Fundraising for Sports Clubs

Fundraising methods to support your sports club

You might feel like raising funds takes up a LOT of time for your sports club, and you’d be right! A club needs facilities, uniforms, transport, coaching staff and much more to keep it going, and it all costs money.

There are myriad ways to go about fundraising, and the most successful methods for your club will depend on your fundraising goal, the type of club and the financial means of your supporters.

We’ve put together a list of the most effective fundraising ideas for sports clubs for you to choose from.

• Ticketed matches and memberships
• Fundraising events
• Merchandise
• Crowdfunding platforms
• Your club’s website

Ticketed matches and memberships

For bigger clubs with the right venue facilities, charging a gate price is by far the biggest way of raising money for charity. Supporters can choose to buy a ticket in advance, at the gate or as a membership. You should think carefully about your pricing and make sure you incentivise your fans to buy tickets ahead of time or as a membership to help your long-term financial goals and planning.

When supporters buy a ticket online, make sure you collect their email addresses so you can send out club updates and thank them for their support. Having a well thought out communication strategy, especially for your loyal members, will help to make sure they stay with the club season after season.

Fundraising through tickets and memberships is a great way to fundraise for your club’s ongoing expenses, such as the maintenance of your facilities, uniforms and staff wages because you can accurately forecast how much you will receive. 

Of course, in recent years, the COVID lockdowns meant that this important fundraising stream was cut off for a lot of clubs, which saw even some of Australia’s biggest sporting clubs face financial hardships.

Fundraising events

If your club has incurred a one-off expense, such as damage to the pitch or other maintenance requirements, a fundraising event is a great choice to cover the costs. You can also plan annual fundraising events to raise money for regular expenses such as uniforms or tours.

Our favourite fundraising event ideas a below:

• Awards night
• Members’ night
• Trivia
• Fetes and fairs
• Car wash
• Carols by candlelight
• Sausage sizzle
• High tea
• World record attempt
• Past players day
• Movie night

Merchandise

Selling merchandise with your sport’s club logo emblazoned on it is a great way to not only raise funds but also to engage your supporters, make them feel proud to be part of the club and raise awareness of the club in your local community.

If you don’t have the funds to make replica uniforms, you could look at more cost-effective items such as hats, tote bags, mugs, scarves and flags.

You can sell your merchandise either at your venue on match days, online or through social media channels. You can also use your email list of supporters to encourage them to buy merchandise, either for themselves or as a gift. You should use your communications to remind people of how the proceeds of merchandise sales will be used to fulfil the needs of the club.

Crowdfunding platforms in Australia

This is a great option for big and small clubs alike. If you are part of a smaller club and your fundraising is run by an individual or volunteers, as opposed to a fundraising team, then crowdfunding is a must.

A fundraising platform in Australia is free to set up and can be done in only minutes. With icause, you then have to option to run a campaign for a specific amount of time to drive charitable donations in Australia for a fundraising goal, or you can set up an icause page for your club to receive donations on an ongoing basis.

Crowdfunding is a digital fundraising method so you can easily share your campaign on social media to engage your supporters or reach new potential donors. You can also send out updates to keep your supporters motivated by showing them how the funds are being used by the club.

The best crowdfunding in Australia is not just a great platform to receive donations, you can also use your crowdfunding campaign to increase awareness, communicate with your supporters through SMS or email, sell merchandise, plan events and send out thank you messages to your supporters.

If you need help setting up a crowdfunding page for your club, contact us today and one of our fundraising experts will be waiting to help.

Your club’s website and social media

In the digital age, having a website and social media page is essential for your club, however, you need to make sure it is modern, easy to navigate and engaging, or you could risk looking outdated and behind the times. If you are seeking corporate donations in Australia, such as sponsorships, a well-presented website is an important part of your pitch.

There are several website hosting platforms that offer affordable templates specifically for non profit organisations in Australia, including clubs and schools. If you don’t have a professional web designer on the team, play it safe and use one of these templates to make sure your website functions properly and looks immaculate. 

Websites with donation functionalities are available but they are more expensive than a read-only site. We recommend adding a link on your website to your crowdfunding page as a free alternative to an expensive website with financial capabilities. 

Your social media also needs to be active and well-maintained to demonstrate to supporters that their donations are being used wisely. You can use Facebook’s Donate Now button option to link people to your icause page to make a donation.

Conclusion

The fundraising methods on this page are just some of the ways your club can raise the funds, secure sports donations to nonprofit organizations or attract the sponsors it needs to continue into the future. You can employ one, several or all of these tactics to meet your charity fundraising goals.

If you would like some support and guidance to set up your fundraising campaign, get in touch with one of our passionate fundraising experts who is waiting by the phone to help make your campaign a success!

Further reading

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowd funding tips

How do I know if I can trust a crowdfunder?

Crowdfunding vs Traditional Fundraising

Introducing Switch and Donate - the new face of crowdfunding