Our Top 10 Football Fundraising Ideas.

Football fundraising ideas

How can you raise money for a football team? Teams need training equipment, kits and footballs. The amount of money needed to run a grassroots team soon amounts up and you can find yourself spending hundreds of pounds even before a ball has been kicked. How you tackle your fundraising will decide upon whether your team will be financially successful or not.
We receive emails from grass roots football clubs on a daily basis asking us to donate football equipment, footballs goals and mitre footballs. They are usually from start-up clubs telling us that they are non-profit organisations run by volunteers and asking us to send them the goods! Easy.
Well, not quite that easy, there are an estimated 37,000 similar clubs in the UK, all non profit making and run by an estimated 400,000 volunteers. Imagine if we just gave out freebies to them all!

So how do you raise money for your football club? Here are our top 10 ideas.
1. Don’t just think what is in it for me. Look at it from another perspective. What can I do for the business I am approaching?
A football equipment supplier will not just give all of their equipment away. What can you do for them? Could you write an article about the supplier and post it on your club website or blog. Advertising costs money so in exchange for article you may get £100 to £200 worth of equipment.
Another approach that we once received at The Soccer Store was for a team to produce photographs of our training equipment range for our website and catalogue. They would keep all of the equipment and we would get some great photographs for our Website. Being creative with your ideas often pays. Try to think of an original idea.
2. Explore other avenues. Each team usually has parents who are connected with businesses who would be willing to sponsor the team, maybe in exchange for their logo being printed on the team shirts and some local press.

3. Bag packing. This can be very lucrative. It will involve all of your team members getting down to the local supermarket and putting in a day’s work, but the rewards can be very good. You will need to contact a participating supermarket first and there is often quite a long waiting list.
4. Sponsored event. In an eleven-s-side team you may have 15 players, it is not beyond each player to push the boat out and get 20 people to sponsor them a pound each for a sponsored walk, hike or swim etc. That’s £300 in sponsorship money.
5. Selling teas and coffees on match days. Standing around in the winter months is thirsty work for parents. Selling teas and coffees and maybe even bacon baps on match day can boost your funds for very little effort.
6. Annual raffle. Having raffles on a regular basis wears thin with parents who resent dipping their hands in their pockets too often, so limit to once or twice a year. Ask for prize donations from local businesses.
7. Race-nights. These can be great fun with a chance for everyone to get together for a good night out. There are companies who will organise the event for you in exchange for a cut of the profits. This can also be done, with a little effort and imagination by team members.
8. Football cards. These can be bought online and can be passed around spectators whilst the match is being played or in the clubhouse after the match.
9. Football tournament. Organise a football tournament with teams from local leagues. Charge them to enter. If you can get enough clubs interested this can be a great money earner. On the day you can charge for car parking, charge for stall holders, run a raffle, run a tuck shop, sell teas, coffees and burgers and print a program and charge for adverts. There are plenty of opportunities to make money once you have a crowd there.
10. Charity clothes banks will pay around 40p per kilo for the stuff you have cluttering up your wardrobe and drawers. Donate this to a charity and everyone is a winner.

So there it is 10 great ideas to earn money. Spend a little time on these ideas and you will be on your way to running a successful grass roots club.