New uniforms. A hotel stay and entry fees at an out-of-town tournament. The ability to hire a nutritionist or a special conditioning coach. Windbreakers, warm-up jackets and coats. There’s a lot of things that a sports team might want or need that aren’t in the general budget and aren’t easy to be paid for out of pocket. And that’s where a fundraiser comes in particularly handy – it’s additional money for the finer things that aren’t as easily covered.
Youth sports teams have a plethora of fundraiser options to choose from that can all net some serious money. However, their success largely depends on whether or not they’re organized correctly and whether everyone on the team is doing their part to help raise the money necessary to meet any fundraising goals. Here’s a look at some top youth sports team fundraisers:
Car Magnets
A car magnet fundraiser is one of the easiest fundraisers to organize and implement. It’s also likely to be one of the more overlooked fundraisers because it’s not something that immediately jumps out at people as being highly profitable. Specifically, car magnets are ordered in bulk and then sold for a price where a profit can be made. It’s up to the sports team to select a custom logo to be designed and then have that logo produced. Then, team members can sell the logo to family and friends and others in the community.
So just how much money can you expect to make from a car magnet fundraiser? Think of it like this – if you buy in bulk, car magnets cost about $2 per item to be produced. You can then easily turn around and sell these for $5 or $6 per item, so you’re more than doubling your initial investment. Do the math with a potential bulk order and set a sales price to determine what your profits will likely be, pending of course that all the magnets are sold. Car magnet fundraisers are easy to pull off and can be highly profitable. What’s more is that they can serve as great complimentary fundraisers on larger fundraisers, like golf outings, which we’ll cover next.
Golf Outings
Golf outings can be highly profitable, potentially netting a sports team tens of thousands of dollars in earned money. You can also carry out mini fundraisers, like silent auctions, 50-50 raffles, car magnet sales and longest putt and longest drive contests to supplement the money you’ll earn from the golf outing. However, the cons of a golf outing fundraiser is that they’re tedious to plan and largely contingent on the weather.
Here’s how to plan a golf outing. First, you need to contact local golf courses, get pricing for what it would cost for a round of golf with a cart and dinner. Then, select a course, select a date and start the more detailed planning. For instance, if it costs $50 for a round of golf and dinner, you’ll likely want to charge $100 per golfer. Have each member of the team get as many foursomes as possible and also ask them to sell hole sponsors for $100. These are signs of area businesses that will be placed on the tee box of each hole. Longest drive and longest putt contests can also be offered with a $5 or $10 buy in, with the winner getting a portion of the buy in cash. After the golf portion, the outing can continue to make money by offering a 50-50 auction, silent auction and even car magnet sales inside the clubhouse banquet hall for the dinner portion of the event. As you can see, planning a golf outing is tedious and largely contingent on good weather for success, but if everything falls into place, it can be a highly profitable event.
Car Wash
An easy way to make a couple of thousand dollars is by having your sports team hold a car wash. Pick a Saturday and see if a parent on the team is willing to offer up their business parking lot as a location (used or new car lots, gas stations and stores make for ideal locations). Also see if the location would be kind enough to waive any water costs that you use during the event. Once you have a location determined, pick up some sponges, soap and towels, all of which can be purchased rather inexpensively. Then, make signs to advertise the event and place them near your event location. Finally, hope for good weather and that a lot of people have dirty cars. A final word of advice is to not set a car wash price. No, instead of asking for $5 or $10 per car, simply just ask your customers to make a donation – you’ll find that you’re likely to net a lot more money this way. With a car wash, you have some minimal up-front investment, but if everyone is on board, you can clean a lot of cars very quickly and gross a lot of profit, especially if the location you’re holding it at won’t hold you responsible for water fees.
There’s several other youth sports team fundraisers that can work well for raising cash. For instance, in applicable states like Michigan, a bottle and can drive, where teams are able to collect and cash in on the 10 cent deposit, can raise hundreds of dollars. There’s also 50-50 auctions you can hold at games, squares that you can organize for bigger sporting events, like the Super Bowl for instance, and selling coupon books.
