Sports fundraising ideas
Need a great fundraising idea for your team? Whether you're involved in football, soccer, cheerleading, basketball, baseball, badminton—or any other sporting activity—this list of fundraising ideas for sports teams will help you rally your community and reach your goals to ensure the success of your program.
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Cheer off
Invite dance, cheer, or pom squads to pay a small entry fee and battle it out for top spots like “Most Spirited” and “Best Routine.” Take this event to the next level by asking attendees to consider adding a donation to their ticket purchase, offering concessions, or evenlivestreamingthe event.
Fan Combine
Players vs. parents game
Mascot showdown
Join forces with your rival team for a good cause. Organize a race or other competition between your mascots during halftime at a big game, and ask supporters to vote for their mascot by donating on a team fundraising page. Use text-to-donate or a QR code to bring in even more funds from the stands during the event.
Jeans day
Sell passes for a day out of uniform or a day in jeans. You can even turn it into a friendly competition to see which grade has the highest participation. For easy payments, use scan-to-donate, Venmo, or other convenient methods.
50-yard-line movie night
Swag sale
Raise some extra funds for your organization or club and spread the word about your cause by selling branded swag like totes, stickers, and t-shirts.
With advanced ticketing features, you can offer each item on a mobile-friendly platform and add an image and available amount so supporters can easily purchase and share their sizing info, too!
Pizza party
Have each class or group create a team fundraising page for donations and campaign sharing. Reward the team that raises the most with a bottomless pizza day, donated by a local pizzeria or made by volunteers.
Community cookbook
Create and sell a custom cookbook featuring favorite recipes from your community members and families. To drum up excitement and spread the word, share sneak peek photos on your custom fundraising page.
Staff vs. students
Organize an afternoon of relay races, obstacle courses, and brain teasers at your school and challenge teachers to partake. Be sure to create a fun and engaging event page where attendees can easily purchase tickets!
Comedy roast
Pay you not to ask me again
Give your supporters a way to opt out of all your upcoming donation requests during a big fundraising effort. If they contribute via your donation form before a certain date, you’ll take them off your email and call list for the whole campaign! Then, you can easily segment your email list with your built-in CRM and marketing tools.
Food truck smorgasbord
Invite food trucks to a big game or event and ask them in return to donate a portion of all food sales to your team. To really sweeten thesponsorshipopportunity, offer benefits for these small businesses, like free marketing and publicity.
Shave for the cause
Create a peer to peer fundraising campaign and invite participants to create their own pages and compete to raise the most funds. Watch the leaderboard for live updates on who’s in the lead. The person with the highest amount raised or the most individual donations will shave their head—or nominate someone else to shave their own!
Water balloons & sponge toss
For this fundraising event, charge a small fee per water balloon or sponge, and let students throw them at each other during a pep rally or outdoor event. For easy participation, offer scan-to-donate and accept multiple payment methods like Apple Pay, Venmo, and more.
Pool party
Charge an entry fee for a fun day in the sun—think pool floats, squirt guns, and water balloons!
To make this fundraising event even more of a hit, sell summery snacks and drinks, too. Don’t forget the sunscreen!
Bake sale
Everyone loves sweet treats! Whip up some cookies, cakes, or donuts and host a bake sale to raise funds for your good cause. Supporters don’t have cash? No problem! With Givebutter, you can accept mobile payments via Cash App, Venmo, Apple Pay, and more.
Grill-off
Set up team fundraising pages where everyone can make a donation to vote for their favorite chef. They can also see a live leaderboard and watch the votes land in real time!
House party
Sell event tickets online in advance, check guests in with our mobile app, and use Tap to Pay and Venmo donations to accept latecomers on the spot.
Crowdfunding campaign
Collect online donations from friends, family, and community members by creating a fundraising page that lays out your needs and the impact that you will make with the money you raise. Use photos and videos to make your story more engaging, and use a goal bar to showcase your progress.
Be sure to follow crowdfunding best practices in order to make your campaign an even bigger success!
Video Game Tournament
Host a tournament featuring the most popular video games. Charge entry fees for participants and offer donated prizes for winners. To make it digital, livestream the event so participants can play—and cheer each other on—from home.
High heels walk
Instead of a 5k, organize a high heels walk down a “runway” of your choice. Challenge supporters to see who can raise the most funds leading up to the event through peer-to-peer fundraising—and who can rock the best look. Encourage your supporters to personalize their pages to attract more donations!
Auction your time or skills
Ask supporters to volunteer their special skills, then auction their time and expertise to the highest bidder!
Streamline the whole experience with the help of free auction software. Add and categorize items, manage bids, and your bidders can get real-time updates on what’s happening.
Rent your space
Spread the word that your space is available for rent with your email marketing software. Don’t forget to include photos of the space to encourage interest!
Give it up challenge
Ask supporters to “give up” a small indulgence—like their morning coffee—for a set amount of time and donate those funds to your campaign instead.
Create a fundraising page to share challenge ideas, set suggested donation amounts, and post updates or donor shout-outs to keep momentum going.
Frequently asked questions
What are some good easy fundraising ideas for sports teams?
Good fundraisers for sports teams are those that bring team members together with their community, such as car washes, bake sales, and tournaments.
You can raise even more by partnering with a local restaurant to sponsor an event, selling team merchandise, and creating an online fundraising campaign to make it easy for more people to contribute.
What are the best individual fundraising ideas for sports?
Some of the best sports fundraiser ideas for individuals include quiz nights, online donation pages, car washes, merch sales, and securing sponsorships from companies.
How do you organize a team fundraiser?
Team fundraisers take many forms, but the most common type is peer-to-peer fundraising. With Givebutter's free team fundraising software, individuals or teams create their own fundraising pages and leverage their social networks to bring in donations from family members, friends, and other supporters. Introduce some friendly competition to see who can raise the most!
How do you ask for donations for a sports team?
When asking for donations for your sports team, be clear about your goal and the impact that these funds will have on individual athletes and the program as a whole. Don’t forget to personalize your request by explaining what the team means to you and your community.
You can also broaden your reach by asking through various channels, including social media, emails, texts, phone calls, and in-person conversations.
How do sports clubs raise money?
Sports clubs can raise money through fundraising events, merch sales, ticket sales, and other sports team fundraising ideas. Having the right fundraising platform (like Givebutter) makes it even easier to manage and maximize your efforts.
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