Fundraising...

[Numbereight]

You can also try a Spaghetti Feed and Silent Auction. We are doing one in March. We are selling the tickets for $7 each. Each team (We have 16U, 14U, 12U, and 2 10U Teams) will be responsible for contributing 2 Themed baskets for the Auction. Profits from the two Team baskets goes towards the that team. (the team works together to get donations to put these two baskets together) Players can bring in more auction items and any profits from additional Auction items brought in by an individual player would go towards that player.

You can go to local Olive Gardens or Spaghetti Factories to attempt to get the pasta, sauce, breadsticks, salad, etc donated.

FYI- Have a meeting to set up the committee's well in advance. We did that and it is working great to have specific people taking care of certain aspects of the event.

 

[newsoftballdad]

Fundraiser

If you are not opposed to "gambling" we have a 13 run Baseball pool running.
30 people buy in for $50.00 it is a 50/50 pot so $750.00 goes to the team. Each player draws a MLB team, each team is trying to score 0 through 13 runs. First team to do it wins. If we have enough interest we run another one. NCAA March Madness may give you other opportunities for a fundraiser. We also do a "Comedy Night" at a local club that will net $1,000.00. 100 people $20.00 a ticket, $10.00 goes to the team. We are pretty lucky and have a fairly affordable budget of around $5,500 for the season, so we are on our way.

 

[SnocatzDad]

I hate most fundraising, to me it's wrong to go ask your neighbor to help pay for your kid to play softball. We're not talking about a once in a lifetime opportunity to play in the Olympics, we're looking for gas money to go to Nationals, and by the way we'll be back looking for money for Nationals again next year and maybe for a fall trip too. Most fundraising consists of selling things that are overpriced which to me isn't significantly different than going to someone and asking for cash.

The only fundraising I've every liked was service oriented (i.e. you work and get paid). Examples of this are.

#1 Hosting a tournament - by far the best fundraiser to be had. Teams pay you money to come play, you make money selling concessions, T-shirts, etc... but most importantly if you do a good job your providing a vital service to the game.

#2 Working concessions - many times there are opportunities for kids and their parents to help work a concession stand somewhere for another sport, if it's done as a team you can take the money and put it towards the team.

#3 Working a hot dog or brat stand outside a store. We have several stores in our area that have temporary food stands that they run outside in the summer. Working one of these helps draw people to the store and usually the store supplies all the materials and the workers keep half the sales plus any donations.

#4 Team Garage Sale - This was new this year and I think a great idea, again the difference is people come to you and choose to buy stuff. Isn't that better than going door to door and asking people to buy stuff at more than it's worth?

I know that young kids have limited opportunities to make money before they are 15, but they are out there. My daughter earned enough money this year at 14 to buy a new bat working as a referee at youth basketball games.

I can't tell you how many times I've been a part of a fundraiser that was a lot of work and then ended up netting about $20-$40 a player in profit. Seriously?? Just charge me another $40.

I do believe that you should collect enough in fees that you can scholarship players when families hit a rough spot.

 

[Texas]

I COMPLETELY agree with SnocatzDad, every single bullet point.

I hate fundraising. I believe if it benefits the kid, she should work it off and not by asking if you will buy something.

We hired 4 middle school football players once for a working party fundraiser, our yard was beautiful.

 

[CoachC]

Please allow me to pile on. I have always donated cash in lieu of my children shilling overpriced items.

I an effort to raise more cash, my children ask for a small donation from the grandparents, inlcuding the fact that Mom and Dad will match what is donated. The grandparents have a sick sense of humor and check that we live up to that promise.

My son directs traffic for a local speedway during race weekend in our town. After four days of work, he donated $400 dollars to his high school team. The opportunities are there. You just need to find them.

 

[ang4yanks]

Update on the fundraising...it was easier to get sponsorship money than to get families to sell World's Finest Chocolate Bars. From here on out it will be service oriented fundraising. We are going to mentor a young team who has to move up to kid pitch in the fall and run a clinic. Each player will get one-on-one attention from the older player reviewing basic fundamentals of the position. French braiding the hair. Face painting. Refreshments and light healthy snacks. Music. Handouts. Jumprope. Coach to coach mentoring as well as this coach admittingly wants to learn. Details are still coming together.

 

[Hollyrockartist]

Our Senior pitcher (over 300 career strike-outs in high school!) is working her tail off with pitching and batting lessons this summer. She charges a mere $20/hr and has girls lined up every day of the week. Offering something like a softball clinic for the younger ones in the area would be a good fundraiser - very service oriented.

Our girls sold flip flops not too long ago and made a nice chunk of change. They are the Bee-Bop flip flops, so they are a great brand. We got to keep $8/pair. It was good for here because who doesn't want flip flops for the summer?

The Booster Club at our school recently had a "new to us" fundraiser. They had a chest-type freezer donated. It was FULL of frozen goods - everything from farm raised vegetables to beef tenderloins. All of the things inside were donated, so the Booster spent zero on it. The tickets were $20/ea.. They made nearly $10,000!! They are also working the Hummingbird Festival in September - the concession end of it. The director asked the group if they were interested, but did let them know that there must be at least 4 people over the age of 21 in the concession stand at all times. Not sure if they are selling wine and beer, but I am thinking that is more for organization and not goofing off. Thousands come down for that weekend, so they will make a large profit on that, too.

 

[NVfishing]

Our team just had it's annual fund raiser and came away with $17,000. The board members for our league work on it throughout the year. We have a silent auction, door prizes, all you can drink beer, and all you can eat bratwurst. All the prizes, food, and beer are donated. We sell tickets at 20 bucks.

 

[NWIN]

Holly, how did you do the flip flops? Where did you get them from?

 

[SBdad]

League Fundraiser Event

Here's a fundraiser event for the whole league. This is a fun event that gets everyone involved, and can be very profitable, if run properly.

Plan a night where the league can get together for a bbq or pizza meal. (charge small amount for meal) Have raffles, not on single small items, but on package deals that consist of at least three items per package.

For example: Contact stores in your area and ask if they can donate an item to be raffled off at your event. (and not a cheap item) Tell each store manager that most all local stores are donating fairly nice items for this large Raffle, and that you will advertise their business at the event for donating the item.
Group at least 3 items per package to be raffled off. Sell different colored tickets for each package. You'll find out that if people see they have a chance to win multiple items in one draw, then they'll be willing to purchase larger amounts of tickets. (most will purchase tickets for each package) Sell 6 tickets for $5.00, 12 tickets for $10.00, etc.

For the main event, have a Hit-A-Thon where kids, moms, dads, and family members can participate to see who can hit the ball the furthest from a batting tee or soft toss machine. The soft toss machine on this web site is a great hitting aid to use for this event. (www.shop.beebesports.com)

Group kids according to age group, moms against moms, dads against dads, etc. (right handed dads bat left handed, left handed dads bat right handed)
Measure the distance on where the ball lands, not where it ends up rolling to. Have people in charge of the hitting stations and retreiving balls.
Each person that wants to participate, will pay $1.00 for each ball they hit. You may want to sell tickets for this event. Sell tickets prior to the day of this event, and also have a table set up at the event for people to purchase tickets. This will speed things up when it's time to hit balls. The participant will hand the tickets to the person in charge of the hitting station. One ticket per try. You may want to give a small prize to winner of each group.

The soft toss machine on the web site (www.shop.beebesports.com) is not only a great hitting aid for team practices, etc., but it's a fun product to use at this type of event. Kids have a blast with this machine.
We guarantee you that they will keep coming back for more trys.
One thing we suggest if you use the soft toss machine, is to let each person have at least two free trys, so they can first get the hang of it. Show them to step on foot pad, (ball pops up)....have weight on rear leg and loaded up ready to swing.....when ball comes back down to waist level, swing away. Adults will also enjoy this machine.

If you have a lot of participants, you may have to use multiple fields, batting tees, and soft toss machines to make this go by more quickly.
Between the meal, raffles, and this Hit-A-Thon, there can be some real good money made at this event, and everyone will be involved. People don't mind spending money when there's good food and they're having a fun time......and of course, for a good cause.
These are just suggestions on how we would do this Hit-A-Thon event. You may have better ideas.

Just doing the Hit-A-Thon alone could be very profitable. Example: 200 plus participants, paying $1 per ball, at ten plus balls ea..........do the math!

Note: We reccomend kids 8 years and under hit off the batting tees.

Like stated above, if run properly, this could be a very fun event for EVERYONE, and can be very PROFITABLE for your League.