10 Extracurricular School Fundraisers for Sports Teams & Clubs

How to Raise Funds for Your School’s Sports Teams and Clubs.

School sports teams and clubs require funding to function correctly. Acquiring needed equipment, funding activities such as workshops or transportation for away games, and bringing in chaperones or other experts such as speakers or coaches all cost money that your school may not have in this year’s budget.

Extracurricular fundraising is one solution to this problem. Your central fundraising committee can manage fundraising, or you can allow older students to manage the fundraiser with a chaperone to help teach skills and instill confidence and responsibility.

Extracurricular Fundraising Ideas

Extracurricular fundraising is essential to providing the best after-school experience for your students. The better funded the program, the more it can offer. Consider one of the following ten extracurricular school fundraising ideas to boost your extracurricular programming.

1. Door-to-Door Fundraising

Door-to-door fundraising can include selling products, raffle tickets, and event tickets or maybe a method of direct solicitation. Students can go in pairs or with a parent to ask for donations from their neighbors. This works well as the potential donor can directly interact with a student who will benefit from their donation.

2. Solicit Local Donations

Solicit donations from local businesses. Students can visit or call local businesses, including clothing shops, restaurants, service organizations, and more. Students ask for a one-time donation for a specific cause. For example, students on the football team may ask for $100 to go towards new jerseys, while students in the photography club may ask for $100 to go towards a field trip to an art museum.

3. Crowdfunding

Students can crowdfund to earn capital for their extracurricular groups. Group members may even ask the student body at large to get involved. Parents and faculty may choose to participate as well. Crowdfunding consists of each participant uploading their fundraising page and marketing it to their network to solicit donations. All donations are returned to the main fundraising page and credited to the cause.

4. Food Sales

Selling food in-person or online by catalog is a popular way to raise funds for extracurricular groups. Food sales may include popcorn, candy bars, snack packages, cookie dough, frozen pizzas, and more. Food fundraising can be done in partnership with a fundraising company that has an established relationship with suppliers and can recommend trusted brand names.

5. Discount Cards

Sell discount cards to local community members, family, and friends to raise funds for your sports team or extracurricular club. The price of the discount card is the donation to the team or club. The discount card offers great deals at several local and national companies, offering a value much higher than the initial donation.

6. Community Services

Extracurricular fundraising can be done in tandem with giving back to the community. Extracurricular groups can offer community services in exchange for a donation. Services include yard work, car cleaning, babysitting, and volunteering at local organizations such as a pet shelter or senior home.

7. Spirit Gear

Sell gear to represent the sports team or club. The gear might be jackets, t-shirts, tumblers, blankets, or posters. This is a great way to boost support for your extracurricular group while raising the funds you need to achieve your goal.

8. Fundraising Events

Host an event to raise money for your group. This may be related to your group, such as an amateur soccer tournament for the soccer team or a chess tournament for the chess club, or unrelated to your group, such as a cookout or movie night.

9. Workshops

Take advantage of students’ experience and expertise. Students can host a workshop to teach other students about their skills. Sports teams can host fitness classes, while art clubs can host art classes such as pottery or drawing. This fundraising method works best with older students.

10. Social Media Campaign

Does your extracurricular group have social media accounts? Use them to raise funds! Highlight the need and how funds will be used. Share pictures of students engaging in their activities. And, of course, explain to viewers how to donate and help your cause.

Extracurricular School Fundraising FAQs

Let’s look at a few commonly asked questions regarding extracurricular fundraising.

Can School Sports Teams and Clubs Fundraise?

Schools and sports teams can fundraise. It takes capital to buy equipment, hire experts to lead the students, and fund transportation where applicable. Raising funds increases what the students can gain by engaging in extracurricular activities.

Who Organizes Extracurricular Fundraisers?

The school’s fundraising committee can organize the fundraiser; however, we suggest doing so in tandem with the students. Students gain life skills and confidence and feel pride about the accomplishment of raising funds needed to enhance their group’s experience.

Do Students Participate in Extracurricular Fundraisers?

Students should be prominent participants in extracurricular fundraising. They should be involved in the planning process, be the ones to execute the fundraiser itself, assist in delivering products when applicable, and, most importantly, they should be the ones directly thanking donors for their contribution and support. Incentivize students to go all in with a prize program as a reward.

Author Bio

Clay Boggess has been designing fundraising programs for schools and various nonprofit organizations throughout the US since 1999. He’s helped administrators, teachers, and outside support entities such as PTAs and PTOs raise millions of dollars. Clay is an owner and partner at Big Fundraising Ideas.