Well-Timed Team Fundraising Ideas Raise More!

Timing is everything when it comes to implementing successful team fundraisers for your sports club. You have to look out for trending opportunities and holidays, and you also have to plan ahead. The best fundraisers know how to take advantage of their upcoming season to draw in more supporters and profit.

The fact is, the ultimate fundraising cycle will vary for each team and will depend on the team’s success throughout the year, and whether you’re a traveling team or just playing recreationally. Traveling teams encounter more expenses and they’ll have to raise more along the way to compensate.

The following tips and ideas will help you determine the best time of the year and which sports team fundraisers to implement so that you can raise top profit with the least hassle.

Plan Your Club or Team Fundraisers In Advance

In a perfect world, you would finish team fundraising before your season practices start. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work like that.

Nonetheless, you should definitely start fundraising during the month or so before practice starts. This can bring awareness to your community’s league and encourage more people to show up for your games and local tournaments. It can start the hype too, and get people excited for the upcoming season and your team’s success.

By fundraising a month before practice starts, you can get a good foothold and some starting funds to start the season. Still, keep your initial fundraising going all throughout practice and up to the first game of the season.

Fundraising in your planning stage should include fundraising product sales. You may also want to do an event fundraiser or two throughout this time like a car wash or a silent auction.

Just because the season has officially started doesn’t mean your fundraising has to come to an end. Throughout the season, make sure you take advantage of your team’s successes. We’ll go more into that later.

Consider the Holidays

If you can link your fundraiser to a major holiday, you’re more likely to have success. Consider selling roses around Valentine’s day, or hosting a BBQ around the Fourth of July.

Also keep an eye out for holidays like Giving Tuesday and Christmas. If people can double supporting your team with buying a gift for their coworkers, family or friends, you’ll have better luck selling fundraising products. A perfect example of this are JustFundraising’s candle fundraisers that come gift-boxed,

By linking your fundraiser to something people already take part in and buy items for, you can ride the hype of the holidays and the feel-good feeling of supporting a local team.

Ask for Donations on Wednesdays Between Noon and 6 pm

If you’re asking for donations or general support for your team, Wednesday’s between noon and six are historically the best time. This is the heart of the midweek slump when people are looking for a good reason to distract themselves from work.

And what’s a better feel-good distraction than supporting your local teams? Not much!

So if you want to send out an email burst asking for donations, make sure to do so between noon and 6 pm on Wednesdays to get the best results.

Keep Your Team Fundraisers Season Appropriate

Running a car wash in the middle of winter is a great way to give your players frostbite. And trying to sell Christmas gifts in the middle of July likely won’t get you anywhere.

So when you’re planning a fundraising event, make sure you keep it season-appropriate. We’ve put together some of the most successful fundraisers for each season for you to consider. JustFundraising has Holiday shoppers for the Fall and Holiday-time gift-giving. They also have a flower bulb campaign perfect for selling in the Spring.

Spring Fundraising Event Ideas

As we mentioned earlier, always keep the major holidays in mind. Plan ahead so you have all the permits you need to organize an event.

• Run an Easter egg hunt. Make sure to check with your local jurisdiction and get any permits you need. Post flyers around the community to let people know about your event. Your biggest expenses will be eggs, dye, and prizes.
• Host Mother’s Day breakfast. Rent out a community center or see if you can get a church or the school gym to sponsor the event. Make sure you have people to cook pancakes and/or eggs and let the community know what’s going on.
• Silent Auctions with second-hand goods. Spring is also when people are cleaning their homes or starting their gardens. This is a great time for silent auctions when people will be more likely to donate things they’re already planning on getting rid of. Or, simply hold your own garage sale and ask members of the community or the team to donate items.
• Sell Gardening Service. You can also, as a team, work on lawns or help to plant gardens to raise funds for your team. You can grow sprouts from seeds and sell the sprouts for people to grow in their gardens.
• Host a 5K. 5Ks are relatively easy to put together and have very low costs to operate. On top of that, people are starting to enjoy the spring weather and are excited to get in shape for summer. Advertise it through your city’s Facebook page and local newspaper.

Summer Team Fundraising Ideas

• July 4 Community BBQ. In summer the biggest holiday is the Fourth of July. This is a great time to do a community BBQ to raise funds. Take the opportunity to sell some cool team merchandise, as well.
• Host a 5K. You can do this for your team, or get the whole league involved. Plan your route, and get proper permitting and permission from your town. Then let the community know about the big race!
• Host a carwash. This is a great way to raise funds and keep cool. There are minimal startup costs, so you can make an easy profit. Bring in extra funds by adding a bake sale or lemonade stand while people are waiting for their car.
• Plan an outdoor movie night. Make sure you have proper permitting. You can raise extra funds with a concession stand or local sponsorship.
• Hold an ice cream sundae party. July is National Ice Cream Month, making this the perfect time for an ice cream social.
• Host a Father’s Day lunch. Cook burgers and hot dogs to honor the dads in your life. Sell tickets at a price that’s high enough to cover the cost of cookout ingredients, and raise funds too.

Fall Fundraising Ideas

Most nonprofits get the majority of their donations in the last few months of the year; November and December to be exact. You can take advantage of the giving spirit this time of year with your fundraisers.

Here are the top fall ideas to help you raise funds. 

• Haunted House. Get the league involved and run a haunted house. For school sports teams, you can get together with the drama club and split fundraising profits. A haunted house can have a lot of start-up costs, but you can help offset this with a concession stand, hot cocoa, or by asking for donations from the community.
• Giving Tuesday. Ask for donations on giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and it’s one of the biggest days of the year for charitable donations.
• Sell cocoa at games. Late-night games and chilly fans make cocoa a perfect team fundraiser, especially since there are almost no startup costs – just a water heater, cups, and cocoa powder.
• Host a harvest dinner. Ask all members of the league to supply a big dish or two and have an admission fee.
• Have a chili cook-off. Raise funds with an entry fee for the chefs, and an admission fee for the guests.
• Have a bonfire. Sell concessions and charge admission fees.
• Sell Products. Go door to door with fundraising products and encourage people to use them as gifts.

Winter Fundraising Ideas For Your Sports Club

• Sell Delicious Cookie Dough. When the temperature cools in the Winter, nothing says warmth and comfort like out-of-the-oven warm gooey cookies. It’s also a great opportunity to bake and have fun as a family, followed by an amusing board game.
• Entertaining indoor events. After the Christmas craze, most people are just waiting for Spring to come back. Winter is the perfect time to host event fundraising to help people get out of their homes. Consider hosting talent shows, open mic nights, poetry slams or indoor concerts. Earn profit selling entry tickets and from your food concession stand.
• Host a gingerbread house competition. You can provide supplies and charge an admission fee to build the houses or have people bring in their gingerbread houses and charge a fee for entry into the competition. Make sure the prize is worthwhile and ideally get them sponsored by a local merchants.
• Major holiday events. Don’t forget to take advantage of major holidays like New Year’s Eve or Valentine’s Day. You can work with a local restaurant sponsor or theater group to put on a Valentine’s day dinner show or host a New Year’s Eve party.

If you’re looking for more fun and unique fundraising ideas, fundraising-ideas.org has over 250 ideas!

Make Sure Your Club or Team Has The Manpower

Whenever you’re putting together a sports team fundraiser, you need to make sure you have enough people willing to participate to make it a success. So some fundraising ideas on this list won’t be effective if you only have a team of 14 players to make it work.

For example, a haunted house with only 14 scare actors won’t do the trick. In cases like these, you may have to partner with other groups in the community or pick a different option.

Some of the best options for small teams include selling fundraising products, car washes, or small events like bake sales.

Leagues or clubs can work together on bigger events like 5k runs, silent auctions, BBQs or potlucks that require more people to successfully pull it off. But they can still benefit from fundraisers small teams use too, like selling fundraising products.

Take Advantage of Your Team Wins

The middle of your team’s season is one of the best times to be run a team fundraiser. Keep these fundraising events smaller, like 50/50 raffles and concession stands that can start and end in the period of the game. After each win, while spirits are high, ask volunteers to collect donations to keep the team funds in the positive.

If your community loves your team, they want to see you succeed. So take advantage of this and ride the wave with every win. These are the best times to get the community to support your team.

Prime Your Fundraising Efforts In Time For Season Kick-Off

Ideally, your team’s fundraising should look something like this. A month or so before practice begins, start door-to-door fundraising. (Note: for your child’s safety, always make sure an adult accompanies them). Raise awareness that the season is going to start soon, and elaborate on your team’s season plans and successes – like you intend to go to state champs this year, or you won state last year and are going back for more.

Take advantage of the season you’re in, and come up with creative fundraisers the community will love.

As you go through the season, you’ll probably still have to do an event fundraiser or two, like a chili cook-off or host a 5K. At every game, host raffles and run concessions to keep supporting your team. When your team has a major win, ask for donations to keep the team running.

Fundraising Never Ends

The tips and tricks listed in this article can help you take advantage of the general flow and ebb of people’s generosity, and ride the wave of your team’s successes. While it would be nice to have your entire fundraising budget out of the way before the season starts, you’d miss out on great fundraising options throughout the year.

Fundraising can be a year-round process, but make sure to take advantage of the right timing seasons and your team’s success.

Curious about how JustFundraising can help your team raise the money they need? Check out our product catalog here.