Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

In this country, there is a wonderful relationship between schools and athletics. This is especially true of football. Football teams, both in high schools and universities, often provide the face of school spirit and a offers a common gathering space for the educational community to relax and enjoy themselves.

But, a football program is expensive to operate, and especially at the high school level, a significant fundraising effort is needed to provide essentials like uniforms, travel expenses, practice equipment, and assessment tools like video cameras and computers.

To address these specific needs, most schools have developed an active “Boosters” club, which is made up of people who have a strong love of football and school and who have committed themselves to making sure their team has what it needs to keep winning.

Last year WCVD Newschannel 5 in Boston published a report entitled “Student Athletes Forced To Pay To Play”, in which they highlighted a difficult situation at Hamilton Wenham Regional High School. Due to a serious budget shortfall in this district, they have been forced to adopt a “pay for play” policy, in which individual players and their families have to come up with the money to pay for all the season’s expenses.

According to the report, “It costs $282 per student for cross-country, $398 for golf, $409 for girl’s soccer, $508 for field hockey and $969 for football.

“Football started at $1,400 per student, but was reduced through private fundraising and gate receipts to about $969 per student,” Athletic Director Don Doucette said.

Obviously, this is a situation that most schools would like to avoid. But, that means a serious effort at raising large amounts of money must be made. And, it must be more than a few individual and separate fundraisers throughout the season. Football fundraising should be a sustained, coordinated, and multi-pronged attack that is carried out year round. The alternative to this aggressive approach is unfortunately seen in the fee structure above.

So, here are a few ideas on how to launch your football booster club.
Contests
Perhaps the most exciting and enjoyable way to raise additional money at football games is to hold contests for the fans in the crowd. Contests can be done at half time or before the game begins in an effort to increase attendance and raise funds at the same time. For instance, a numbered ticket can be issued to fans as they enter the gate if this is an effort just to increase attendance, or chances sold if this is a fundraiser. If used as a fundraiser, then sell tickets for several weeks before the event.

A grand prize and secondary prizes are donated by local businesses. Advertisements including newspaper ads promote the event and the sponsors. Tickets are drawn at random and 1-6 contestants will get the chance to win the prizes. Contests are a fun and memorable high school football fundraiser.

With an excited announcer, the crowd could really get into such a contest. I would even suggest trying to get the cheerleaders to generate some enthusiasm. Here are a few examples of contest that have worked well for many schools.

Field Goals and Football Kicks
Contestants have a chance to kick a field goal for the grand prize (donated by a local business). It can be a natural field goal, through the uprights or through a two-foot target hole in a sign.

Football Tosses
Contestants try to throw a football through a target hole in a sign from various yardages for a prizes. When it comes to high school football fundraising, with some creativity you can easily come up with a great event. Anything that relates to the sport, will likely be a fun and profitable event.

Scratchcards
Scratchcards are a unique school fundraiser that can earn your school group up to 90% profit. A scratchcard is a small tri-fold booklet that contains a card of 60 colored “scratch-off” circles. Supporters are invited to “scratch” off one or more of the circles on the card to reveal how much they will donate, ranging from FREE to $2.50.

Scratchcards make it easy to ask people to donate to your school related group. First, the highest donation amount is only $2.50, which is a very small amount to request. It is easy to ask someone to donate something that amounts to pocket change.

No matter what the amount revealed, every person who donates gets a coupon with $75 in savings at national retailers, fast food and other merchants. So everyone gets a valuable thank you gift in return for their donation.

One of the advantages of scratchcards is that they can be completed in a very short time frame. Most participants can return a completed card to their organization in about a week.

Another advantage of scratchcards is that up to 90% of the money brought in is pure profit. This has several advantages. First, those who donate to your cause can feel confident knowing that almost all of the money they give goes directly to help your cause. It shows that you appreciate their support and respect their decision to donate.

Since there is very little overhead, a portion of the funds available could be used to provide prizes. Another option would be to request prize donations from area businesses, putting more money raised directly to the cause. The prizes could be something as simple as a coupon for a free round of miniature golf or a pizza party.

Consider offering a lot of small prizes to award those who get the cards done the quickest. It’s always better to reward many of your group members, rather than just a select few. That way they will be more open to take part in your next fundraiser.

Meat sales
From the website of the Vancouver Island High School Football team in British Columbia, Canada, I found a rather interesting fundraising idea- having a series of frozen meat sales! Here is what these folks have to say about this intriguing idea:

This (a meat sale) is a year-long activity. All you have to do is find a local restaurant or other supplier from whom you can buy the meat. They may want to make a small profit for their trouble or they may forgo that as a way of helping to sponsor the team. Nevertheless, you need to be sure they will be reliable and that you can get good pricing.

Be sure not to mark it up too much once you get it so as not to price yourself out of the market. Remember, aside from helping out your team people generally are attracted to meat sales because they are convenient and economical. Somewhere between 5% and 15% is probably workable. Remember too if you do this year-round it is continual revenue and not a “get rich quick” vehicle. It is not important to beat Costco or the supermarket pricing in every event. As long as you are priced comparably or lower than their everyday pricing you will do fine. When someone points out that a local store was selling its chicken for “a lot less” than yours it was probably a sale and you can point out that yours is “everyday” pricing.

The Whalers Booster Club has secured a “top quality” meat deal so it has the added benefit of pointing out the grade of meat one is getting. Make up a price list of what you’re offering and be sure to include how you can be contacted and any other ordering particulars. This is a really easy fundraiser to do and makes for continuing revenue once you get ‘em hooked.

Concessions
While I’m sure that every single football team in the country has a concession stand at their games, the real question is whether the stand is making as much money as it can or should. It is very easy to throw some dogs and burgers on the grill and maybe heat up some nachos and cheese, and think that’s good enough.

I contend that people go to high school football games in a good mood and are generally open to spending a little money. It is the job of the booster club or whatever group is organizing the event to make sure that they get as much money as possible from the fans in attendance.

Therefore, I would definitely suggest trying to find food items that will generate some buzz in the stands. When a person looks at other folks enjoying a deep friend pickle, an Oreo cookie freid in packake batter, frozen chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, or a walking taco, he is going to feel compelled to make a bee line for the concession stand himself. While nutritionists will cringe at these suggestions, if you want your concession stand to overflow with happy customers and money, I would strongly urge you to spice up your menu.

In fact, if you really come up with an interesting idea or even a special themed food night, you might want to start spreading the word ahead of time. A special indulgent treat is surely enough to lure people who may be wavering about whether to attend the game or not. A concession stand with an excellent reputation would be a terrific asset for a football program trying to raise much-needed revenue.

Online Magazine Fundraiser
An online magazine fundraiser uses a no-hassle email campaign to request that your supporters purchase magazines in support of your team.

The magazine sales fundraiser company processes all the orders so there’s no money to collect and nothing to deliver. Since there’s no upfront money required, there’s no risk. This fundraiser is one of the easiest wasy to raise funds available.

Spirit raisers
Your team members, families and/or booster club can sell t-shirts, spirit sticks, plush mascots and many other great spirit raising items. These are fun spirit accessories that your fans will love to have. Find out more about School Spirit Fundraisers

Conclusion
Football is one of those community building experiences. There are so many opportunities within the course of a game to raise the money that is needed to pay for the very high expenses.  Use a little marketing and creativity and your team will continue to find success, both on the field and off.

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