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5 Creative Basketball Fundraising Ideas
Photo By: Nick Hubbard
Fundraising for your basketball team can be like spinning your wheels if you choose the wrong path or program. If you are not careful, you can just be taking on more work while getting little in return. What basketball fundraising ideas give you the best bang for your buck?
- Camps – Running a basketball camp or clinic is a great idea to raise funds. Your team can use their basketball skills and knowledge to teach local youth. Make sure to take into account all the expenses that you will incur before you schedule something. If you are working with your school, you probably won’t have many expenses, but if you need to provide food or prizes for competitions, you may want to reach out to potential sponsors.
- Youth basketball league – Your team can put on a basketball league for young people if you have enough young basketball players in your community. This takes some major logistical planning, but can really pay off if executed properly. You can save money by having your athletes be the referees and score-keepers.
- Sponsorships – Reaching out to local businesses is great to get them involved and interested in your sport. The relationship can be a win-win if they can provide you with some funds in exchange for advertising their business. Most businesses will want their donation to go towards somethings tangible, like a scoreboard advertisement, or putting their logo on a t-shirt. Whenever you have an opportunity like this, contacting business can be great, particularly if you’ve worked with them before.
- Get alumni involved – Reaching out to alumni of your basketball program is a great idea, as they already have a strong interest in your program. You can try to contact them for general contributions each year, or look to get them involved in a more specific way. Perhaps you can have an alumni game that is sponsored by local small businesses. Keeping the alumni involved consistently keeps them interested in the program. This way, you will already have a relationship with them when you are looking for contributions.
- GoFundMe – Fundraising sites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter are growing in popularity. On GoFundMe, you can set up a team page and donors can contribute an amount online. GoFundMe keeps a small percentage in exchange for processing the payments. Have your team share it social media if they want to. Try to list specific things that you plan to do on your page. People will be more likely to contribute if they know exactly what there money is going towards. So, for instance, say that the money is going towards new uniforms and set the goal as what it would cost for them. This way donors will be able to see exactly what their money went towards. Obviously, you’d need to get new uniforms with that money if that is what you promised.
There are dozens of other good basketball fundraising ideas, but these are among the best for return on your time investment. If you or your team has another special skill or ability, you can put that to use in a way that would be productive for your program.
It’s important to constantly be test out new fundraising ideas to see what works best. If you a camp that consistently brings in money, don’t move away from that, but look for other opportunities for other fundraisers. Fundraising isn’t easy, but it is a very important part of your program’s success. With technology today, it has never been easier to get your word out, so there is no excuse for not trying new ideas.
