The most difficult part of handling a sports team is not just playing good sports and winning tournaments. Often the most challenging part is raising money for your sports team to continue playing in regional, national and even international platforms. You need money for equipment, uniform, travel, registration fees, and more.
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How to Raise Money for your Sports Team
Here’s how you can raise money for your sports team:
Find a Sponsor
This is one of the most mainstream ways to raise money for your sports team. Talk to a local business. You can contact a restaurant, a small business or any other organization. Offer them publicity in exchange for the money. The most common form of publicity is allowing the sponsor to display their logo on your team’s merchandise. It could be on the jersey or the banner.
You can also try some other creative ways to promote your sponsors. Allow the company to display their ads on your website. Thank and promote them on your social media channel. Get your players to visit the business occasionally for autographs.
Before you officially sign up with a sponsor, remember to draw up a legal contract. Don’t rely on word of mouth. Lay out the terms of the sponsorship before taking the money.
Initiate a Crowdfunding Campaign
Crowdfunding is becoming really popular when it comes to raising money for good causes, and for a good reason. You can raise a good amount of money even through small donations. Some good websites that allow you to raise money for good causes through crowdfunding are Make a champ, Athlete.com, Rally me, Sports funder and a few others.
To improve your chances of running a successful crowdfunding company, you should start by getting a number. How much do you need? Add a cushion to your initial figure to account for hidden or emergency costs.
The next step is to tell your story. Create a narrative around your team and their passions. Tell your fans what makes your team special. Create an emotional connection. Videos do best when it comes to telling your story.
Offer something in return. An autograph or a mention. Something to get people to want to donate.
Sell Merchandise
If you have a decent fan base, selling team merchandise can raise a pretty decent amount of capital. Your fans can come to your next match wearing your merchandise. You can sell the merchandise online or through your official sponsors.
When we talk about merchandise, you can explore all kinds of options. You can sell jerseys, hats, banners, t-shirts, water bottles, key chains and more.
Host a Fundraiser
A fundraiser is a good option to raise some serious capital. If you plan it properly, you can achieve your ball mark figure quite easily. With a fundraiser, you have lots of options from corporate to fun events. Some fundraising events you can explore are:
- A Dance-off. It’s simple. Host a dance-off. Participants will have to buy tickets to the event. Price the tickets to cover for the event and to have enough capital left to pay for all future planned matches.
- An Athlete Run. Get your players to run an athlete run and raise money by selling tickets. You can even get people to sponsor the athletes to run.
- Bake Sale. A bake sale is always successful. Get the newbie chefs and bakers in your team and their family to contribute food and items for the bake sale.
- A Charity Auction. Auction team memorabilia or even player services like coaching and training to raise money. Call it a white tie event to make it more interesting.
- Go Creative. Find other creative ways to make money. You don’t have to go formal. You can even hold a water tournament or a ‘punishment’ fundraiser.
Host a Summer Camp
Summer camps are always popular. You can also operate spring and winter camps, according to the season. Ask your players and their families to work as volunteers to run the summer camp. When it comes to camps, most people want their children to learn a new skill or a sport. Hold a baseball summer camp, if yours is a baseball team.
Online Donation
Another way to raise funds for your sports team is through online donations. Add a donate button to your official website. Promote it on your social media by doing events or posts related to donations.
You can keep it on your site permanently. Don’t remove it even when you have raised the desired money. The small amount of money that will trickle through the off seasons will help pay for your website and other small payments.
