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Fundraising ideas for your grassroots football team
A common issue among many grassroots football clubs, it can sometimes become difficult to raise the necessary funds that ensure each and every team are able to play to their full potential and that they have the suitable equipment and facilities to make this happen. From equipping players with fresh kits and having the relevant equipment to play a successful match, to securing suitable transportation for travelling to and from away games - costs can soon add up.
That’s why, at Avec Sport, we recognise the importance of raising funds and therefore never hesitate to encourage grassroots clubs to run regular fundraising campaigns. We believe this provides football teams with the best possible opportunity to consistently thrive season after season, enabling both aspiring and accomplished players alike to live up to their full potential.
Whether you’re looking to raise money for your own club, for charity, or both, in this post, we’ll outline a range of creative football fundraising ideas, outlining the different ways your grassroots football teams can raise cash for essential facilities, equipment, transport and kits while involving the local community and supporters.
How do you raise money for a grassroots football team?
A great way to build funds for your club, we would recommend focussing on maximising sponsorship opportunities for your grassroots football teams. Ultimately, this can help to push more funding into teams of all levels and abilities within your football club. In fact, if you already have a sponsorship in place, it’s likely that this is your clubs’ main source of income, proving just how essential having a sponsor is when you’re looking to raise funds.
How to attract a sponsor
If you're searching for your clubs’ first sponsor, one tip is to ensure that you’re presenting your grassroots teams in the best possible light, highlighting community involvement efforts, the reach of the club, attendance, partnerships and more. While, if your club already has a sponsor, gaining additional sponsors is a further way to raise more essential funds, unless you’ve agreed exclusive terms with your current sponsor. However, no matter what stage you’re at in this process, we understand that it can be difficult to find a sponsor, which is why we’ve compiled a separate guide on how to attract a sponsor for your team, providing some great tips and ideas to get you started.
PRO TIP: Try approaching small businesses in the area and, if successful in gaining a sponsor from this, spend time brainstorming ways your team can promote their business, such as printing their logo on our custom teamwear and placing promotional adverts around the pitch.
If you’re finding it difficult to gain an external sponsorship for your grassroots team, one alternative is to speak with your current football kit supplier and negotiate an advertising deal in which you display their branding on your facilities and website in return for kits (or a discount on these) for your club. If you decide to use this method of fundraising, although no money is exchanging hands, this is still a really clever way for saving money on your current kit spend.
Top football fundraising ideas
While attracting a sponsor is a great way to make money, there are a number of other ways you can raise funds for your club.
1. Provide refreshments at events
Running a stall with snacks and hot and cold refreshments to help keep players’ and their families going throughout the day can be a great way to raise funds. If you’re looking for ideas on what food to sell, drop this into conversation with supporters who regularly attend your events, or run a survey. Taking on board these suggestions can help you gain maximum profit for your team.
Additionally, many small clubs tend to add a percentage to all snacks and refreshments that are sold on match days and during other events. This is a great way to encourage those that spend a lot of time at the club before, during and after games to contribute to the running costs and overheads without even thinking about it.
2. Sell kit merchandise to supporters
Having an attractive and high-quality football kit with club branding, crests and logos to supply to players and supporters plays an important role in motivating your team and sets a good base for you to display the branding of sponsors, as well as blending with the clubs’ general aesthetic.
A great way to drive funding is to sell your kit as replica merchandise on match days, or from your clubhouse all season long if you have the necessary resources to do so. At Avec Sport, we can help you facilitate this by creating high-quality casual wear replicas that supporters of your grassroots team will be proud to wear while spectating, as well as providing custom kits for your teams.
3. Run football card competitions
These can be passed around supporters at half time, or distributed in the clubhouse after the match. Simply grab a prize, perhaps from behind your bar or again, a piece of memorabilia relating to your club or a wider national team, and give this to the lucky winner. Any profits gained from these cards being purchased can again be invested into equipment and resources for your team or teams.
4.Sell football programmes
We understand that creating full match day programmes can become quite costly when you factor in the cost of designing, printing, cutting, binding and distribution. However, programmes can be a great way to keep your supporters informed of club news, insights and provide general entertainment ahead of kick off. These can also often sell for a decent price to help you generate funds and provide a return on what you’ve invested into producing these programmes.
If programmes are out of the question due to budget constraints, a more cost-effective method involves creating a double-sided piece of card or glossy paper that includes key match-day stats and one piece of club news. A great way of keeping in touch without involving too much design and print work - this will also help to provide your supporters with a keepsake from the match.
5. Rent out your training pitches and indoor areas
An ideal way to capitalise on your facilities, if your clubs’ buildings, training facilities, pitches and general football grounds aren’t in constant use throughout the year, then why let these empty spaces go to waste?
If you haven’t considered this already, renting these out can help your club make money while helping local businesses as well as football teams from other organisations. For instance, you could offer up any training space or pitches to 5-a-side and amateur teams, or even provide the space for other sport and leisure activities. Then, teachers of sports, amateur teams, individuals and even businesses could benefit from the space and generate funds to put back into running the club.
What is the most profitable fundraising event?
Whether you’re looking to raise the maximum amount of funds for a charity or for your own football club, if you need a more exciting and interactive way to raise money while involving as many people as possible, we have a number of ideas for fundraising events that can help inspire you.
1. Host a charity game day
Hosting a fun-filled game day at your club is a great way to build funds. Simply charge an entry fee or set up a donation system for attendees, while ensuring the day includes a whole host of activities such as 5-a-side games, training drills, penalty shoot-outs and other football-based games for everyone to get involved in. We would also recommend rounding the day off with a friendly football game, where team members play with and against your supporters and visitors.
PRO TIP: Be sure to provide some refreshments for attendees as well as prizes for winners of the games taking place. All donations or profits from ticket sales can then go directly to your club to help keep it going.
2. Help the community
Another excellent way to raise money for your grassroots club involves arranging for your team or teams to carry out some sponsored activities in the community, such as bag packing in supermarkets, car washing and fundraising at large-scale events. You may be surprised just how lucrative spending a few hours at a local supermarket, or standing outside a major venue with collection buckets can be, so we believe that this is certainly worth a try. However, we advise contacting the supermarket or arena beforehand to ensure your club is able to do this.
3. Host a raffle
If your club has any memorabilia, merchandise or other collectables that have been accumulated over the years, we suggest getting your teams together to have a sort out and setting up a raffle, which can help clear space for new gear while helping to raise essential funds that can go towards this. Many supporters will be happy to purchase a few raffle tickets to win a prize and further support their local football club.
4. Hold an awards evening
Hosting an awards evening for your grassroots football club and its teams is not only a great opportunity to provide some well-deserved recognition to the players that are exceeding in their performance, but it is also a great way of raising vital funds to help keep the club on its feet. This can be done through ticket sales, where parents, partners, family and friends of the teams’ players can come along in support and watch as their loved one receives an accolade.
PRO TIP: You may also wish to provide some refreshments and donate the profits of these back into the club.
Football fundraising ideas at Avec Sport
These fundraiser ideas for your grassroots team will hopefully provide you with some inspiration to help you raise funds for your club, but as you brainstorm even more ideas - the creative possibilities are endless. Here at Avec Sport, we not only provide you with advice to help your club thrive, but we can also create bespoke football kits, merchandise and custom football equipment to help you brand your club successfully. Browse team football kits for adult and junior teams, or get in touch with us for more information about branding your club equipment.