4 Key Sports Fundraising Trends You Can’t Ignore

Are you finding that your team’s fundraising efforts have become stagnant? When concession stands are no longer footing the ever-increasing bill to manage your team, it’s time to shake things up. Something that can help with this is understanding the latest trends.

To make things easy for you (which is really our goal in life), we’ve gathered four key sports fundraising trends to help you maximize your fundraising efforts.

1. Gather Data if You Can.

Recently, a group gathered to discuss trends in athletic giving. One of the key insights they revealed from the data was that having access to ticketing data can improve fundraising results. The school in question “saw a 40% increase in donors and 22% increase in revenue.”

Although this sports fundraising insight was uncovered at the university level, even elementary-age teams can take a page from this book. If you can, try to gather as much data about who is purchasing tickets as possible. If it’s mostly parents and family, engage them more in your fundraising efforts. If it’s a more broad community base, try to get an address database going for a postcard campaign. It starts with gathering the data and then you can make informed decisions on how to make your fundraising more targeted.

2. Take Advantage of Giving Days.

On a national level, we have seen community days of giving as a trend for years. It’s a nice way to pool resources for the benefit of many. At the school level, fundraising days have been a trend for a while. Summer carnival, pajama day, movie night and more all typically have a fundraising component to them.

If your sports team doesn’t already have a giving day that benefits it, why not start your own? Think of something that fits your organization and make it your new annual tradition.

3. Offer More Than Tickets.

A common practice for sports teams and the Booster Clubs that support them is to sell ticket packages. While this is still a good option, you may want to diversify this strategy. For starters, COVID has resulted in less demand for in-person events. As such, ticket packages may not be as compelling as they once were. In this vein, you may want to test giving folks something that will last longer, such as swag.

In contrast, you could remove focus from what the end-user will “get” altogether. NP Engage recommends speaking more to the impact of their donation. Try messaging that explains where the donation goes and how sports motivate kids to work together, etc.

4. Facilitate Digital Payment.

According to ORR Group, 1 in 4 Americans say they’re willing to spend more money when using a digital wallet. Folks are simply carrying less cash these days, and credit card processing takes too much time. We have previously written about the benefits of using mobile credit card processing.

If your group does not have an established mobile credit card processing system, check out MyStore. For MoneyMinder users, it’s free until you collect a payment.

So, set up your store and sell spirit wear, have a bake sale or a carnival night and eliminate the excuses.

Happy Fundraising!