Fundraising For Your Team

No doubt if you have ever had to coach a team, at some point money would become an issue, especially with a sport like cross country and track that seems to soak up a lot of money with little chance to generate revenue.  Travel, equipment, and uniforms seem to leave a team in need of extra cash to pay for the other costs like meet entries, team awards, or anything else.  If you get frustrated, trust me, you are not alone!

There are a lot of different ways to make some more money for your team, but there are a few things to consider.  One is that ALL athletes need to contribute.  It is not fair to let some members of the team raise all the money while others sit back and do nothing.  Another is, shoot for large fundraisers rather than a bunch of smaller ones.  Why?  For the most part fundraising is tedious and time consuming regardless of how much you are raising, so shoot for raising higher amounts of money and be productive with your time.  Lastly, get the parents involved!  It will make them appreciate what you do with their kids, and it will also allow them to be a part of the teams success.

So here is a list of some ideas that you can do for fundraising that can help your team this coming year:

1) Work concessions at sporting events.  Some high schools, colleges, and pro teams are looking for people to staff their concessions stands and will allow them to keep a percentage of sales.  While one or two games may not yield more than a few hundred dollars, a whole season of concessions may help raise over a thousand dollars which can make or break a team on a small budget.

2) Host a dinner night.  Cook up some plate dinners for your teams friends and family, teachers at the school, and local community members.  Charge 10-15 dollars per plate (which will probably yield about 5-10 dollars worth of profit).  Sell some brownies or other desserts on the side as well.  A properly planned out dinner can yield up to 500 dollars of profit.

3) Host a team lap-a-thon.  Have your athletes find sponsors who will donate a specified amount of money per lap he or she can run for a specified amount of time (usually 30-60 minutes).  Or in other words, if an athlete runs 30 laps in an hour and has a sponsor donating a dollar per lap, the athlete just earned the team 30 bucks!

If you have had any other successful fundraising ideas, feel free to share!