If you think that last season’s fundraiser fizzled because (a) the product you sold was a dud, (b) the state of your local economy was poor, or (c) the players and the parents of your players just can’t seem to be bothered with supporting your fundraiser, then you probably won’t be gratified to know that you are probably wrong on any or all of those three counts.  Even worse than being wrong, you probably won’t understand what really needs to be fixed to make your fundraiser a success because you are attempting to project the failure onto things that are either beyond your control or had nothing to do with the real reason for failure.  Perhaps the reason your last fundraiser performed so poorly—and you may not want to hear this—is because you did not make it a success.

You think the product you sold was a dud?  Well, what was your fundraiser?  Was it a cookie dough fundraiser?  A discount card fundraiser?  A pizza fundraiser?  Were you selling raffle tickets, cheesecakes or subs?  Whatever fundraising products you tried to sell were probably a smashing success for another youth sports organization in your community or in a nearby community at one time or another.  Certainly, it must have been a success for some youth sports organizations or it wouldn’t have been selected as the product your organization would attempt to sell.  So, how could that product be such a dud if it worked for other organizations?  If the truth be known, failure or success in fundraising is rarely about the product that was sold.  Product just happens to be, more often than not, the most visible, and therefore the easiest, thing at which to point a finger. 

You think the unemployment rate is too high or the average income is too low?  Sorry again.  Much of what is sold through fundraising is sold by the players to their neighbors and by parents in the workplace selling to their co-workers.  While high unemployment and low levels of disposable income may affect some individual purchases, there are almost always sufficient numbers of people who are good prospects for the product you are selling.  Consider that even the most successful sports fundraisers conducted by the largest youth organizations in a community rarely penetrate more than 5% of the available local market.  That leaves about 95% of the people in your community who were never asked to make a purchase.

You think your players and the parents of your players can’t be bothered with a fundraiser?  While it is probably true that you will always have some people who will complain about being asked to participate in a fundraiser, it is also true that most people can be motivated to give their fair share of financial support to your organization by either participating in your fundraiser or by buying-out of the fundraiser.  The members of your organization are really not much different than people in other communities across the country.  You just found it convenient to say that they are different.  Could it be that your members were never told what purpose your annual fundraising campain serves?  Did anyone ask them to participate, or did someone just pass out the fundrasing collateral saying something lame such as "We hope you'll support our fundraiser"—or perhaps saying nothing at all?  If you failed to go after their support in any meaningful way then you have no claim to their support.  If you treated the implementation of your fundraiser as though it wasn't important to you, then why should anyone believe the fundraiser should be important to them?  If there was no real expectation of participation and that is the message you were unknowingly sending to everyone, then maybe you just got what you "told" them was expected.

Chances are the reason your last fundraiser did not do well had more to do with a failure to properly implement it and to sufficiently motivate your organization's members to support it.  (See Three Elements of a Successful Sports Fundraising.)  Those two requisites to success—implementation and motivation—depend to a large extent upon the person who is running the fundraiser.  Frankly, too often this task falls to a person who is willing to administer the fundraiser—perhaps even by default—and not often enough to a person who can lead it to success.    

Presumably, your organization is conducting a fundraiser because it needs funds to keep player registration fees low so that your program can more accessible to children in your community.  Maybe this year the fundraiser is being counted upon to meet unusual or unexpected expenses.  Whatever the purpose, when you ask people to participate, tell them why the funds are needed and you are likely to get more cooperation.  However, getting your members to cooperate at a higher level requires more self-investment (See Successful Sports Fundraising Ideas - Five Steps & One Key) and you then have to decide whether you are willing to make that kind of commitment to your organization.

Most people need to know that their participation is important—and some need to be motivated—before they will act.  However, if they sense from your approach that you don’t expect their support or that fundraiser doesn’t seem to be very important to you, it won’t be very important to them.  Give some thought to the message your attitude toward the fundraiser is sending to other people.  If you are telegraphing your own ambivalence about the campaign, you're not likely to get many members to support it.  If you expect very little of others, that’s probably what you will get.  If you really feel there is too much apathy or ambivalence in others then you have to understand the cause before you can treat it.  (See The Cure for Ambivalence in Youth Sports Fundraising.)      

Certainly, a player that tries to rationalize poor performance on the field of play by offering a lame excuse or by blaming others is not going to improve his performance the next time out.  Likewise, trying to rationalize the failure of past fundraising experiences by offering excuses is not the way to achieve success in your next sports fundraising endeavor.  If you want your next fundraiser to be more productive than your last fundraiser, then find a better way to implement your sports fundraising program and a better way to motivate your players and their parents.  If you're not the right person for that task, then find someone who is.  People want success and they're usually willing to follow someone who can lead them to it.  Nobody wants to listen to lame excuses.  

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