There are multiple ways to participate:

• Host an event
• Host a food drive
• Collect cash donations
• Shop at local businesses who are supporting the cause

To register your organization to participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring, or to find an event in your area, visit www.souperbowl.org.

You can do the same. Acknowledge a skill that you have and then package it so it’s a win-win-win for you, the organization you’re supporting, and the patrons who take advantage of your offer. In Mali’s case, the soccer team promotes her photography services. For each sitting, she gives $250 back to the soccer team, plus gives each family a discount on their sitting fee.

Do you have a skill or hobby that you can market like this? Perhaps painting, playing piano, singing, woodworking, computer skills – the list is endless. It just takes a bit of creativity.

Hold a sponsor the player contest.  Have each player solicit a list of people who are willing to contribute a pledge amount for games won per season.  (or goals scored if you are looking for a smaller time frame)  They will also need to take responsibility for collecting the money at the end of the season.

Have the team collectively make a banner with sposors listed to be displayed at each game.  This can consist of a homemade banner with poster board, or you can even get an inexpensive sign company to make one….and even donate the sign in exchange for free advertising!  

A creative idea to accomplish this is to have each player hold a sign with his/her own sponsors written in big block letters.  Take a team photo as well as an individual photo.  You can use the team photo on the banner, also making sure that each sponsor is also listed on the banner as well. ( it may be difficult to display the players large enough to see their sponsors) 

 Have each player use the individual image as a thank you to his/her contributors.  The can simply write “Thanks for you help” across a re-print and give to their sponsors after their pledge has been received. 

The players will obviously need parents help, but it is a good ideas to have them solicit their own sponsors for this fundraising idea.  It’s never too early to lean about responsibility and doing your part to accomplish a common goal!

HickeryRecord.com reported on an ingenious way to make money for new band uniforms. The old uniforms at St. Stephens High School are being turned into commemorative pillows. It’s the idea of the St. Stephens band boosters. The band is growing by leaps and bounds, so there aren’t enough uniforms to go around. New uniforms are expensive. Thus, the unique fundraising idea. This is a great way to preserve the band’s heritage and spread around the tradition to many people. Remember the old saying about necessity and invention. It’s alive and well at St. Stephens High.

I’m delighted to share with you some important “insider” information concerning sports fundraising that I’ve learned from working in this industry for 20 years. During challenging economic times like these, successful fundraising is vitally important because it gives athletes the resources they need to achieve their goals.

My company has helped over 17,000 college, high school, and travel teams in every sport. We have generated millions of dollars that athletes have used to pay for travel, equipment, and uniforms. Whether it’s your first time organizing a campaign or you’re a seasoned veteran, I’m confident that this Coaches Guide will provide the information you need to select the most appropriate fundraiser for your team.

You’ll learn how to avoid common pitfalls that doom thousands of campaigns every year and the easiest way to generate a lot of money for your team with the least amount of risk, time, and effort.

If you have questions — whether or not you work with us — I will be pleased to help steer you in the best direction.

COSTLY MISTAKES that doom most fundraising campaigns

MISTAKE #1: Asking your athletes to sell products or services

Expect dismal profits and a lot of aggravation if you select a fundraiser that requires your athletes to sell products or services. Why? Athletes HATE selling stuff. They find it time-consuming and uncomfortable.

Selling is challenging even for trained professionals with years of experience. For student-athletes, it is nearly impossible, and very few reach their sales goals. Some athletes succeed, but the majority will fail.

AVOID SELLING if you want to have a profitable fundraiser. It has caused more campaign failures than anything else.

MISTAKE #2: Letting a fundraising company take 50% or more of YOUR money!

The magazine publishers, cookie companies, and candle makers love to turn your athletes into a sales force for their products and they get to keep half of the collections. What a great deal… for them! Can you imagine collecting $5,000 and then dumping $2,500 of it in the trash?

Also, don’t be fooled by promotional sales pitches that promise you’ll “earn up to 90% or more,” because that usually requires your athletes to make an unrealistic quantity of sales. Make sure to read the fine print. Any offer that sounds too good to be true usually is.

Remember, the total amount of money you collect at the end of the campaign is a meaningless number. The more important number, and the one you should always focus on, is the amount of profit you will keep after paying all expenses. Aim for profit margins of 65% or more.

MISTAKE #3: Asking supporters for less than $20

Before you select a fundraiser, do the math and you’ll quickly see that you are wasting a great opportunity to maximize profits when you collect less than $20.

Simply work backwards from your goal and it will be clear that the huge quantity of low dollar amount transactions makes it nearly impossible to succeed.

For example, if your team of 15 athletes needs $2,000, you would need to sell 4,000 candy bars for $1 each – amounting to 267 sales per athlete. Likewise the same amount would require 333 car washes at $6 each, equaling 22 cars per athlete. It’s not happening!

It’s a common mistake: a family friend – who would be happy to donate $50 or more to your cause – buys a $5 raffle ticket and your team loses out on earning an easy $45 extra.

MISTAKE #4: Organizing multiple fundraisers during the same season

This approach NEVER works: selling cheesecakes in January, holding an auction in February, hosting a bake sale in March, selling Easter baskets in April, canning spare change at the mall in May, and so on.

Too much time spent fundraising wears everyone out. Each fundraiser does worse than the one before because coaches, parents, and athletes run out of time, patience, and enthusiasm. We call it “fundraising fatigue.”

Instead, focus on a concentrated effort to accomplish your goal in one shot that takes hours instead of days, weeks or months.

People work much harder and with more energy when they know that a fundraiser will be completed quickly. You’ll find that everyone is supportive and more productive. One quick and profitable campaign per year allows you and your athletes to concentrate on their schoolwork and winning games, not on becoming fundraising professionals.

MISTAKE #5: Allowing fundraising participation to be optional

Don’t be a fundraising wimp! If you’re taking a team trip or purchasing equipment, every one of your athletes is going to benefit. So, why would you allow participation in your fundraiser to be optional?

Equal participation should be a requirement. On every team, there are always some athletes who refuse to pull their weight or parents who don’t want their children to contribute. When this happens, your response should be the same as it is when an athlete announces he or she won’t practice, but still expects to play in the game.

Coaches who demand full participation – and require that every athlete give his or her best effort in competition AND in fundraising – always get the best results too. Coaches who present a fundraiser as an optional project and without any importance usually fail miserably.

MISTAKE #6: Taking on too much financial risk

Avoid any fundraiser that requires you to pre-pay the full amount due for products or that heavily penalizes you if you fail to reach your sales goal. Be sure to ask yourself, “How much will we OWE the fundraising company if we fail to reach our goal?”

Too many coaches pre-purchase food (candy, cheesecakes, donuts, hotdogs, etc.) or custom print their team’s logo on products (sweatshirts, hats, bumper stickers, etc.) only to discover that the unsold items cannot be returned for a full credit.

Your fundraising company should invest in your success, not hinder it.

MISTAKE #7: Neglecting the strong connection athletes share with their supporters

Selling to strangers is always a mistake. An athlete’s family friends, relatives, and adult personal contacts are much more likely to contribute — and contribute in higher amounts — to your campaign than a random person or business.

The most important question to ask when selecting a fundraiser: Which project will generate the LARGEST PROFIT with the FEWEST TRANSACTIONS in the SHORTEST TIME?

Do NOT make your selection process any more complicated than that. If you would like to learn more about putting My Sports Dreams to work for your team, our contact information is below.

My name is Jordan Kern, and I am an owner of My Sports Dreams.

Jordan Kern
Co-Founder
800-376-5988 x300
www.MySportsDreams.com
Jordan@MySportsDreams.com
Article Source: A Coaches Guide to Sports Fundraising

Decide on a list of services to be provided such as; flower bed clean up, lawn thatching, trash and animal waste pick up, readying planter beds for new plants, and even spring flower planting.  These are all good ideas because they require very little experience on the part of the volunteer.  It’s just simple labor!

You will need to determine what and how much your services will be.  This will depend on your volunteer base.  Distribute the flyers wherever you can, always making sure to make it clear what you are raising funds for.  Consider asking your local home improvement centers if they would allow you to pass out the flyers at their location of if they would display it on a bulletin board.

• Ask for people to register in groups….by families, friends, small home groups, or any group that would like to play together as a team.
• Charge an entrance fee, and ask for a local business to donate a gift card or a prize for the winner. (hint:advertising for them!)
• Decide on a list of several trivia items from the bible.  Decide on a time limit for the group to settle on an answer and allow them to use their own bibles to find an answer.  Give each group an air horn (or musical instrument, etc) to sound when they have decided on an answer….its a terrible racket, but a fun variation.
• Consider selling concessions to up your profits
• Publicize your event!

When you visit each house, you will want to set up in the front yard with all of your decorations. Sit down and start waving at cars driving by. Knock on the front door and explain to the homeowner who you are, hand them your information sheet and that for a small donation you will take your Traveling Rednecks and move on. Most people will be more than happy to get you to go away!

Let people’s curiosity help you raise money for your cause, after all curiosity killed the cat.

Have your group bring a wrapped package, big or small, to the auction. They can place anything they want in the box from tickets to the game (perhaps weighted down or wrapped in a huge box) or the wedding gift that was not quite right (a dreadful thing really).

As each box is brought in, label it with a number and place on tables that have been set up. People should be allowed to examine the boxes, picking them up and shaking them. NO PEAKING!

You can either run a silent auction or have a live auctioneer. In a silent auction, people would write down their bids on a piece of paper kept near the box and try to outbid each other.

Make sure you have a few really great items that have been donated by local stores or memorabilia to keep bidding high. Let each winner open their box in front of everyone to show off if they got a great treasure or a turkey.

• Buy t-shirts in bulk either online or at a craft store. Consider making them all 1 color, but be sure to get various sizes.
• Buy fabric paints, embellishments, iron on transfers, etc… If this is for a sports team, make sure to get everything in team colors.
• Get a group of the youth together and have a t-shirt painting party. Make sure to closely supervise this as you want them to have fun, but to understand that this is to produce something that someone will want to pay $15-20 for. I would suggest having 2 prototypes made up of what you want, rather than allow them the freedom to “express themselves!”
• Sell the product at group events, to friends & family, for gifts, etc…

*Note* Depending on your venue, you could switch this up a bit and offer customers the ability to create their own t-shirt.