The Best Baseball Fundraising Ideas to Raise More
Baseball fundraising is a great way for school and youth baseball teams, summer leagues, and traveling teams to earn extra money to support their programs. DoJiggy is here to help with the best baseball fundraising platform and ideas to help your team raise more.
Why Do Baseball Teams Fundraise?
Money raised for baseball fundraising typically goes toward team uniforms, new equipment, and training tools. Traveling teams need to pay for travel expenses, tournament entry fees, and even umpire fees for team games.
Although there are many fundraising initiatives that work well, baseball fundraising ideas that are specific to a particular need work best. Make sure to explain the cause for the fundraiser, as people are more willing to contribute to your baseball program if they understand where the money is going.
Our #1 Baseball Fundraising Idea: Plan a Hit-A-Thon Fundraiser for the Team
The perfect fundraising event for baseball teams is a hit-a-thon. This type of fundraiser works just like any walk-a-thon or peer-to-peer event. Players ask relatives, friends, and neighbors to make a pledge or donation to help a certain cause (to cover tournament fees, pay for new uniforms, etc.). Pledge amounts can be calculated either per completed hit, or longest distance hit, with each participant getting a certain number of pitches, or contributors can choose to donate a fixed amount.
A great way to easily and quickly obtain a lot of donations is through our peer-to-peer fundraising platform. Players create personal fundraising pages where they upload photos, explain their mission, and have people make secure donations online. Participants can send out an email donation request letter or social media appeal that includes a link directly to their personal fundraising page.
DoJiggy’s Fundraising Platform Makes Planning a Hit-a-thon Easier and More Successful
Planning a hit-a-thon in conjunction with another event tends to work really well to increase attendance. For example, host the hit-a-thon on team picture day when parents, players, and friends are already gathered together to take team and individual photos for the season. After photos are taken, teams go to hitting lanes, where every player hits several balls from a tee. Coaches record the longest distance batted on the player’s hit-a-thon pledge card.
For older kids, a hit-a-thon could be run where each participant receives a certain number of pitches and pledges are collected for completed hits. After the hit-a-thon concludes, gather parents, family, and friends together for a season kick-off BBQ event. Give out prizes for the longest ball hit and the largest amount of pledges collected.
Read more on our blog on how to organize a hit-a-thon for your team.
10 More Great Baseball Fundraisers
Fundraising Raffles and Sweepstakes
Consider hosting a fundraising raffle or sweepstakes as part of the event, where supporters buy tickets for a chance to win prizes. This is a fun, effective way to earn money for your cause. Easily extend the reach of your raffle by managing ticket sales online with our raffle fundraising platform.
Baseball Team Sponsorships
One of the biggest money-makers for baseball fundraising is soliciting team sponsors. Players, coaches, and parents can help identify and reach out to local businesses to ask for donations. The team may want to establish various sponsorship levels and outline the benefits sponsors will receive at each level before requesting donations. Businesses may be more likely to support the team, knowing that they will receive something in exchange for their donation.
A basic sponsorship requires a smaller donation (i.e. $100 – $250). At this level, sponsors receive benefits such as a link from the team website and the sponsor’s logo on the team banner. Offering larger sponsor levels, such as a Title Sponsor, can bring in larger donations. This sponsorship level will receive enhanced benefits such as the business logo on team jerseys, a featured advertisement on the team website, and recognition on team plaques and trophies. If the title sponsor is a local restaurant, offer to host team parties at their location. This is a great benefit as you’ll bring customers in and introduce parents and community members to the restaurant. Don’t forget to ask sponsors’ permission to set up a donation jar at their establishment. You may be able to bring in some extra revenue from customers visiting their location who are willing to throw in a few extra bucks to support your baseball team.
Always be sure to thank sponsors for their contributions. Sending a thank-you letter at the end of the season, recognizing sponsor contributions on the team website or newsletter, and inviting sponsors to team parties are all great ways to show appreciation and possibly bring them back again in future years.
Team Car Washes
A classic car wash is a great baseball fundraiser that the kids can run. Make this event a one-stop shop for busy parents and community members. Task your players with making and selling deli sandwiches and washing cars. Ask a local café to sell cappuccinos and create a convenient and delicious stop for busy adults to drive off in a clean car. Teams can offer car washes at the baseball diamond and during Saturday tournaments.
Walk-a-thons or Fun Runs for the Team
Walkathon fundraisers are a great way to use the power of community members to come together and raise money from their network of family and friends. Participants commit to collecting pledges and donations for their softball or baseball team and work in teams to inspire others. Consider reaching out to business sponsors, and you could have them sponsor mile markers, provide in-kind support of water or food, or create a matching gift challenge.
Tracking and monitoring donations and participants can be overwhelming, which is why our peer-to-peer software is a great tool to ensure that your walk-a-thon is a success. Using walk-a-thon software helps create a seamless experience for participants and donors. Tracking donations made far and wide, ensuring pledges are paid, and allowing credit card payments to be securely processed online all come together to ensure that any event is a success.
Baseball Fundraising Cards or Discount Card Fundraisers
Scratch-off fundraising cards work well for players of all ages and have become a popular choice for baseball and baseball teams and leagues. The scratch-off card can be customized with your team name, slogan, and relevant sports design. Each player is given at least one scratch card containing 50 concealed dots. Players ask friends, family, and neighbors to participate by scratching off one or more dots. Each dot reveals a pre-determined donation amount. Typically these amounts do not exceed $10, with the lowest donation being $1. In return for participating, each donor is given a sheet of coupons from national merchants (such as Domino’s Pizza, Jiffy Lube, or Target) with savings worth more than $100.
A similar idea to the scratch card is the fundraising discount card. Rather than leaving the donation amount to chance by scratching off the dots, players sell these cards for a set fee (i.e., $10 per card). Each card entitles the donor to numerous discounts with national chains or local businesses. The card clearly pays for itself with the savings the purchaser receives. These discount cards can be securely sold online, and top fundraisers can be tracked with our peer-to-peer platform.
Online Team Spirit Merchandise Sales
If your team has a following, online merchandise sales are an easy way to bring in some dough. With our free online stores for nonprofits, there are no setup costs. Simply design your team gear and post it online. You can sell t-shirts, hoodies, hats, bags, socks, cell phone covers and more. Add the products to your online store at a price that guarantees your team profits from each sale. Our Simple Stores platform even supports peer to peer fundraising merchandise sales – so each of your players can have their own store website.
Miniature Golf Tournaments
Hosting a mini-golf tournament is a great fundraising activity for youth baseball teams. Just like a regular charity golf tournament, a mini-golf event is fun, encourages team-building, and can bring in a lot of funds. The great thing about mini golf is that anyone can play and it only takes a couple of hours, rather than an entire day on the golf course. Sell refreshments and fundraising raffle tickets to raise extra money and bring out the whole family to enjoy a day of miniature golf for your favorite baseball team!
Breakfast Fundraisers
The nice thing about a breakfast fundraiser is that it does not take nearly the amount of time to organize as some large fundraising events, but it still raises significant funds while bringing members of your organization and the community together in a social setting. In order for your breakfast to be successful, however, you must be organized and have a strong team of dedicated parent volunteers. While pancake breakfast fundraisers are popular school and sports fundraisers, you are certainly not limited to that idea alone. Offering more gourmet and brunch-like options will allow you to charge more for admission and draw a larger audience. Of course, you’ll need the chefs and cooks to make this happen.
More Fundraising Ideas for Baseball Teams
Still looking for fundraising ideas? We offer fundraising ideas for softball teams, high school fundraising ideas, the best fundraisers for schools, and elementary school fundraisers. Also, there are plenty of sports fundraising ideas that can be applied to a baseball team, so take a moment to find the right fundraiser for your baseball team.
