One of the essential officer positions on the board is the Fundraising Officer. This is arguably the most important position because the work this person does all year will determine the costs of the team. They represent the business side of the team, so they must be professional in their work.
Duties of the Fundraiser
• Plans all fundraising events
• Gets team excited about attending events
• Must be creative with ideas on how to fundraise
• Must be comfortable talking with companies and vendors about donations
• Determines how much Nationals will cost (if a separate fee is applicable)
• Needs to be extremely organized and efficient
• Must be highly motivated and hardworking, as your work in fundraising affects the cost for every member of the team.
Plan
• Meet with the club sports supervisors to discuss the highest amount of funding their club could receive and if any appeals can be made for additional funding (i.e. for travel, regional/national competitions). In some cases, clubs who operate under a National Governing Body (NGB) are more “legitimate” in the eyes of the school, especially when starting up. Discuss this with the club sports supervisors.
• Plan the season in terms of fundraisers. Set goals of how many events there should be per month/semester, what the most successful fundraisers will be, the baseline amount of money offered by a company for it to be worth the time.
» Ex. Minimum $200 made for the team to participate
Work with Finance
• Officer needs to work closely with the finance (or equivalent) officer to see how much money will need to be raised for the club to function.
• Set a Fundraising Policy for active team members to encourage participation in team events outside the pool.
• Ex. Members must participate in at least one (1) fundraiser per semester. If not, you must pay a fee of $10 per semester you do not participate.
• Keep a list of team members to track minimum participation.
Dues
• Team dues are the first, and often develop into the main source of income for teams even though team dues isn’t a fundraiser. The President or Finance (or equivalent) will set team dues based on fundraising from the previous year (or expectation for the current year) and those dues can be lowered if more work is put into alternative fundraising efforts. When the club growth exceeds the funding given by the school, dues can supplement the budget if fundraisers aren’t as profitable.
Start-up ideas
Restaurant Fundraisers
• Contact local restaurants/chains about their fundraising policies. Most do offer teams 15-20% back of the proceeds made when customers present a flyer or mention the team at the register. This date is chosen and agreed upon by the officer and restaurant management.
• Good times to have them are on days of big meets/invites. Coordinate a team meal fo your team and all the teams invited and send out the flyer. This also helps strengthen camaraderie between teams.
Swim Clinics
• This can be for kids or adults. Contact your Club Sports Supervisor or liaison and talk about setting it up.
• If working with kids, you will probably need a participation waiver with health insurance information that the school can provide. Send this out before the clinic so parents can have access to that information.
• Get creative and make a flyer for the event to post around campus and email out to local clubs, high schools, rec centers, and summer teams!
• Keep an updated contact list of everyone who participated and give them priority sign up for the next clinic.
• Bring some of your team gear to sell to the kids!
Volunteer
• Volunteer with university-affiliated organization/teams: athletic event concessions, trash, recycling, set-up programs (i.e. basketball, football, soccer games). Student government is usually a good place to start with those contacts.
• Student Government events/Career Fairs: get in touch with StuGo leaders at the beginning of each semester to determine events they may need volunteers for and if they can offer any sort of donation to the club.
• At some colleges/universities, StuGo is involved with the schools allocation of funds to certain departments (i.e. rec centers) and seeing more club involvement could bring Club Sports to their attention.
Alumni Events
• Alumni like to keep tabs on the team and what they’re doing. Keep your alumni involved by hosting events on campus (i.e. benefit dinners, dances, pool parties, etc.) that include chances to meet the new team and share stories and experiences of the team.
• Keep an updated contact list of alumni
Local Athletic Organizations
• If your city puts on triathlons, 5/10K races, duathlons, etc. contact the organization that runs the events and ask if they pay teams (either a flat rate or per volunteer) to volunteer aid stations, athlete check in, set-up/tear-down etc.
Sponsorships
• Reach out to the community. Local businesses could be willing to show their support in exchange for the team putting their logo on a team shirt or hanging a banner.
• Reach out to programs within the school that team members are involved in. Ex. ROTC programs who have more funding and would be willing to discuss partnerships in exchange for exposure at meets, team meetings, etc.
Letter Drives/Beg Letters
• Generic letters provided by the school which can be attached to a more personalized letter so the recipient knows they weren’t just sent by the school.
• Officer can choose to require each member provide XX amount of addresses (family, friends, local businesses) to send the letters to.
• Get in touch with club sports supervisors to obtain the letters.
• Club/Rec sports should be able to send them out using the school’s official university letterhead.
Hosting a meet: while not officially a “fundraiser,” entry fees can contribute to the team’s budget. See How to Run a Meet.