Fundraising for School Sports

There is a change in the air. Summer is winding down, and the school bells are starting to ring. The fall season signals the start of a new year, a new grade, new teachers, making new friends – and seeing old school buddies. It also means new involvement in all the things kids love to do, one of which is sports!

When summer ends, football and soccer start. Teams have new players, new goals, new things to accomplish. Practice schedules are often very rigorous, and coaches have much to do to assemble their teams and get them ready to compete. Every level of sports has its challenges for the players and those running the teams.

Show Me The Money!

Unfortunately, we all can't channel our inner Rod Tidwell from Jerry McGuire and call out Show me the Money! and expect to get results. School sports budgets are sadly one of the first budgets to be cut. One continuing challenge in the current school climate is raising the money necessary to do all the sports related things desired. The majority of a school district’s yearly budget goes to union contracts including teachers, administrators, bus transportation, and custodians. When a community lobbies to lower school taxes, a school board usually has no choice but to cut out or compromise things like music, art, and sports. Often late bus routes are eliminated, as are stipends for coaching assistants, money for equipment, sports related functions and other fun stuff.

So the solution is to raise the additional funds needed to do it. It is doable with a little creative thinking, determination, and the ability to motivate your team and its supporters to make the fundraising campaign successful.

How Do You Fundraise With Scarves?

There are many ways to fundraise – but it is best to offer some incentives. Here are some great ideas that use printed scarves to spark interest and enthusiasm:

1. Everyone likes to be involved – what better way to do that then to make them part of creative decisions! How ‘bout having folks vote on a scarf design. Get the team AND the community excited to be part of the choice.
2. Hey – it starts to (in many areas) get cold this time of year. Does everyone show up for the game prepared for the weather? No way! Why shiver for a couple of hours? Scarves are a go-to piece of cold weather gear – be proactive and set up sales in a prominent place near the field – and if the scarves have the team logo and project school spirit, by the end of the game your team scarves will be standard equipment wrapped around everyone’s face!
3. Just like Girl Scout cookies you can get the players to sell to friends and family. If you set up some challenge or reward – that will get them to try to top one another. Sports are competitive in essence – right?
4. Sell space! Get local businesses to put their name on the scarfs. They get free advertising every time a person walks down the street!
5. And of course the team logo, colors, slogans, uniform matching – are all stuff that team supporters want to be a part of. Custom scarves! Give it to them on a scarf so they can accessorize through the fall & winter season.

There is nothing like team spirit. People will get on board!

And today – keep in mind that any fundraising campaign can be supported by the school, the players, and individual’s social media activity. This sounds like a whole new blog post! Stay tuned…