Ready to take a swing at a new way to fundraise for your softball team? If you're not sure where to get started, you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll cover 11 creative and unique ways to raise more for your team – without striking out. Read on!
Everyone who has played a sport knows that the team only thrives as much as its funding streams do. Fundraising is absolutely key for keeping sports team programs alive and healthy, especially for smaller schools that have limited resources and shifting priorities.
The great news? There are so many fun, team-building ways to garner ongoing financial support for your softball program. From simply setting up a donation table at your games to partnering with local sponsors or holding a raffle, each fundraising project is unique and reaps a myriad of benefits for your softball team.
Some fundraising projects will require just your team’s involvement, while some will require their parents and the community to get involved. The key is to know which fundraising project(s) work best for your specific team and funding situation and approach them with a positive attitude!
One of the most timeless sports team fundraising ideas is to secure sponsorship for your team. These can include local businesses, restaurants, cafes, spas, grocery stores, and beyond. The key is to choose to solicit the right businesses that have a personal or mission-based connection with your team.
For example, a new, local burger joint may be looking for some increased business visibility and thus may be happy to pay to add their logo to your jerseys. When asking for support, always remember that the best fundraising relationships are mutually supportive. Local entities will always be happy to give as long as their incentive to do so is strong.
Example: Takoma Park Silver Spring (TPSS) is a tax-exempt, nonprofit group that provides various baseball and softball programs to their community. To help players from low-income families, they set up an online fundraising campaign to create sponsorship opportunities via different donation levels. How these levels will support their teams and the benefits the sponsors will receive in return are clearly mentioned in their donation form and the content. Take a look –
Hosting donation tables at your event is a powerful, personal, and reliable way to raise money for your team. Ask for team parents or family members to volunteer to run the tables each week, and train your volunteers on FAQ answers and a solid understanding of how any donations will be used.
A donation kiosk is the perfect way to raise funds during your games. The Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app allows you to collect payments with cards, smartphones, and smartwatches, so you never miss out on donations because your audience doesn’t have cash. Donors also have the option to include their email address to receive a donation receipt, meaning you can stay in touch with your supporters – and get more donations in the future.
Watch this short video to see Donorbox Live™ in action!
Another idea for donation table fundraising is to advertise giving levels and donation incentives at every shift. For example – someone who walks up to the table and gives $20 may receive a team pin, while someone who donates $50 may receive a team t-shirt.
Pro tip: Once a gift is given, don’t stop there! Ask the donor if they’d be okay with you listing their name on your team website or featuring them in a post on social media, inspiring other team family members and friends to give as well.
This is a fun softball fundraiser that will inspire your entire team to get involved! At each game, consider selling team merchandise such as t-shirts, socks, hats, jerseys, water bottles, and more. Donors love to feel like they’re an integral part of a mission when giving, so make sure that your merch is branded well, attractive, and something that donors will actually want to use after buying.
Get your team involved in merchandise design and planning! Consider setting aside 30 minutes at the end of one practice for your team members to brainstorm ideas on the look and feel of your merchandise items.
Pro tip: You can use a donation kiosk as a POS system to easily collect cashless payments and track sales.
Raffles are an incredible fundraising tactic that can be used to build excitement and fundraising momentum! Raffle off items that are relevant to your softball team or high-value items like tablets and other fun tech that will interest anyone.
For example, you might raffle off a gift card to a delicious local restaurant, tickets to a nearby major or minor league softball team game, or a brand new softball bat or baseball. You might even raffle off free season ticket passes for your own team or a reservation to the best parking spot for a year.
The way you set up your raffle is just as important as what is being raffled off. Will you sell tickets, and how much will they cost? How many raffle tickets can be bought per person? Instead of selling tickets, will you give raffle tickets in exchange for some other goods or services?
Donorbox Events makes selling raffle tickets super easy. Create unlimited ticket tiers to sell a range of raffle tickets, set ticket limits and deadlines, and collect any additional information from your supporters as needed. Plus, ask for additional donations on top of raffle ticket sales to increase your fundraising success.
East Valley Athletes for Christ used Donorbox Events to sell raffle tickets to support their season. We love how they included all the info buyers needed, including their prize packages to entice more ticket sales.
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It’s an age-old idea, but it works every time. Team car wash fundraisers are fun for both your softball team members and those who come to get their cars washed. Build momentum for your car wash by running advertisements (e.g. signs, posters, email, and social media ads).
Create “add-ons” at the wash, just like any regular car wash: perhaps you sell a basic car wash for $20 but will shine tires or even vacuum out a car for $45.
Make sure to pick a location for washing cars that is big enough, not prone to traffic, and that will remind those who participate in the car wash of your softball team. Ideally, your carwash will be held in the parking lot of your team’s school. If this is impossible for some reason, try to hold the car wash in a parking lot or area that is close to one of your sponsoring businesses or restaurants.
Pro tip: Always send your carwash participants away with something – like a flyer with your team’s schedule, contact information, and QR codes to your team’s social media accounts and donation page. A free QR code is automatically generated for every Donorbox campaign, making this easy!
Why not host a good old-fashioned bake sale for your team? There is a myriad of benefits of running a bake sale, from the fact that a bake sale will get your team members and team parents involved, to the fact that your team members can sell to their peers during school hours – expanding your team’s network and visibility.
Get creative with your bake sale! Consider baking cakes or cookies that look like softballs and bats. Decorate your cookies and pastries with team colors and include your team name.
Be mindful of all potential allergy and diet restrictions for buyers, and include gluten-free, dairy-free, and nut-free options. Accept both cash and credit cards for the bake sale, and try to get permission to set up your bake sale table in a highly visible spot in your team’s school. This may include a large table right outside or inside the cafeteria, or a table by the gym or field’s entrance areas where you can set up shop before and during games.
Who doesn’t LOVE cookie dough? Consider selling this tasty treat that many will have a hard time turning down to boost funds for your softball team.
Make sure that you have an attractive, branded brochure of cookie dough options for the kids in your team and their families to sell door to door, at school, or even at work. Include a wide array of cookie dough flavor options as well as vegan and gluten-free options.
Pro tip: Set yourself up with a cookie dough corporate partner that will allow you to keep a large return on each sale. The best cookie dough sellers will allow you to keep 50% or more on each cookie dough sale (once again, corporate fundraising incentives are at play here!). For example, Justfundraising and Buy for Charity can be great for your team. They let you keep up to 55% profit.
Popcorn fundraising is another great option to raise money for your softball team.
Include buttery, cheesy, spicy, sugary, tangy, and even fruity options for your popcorn repertoire. Sell your popcorn in a variety of tin shapes and sizes at a variety of price points, so you can meet the needs of all of your buyers.
Who’s your popcorn corporate partner? Find a popcorn retailer that will give you at least 50% of your earnings for every bag or tin sold. Ideally, you’ll find a popcorn retailer who will provide you with free flyers, brochures, and covered shipping costs.
Double Good is a great option. Without any minimums or fees, they let you keep 50% of your profit by selling premium popcorn. The site even has virtual and in-person fundraising plans for teams.
Peer-to-peer fundraising can be a great tool for popcorn fundraisers. With Donorbox Peer-to-Peer, simply create a fundraising campaign and enable peer-to-peer. Then, you can invite each of your team members or their parents via email. They’ll then be able to create their own fundraising page to collect payments for popcorn purchases. Any payments they collect will automatically flow into your Donorbox account, saving you the stress of collecting funds. Learn more about how peer-to-peer fundraising works in this blog.
Discount card fundraisers are an excellent way to get team fans, family members, friends, and prospective donors excited. ABC Fundraising sells set-up and support for discount card fundraising for your team.
Discount cards are purchased by buyers and used to receive discounts at local merchants, restaurants, and stores in your area. ABC Fundraising itself will offer your team the highest profit rate in the entire discount card fundraiser industry – at 93%.
Through discount card fundraisers, buyers can save hundreds of dollars on experiences and items they would’ve spent money on. This makes them very attractive to your buyers – and the perfect product to sell to support your softball team!
Sports stores are a great option for some quick and exciting softball fundraising. Your supporters will love getting to support your team while purchasing equipment they already need.
Simply contact your local sports store and ask if they will give a percentage of their earnings to your team. In return, your team can offer to feature the sports store on your social media pages or newsletters to give the store some visibility.
Pro tip: If you elect to host a sports store fundraiser, consider creating a “theme” or tying it to a particular season to incentivize more support. For example, “Summer Sports Equipment Sale”, “New Year, New You Fundraiser” etc. Don’t forget to make the theme the focus of your marketing efforts.
Have as many team members and supporting families as possible at the event. They can interact with customers and hand out team flyers.
Friends and family love supporting their favorite team member. What better way to do this than by hosting a home-run derby tournament? Have your team members ask their parents, family members, or friends to agree to sponsor them at a certain amount for each home run they hit.
Your team members might even try asking for cumulative donations – $50 for their first home run, $100 for their second, and beyond. To make things even more fun, suggest that your team members challenge their personal supporters to place bets on the number of home-run hits they will incur.
Pro tip: This can be a great way for you to encourage peer-to-peer fundraising through your team members. Ask them each to create a crowdfunding campaign page for themselves. They can use it to tell the team’s story, tie it to their own personal inspiration behind joining the team, and eventually, mention the derby tournament. This way they can raise some extra funds from their friends and families for their softball team.
Softball fundraising is a great way to support your team and learn some new skills along the way. It’s time for you and your team to take a swing at some exciting fundraising projects. Whether you’re new to raising money for your team or just need to shake things up, this mix of modern and traditional fundraising approaches will improve your team’s financial health and put you exactly where you need to be.
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Raviraj heads the sales and marketing team at Donorbox. His growth-hacking abilities have helped Donorbox boost fundraising efforts for thousands of nonprofit organizations.
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