Team Fundraising Ideas that Work
Team fundraising is a great way for many groups (including service groups and athletic teams) to earn additional revenue to fund programs and initiatives. Team fundraising works great for corporate fundraising initiatives, schools and PTO groups, associations, sports teams, and community organizations. It’s a great way to bring people together for a shared cause and build community. Add online fundraising and mobile giving functionality to a little competition and your cause will benefit greatly from the power of the team.
Benefits of Team Fundraising
While some individuals can be quite successful in collecting donations on their own, there are many benefits that group fundraising campaigns offer. Benefits of team fundraising include:
- Having a support system to encourage the success of each individual member.
- Instilling motivation through competition, incentives, and awards.
- Encouraging teamwork, collaboration, and communication.
- Access to a larger network of (new) potential donors.
- Providing parents an opportunity to teach children about the value of giving back.
- Having more fun by working with a group rather than alone.
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising for Teams and Groups
Peer-to-peer is a powerful method of fundraising that leverages supporters to fundraise on behalf of your organization or cause. It’s also known as P2P fundraising or crowdfunding. The power of a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign lies in your group’s fundraising abilities. By tapping into their social network of friends and supporters, your organization is able to reach a much larger audience, therefore spreading greater awareness of your cause and raising significantly more dollars than traditional fundraising campaigns. That’s why peer to peer events make the best group and team fundraisers.
Team & Group Fundraising Ideas
P2P campaigns are best suited for active events and competitions that promote community. These types of events work well because new supporters and donors can get excited about supporting the group who participates in the event and thereby learn more about your cause.
Group fundraising also provides community members with an opportunity to contribute to a meaningful cause that supports growth within their local community. Here are some examples of group and team fundraising activities that work well.
Team Fundraising Idea 1: Walkathons and Fun Runs
Walkathon fundraising events are always popular fundraisers for groups. Not only do they have great potential to raise large amounts of money for your cause, but these types of events also support health and wellness, encourage teamwork, and provide an excellent opportunity to bring your community together to celebrate a great cause. They also provide a format where most everyone can participate. Reach out to local businesses for walk-a-thon sponsorships and corporate donations. Create a fun post-event party that includes food, beverages, entertainment, prizes and more.
We have the tools you’ll need to organize a successful walkathon event.
Team Fundraising Idea 2: Bike-a-thons and Spin-a-thons
Bike-a-thon fundraisers are another great community and group fundraising option. Routes can be set up for serious riders and families alike. If you find yourself planning a winter event, consider a spin-a-thon instead of a traditional bike-a-thon. The nice thing about a spin-a-thon is all of your participants are in the same location, throughout the event. This gives you a chance to earn even more money by including an online charity auction fundraiser. Contact local restaurants, hotels, and retail shops to request donations. You may also want to reach out to professional sports teams to obtain season tickets or autographed memorabilia. Set up an auction table or tent the day of the event for event attendees to view and bid on items.
Team Fundraising Idea 3: Alternative P2P Events
If walks and rides aren’t your group’s style, think outside the box and create a peer-to-peer variation. The important part of a peer-to-peer fundraising event is that your whole group is involved and can get behind the event. This happens best when your chosen fundraising event matches the mission of your nonprofit or group. Swim teams often run swim-a-thon fundraisers, and baseball teams can use hit-a-thon events. Maybe a Dance with the Stars style dance or a community serve-a-thon would suit your group.
Utilizing Peer to Peer Crowdfunding Software
Once you’ve decided which event works best for your team, it’s time to find a crowdfunding platform to make donation collection seamless.
An online crowdfunding campaign is essential to raising money with a group fundraiser. Crowdfunding websites make it easy for groups to share their fundraising page and get donations from friends and family. Some key features of our software include:
- Personal & Group Fundraising pages are the heart of the system. Each participant and team has a personalized page with images, videos, their mission statement, a fundraising thermometer, and social media links.
- Participants can send out an email or social media donation request to friends and family members, which includes a link to their personal page. Making it easy and secure for potential donors to contribute is key.
- Prize Management: Encourage healthy competition by providing incentives and prizes for the top fundraisers. Track multiple award levels and print reports to easily distribute prizes. When participants reach a certain fundraising level, they get a prize widget on their personal fundraising page. Read more on how our software helps you encourage your peer-to-peer participants to fundraise.
- Product sales – Sell water bottles, t-shirts, after-party tickets, and other related products on your website.
- Reporting Capabilities: Always be able to check the progress of your online registration and fundraising goals in real-time so that you can plan that extra push to promote your event strategically.
Many Teams Raise 2-3 Times More With Our P2P Crowdfunding Platform
Team Fundraising Idea 4: Community Fundraising Events
Many small groups are successful with community fundraising events such as a community picnic or bake sale. Have group members prepare food and sell items to raise funds for your cause. Tie the event in with the food that’s in season. For instance, offer strawberry shortcake, jams, and fresh vegetables in the summer. In Fall, have pumpkin bread and apple pies, etc. While you’re at it, why not collect all the recipes and offer a cookbook for sale at a very reasonable price? People are always excited to learn about a new, tasty recipe that is easy to make. Reach out to a local band and ask them to donate their time by entertaining guests during the event. Lastly, don’t forget to consider including a fundraising raffle as part of the event. Reach out to local businesses for prize donations and sell raffle tickets at the event for additional revenue.
Team Fundraising Idea 5: Fundraising Product Sales
Your group may want to consider fundraising merchandise sales. Some ideas for product sales include:
- Sell School Paraphernalia: If you are a school group, get the crowd ready to shout out for the home team with all of the right school paraphernalia. These can include hoodies, coffee mugs, mascot stuffed animals, temporary tattoos, foam hands, jerseys, t-shirts, caps and more.
- Sweets: Shop around for the highest profits for selling such sweets and goodies like flavored popcorn, cookies, candy, pretzels and snacks.
- Seasonal Catalog Goods: The holidays always find people looking for unique gift ideas, ready to spend a little more than usual. Another great option is a catalog with seasonal or holiday goods, which often include treats, gift wrap and home goods.
- Natural Specialty Goods: For more healthy goods, consider looking at catalogs that offer specialty items, such as coffee, flower bulbs, candles, and natural soap fundraisers.
- Discount Cards: A discount shopping card is a wallet-sized card with a selection of prearranged discounts at local and national merchants in your area. Each card sells for around $10 and provides for unlimited usage of special offers for one year.
DoJiggy offers eCommerce stores for nonprofit product sales if you want to take your sales online.
Team Fundraising Idea 6: Team Sponsorships
One of the biggest and easiest sports fundraising campaigns can be through soliciting team sponsors. Players, coaches, and parents can help identify and contact local businesses to ask for sponsorships and donations. Team sponsorships can work for any sport: baseball, softball, soccer, football, lacrosse, hockey, or gymnastics. Team sponsorships usually work best for sports that are highly visible within the community. For example, a soccer team that competes weekly at a community center where hundreds of parents, children and locals are present gives businesses exposure to a large audience through logo presence on banners and team uniforms. There may even be community bulletin boards or a community center newsletter where sponsors can post advertisements and coupons.
If your team is soliciting sponsors, it may be wise to establish various levels of sponsorship and outline the benefits sponsors will receive at each level prior to 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 (maybe $250), and sponsors receive benefits such as link from your organization’s website, and logo on the team banner. 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 cause.
Offering larger sponsor levels, such as a Title Team Sponsor, can bring in much larger donations ($1,000+). This sponsorship level will receive enhanced benefits such as their 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 their restaurant.
As with any fundraising sponsor, be sure to thank sponsors for their contributions. Sending a thank-you letter at the end of the season, recognizing sponsor contributions on a 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 Fundraising Roles and Duties
With a group, you have many minds, bodies, and resources to help you think of creative ideas, plan and manage activities, and reach out to potential donors. Have a fundraising kick-off meeting where team members discuss their strengths and experience. Then assign duties to different members of the team. This will help you be more efficient in your planning efforts. Below are some different areas of the fundraising planning process to consider.
- Logistics & Timelines: This group manages all the little details (i.e., obtaining event permits and creating and managing timelines and checklists).
- Sponsorships: These individuals tap into local businesses and all the networks group members are connected with to solicit sponsorship and corporate donations.
- Marketing & Public Relations: These people promote the event through media relations (i.e., press releases), social networking, and creating promotional materials.
- Hospitality & Communications: The fundraising cheer squad! This group updates participants, organizes pre-and post-event meals and activities, and coordinates entertainment.
- Volunteers: This person or group handles volunteers, including recruitment, creating volunteer schedules, assigning volunteers to specific tasks, and ongoing communication with volunteers.
- Managing Donations & Pledges: Assign someone to implement a secure fundraising software system for collecting secure donations, managing event details, and tracking participant success.
More Fundraising Resources for Teams and Groups
As you can see, there are many different kinds of fundraising initiatives that work well for groups and teams. Take some time to brainstorm with members of your organization to find out what type of fundraiser they’d enjoy participating in. If participants are invested in the activity and can have fun while raising money, chances are you’ll have a successful fundraiser. Visit our creative nonprofit fundraising ideas page for more ideas and tips for planning your fundraising campaign.
