Fundraising

[danpugh]

Just curious to see if anyone has had any fundraisers that have been worth the time in terms of monetary return. Any good ideas are also welcome. Im sure alot of teams have thought of some good stuff, and im trying to get a feel for what generally works and what doesnt

[KillinAintShe]

A couple ideas:

Buy t-shirts (5 bucks a piece) and sell them for double.

Ask parents for money.

[Dave Garland]

A couple years ago we did magazine sales for Wash U's inline hockey team. Each player had to sell a minimum of 3 magazines and we made about $2,000 in 3 days.

Other than that, just be creative: tee shirts, parties (rent out a bar), auction off your players for dates, whatever.

[DGlass]

Pitt ran a summer camp in 2004. I was out of the country and couldn't do it but we made a decent amount of money, kept everyone skating together (at least a little) and it was definitely a good "help-the-community" deal.

If you have registered your club as a non-profit, donations are tax-deductible.

T-shirts: Make sure the shirt is good quality and the design isn't too tacky. How many of us have drawers full of useless t-shirts?

[NLane]

The Williamsburg Warriors had pictures of the players put onto white labels that they then stuck on small white cow bells (the Warrior emblem was on the other side). Fans bought them for "Noisemaker" night and brought them to games for the rest of the season. They also sold the t-shirts with the Warrior emblem on the front.

[CUDangled]

Do the magazine fundraiser but cut out the middle man. We got people to buy th magazines, but we ran the fundraiser and handled the orders. Instead of sending them off to a company that takes their cut of the pie. We just went to the newstand and looked at the subscription price on the cards in the magazines. Turns out that we could get the subscriptions on our own, make a equal (or greater profit) and still charge out customers less. Plus, then you can offer the magazines people actually want to read. This was for a college team. We did it once through a company...once on our own. Much better results on our own. The company didn't offer the typical "college guy" names that sold the best. Playboy, Penthouse, Maxim, Sports Illustrated, etc.