Fundraising is an important part of youth sports that requires engagement from everyone involved. Many teams need funds to purchase better equipment, attract new players, enter prestigious competitions, and more. There are many ways to fundraise for your child’s team. Here, we outline a few easy ways to fundraise to keep the team going strong!

Restaurant Partnerships

Perhaps the most common method of fundraising is partnering with a restaurant. There is a lot of variance in restaurant fundraisers, so be sure to choose one that fits what you’d like to do best. Additionally, different restaurants offer different rates, so try to find the one that’s most beneficial to your team. Ideally, you’d like to partner with a restaurant that will give back the most per dollar spent. Some common partnerships include Krispy Kreme and Chipotle, but local restaurants may also entertain the partnership.

• Krispy Kreme: To fundraise with Krispy Kreme, you will need to purchase a large quantity of doughnuts and sell them at your practices and games. This is easy because it’s essentially like a concession stand.
• Chipotle: Chipotle will give you a flyer that, when presented, will donate a portion of proceeds to your team.

When fundraising with a restaurant, it is important to advertise the fundraiser heavily at practices and games, but also to as wide an audience as possible.

Car Wash

A car wash is another common way to fundraise. The trickiest part about a car wash is finding a good spot. Bonus points if you can do this with a restaurant. Once a spot is found, it is fairly simple:

1. Purchase the necessary materials like buckets, rags, and car soap.
2. Ensure that the athletes are washing properly.
3. Use colorful signage to attract passing cars.

Signage is especially important for a car wash. Make sure you have some people with colorful signs jumping around at the entrance and exit so that passing cars can see. To find out how much you earned, subtract your expenses from the total amount you made. This is also a great way to get the kids involved in the process and helps them understand the value of giving back to the community.

Host a Cook-Off

The cook-off is another great way to fundraise for your team. Most commonly, chili is used at cook-offs, but you can use whatever you think will get the most people to enter. This option is extremely cost-effective:

1. Get as many entrants as you can.
2. Charge anywhere from $10-20 per person to attend the event.
3. Try to have as many entrants as possible so people have more food to sample.
4. At the end of the event, count up all of the votes and announce the winner(s).

Have prizes related to the team for the winners.

Conclusion

Overall, fundraising can be a daunting task, especially alone. However, it’s not all that hard. The main focus should be advertising the fundraiser to encourage great participation. That will be the key to a successful fundraiser.

For more information and resources, visit Athletes Untapped.