As you take inventory of your preseason equipment, you could find out that you are short and in need of some things including uniforms. You might find you are short on money for equipment, uniforms or you want to go on a trip to a national playoff. I am going to talk about a few different ways to obtain money to help the cause.
The most popular are thru fund raising or sponsorship. It is important when you start out on your money making project that you have a mission statement. To get a sponsorship go to different businesses in the area. Ask to speak to the owner. You will have better luck dealing directly with the owner than anyone else.
If the owner is not present you can do some preliminary groundwork by asking if they sponsor any sports teams and how many? A yes is always good here, however a no does make you the only game in town should they accept. When you meet with the owner, ask them for a contribution to fund your team. In exchange, you put their name on your jersey or cap. Leagues might have rules prohibiting this. You will also have more luck with places your group can patronize, like a local soda shop, ice cream place or pizza shop that you commit to go to a few times a year.
You also want to see what nights are good for the establishment and make sure this is understood up front before you ever accept any money from an organization. Make sure to invite your sponsors to the games, post your schedule in their establishment along with a picture of your team and donate your trophies. If you find a good sponsor, the relationship can last for years.
Fund raising takes many different forms. Make sure to check with the local statutes and league rules that govern fund raising. Fund raising will take a bigger commitment from coaches, players, and supporters.
It in essence will involve selling some type of product for money. Pull-tabs are gaming tickets that you buy for 50 cents, 1 dollar, or 2 dollars with a chance to win larger amounts of money. To win you match three symbols of a certain logo. The parents and supporters will administer this one. It is one of the most effective and highly profitable ways of generating cash. You can make up to 38% profit depending on which game you choose.
The toughest part of pull-tabs is finding an arena to sell them. Make sure you check with the state and local government for the rules and conditions you are going to sell the pull-tabs in. You will have to get a permit and the best place to start is by calling your city clerk at city hall.
Adult gatherings are generally the most effective places to generate this revenue. Candy sales are one of the easiest to administrate and is effective. You resell candy bars at a higher rate and keep the difference. Having little boxes of candy that Mom and Dad can sell at work is effective and less time consuming than going door to door.
Young kids should not go door to door selling without an adult. Kids should never go door to door alone. Depending on how old the kids are it might be in your best interest to put together a verbatim statement that is read, such as; My name is Professor Now and we have just completed a successful season at Professor Now Park. Our team qualified for the regional championships in Omaha and we are raising money to make the trip. A contribution of $2.
00 for a candy bar would be greatly appreciated. Another idea involves you renting the equipment and everyone getting a chance to dunk the coach and assistants or any other volunteers who need to bathe. Have a booth at the city carnival, softball tournament, city festival or parade and sell concessions.
You sell hot dogs, pop, popcorn at a markup and all profits after paying expenses, go in the team coffer. You will need kids to make time commitments to this type of activity. Run it just like a business and schedule shifts. Make sure to have 2 to 3 kids on each shift along with a chaperone.
Depending on their age, do not schedule the kids for more than 1 to 3 hours at a time. This should not be that difficult as you probably have 12 to15 kids to get thru in a day. Coaches clinics and camps are becoming more popular in today's programs. Players pay a fee to attend the clinic or camp. Coaches give instructions on baseball fundamentals, and part of the players' fee goes into a team fund.
Get your pen and notebook handy and use one of the popular search engines to look up ideas, by typing in pull-tab and fundraising. There are many websites that contain bountiful resources with links and vendors of various suppliers of pull-tabs and fundraising ideas.
ProfessorNow.com offers free educational courses in an easy to follow format in various subjects. To view a free online course covering the subject of this article, please visit ProfessorNow.com.
More Resources