Owners and directors of competitive cheerleading organizations know that when you have a child involved in competitive cheerleading you learn a lot about two things—cheerleading and fundraising.  One is fun and exciting and the other . . . well . . . not so much.  That other thing wouldn’t be so bad if cheerleaders and parents didn’t have to do it so often or if they didn’t always have to ask the same people to buy the one thing they don’t need each month.  One learns very quickly that you can only go to the well so often before the people in your life start to engage in avoidance maneuvers when they see you coming with a fundraiser order-taker in your hand.

The world outside the gym is a lot harsher than it used to be before the housing bubble burst in 2008. There is no disputing the fact that people’s real income had declined in the previous decade and that what little disposable income is out there isn’t as disposable as it used to be.  Any extra dollars people may have are not being loosed from their grip very easily.  To make matters worse for cheer parents, there are fewer people out there who think that purchasing an item from your cookie dough fundraiser brochure is supporting a good cause.  Many people don’t know what competitive cheerleading is all about and, frankly, they’re just not as excited about that particular cause as the cheerleaders and their parents are.

Well, instead of offering a fundraiser that just takes money from people, how about offering a fundraiser that will save them some money?  Wouldn’t it be nice to have your cheerleaders engaged in a fundraiser that will actually give their fundraising customers an opportunity to support them without spending more money—or perhaps by saving money on things they would have purchased anyway?  Here are two high profit fundraisers from Champion Fundraising that are very easy to do—a lot easier than selling cookie dough or any other of the order-taker-type fundraisers.  They are two of the best sports fundraising ideas you’re likely to come across, and they’ll not only put bucks in the bank for your next competition, they’ll also give your all-star cheerleading organization some extra recognition in your community.

How A Magazine Storefront Can Be Used
To Support Cheerleading Fundraising

Your cheerleaders paid $15 for their annual subscription to American Cheerleader Magazine and the publisher got all the money.  If your cheerleading organization had its own online magazine store your cheerleaders would have paid $15 for American Cheerleader but $6.00 (40%) would have come back to you for their personal cheerleading account.  If some of your member families subscribed to a couple of other magazines—say, for example, Cooking Light and Time Magazine—and they renewed all three subscriptions at your online store at the same time, then they would each have paid $59.  However, if they would have ordered directly from the respective publishers they would have spent $4 more—or $63—because your magazine store will carry a lot of titles at lower prices than are available through the publisher.  In addition, you will get back $23.60 in cash on each of those orders that can be credited to the cheerleader’s personal account.  That’s not all.  Each of those families will receive a national $50 restaurant gift card which can be used toward meals at thousands of restaurants across the country . . . even in the city where your next competition will be held!

It keeps getting better.  Suppose your cheerleaders went to their neighbors’ homes and learned that some of those neighbors subscribe to several magazines?  They could help them save money on their subscription renewals and, any household that spent $50 or more would also get a free $50 restaurant gift card!  In addition, you would receive in cash 40% of whatever was spent for new or renewal subscriptions that you could credit to your cheerleaders’ account!  The really nice thing about this from the subscriber’s point of view is that the money used to renew these subscriptions is money that would have been spent anyway—so they are delighted they could help their neighbor without having to put out more money.  In fact, they may even save money, plus they may purchase enough to get that $50 restaurant gift card.

Here is something you can’t do with a cookie dough fundraiser:  Ask your cheerleaders to call some relatives who live in a neighboring state—or even several states away—and ask them to find out if those relatives subscribe to any magazines.  If they do, your cheerleaders should then ask them to renew their magazine subscriptions through your cheerleading organization’s online store.  In all probability they were going to renew their subscriptions anyway, so your cheerleaders are not asking them for money that wasn’t going to be spent on those magazines . . . plus your cheerleaders can tell their relatives that they will receive a $50 restaurant gift card if they their total order is $50 or more.  So, unlike a cookie dough fundraiser, now you can get sales from those who don't live within driving distance of product delivery because magazine subscriptions will be sent through the mail.

Even if Aunt Sara had just renewed several subscriptions a few months ago, she might be tempted to add another year to each subscription just to get the $50 gift card. 

Champion will set up your cheerleading organization with a free custom online magazine subscription store at no charge as long as long as it is used for one magazine drive per year for a minimum of two years and as long as you place a link to the store on your website’s home page.  Your magazine will offer over 800 of the most popular magazine titles (but not those that some people might find objectionable), and every three months your cheerleading organization will get a summary of the magazines that were ordered on behalf of each cheerleader plus a check for 40% of all magazine orders as long as the balance at quarter’s end is at least $50. 

Unlike a cookie dough fundraiser, there is no sorting, no going back to deliver what was sold, no possibility of breakage or spoilage, no quality issues, the product can be order by supporters who live out of your area (or across the country) and Champion does all the accounting for you.  Best of all, your cheerleaders’ customers will look forward to renewing their magazine subscriptions each year and getting that $50 restaurant gift card!  

How A Custom Discount Card Fundraiser
Can Generate Revenue and Community Support

The important word is “custom”.  Too many fundraising discount cards are of the “one fundraising card fits all” kind that either lists national pizza franchises and not much else, or they list merchants offering low-value discounts and then use the identical set of listings for all of the organizations they work with in a given area.  Custom fundraising discount cards are different.  They offer real relevance because you tell the discount card company which merchants you want on the card—and real value because the company contacts the merchants on your list and negotiates strong discounts. 

A discount card fundraiser conducted with a custom card is a lot easier for your members, too.  All they have to do is place the card in hand of a prospective buyer and, once they see the listed offers, there is a high probability of a purchase being made.  In addition, this cheerleading fundraiser won't be looked upon in the same way the proverbial cookie dough fundraiser is viewed.  Anyone who purchases and uses this year’s custom discount card is likely to look forward to purchasing next year’s card because, if they've been enjoying the discounts, they're not going to want to be without them next year.

One side benefit of a custom discount card is that they get also get printed with your cheer organization's artwork on the front of the card—and those are like hundreds of tiny billboards for your all-star cheerleading program that get distributed to the community.  There is one caveat.  Companies that offer custom fundraising discount cards are likely to require a minimum purchase.  This is to be expected since they have to cover the expense of creating and printing the fundraising cards.  However, Champion offers a limited return-for-refund policy that covers you in case your cheerleaders don’t sell all of the discount cards you had ordered.

Here is something you may not be expecting.  In addition to offering excellent discounts at a variety of popular local businesses that you get to pick, the discount card company can also tell the card-buyer how they can renew their magazines at your online store on behalf of the cheerleader who sold the card to them—and how they can get a national $50 restaurant gift card.  It’s the discount card fundraiser that keeps on raising money!

By the way, we don't mean to disparage the prototypical cookie dough fundraiser.  Champion also offers as a fundraiser English Bay Cookie Dough, which has won the American Culinary Award as well as other national and international awards for excellence.  All we are saying is that if you feel you're asking too much of your neighbors and friends by asking them to make purchases of fundraising products that require a net purchase, maybe it's time to replace one or two of them with a fundraiser that offers a net savings.

Many high school athletic directors supervise an ever-expanding array of athletic programs and related activities, as well as manage a budget for the related supplies, equipment and capital improvements necessary to support them.  Faced with ever-tighter budgets, athletic directors are increasingly challenged to come up with creative fundraising ideas for their programs.  While booster clubs and team coaches are often involved in conducting product fundraisers for their respective teams, athletic directors tend to favor funding opportunities that benefit their entire array of sports programs but do not involve the student-athletes in selling fundraising products directly to the community.  Most would also prefer to avoid fundraising programs that over-tax the adults in the community—especially those who are already providing more than their fair share of support to the school’s athletic program.  Coming up with new and creative sports fundraising ideas that have broad appeal and are not overly solicitous or commercial in nature can indeed be challenging.

Below are three great fundraising event ideas and two unique non-selling fundraising programs that offer the potential to raise a lot of money.  They also present terrific alumni networking opportunities.  Click on the blue paragraph titles and you’ll be taken to a page where you can request more information.

• Basketball Entertainment Events – You’ve heard about these basketball fundraising event ideas.  Athletic directors usually have ready access to the school’s gymnasium—a venue that often represents a significant expense to other organizations that wish to sponsor a fundraising event—so why not plan a sports entertainment event that would be fun for the entire community?  Events such as Donkey Basketball or Harlem Wizards games can have great community appeal and draw large admissions-paying crowds.  Several NFL teams have players who get together in the off-season to play basketball games against school faculty members as a fundraising event—and they also can draw huge crowds within their respective marketing areas.  

These events usually raise anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000, but some have raised $20,000 or more depending upon gymnasium seating capacity and how they are promoted.

• Nostalgic Rock Concerts – Of all fundraising event ideas, this one really rocks!  Name a legendary rock star or group—past or present—and they are probably being impersonated on stage by very talented performers.  Many of these acts have very wide appeal that cuts across generations and can draw sell-out crowds to your auditorium or other local venue.  Tribute acts include Elvis (of course), The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, The Temptations, Elton John, The Blues Brothers, Kenny Rodgers, Aretha Franklin, Aerosmith, Barbara Striesand and many more. 

Tribute concert fundraising events usually raise anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000, depending upon auditorium seating capacity and how they are promoted.  

• Annual Golf Tournament – Contrary to what you may have heard, golf tournament fundraisers are not dead.  Not by a long shot.  While many golf events have been hit hard by the economy, consider utilizing the services of a professional golf tournament consultancy.  They’ll show how you can easily network existing human resources to put together an annual golf fundraising event at one of your most prestigious private clubs.  A well run tournament can bring in $60,000 or more in net profit with just 15 or 20 foursomes.  Last year a high school athletic director put together a golf tournament with the help of a consultancy and netted $87,000—and the 66 golfers that participated didn’t pay a dime to play at one of the area’s most exclusive clubs!  This year they’re making room for 100 golfers and expect to earn $125,000 in net profit. 

Like any golf event fundraiser, you’ll need to pull together a golf event committee and select a host golf course and; however, before you do either of those two things, check with your consultant.  Those may be two of your most important steps and you’ll want to make sure you follow your consultant’s advice with respect to them.          

• Online Magazines - Subscription Renewal Store –  Magazine publishers represent another industry that has been hit hard by the economy.  A magazine subscription renewal storefront can be custom-designed for your athletic department at no charge.  It will feature over 800 of today’s most popular (and non-offensive) magazine titles, many of which are offered to your supporters at “educational institution” pricing.  Your supporters can actually save money renewing their current magazine subscriptions (or purchasing new subscriptions) at your storefront.  In addition, each visitor to your storefront who purchases at least $50 in magazine subscriptions will receive a $50 restaurant gift card!  

Now, comes the best part.  Unlike other online merchandise stores,  the items purchased at this storefront are annually renewable.  The vendor takes advantage of that on your behalf by emailing reminders and your message to subscribers at renewal time to let them know they can continue to support your program by renewing their subscriptions at your storefront with two mouse clicks.  That means that with each passing year you can build on the number of supporters who order their magazines from your store.  With periodic promotions that your supporters can offer to their friends and family members, this program can be easily ramped up to generate tens of thousands of dollars in net profit every year. 

• VIP Fundraising Discount Cards –  Would you like to give something back to the Mom & Pop merchants and other retailers in your community who have supported your athletic program?  With a VIP Discount Card you can give them free advertising listings that will generate much needed foot-traffic to their retail locations as well big profits for your athletic department.  These fundraising cards don’t need to be sold into the community by student-athletes and their parents; rather, they can be pre-sold to large corporate sponsors in your community at $10 or $15 each as a promotional item.  They can be imprinted with the sponsoring company’s logo and/or the cause they are supporting—yours!  Most companies then give them to their employees and/or best customers as promotional gifts.  The promotional products industry actually grew to nearly $18.8 billion last year and many medium-size and large companies have already allocated money in their fiscal year budget for items such as this.  Keep in mind that your school is probably a “feeder” program for employees at several large companies in your area.  Also, don’t be surprised to learn that your alumni may be working in the purchasing department of some of your best corporate prospects!  In addition, this is a program that requires almost no work; just a little planning to get into your corporate sponsors’ budget cycles. 

These cards can also act as tiny billboards for your golf tournament or other athletic department-sponsored events.  A thousand cards can bring in up to $11,000 in net profit; five thousand cards can bring in up to $35,000.  If you wish to extend the reach of the cards, you can opt to offer them to your teams or booster clubs that may want to participate in the sale of these cards for a share of the profits.     

Consider a Sports Fundraising Partnership

The size of your school or school district doesn’t matter with respect to the last two suggestions—the magazine storefront, and VIP fundraising discount card.  There is no up-front cost and no risk of loss associated with either of those programs, and the size of the school or school district is not material.  The fundraising event ideas—i.e., the basketball events, tribute concerts and golf tournament may have minimum requirements that make them a better fit for a larger community support base.  However, you don’t have to go it alone.  Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto—and it's a good thing he did.  Bringing in another (or several other) school district athletic director(s) to participate in the enterprise not only spreads out the initial cost of an fundraising engagement, but it also maximizes each athletic program’s bottom line through economies of scale.  

Selecting from among these potentially successful sports fundraising ideas and committing to them is only a small part of the challenge that an athletic director is presented with.  The bigger challenge has to do with getting, building and retaining community support for your fundraising event ideas, and then managing all of the steps that are important to implementing and managing a large fundraising event.  That’s where many fundraising programs sputter—and sometimes stall.  Just keep in mind that the companies that offer these fundraising products and services have acquired the expertise to ensure they are implemented to their clients’ best advantage.  They usually have or can recommend someone who can take your fundraiser from mediocre to extraordinary.  The difference between a fundraising campaign that is just “put out there” and one that is properly implemented and supervised can be quite substantial in terms of the money that is ultimately raised. 

Consulting services aren’t cheap, but it can be far more costly to do without the services of a good consultant.  The cost of not having someone who can navigate success is often an “opportunity cost”.  That is, without a consultant it is the cost of what your fundraising program would have earned in net profit but didn’t.  Look at it this way:  They’re the experts; they know what works and what doesn’t.  They understand the subtleties of their program and they know what needs to be done to keep the program and your volunteers on track.  They can also deal with the people you've brought in to provide assistance and, at the same time, remove the risk of you damaging your relationship with them.  Consultants are also motivated to manage your financial risk and maximize your bottom line because they will want to work with you again next year and the year after.

Feel free to contact us.  Let us know what you have in mind.  We will help you get started in the right direction or we will refer you to someone else who will.      

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Almost everyone who has more than a little experience with sports fundraising understands that, all other things being equal, each fundraiser you do in a single sports season produces progressively smaller yields.  In fact, this phenomenon is a “law”—in the field of economics it’s called the Law of Diminishing Returns.  However, judging by the number of product fundraisers (i.e., fundraisers that involve the sale of products by its members) that many youth sports organizations conduct during the year, a second or even a third fundraiser is often deemed desirable regardless of the relatively small financial contribution that is made by these subsequent fundraisers.  Although the need for more funds is certainly the driving force, perhaps we should consider whether doing our first fundraiser more effectively or finding a non-selling way to raise more funds might be the better way to satisfy that need.

Conducting one product fundraiser each season can be tolerated or, if it is handled properly, even embraced by an organization’s members.  However, conducting more than one such fundraiser can have negative consequences for your organization’s members as well as for other youth organizations in your community.  Certainly, the more fundraisers you conduct, the more your members will complain about being confronted with yet another fundraiser and, in fact, the less likely they are to participate.  After all, your members are not going to feel comfortable soliciting their friends, neighbors and co-workers to support a growing number of fundraisers.  For those members that do participate in a second or third product fundraiser, individual productivity is likely to decline significantly with each succeeding fundraiser.  In addition, by the time the player and his parent(s) move on to the next sport or activity, everyone is likely to have lost a good bit of their willingness to participate in—or be as productive with—that organization’s fundraiser.

Needless to say (although perhaps one would be remiss to not articulate it), even before your organization begins its first fundraiser, many of your members may have already been fundraiser fatigued or “fundraisered-out” by other organizations’ fundraisers.  The unfortunate fact of the matter is that there aren’t many communities where fundraising isn’t overdone.  One of the best sports fundraising ideas your organization and other sports organizations in your community can embrace is the one that is addressed in this article.  It is one that will help you do fewer product fundraisers and, at the same time, accomplish the purpose that your fundraising efforts are intended to accomplish.  This article is intended to help you understand that in fundraising “more is not better”.   It starts with the premise that if your organization is doing several product fundraisers in your sport’s season, then somewhere in your organization’s history someone had the idea that asking your members to participate in more than one fundraiser would be a good idea.  It offers the assertion that this is not a good idea and that it was probably instituted as a way to avoid doing what was required to make your first fundraiser more productive.  That is, it was deemed easier to put more fundraisers “out there” than to do any one of them with an eye to efficacy.

To the extent that less productivity has spawned more fundraisers, and more fundraisers have resulted in still less productivity, sports fundraising (and school fundraising) has become both ubiquitous and insidious.  The propagation of product fundraisers and the consequent decline in player participation and player productivity seems to have morphed a once vibrant and effective support enterprise into a fatiguing and ever less productive activity.  As with many worthy activities that were once considered desirable, fundraising, when done to excess will produce undesirable consequences.       

You can indeed do fewer product fundraisers—and probably just one fundraiser—without a loss of revenue.  Actually, you can do just one fundraiser and bring in more revenue if you implement a fundraiser in a way that will harness the support of your organization’s leaders and members at large.  That “if” isn’t a very high hurdle.  Frankly, you want a fundraiser to have support and if you don’t get it there is an easier alternative—raising your player registration fees.  Of course, if you put that alternative up on the supply-demand curve you will notice that an increase in fees will precipitate a fall in demand for what your organization has to offer as families in your community seek other, less costly alternatives to membership in your organization.  Getting support for a fundraiser is not the same as getting board members’ votes to approve one.  All youth sports fundraisers that are being done in your community were put to a vote and approved, but not very many of them were supported by those who voted in the affirmative.    

There are ways to reduce the number of product fundraisers your organization routinely conducts each year—and, happily, there is a decision-making process that will help you with this.  First, place the horse before the cart and ask yourself whether your organization needs to fundraise at all.  The purpose of an annual fundraiser should be to help cover operational costs.  An annual product fundraiser should be conducted only if there is a need for funds where the alternative—probably that of raising registration fees—is not desirable.  In other words, an annual fundraiser should only be considered as an alternative to raising registration fees (or, in rare instances, to address an unexpected or emergency need).  So, first ask your board which alternative is more desirable.  Perhaps raising registration fees is an acceptable alternative and you can reduce your number of fundraisers to zero.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  It would certainly indirectly help other sports organizations in your community that rely more heavily on fundraising revenue.   

Second, if you feel there is a need for a fundraiser, ask yourself whether just one fundraiser can be conducted in a manner that will assure—if not guarantee—that this campaign will be the only campaign needed.  If you are not sure whether one fundraiser can do the trick, then try talking with a fundraising professional. 

Notice that this second consideration is not about product.  It is too often assumed that a fundraiser is not productive because the product chosen does not “perform” as expected, so the “solution” becomes one of finding the often elusive “more productive product”.   To fundraising professionals, successful fundraisers are almost never about what product to sell; rather, they are about making sure the fundraiser is conducted most advantageously in terms of timing and implementation.  (See “Why Did Last Season’s Sports Fundraising Campaign Tank?”) 

First Fundraisers

For most youth organizations, the venue or opportunity at which you will have the most control over both how a fundraiser is conducted and the outcome is player registrations.  The reason is that all players must register and, no matter whether the registration takes place at a physical, brick-and-mortar location or online, everyone must satisfy a set of requirements to become registered.  Participation in a fundraiser can certainly be one of those requirements.

For many years and until it became politically incorrect, dollar candy bars were the dominant fundraising product at player registrations.  The reason for this dominance is obvious.  The youth organization’s volunteers could place a case (or “carrier” as they are sometimes called) or two of candy bars in a registrant’s hands and collect the fundraiser proceeds (along with the registration fee) before the product left the registration site.  The registrants would get back the money they handed over to the youth league for the candy bars when they sold them to others.  With the advent of online registrations and the linking of candy to childhood health issues, candy bars have been disappearing from the registration scene; however, it is undeniable that the fundraising methodology employed at registration was virtually infallible.  All registrants were required to participate (i.e., the fundraiser was mandatory), the league knew exactly how much income would be derived from the process, and those funds were available at the start of the sport’s season.  In addition, it was easy—and almost no one seemed to be put out by it because this is the way it was done every year.  That is, it was expected and accepted.               

Products that lend themselves well to the registration venue include fundraising discount cards, raffle tickets, lottery calendars, or any item that can be parceled out in a pre-determined quantity to each player or family.  Whether you conduct your player registrations at a physical location or online, it is worth your consideration to add a few words to your registration form that can be initialed by the parents in acknowledgment of their commitment to sell the product that is given to them.  You can then collect the fundraiser proceeds with the completed registration forms and whatever you are charging as a registration fee so that you won’t have to attempt collections on the back end of the fundraiser. 

Many youth organizations have traditionally allowed their members to make a fixed cash donation—or “buy-out”—in lieu of participating in a fundraiser.  Buy-outs are fine; however, if you allow your registrants to buy out, it should be for an amount equal to the proceeds you were expecting to receive had the parent not bought out of the fundraiser.  In other words, if you are asking everyone to sell, say, 6 discount cards or 6 raffle tickets for $10 each, then you should collect a buy-out of $60—and then give the cards or tickets to the parent to keep or give away as gifts.  Of course, this is really not a buy-out in the strictest sense of the term; however, it is much better than setting a buy-out donation so low that it encourages some members to avoid what the others are being asked to do.  Keep in mind that, for the parent who wishes to buy out, the issue is a desire to avoid selling and (hopefully) not an expectation that they should treated differently than anyone else.  Also, if you are conducting a discount card fundraiser, there is an expectation on the part of the listed merchants that the discount cards will be distributed.  That is an expectation that should be honored.    

By conducting a mandatory fundraiser this way you are treating everyone equitably and, at the same time, you are ensuring that your organization will make exactly the amount of funds it is expecting to make and that it won’t get stuck with unsold product.  Perhaps best of all, all the funds will be in your organization’s treasury almost as soon as your members have registered, and you won’t have to chase after anyone for money.  That is, you will have quick closure and ready funds.  

Making the fundraising remittance part of what you collect with the player registration fees is the key to making your registration fundraiser easy to administer.  Among the best sports fundraising ideas, none are both as easy to administer and as profitable as a registration fundraising program.  However, if you are starting your first registration fundraiser, some consideration should be given to those who were not expecting to outlay the fundraiser proceeds in advance.  If anyone balks at the extra cash outlay at registration, you can simply take a post-dated check so they will have time to sell the product and thereby reimburse themselves before the check is deposited.  Fundraising discount cards or raffle tickets that sell for $10 each are not difficult to sell and can be converted back to cash rather quickly.  However, by handling the remittances in this manner you have ensured that everyone will participate and that the burden of supporting your youth organization will be borne equally by everyone.  In addition, the fundraiser becomes a one-step process for your organization—a simple exchange of product for proceeds—and a one-step process for your members since the product will be delivered to their customers at the point of sale. 

Conducting a registration fundraiser this way usually produces fewer complaints from the general membership than most youth league board members expect.  Some board members may be reluctant to ask for more up-front money at registration out of fear that it will not be well accepted by those who register.  However, this is a concern that is more apparent than it is real.  In practice this method draws few or no complaints, and what few complaints may surface the first time out virtually disappear the second time it is implemented.  It is also true that repetition breeds acceptance.  That is, each year you run a program in this way, your members will come to expect that “this is the way it is done”, and both the fact and manner of the fundraiser will be met with greater acceptance in the second and succeeding years.  In fact, a successful fundraising program that is administered even-handedly and with authority will command more respect each year. 

Second Fundraisers

Getting back to the decision-making process, and assuming you have decided that at least one fundraiser is necessary, the third consideration is one of whether you will need another fundraiser in the same season.  If your organization has already decided to conduct a registration fundraiser, then you should know how much money it will add to your treasury.  Knowing that, a second fundraiser should be planned only if four conditions are met:  (1) You know that additional funds are needed; (2) The funds cannot be raised by other, more acceptable, means; (3) Your organization hasn’t already promised that your first fundraiser will be the only fundraiser; (4) It is voluntary.

With respect to item (3), you should know how much money fundraising is expected to contribute to your budget.  Therefore, you can always hedge your bet by promising your members that, if the first fundraiser meets it’s goal, there will not be a second fundraiser.  That is a great way to let everyone know that your fundraiser has an important purpose; that you’re not asking them to participate in a fundraiser because you think it is something they should enjoy doing. 

Second fundraisers are usually “order-taker” fundraisers (e.g., a pizza or cookie dough fundraiser, a sub or sandwich sale, or even a discount card fundraiser) where orders are taken and money is collected prior to product fulfillment.  There are a variety of sports fundraising ideas with products available in an order-taker format.  These fundraisers can be very productive if they are started early enough—especially in the “pre-season” and certainly prior to Opening Day—and especially if they offer strong seller incentives and are properly introduced to the players.  (See “Three Elements of Successful Sports Fundraising”)  However, second fundraisers are best promoted as voluntary fundraisers because a youth organization will not be able to exercise the same level of control over sales as it can with a mandatory registration fundraiser.  Also, a second mandatory fundraiser is likely to be met by your general membership with resistance or resentment or both.

There are some disadvantages associated with voluntary order-taker fundraisers.  You don’t have the advantage of knowing in advance exactly how much product will be sold and therefore how much money will be raised.  In addition, order-taker fundraisers can involve many more steps than a registration fundraiser—for both the fundraising chairperson who will administer the fundraiser and for your members who will be engaged in selling and then delivering the product.  Here, the fundraising chairperson must supervise the fundraiser’s kickoff on the front end of the fundraiser, and also the collection and accounting of the orders and money on the back end of the fundraiser, as well as scheduling and supervising the distribution of ordered product and sales incentives to the sellers.  The sellers not only have to take orders and collect and turn them in with the money, but they also have to deliver the product to their customers via a second visit. 

In spite of the additional work involved, a well-planned and well-run second order-taker-type fundraiser can be quite profitable.  Nevertheless, ask yourself whether you believe your members would better tolerate an increase in registration fees rather than being asked to support a second fundraiser.  Even though a second fundraiser may be voluntary, it is still adding to the number of fundraisers your players are taking into your community each year.

No Apologies

Many youth organization board members—and fundraising chairpersons—can be quite diffident or even apologetic in introducing a fundraising campaign to its members.  Keep in mind that our attitudes and even our beliefs are expressed in the way we conduct ourselves in the presence of others.  As parents we sometimes realize—after the fact—that our observed actions were imprudent and that we have, by example, unintentionally sent the wrong message about something to our children.  The way a board member or coach observably responds to the implementation of their organization’s fundraiser also makes an impression on the players and their parents—the people who will be asked to participate.  Subtle actions and attitudes can convey more truth than oratory, and they will either send the message that your sports fundraising campaign is important, has a worthy purpose and should be embraced fully, or it will send the message that it is not all that important or worthy of their support.  Either message can have a profound impact on your campaign’s results. 

Certainly, a negative or ambivalent approach is likely to hurt the outcome of a fundraiser as well as contribute to the problem of having to do more fundraisers than would otherwise be necessary.  Therefore, an appropriate last step in the decision-making process should be to ask those in leadership positions who will vote for and approve the fundraiser to cast their unreserved support along with their vote.  Perhaps all they gave to the fundraiser last year was their vote.  If that is all they are going to give to the fundraiser this year then it would be unreasonable to expect that this year’s campaign results will be much different than last year’s results.  (See “The Cure for Ambivalence in Youth Sports Fundraising”.)  

Furthermore, to put this in perspective, your first fundraiser is going to run for, at most, only a few weeks.  Asking your board of directors and your coaches for a show of honest support for such a limited engagement is not the same as asking them to build an exact replica of the Great Pyramid.  You’re just asking them grasp and approve of the fundraiser’s purpose and to engage others in its worthiness—and they’ll probably do that if they are themselves convinced of its worthiness.    

If the fundraiser can’t be embraced and supported by those who voted for it, then perhaps your organization’s leadership is collectively saying that it approves of the purpose but not of the method.  If that is the case, then it should consider an alternative way to raise the funds that are needed.  To be sure, the purpose is more important than the method of achieving it.  If there is a more acceptable method available then, by all means, discard the fundraiser.  That is, don’t ask your members to support something your leadership won’t support.  A fundraiser is not something in which you should ask your members to participate unless your leadership’s collective intention is to lead them to the accomplishment of its purpose.          

On the other hand, if your board members and coaches have followed a logical decision-making process and have concluded that an annual sports fundraising campaign is necessary and that it will, for example, keep registration fees low and make your sports program more accessible to the youth in your community, then the fundraising program should be embraced fully and promoted with confidence and authority.  There should be no room for doubt and no reason for hesitation.  If the fundraiser is the method of choice, then your board members and coaches should understand that it is something that requires more than a vote.  It requires honest and active support.    

In addition to being conducted with confidence and authority, a fundraiser should also be conducted with the belief in its purpose and the expectation that everyone in the organization will or should participate.  Of course, with most fundraisers, especially voluntary-participation fundraisers, you won’t get everyone to participate.  Nevertheless, an “expectation of participation” is in itself an important message to convey—not in words, but in attitude.  It will help communicate your belief in the fundraiser’s purpose.  If you don’t communicate that belief then those from whom you are asking support may presume that the fundraiser lacks purpose and that your request for support is baseless.    

You have undoubtedly heard the axiom that if something is worth doing it is worth doing right.  With respect to running a fundraising campaign, that nugget of wisdom couldn’t be more on the mark.  One well run and fully supported fundraiser can easily out-perform several fundraisers that are carelessly thrown into the hands of the members of a youth sports organization.  If your fundraiser’s purpose is worthy, then there should be no cause for ambivalence and no reason to be apologetic in asking others to participate.  

Doing all that can or should be done to ensure the support and success of your first fundraiser may mean that you will not have to conduct a subsequent fundraiser.  However, if you want to make an impact on the current state of youth sports fundraising, then share this article with someone who serves on the board of directors of another sports organization within your community.  Letting other leagues know how they can benefit from doing fewer fundraisers is one of the best sports fundraising ideas that you can share with other sports organizations in your community.  It is an idea that will not only benefit them and their members, but it will also help make your organization’s future fundraising efforts more productive.    

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The best fundraising ideas for sports teams have nothing to do with the fundraising products that are sold in the fundraiser.  In spite of the fact that the preceeding statement may be counter-intuitive, it is nevertheless true.  Almost any fundraising product or product line you can think of has been an overwhelming success for a youth sports organization somewhere, and the very same product or product line has been a failure somewhere else.  Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that, when it comes to successful fundraising ideas for sports teams, product choice does not rank very high.  In sports fundraising success always comes down to what you do . . . or fail to do.   However, as is true with so many other endeavors, nobody wants to take "credit" for a failure.

Five Steps to Conducting
A Successful Sports Fundraising Campaign

Step 1:  Believe in the Worthiness of the Fundraiser’s Purpose.  Frankly, if you and your youth sports organization don’t believe the fundraiser is serving a worthy purpose then you shouldn’t be doing a fundraiser.  If you do believe a successful fundraiser will serve the mission of your organization, then you have to wear that belief on your sleeve.  Everything you do and say should project the importance of the task at hand.  Since annual fundraising campaigns are usually conducted to cover a league’s operational expenses, chances are your organization has decided to conduct a fundraiser to help keep registration fees low so that your sports program will be more accessible to the children in your community.  If you—even unwittingly—project that you don’t believe in the worthiness of the fundraiser’s purpose, then you are not likely to get much support.

Step 2:  Establish a Successful Fundraising Plan.  Too many youth sports organizations pick a product and then pass out the fundraising packets to the players.  What they are actually doing is throwing their fundraisers into the wind.  You would imagine they were thinking “Why should we have just one good fundraiser when we can have two or three pathetic ones?”  Well, if that is what you want for your league then just handing out the packets is probably an appropriate plan.  However, if you would rather ask your members to participate in just one good fundraiser, then you have to know how to conduct a successful sports fundraiser.  There are three important components to a successful sports fundraising campaign (See Three Elements of Successful Sports Fundraising), and if you plan for and properly implement those components you might be able to accomplish your goal with just one good fundraiser.  

Step 3:  Let Everyone Know the Fundraiser’s Purpose and Your Goal.  If you want the support of others, then you need to let them know why they should give it to you.  Don’t assume they’re just going to give it to you.  Believe it not, most product fundraisers are conducted without even a word about why the funds are needed.  You may as well ask everyone to go home and turn somersaults in their front yards.  Are you asking everyone to participate in this fundraiser because you think it is the one thing that is missing from their lives and that their anticipation has been building for the arrival of the moment when you would ask them to participate?  Hardly.  So, look them in their collective eye and tell them why this fundraiser is important to the league and let them know what goal will accomplish that purpose.  Also let them know how your expectation of their participation is tied to achieving the goal.

Step 4:  Assume a Positive Attitude.  A positive attitude will not only make your task seem lighter and more enjoyable, but it will elicit the confidence and support of others.  Let’s face it, fundraising is nobody’s favorite activity; however, in order to have a successful fundraiser you’re going to need a lot of support from a lot of people in your organization.  You are more likely to get that support if you project a positive attitude.  If you are the leader of your league’s fundraising campaign and you can’t project a positive attitude, then you are the wrong person for the job because you are not going to inspire anyone to action.  People will respond to and follow people who believe in themselves and their mission.  Almost nobody will follow someone who is negative.     

Step 5:  Ask for The Support of Members.  Never say “We hope you will support our fundraiser”.  That’s not only wishy-washy, it is also certainly not asking.  “We hope?”  Big deal!  So what?  When someone says something like that they are unintentionally sending a message of relative indifference.  What the audience may be hearing is that speaker doesn’t really give a flying fig whether the fundraiser is supported.  If the message being sent is that the leader isn’t all that invested, then why should those who are expected to follow become invested?  It shouldn’t be difficult to ask for someone’s support if you understand the purpose of the fundraiser, believe the purpose is important and worthy, and proceed with the expectation that the fundraiser should be supported by others.  If you have that expectation of support, then you should confidently ask for support and you shouldn’t be afraid of having the appearance of expecting to get it.  However, Brave Heart, if you do ask for support there are two additional things you need to do:  Maintain friendly eye-contact and wait for an answer.  Once the request is made, the first one who speaks loses—so just wait for an answer even if the silence becomes uncomfortable.  If you have followed the first four steps, the answer will probably be “yes”, and that verbal response will have immediately transformed itself into what you are really after—a commitment.    

With regard to asking for support, the best thing to get is a commitment because most people will follow-through on a verbal commitment they have made to another.  With most youth sports organizations it is probably extraordinarily difficult—if not impossible—for one person to get a commitment to participate from every player and parent in the organization.  However, you already have in place a hierarchy for accomplishing that objective. 

The Key To The Most Successful Sports Fundraising Ideas

Of all the sports fundraising ideas you will ever hear, here is one that can’t be bested:  Cultivate your coaches to become your apostles.  Conversion isn’t always easy to accomplish; however, over time and especially as new coaches come into the program each year, it is possible to get most of them to understand and support what you are trying to accomplish.  Once coaches understand the purpose and importance of what you are asking them to do, and once they get a sense of the positive impact they can have on accomplishing that purpose, then each year you can ask for and get their commitment to ask others for theirs.

You are looking at the key to youth sports fundraising success.  Go ahead, Brave Heart, pick it up.  When you come right down to it, wouldn’t you rather ask everyone for a commitment to do one fundraiser well than have to go back and ask them to do several fundraisers?  To this author's way of thinking, a youth sports league should never have to ask its members to do more than one fundraiser in a season, and if you are going to do one, then it should be done well. 

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One of the most common myths in sports fundraising is that two nearby organizations doing the same fundraiser at the same time—or nearly the same time—will significantly hurt at least one of the organization’s sales.  However, the perception is more apparent than it is real.  That is, it certainly seems reasonable to conclude that if one sports organization in a community is conducting, say, a cookie dough fundraiser at the same time another organization is selling cookie dough, then they must be taking sales away from each other.  In reality, there will be very little redundancy in the attempts of each organization to sell to the same prospective buyers, and what redundancy there may be will have very little impact on the outcome of either of the two sports fundraising campaigns. 

The only problem with trying to dispel the perception of interference is that if one or both of the organizations had a disappointing fundraiser then the perceived conflict will be singled out as the cause.  What can make matters worse is that the accusation will be something that is just as impossible to disprove as the existence of leprechauns.  (Do you have proof that leprechauns don't exist?)  Happily, a moment of reflection, reasonableness and logic can bring one around.

The question is "Should a youth organization entertain sports fundraising ideas that other area school or youth organizations are already conducting?"  To answer this, let’s consider a hypothetical situation in which a youth soccer club would like to sell fundraising discount cards, but their community’s high school baseball team has been conducting a discount card fundraiser for several years. 

First, from a statistical standpoint, even the most successful fundraiser conducted by one of the largest youth organizations in the school district will rarely exceed more than 5% market penetration within that geographic area.  That is, it is likely that a single large and successful fundraiser will not reach 95% of the households in the geographic area into which the cards are sold.  Therefore, from a purely mathematical perspective, it stands to reason that two large youth organizations conducting a successful fundraiser at the same time will share the same customers no more than ¼ of 1% (.05 x .05 = .0025) of the time.  That translates to less than three out of every 1,000 households.  Although the perception of a conflict may be very strong, the amount of actual “overlap”, where a seller from each organization is competing for the same sale with the same customer, is obviously exceedingly small.

Second, in case one has difficulty wrapping his mind around the idea that the probability of selling redundancy could be so remote, let’s push the probability beyond any doubt of validity.  Let’s increase that number by more than a factor of 10 and say that in 3 out of every 100 households (i.e., 3% of households instead of ¼% of households) a prospective customer would have to decide whether to purchase a fundraising product from one youth organization having already purchased a similar product from another organization.  That would mean that, on average (and by means of this exaggerated criterion), each sports organization would be potentially giving up 1½% of its sales to the other sports organization.  

But wait!  Would that really happen?  If the fundraising product was a discount card, what would you do if you purchased a card from one organization and were later approached to buy another card from a second organization's player?  Well, the answer in this case might depend upon whether the second discount card was the same (i.e., whether it offered the same discounts) as the one you purchased last night.  Of course, if it offered the same discounts then the second card would probably have little or no appeal to you.  On the other hand, if the second discount card offered a substantially different set of discounts, and it had unique merchant discount listings that were of particular interest to you, then that might hold much appeal and make the second purchase more likely.  The reality of the matter is that many people do purchase a second discount card when asked to do so.  Of course, they’re not really buying a discount card per se; they’re really buying the merchant offers and, if the two cards carry different offers, why wouldn’t they purchase a second discount card?   

Let’s change the product and say the product in question is pizza and last night you purchased a pizza from a player on the middle school’s girls' basketball team.  If a youth from the high school marching band came to your door tonight and asked for you to support their trip to a college bowl parade by purchasing a pizza, what would you do?  After all, you might feel inclined to support both organizations, and it is not as though your family can eat only one pizza in the next several months! 

If you are one of the many people who would purchase a second fundraising discount card or another pizza, then you probably helped to make that inflated number of 1½% go down to less than 1%.  That is, from a purely statistical and mathematical standpoint, the outcome of either fundraiser will not be affected in any significant way. 

What many people fail to take into consideration, then, is how enormous the potential market (i.e., pool of potential buyers) is for any single youth sports fundraising campaign, how few are the occurrences of approaching the same potential purchasers, and how frequently potential purchasers buy a fundraising item from both organizations.

Third, sports fundraising outcomes are often incentive-driven.  That is, sellers typically know how many fundraising items they need to sell to earn an offered incentive.  So it seems logical to assume that if a seller is motivated to sell by the offered incentive and happens to encounter that rare person who didn’t purchase from him because this person had just purchased a similar item from another organization, then the seller could easily find another customer in his very large and heretofore untapped potential customer universe.  That universe is represented not only by the 5% of households that may have already purchased a similar fundraising item, but also by the 95% of other households that have not yet been approached.

Getting back to our hypothetical situation of the youth soccer club and the high school baseball team selling a similar product, a fourth consideration is that here we are talking about organizations representing two distinctly different age groups.  Because both players and their parents are likely to sell somewhat disproportionately to age-peers, this suggests that there is likely to be even less of an overlap of potential customers between the two campaigns.

A fifth consideration is that the extended geography into which an organization's fundraising product penetrates is very much larger than most people imagine.  Consider that much—if not most—of what is sold in any youth sports fundraising campaign is sold by the players' parents in the workplace or to relatives or family friends.  Many of these parents may have to travel 5, 10 or even 20 miles to get to their place of employment where they will sell the fundraiser's products to their co-workers, many of whom will have traveled similar distances from the opposite or an oblique direction.  A player's grandparents or friends of the family may even live one or two counties away.  Obviously, the chance that another player from the same organization will approach a co-worker or relative so removed by distance is indeed remote.

There are shortcuts to appreciating the issue.  Just ask yourself whether you think a group of, say, 400 youth organization members is likely to have a fundraising sale that is very close to twice as large as two 200-member youth organizations are likely to have.  It is easy to conceive that they would.  From a slightly different angle, you can consider whether a 400 member soccer club that split and became two organizations—perhaps one a recreational organization and the other a travel club—would experience a difference in their average items sold per player.  Here, it is easy to conceive that they wouldn't. 

The problem with the perception of conflict is not just that it is so flagrantly wrong, it is also that the perception is also so widely held and so deeply ingrained that it is often as difficult to overcome as it was in ancient times for anyone to believe that the world is anything other than flat.  Indeed, if a youth sports organization wanted to conduct a particular type of fundraiser for their next sports season but later learned that one of the high school sports teams did a similar fundraiser, they would probably dismiss the consideration of their idea out of hand for fear of damaging another organization’s fundraiser.

That fear may be very real to the one who is concerned, and the disposition to jettison something that is perceived as harmful to another is honorable; however, before you send any of your potentially successful sports fundraising ideas over the edge of the earth, consider asking the other organization whether they would mind very much if your organization used a similar product in your sports fundraising campaign.  Since the perception (or misperception) of a potential conflict can be so strong, it really is a good idea to ask.  Asking is just the courteous and respectful thing to do (and there is no reason why you can't give the other organization a link to this article if you are worried that your request may foster concern).  You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised with the result of having asked.  More often than not, the other organization will be both impressed with and grateful for your consideration—and it won’t have any objections at all. 

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I’m sure you’ve heard the axiom that “you can only get out of something what you put into it.”  That is certainly true of almost any fundraising endeavor, yet you have to wonder why so many youth organizations bother to set up and conduct a sports fundraising campaign when they invest so little effort in making sure it is a success.  It’s as though people believe if you “put it out there” it will be a success—a kind of “build it and they will come”.  That may work in the movies, but you don’t live in Movieland. 

A youth sports fundraiser is particularly vulnerable to being conducted half-heartedly and sometimes apologetically.  When it fails, it is rarely subjected to an honest post mortem analysis.  Instead, the tendency is to just look for something or someone to blame.  Sometimes we reflexively blame the product that was sold, or we point to a sluggish economy, or maybe we rue that the members of our organization are just too indifferent to support a fundraising campaign.  Some things are just too visible or convenient to point to.  Chances are, none of those things were the reason your fundraiser under-performed.  (See Why Did Last Season’s Sports Fundraising Campaign Tank?)  "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars", but it is much more difficult to assign blame to ourselves. 

The product you choose to sell will probably have very little effect on the outcome of your campaign.  There is certainly no shortage of fundraising ideas for sports teams.  It really doesn't matter whether you are selling fundraising discount cards, raffle tickets, ham sandwiches, or conducting one of the many frozen food fundraisers that are out there (cookie dough, pizza, etc.)—they all have the potential to succeed . . . and they all have the potential to fail.  It's a sure bet that the fundraiser that didn't do so well for your organization last season was a smashing success for another organization.  What will make your sports fundraising campaign a success or failure, then, is not what your organization has decided to sell; rather, it is what you put into it.

We can appreciate that many people have some degree of aversion to asking other people to sell fundraising items even if it is in support of a worthwhile cause.  Because that is all too true, youth sports leagues are often willing to introduce a fundraiser without the force of making a robust call to action.  In fact, most fundraisers are started without even telling the organization’s members the purpose for which the funds will be used, and with barely a word of encouragement for participation.  Some campaigns are even initiated in an apologetic sort of way as though the person leading the campaign was pained or embarrassed to ask for support.  Is it any surprise that a fundraiser conducted in this manner will not perform to its potential?

We all want to feel that others approve of the things we do.  That’s human nature.  Asking our peers to do something they don’t particularly want to do is contrary to our nature.  Youth league board members are no different; they want the approval of their organization’s members and they intuitively know that asking them to participate in a fundraiser will not engender endearment.  The combination of the desire for approval and the need to have a successful fundraiser is what creates fundraising ambivalence.  This ambivalence can be paralyzing to a fundraiser.  In fact, paralysis is what often happens.

"The cure for sports fundraising ambivalence
begins with an appreciation of your fundraiser's purpose."

If your fundraiser has been approved for a worthwhile cause (for example, to keep registration fees low and thereby make your youth program accessible to more families in your community), then why wouldn’t your board members give their collective and unreserved commitment to the purpose?  After all, the objective of the fundraiser is not to win friends; it’s to raise money so kids can play.  Frankly, nobody is going to pull their child out of your league because you asked them to participate in a fundraiser. 

Even in the off-chance that someone felt offended by being asked to participate in the campaign, think of the families in your community whose children will be able to join your organization (or return to your organization next year) because the revenue generated by the fundraiser kept registration fees low.  Your sports organization is not exempt from the laws of economics.  Your league is competing for the discretionary income of nearly every local wage-earner with children.  Even if your organization subsidizes the children of families that are indigent, not everyone accepts charity and higher registration fees almost always means that some children in your community won't have an opportunity to play.

The purpose of a fundraiser is to raise funds so your youth sports program can be made more affordable to more families.  Not everyone understands that at the core level, but they should be made to understand.  It’s really not that hard.  The cure for sports fundraising ambivalence begins with an appreciation for your fundraiser's purpose.  To approach this enterprise meekly, or apologetically, or with ambivalence is to, at best, unwittingly send a message to everyone that your organization’s leadership has no clear and important purpose for the fundraiser and/or it doesn’t have high expectations for its members’ participation or for the fundraiser’s success.  This is probably not the way you would approach any other endeavor in which you have the courage of conviction and the goal of success, so why approach your organization’s fundraiser that way?  Why would you by the din of your ambivalence telegraph the message that you don't care whether your members participate?

A Worthy Purpose Isn't Enough;
Successful Sports Fundraising Requires Commitment 

There is no room for ambivalence here.  If your youth sports fundraising campaign is not being done for an important and worthwhile reason, then don’t do one.  It's that simple.  However, if the fundraiser’s purpose is important and worthy, then buck up and conduct it in a manner that will maximize its success.  Your peers will respect you more for your ability to produce success than they will for any empathy you can offer them—and they're certainly not going to think better of you when you start making excuses for failure. 

If you want your next fundraising campaign to succeed, then you have to believe in the worthiness of its purpose.   But that is just step one.  You also have to know what makes a fundraiser work and what will motivate your organization's members to support it.  (See Three Elements of Successful Sports Fundraising.)  Furthermore, it's a real plus if the person who is leading your fundraising campaign has the ability to effictively convey to others the worthiness of its purpose.

Board members have been elected to a leadership position.  True leadership may require them to implement policies that may not be popular but are nevertheless beneficial for the organization.  Popularity in this context can be a paradox in that it is often dependent on success.  That is to say, whatever endeavor may be perceived as unpopular may in fact become popular if it becomes successful.  We all wish to be a part of something successful.  That’s why kids on sports teams want to win.  There is no requirement that your fundraiser has to be popular.  However, there should be an expectation that it will be a success—and success can only add to its popularity.

Do you really want to have a successful sports fundraising campaign?  Well, you’re truly only going to get out of it what you put into it.  Edward H. Harriman said it better:  “Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more.”  With respect to the task under consideration, what Mr. Harriman just told you is that you’ve put the bloody thing out there, so now go make it work.  If you feel that raising this money is for a good purpose and it is important to the mission of your organization, then tell everyone why you want their support.  Better yet, go one step further and ask for a commitment of support—and then proceed with the expectation that everyone will contribute to the enterprise’s success.  Not everyone will, of course, but if you proceed in that manner you will certainly get many more supporters for your campaign this year than you did last year.

People should like you for the kind of person you are—for your character, your personality and your willingness to make a difference in the lives of others.  They are not going to like you less for enthusiastically calling them to action in support of a worthwhile cause, and they will probably respect you more if you can lead them to success.  It doesn't matter whether you are selling fundraising discount cards or cookie dough.  What matters is that you shed your ambivalence, believe in the worthiness of the campaign, and act on your expectations for success.  That is what will determine whether your fundraiser meets with failure, with mediocre results, or with the fulfillment of your expectations.  That is what leadership is all about.  Quite frankly, if you're not committed to the task you're just picking dandelions in the outfield.

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Almost every year youth sports organizations are faced with the prospect of raising player registration fees.  In recent years, the increasing cost of running a sports program has far outpaced increases in member-families’ disposable incomes and, at the same time, many sports fundraising ideas, when implemented, have proved less productive than expected.

If you are old enough to remember, youth sports fundraising once enjoyed a more accepted and respected role in contributing to the financial health of a youth sports organization.  No matter whether the product was fundraising discount cards, dollar candy bars, cookie dough, or frozen pizza kits, member participation rates were much greater and, on average, each participant sold a greater number of items.  In addition, sports fundraising had more of a communal “feel” to it. Those days are largely gone. 

Unfortunately, as youth sports fundraising campaigns have declined in productivity over time, the need for more funds has often been answered with a call for another fundraiser in the same season.  This just exacerbates the problem of declining productivity.  Too many families with children in various activities are just feeling "fundraisered-out" by the sheer number of fundraisers in which they’re asked to participate—as well as the number of fundraising products they're asked to purchase—each year.

In fairness, board members of youth sports leagues are often faced with a dilemma.  If they increase their player registration fees they fear they will financially place their sports program beyond the reach of many families in their community—or risk losing players to competing youth organizations.  On the other hand, if they elect to run more than one product fundraiser in a season, they will place an added burden on their members and contribute to the super-abundance of under-performing fundraisers that have already fatigued their members as well as the community at large. 

There is a three-step process board members of youth programs can utilize to make better sense of sports fundraising and perhaps eliminate the need to raise registration fees.  The first step should be a discussion to determine whether there truly is a need for more funds.   

It may seem odd that the first step in avoiding an increase in registration fees is to determine whether these fees should be increased.  However, in some instances members may prefer an increase in registration fees over doing a fundraiser.  If so then, by all means, eliminate the fundraiser.  However, if there is an obvious need for a fundraiser to keep registration fees low, then engaging your members in the decision-making process will help to remove all doubt of the fundraiser's necessity, it will make parents and coaches feel more invested in the fundraiser's outcome—and it will make their support and participation more likely. 

The second step should be to determine how just one fundraiser might be made sufficient to avoid raising registration fees.  The point is that the board shouldn't leap to the conclusion that a second fundraiser will be necessary just because your first fundraiser is not producing sufficient funds.   If a first fundraiser can be made more productive, then perhaps it may eliminate the need for another.  It is almost always better to have one productive fundraiser than it is to have two under-performing fundraisers.  (One can learn how to increase the productivity of a fundraising campaign in another blog article entitled Three Elements of a Successful Youth Sports Fundraiser.)  

The third step is to ask for the support of your member families.  That doesn't passing out fundraising packets and saying that you hope they'll support the campaign.  It means asking so that you get an answer—whatever that answer may be.  It doesn't matter whether you are selling cookie dough or doing a discount card fundraiser.  Just the act of asking will likely produce a positive response as well as positive results.  

Many board members and coaches are simply quite timid about—or even afraid of—asking for fundraiser support from their players' parents.  If board members or coaches have been carefully brought through the first two steps of this process and have come to feel that one good fundraiser is worthy of support, they may feel more confident about asking for player and parent participation.  A coach that makes a sincere appeal for support from players and their parents is likely to get it.    

Good fundraising ideas—in fact, the best fundraising ideas—are not necessarily about product; they're about how a fundraiser is conducted.  If the directors of a youth sports organization have made the collective decision that a fundraiser can and should play an essential role in their organization, then it should make the commitment to its success as well.  At the same time, it should offer to its general membership a promise that if the goal of this single fundraiser can be met then the board will neither ask the members to participate in another fundraiser this year nor vote to increase registration fees next year—and that is indeed a very worthy objective.

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A custom discount card fundraiser has become a very popular way to raise money for youth sports organizations, especially in this not-so-good economy.  They’re a bona fide win-win-win for (1) local businesses that service your community and often sponsor your teams.  (Your local merchants will appreciate the extra foot-traffic discount cards will drive through their doors); (2) the families in your community who can support your program by purchasing a fundraising discount card for $10 or $15 and end up getting all (or double or triple) their money back when they use the card; and (3) your youth sports program.

For a youth sports organization the profit potential can be huge—and all but guaranteed—if the fundraiser is implemented correctly.  For example, if you have 300 players on roster and each player (and his/her parents) is responsible for selling just 5 discount cards at $10 each, your program stands to net $9,000 in profit.  If you sold the cards for $15 each, your net profit would instead be $16,500.  Either way, selling 5 discount cards is a lot easier than selling 5 pizza kits or 5 tubs of cookie dough, and your program will get the added benefit of having 1,500 little billboards out there advertising your program.  Discount cards are among the best—if not the very best—fundraising ideas for sports teams.

You may have noticed that there was a caveat in the previous paragraph.  It said “if the fundraiser is implemented correctly”.  Unfortunately, some youth sports organizations are so enamored of the opportunity to make so much profit with so little effort (because the discount card company usually does most of the work) that they don’t stop to think about what could go wrong if the discount card fundraiser is not properly implemented.  Part of the problem is often a failure to recognize that discount cards are not a true “order-taker” fundraiser as are pizza kits and cookie dough. 

Food fundraisers are typically conducted with order-taker brochures whereon (as the name implies) orders are taken by the sellers and then orders and money are remitted together.  Everything that was ordered from the fundraising company was also paid for.  Custom discount cards don’t work that way. 

To build a good discount card it takes a lot of work and expense to negotiate discounts with the merchants in a league’s community, and to design and print the discount cards—and all that has to take place prior to the start of the fundraiser.  Therefore, the organization conducting the discount card fundraiser must be prepared to commit to a minimum order before the cards can be produced.  Fortunately, the discount cards are quite easy to sell—so the issue of converting them to cash is almost never a problem from a sales standpoint.  However, the way a discount card fundraiser is administered sometimes is a serious problem.  Mistakes can be made and they can have serious consequences. 

1. The discount card fundraiser is introduced in a venue that is not conducive to collecting the proceeds as the cards are distributed.  The perfect distribution venue for starting a discount card fundraiser is at player registrations where you will encounter parents with checkbooks.  (Those who register and pay online can also be accommodated and the discount cards can be mailed to them.)  Actually, any day (especially between your first registration and a couple of weeks prior to the start of the regular season) that offers an opportunity to hand out the discount card fundraising packets while attempting to collect the proceeds at the same time is better than trying to give out the packets without an opportunity to collect money.

2. No attempt was made to collect the proceeds at the point of distribution.  Not asking for money when giving out the discount cards means that you’ll probably have to chase after most of the people who took the cards and didn’t pay.  Even accepting a post-dated check is infinitely better than the delusion that everyone will remit the proceeds later on their own recognizance.  Make it easy on yourself; every check you can collect on the front end will save you a lot of frustrating work on the back end. 

3. The discount cards are not distributed in packets that are each labeled with a player’s name.  At player registration you won’t be able to do this and nor will you need to if you are keeping a record of who took packets.  However, at other times it is good to know who did or didn’t get a packet.  With labeled packets you at least always know who didn’t get one.

4. The discount cards that are given out are not signed-for when received by the seller or seller’s parent.  Sometimes people forget.  Sometimes the cards must be given to the player instead of to the parent.  A signed receipt is always your best reply to someone who says they never received the cards.

5. Parents are told that they can "buy out" of the fundraiser for an amount that is less than the expected proceeds.  Tell parents they can buy out of the fundraiser for the selling price of the cards.  When they pay the buy-out you can then tell them they can keep the cards to use as stocking stuffers, or they can give them away as “thank you” or birthday gifts.

6. No effort was made to resist returns.  Always let people know the cards you are giving out have already been purchased by your sports organization and the cards are therefore not returnable.  Not letting them know this opens the door for returns.  You can also tell a person asking to return the cards because they don't like selling that they don’t have to sell the cards; they can just pay for them and use them as gifts.

7. No effort was made to collect money owed for cards taken.  You should have collected money up-front, but if you didn’t then give (or mail) an invoice and a self-addressed stamped envelope to the delinquent payer.  If you go through the math you’ll see that this is almost certainly worth the time and expense to do this—and that you would be remiss not to do it.

To these points a few comments are in order.  First, a youth sports league is not a business; it is a non-profit volunteer organization.  However, the IRS has always permitted a non-profit organization to engage in a business activity such as fundraising if it is incidental to the organization’s primary purpose and activity.  Volunteer members of such an organization, when engaging in sports fundraising, are—in effect—running a business for two or more weeks.  However, they don’t often employ the policies and procedures that are essential for running a successful enterprise.  Avoiding all or most of the above mistakes is just a matter of anticipating what can go wrong and then practicing due diligence.  Not only will avoiding these mistakes make your fundraiser easier from an administrative standpoint, but they could also prevent a fundraising catastrophe.

The second point is that there is often an unjustified fear that asking or expecting parents to participate in a sports fundraising campaign will invite recrimination from the players’ parents.  For those charged with running a fundraiser, this often creates an ambivalence that can severely cripple your campaign.  (See The Cure for Ambivalence in Youth Sports Fundraising)  The bottom line is that you’re asking people to participate in a fundraiser because if the money is not raised through the fundraiser the organization will have to raise registration fees (and/or will be unable to cover important operational or emergency expenses).  If registration fees have to be raised it will mean that your program will become less accessible to families in your community.  Understanding purpose is important and can only help your campaign.  Therefore, you should take every opportunity to make sure that everyone understands this. 

Finally, the fear of parents reacting adversely to the collection of fundraising proceeds up front is common, but largely unfounded.  Not many years ago, before candy bar fundraisers were being abandoned for social wellness reasons, youth sports leagues would give out cases (or carriers) of candy bars and collect the proceeds at the same time.  They did this year-after-year and it was a generally accepted practice that ran very smoothly.  Those who have long served as volunteers in youth sports organizations know that sometimes it just takes doing something new more than once to start having people believe that “this is the way it is done” or even “this is the way we’ve always done it”.  The point is that even if you had one or two members voice a complaint or regret the first time out, the next year you would likely have no complaints.  It is simply a matter of “training” your members in one year so they’ll know what to expect in the next. 

Fundraising discount cards rank as one of the easiest and most successful fundraising ideas the fundraising industry has to offer.  You have finally found a fundraiser with a product that can actually help families save money throughout the year and, at the same time, generate an enormous amount of profit and PR for your youth sports organization.  If you take care to not make any egregious mistakes the first time out, this fundraiser will certainly become your legacy.

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