5 Tips for Taking Your School to the Next Level
School sports are an excellent way to provide enrichment to students. These sports help students develop critical social skills, such as teamwork, time management, responsibility and more. Physical a
For many students, participation in school sports leads to fond memories. However, many sports teams lack the funding to truly excel. Fundraising is an effective way to help finance the various needs of a sports team. The right fundraising ideas for sports teams can help support students through the athletic season.
Why Is Fundraising Important for High School Sports?
Teens who participate in school sports can develop social connections and learn the necessary skills to thrive in adulthood. However, running a high school sports team can be challenging, especially with a limited budget that doesn't cover everything needed to make the team the best it can be. Most schools don't have enough money to cover the various needs of sports teams, including:
- Uniforms.
- Equipment.
- Travel expenses.
- Team photos.
- Field and court maintenance.
Limited resources mean that schools have to choose which teams to fund over others. As a result, some teams may not have nearly enough funding to complete their athletic season. That's where fundraising comes in.
Fundraising can help athletic directors and coaches get the financing they need to help their high school athletes excel. There are many high school fundraising ideas you can try to help you finance your sports teams and make them as successful as possible.
5 Ideas to Take Your Fundraising to the Next Level
You have many options for high school sports fundraising ideas. Here are some of the best school fundraising ideas.
1. Partner With Local Businesses
Partnering with local businesses is one of the best ways to reach your team's fundraising goals. You can offer sponsorship packages, which allow businesses to promote themselves at games and events in exchange for monetary support. For example, you can advertise your sponsorship partners on your scoreboard or inside a game-day program.
Partnering with a local business is easier than you might think. Try following these steps:
- Approach a business and ask about their interest in supporting local high school sports teams.
- Offer different sponsorship levels, each with different benefits.
- Give sponsors promotional items to show their support for your team, such as banners, flyers or clothing.
- Create a fundraising event dedicated to your sponsors to thank them for their support.
Consider working alongside local restaurants, general stores, boutiques and retailers.
2. Host a Fundraising Tournament
You can help your student-athletes practice and fundraise at the same time when you host a fundraising tournament. Your student-athletes will play their sport, and you can charge an entrance fee for fans, which will go toward your team's budget. For example, you can put the name of every junior varsity and varsity basketball player into a hat and draw names to create teams of five. Organize a tournament using these teams so that everyone can practice and get the chance to play alongside different people.
These fundraising tournaments are an excellent way to finance purchases like uniforms, travel expenses and new equipment. You can host this event at the start and end of the season, especially if you need to fund travel costs for a regional or state game.
3. Sell Merch Online
Selling team merchandise online is simple and effective. There are many online stores you can use to set up your shop, many of which will do the printing and shipping for you. While some of these shops will take a portion of the sales for their production costs and profit, you can still earn a significant amount of funds for your team. You may even be able to find a local company to supply your merchandise.
Once you set up your online shop, you can promote it at events and social media platforms. Offering a broad range of merchandise — such as the following — will also increase the likelihood of sales:
- T-shirts
- Sweatshirts and hoodies
- Baseball hats
- Winter hats
- Sweatpants
- Scarves
- Car stickers
4. Host a Food Truck Night
A food truck night is a unique way to fundraise for your sports team. You can have a food truck at one of your sporting events and make a deal to earn a percentage of the sales. You can contact local food trucks in your area to propose a collaboration and negotiate a fair percentage. Once you've made a deal with one or more food truck owners, you should promote their attendance at your next event to garner interest from your community. A food truck night is an excellent way to develop more interest in your sports team, which can benefit future fundraising events.
5. Offer Personalized Experiences
Offering a personalized experience is an excellent way to make your fans feel like a part of the team. You can help foster connection while offering memorable moments at sporting events. Some unique ideas for personalized fan experiences include:
- VIP tickets: You can offer VIP tickets to fans for an additional cost that allows ticket holders access to premium seating or parking at the event. You can make VIP tickets more special by creating a unique way to offer premium seating and parking, such as special signage or decorations around in-game seating. You can even offer VIP passes that last throughout the season.
- Video messages: You can have team members record personalized videos for fans who pay a fee. These messages can be simple shoutouts or a dedication to whoever purchased the video message. If you have a video-capable scoreboard, you can broadcast these messages during the game or halftime events.
- "Fan of the Game" packages: These packages can be an effective way to honor your fans. You can create "Fan of the Game" packages with recognition and special perks, including mentions in sports programs, shoutouts during halftime, special seating or early access to ticket purchases.
Take Fundraising to the Next Level With VCRNOW
If you want to elevate your gameday fundraising experience, VCRNOW can help. We offer LED scoreboards and sound systems to help you take your personal shoutouts, promotional sponsorships and video messages to the next level. You can use your scoreboard to broadcast your fundraising materials during the game, halftime or timeouts.
These scoreboards are also a great way to revolutionize your old setup. An outdated scoreboard doesn't bring the same excitement level as a new LED scoreboard with a revolutionary sound system. Bring your scoreboard system into this century with the latest technology from VCRNOW. Start the process today to get the most from your next athletic season!
