that the challenge is helping to fund youth sports programs, or else your message could get lost as the challenge gains popularity.
Crowdfunding Campaigns
Crowdfunding involves taking in small contributions from a large number of investors to meet a certain fundraising goal. Most crowdfunding campaigns today utilize online platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which make it easy to set goals, communicate with contributors and collect digital payments. For smaller campaigns like yours, GoFundMe is likely the best option, considering that it is built for personal causes as opposed to entrepreneurial or artistic pursuits, and it allows you to keep whatever funds you raise regardless of whether you meet your goal.
Crowdfunding isn’t easy. It requires you to blast your campaign across your social media to raise awareness for your cause. To make your campaign stand out, you might take videos of your child’s team practicing or conduct interviews with the players to create a story that drives donation. You might also offer rewards to encourage higher levels of contribution, like some of the team merch you made earlier.
Local Business Partnerships
Your child’s team isn’t likely to attract attention from national brands like Wheaties, but local businesses might consider funding youth athletics in return for the marketing opportunities generated during games. For example, a family-friendly restaurant in your area might be willing to sponsor your kid’s team if everyone recovers from practices and games with a visit to their eatery. Likewise, a family amusement center might participate in a sponsorship if you end every season with a big trip to their park. You might be surprised which businesses are willing to sponsor youth sports, and it doesn’t hurt to reach out and ask.
Bake Sales and Car Washes
If you are only short a few hundred dollars, your child’s sports team can organize a traditional fundraising event, like a bake sale or a car wash. Though one of these events isn’t likely to garner enough to cover the equipment, food and travel needs of an entire season, they can be fast and relatively easy fundraising activities that are safe for kids to participate in, too.
If your child is passionate about their sport, you should be willing to do anything to help them achieve their dreams. If that means fundraising for your child’s team, then these fundraising options should help you reach your goal.
