Innovative Fundraising Ideas

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Here are some fundraising ideas your booster club can consider to raise anywhere from a little to a lot of money to support the football program:

1. A Golf Tournament
The best part about a golf tournament is it gives people in the community who support your team a chance to do it while doing something else many people enjoy: playing competitive golf.

You can charge an entry fee for a group or foursome, and make individual registrations available for people who want to be paired off on-site.

You can also contact local businesses and friends of your program to sponsor each of the 18 holes. Prepare a press release or contact the newspaper that publishes scores of your games to try and arrange for free coverage of the event in the “events” section, or even in a small story written by a staff reporter. Make sure your contact information is enclosed.

2. Casino Nights
Turn your gymnasium or other locally available space into a casino for a night. Before starting this project, make sure your state allows charitable gaming nights and procure any necessary permits.

Your boosters can work as dealers and help with the games, while other boosters and community supporters show up for an evening of gambling.

Charge an admission fee for entrance into your gaming area, then start off each “gambler” with an equivalent amount of fake play money. You can also allow people to purchase additional play money for an additional donation to your fundraiser.

At the end of the night, see who has the most money left – then consider your options. If you have prizes to award, you can offer separate raffles for each prize, and sell tickets that can be purchased with the fake gambling winnings. Your participants can take a chance at winning each prize, or load up on entries for a certain prize. Price your tickets based on the value of each prize awarded if you would like, or make all of the raffle entries the same price.

You can also auction off your prizes, with an auctioneer to run the bidding. Again, your winners for the evening will be spending their fake winnings, and must decide whether to bid on early prizes or hold out for the larger prizes at the end.

Solicit local businesses and community leaders to donate prizes to help make your fundraiser a success. You may also be able to arrange for steep discounts on the higher end prizes you offer.

Even though the gambling is taking place with fake money, check with an attorney or state regulatory agency to make sure this fundraiser is legal in your town.

3. Lottery Match
If you’re looking for an innovative fundraiser, you’re state lottery may be able to help. Some schools will sell a set amount of raffle tickets, modeled on number combinations available in lottery “Pick 3” or “Pick 4” games.

Then, set a period of time where the holder of the ticket representing the number drawn in the lottery game will win the predetermined prize for that day’s drawing. You can mix prize levels, or work towards a grand prize.

The benefit of this fundraiser is it keeps up the excitement in your program. While a lot of raffles have a sales period, then all the drawings take place at once, this method builds up suspense by stretching out the awarding of prizes over a longer time-span. This keeps the attention of the ticket-buyers on your football team everyday and can be a starting off point towards additional fund-raising efforts.

4. Involve the players
Coaches and booster clubs can ask each player to sell a page in the program that is to be used during the season. The advantage is, it involves the players in the fundraising, so they understand where the money comes from that helps to power the program.

It also gives the players a chance to demonstrate leadership by getting out into the community and talking to the people they hope will support their play during the fall. For the community, it allows people not as close to the football program to put a face on your team – one they’ll remember when supporting the football program in future years.

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