Direct Fundraising's Blog | Team Fundraising Without Selling

What and why articles provide information on what sports teams are raising money towards and why it helps their program’s success. The hope is that other teams can read these articles, learn tips on what to raise money for and effectively take their teams to the next level as well. The fundraisers are done in collaboration with Direct Fundraising LLC.

Elms College Baseball | Chicopee, MA

What did they raise money for?
Elms College Baseball raised money to pay for their spring training trip to Florida.

Why did this help with their sports program’s success?
The spring trip allows us to get 10-12 games early in the season over a short period of time. Also, the weather is much better so we are able to do more with the baseball team in terms of practice and training. Overall, the trip is so we can get our team ready for Conference play back north.

Comment below on what your team is fundraising for and how it helps your program.

If you Google the phrase  “school fundraising,” you will find hundreds of companies offering you various ways to raise money for your sports team or school organization. These companies are pushing products for your team to sell such as candy, scratch cards, candles and more. Most profits are around 50 percent – so after all your hard work selling, you only get to keep half the money you bring in. At times, the fundraising business can seem like it is not really about the teams – its about businesses pushing their products for a big profit of their own.

Although I don’t want this story to be a complete sales pitch for Direct Fundraising, it may come across that way because we truly believe that fundraising should be all about the teams. First, we always make sure our teams make a good profit. In the unlikely case a team doesn’t make at least a 70 percent profit, we will charge them less money so they make a 70 percent profit. So we actually give money back if the fundraiser doesn’t go as planned for a team. Were are not worried about losing this money because in the end, if the team is making money, they are happy and they will tell others about us.

Second, we are always looking for ways to cut down the cost for our fundraisers. Then we can pass this cost savings on to our customers in lower prices. One example of this involves our recent decision to change the design of our fundraising letters. Direct Fundraising utilizes sponsorship letters that are sent out in the mail to raise money. We came up with a new design that does not to use an outside envelope to mail the letter out. This takes out the cost of the envelope, printing on the envelope and the assembly time to put the letters in the envelope. This is all done to reduce our prices for our customers so they can make more of a profit. Furthermore, it lowers the amount of paper we are using which is of course good for the environment.

In the end, if everything in fundraising is about the teams, everyone wins. Teams should always do research before working with a fundraising company. Make sure that the company offers legitimate guarantees and high profit margins. For more tips on choosing a fundraising company, read our 5 Tips article.

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Rochester, NY – Megan Murphy comes to Direct Fundraising with a wealth of experience having raised thousands of dollars for sports teams across the country. For the past six years she has worked at My Sports Dreams with a primary focus on providing fundraising services to collegiate sports  while also working with youth, high school, club and semi-pro teams. Murphy joins  in a sales capacity where she will partner with teams and organizations to raise money without selling – so they can focus on a successful season.

“I am very excited to be part of this quickly developing company. As a former coach and athlete, I know that sports teams need fundraising solutions that are cost effective and make the best use of their time,” said Murphy. “Adam Platzer ‘s (owner) customer-based approach is something that I find very important and I am thrilled to be a part of.”

Murphy has extensive experience around sports.  A 1999 graduate of Wilton High School in Wilton, CT, Murphy earned 12 varsity letters in basketball, soccer, lacrosse and tennis.  In 2003, Murphy graduated from Gettysburg College with a BA in History. In her years as a member of the lacrosse team there, she was a two-time All-American, three-time regional All-American, three-time all-conference, Conference Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year by Inside Lacrosse Magazine.

Since college, Megan has coached for the English Lacrosse Association in Manchester England and worked as the assistant lacrosse coach at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Since 2005, Murphy has also been running a successful girls lacrosse camp business in Southern Fairfield County, Connecticut. Fun in the Sun Lax has grown by over 400% since 2005, and now attracts girls from over twenty different towns throughout Connecticut and New York.  In her free time, she coaches various youth programs in the area and helps in the strategic development of small start-up town lacrosse programs.

Direct Fundraising owner, Adam Platzer,  says of Murphy, “It is an honor to have someone with Megan’s knowledge and experience working for Direct Fundraising. As many of the coaches she has helped already know, Megan truly cares about the teams success.” For more information on Direct Fundraising and how they partner with teams and organizations to raise thousands, visit www.directfundraisingllc.com.

For information: http://www.directfundraisingllc.com or
Contact: aplatzer@directfundraisingllc.com
Phone: 585-314-5985

Social media is all the buzz these days with the fast rise of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Many collegiate level coaches are even on board to help with recruiting and exposure of their programs. Kentucky Basketball Coach John Calipari, who is known not to be tech savvy, has over one million people following his Twitter page.  Coaches and Booster Clubs must also be aware of the benefits that social media can have on the exposure of their team’s fundraiser. Below are two tips that your team can easily implement and will cost you next to nothing.

1) Make a Facebook Fan Page: Creating a Facebook Fan Page for your team is a great way to engage supporters of your program with updates on your team and fundraiser. To make a Facebook Fan Page, you must first have a Facebook profile. Then you can create a Fan Page here. Choose “Brand, Product or Organization,”  select Sports/Athletics on the pull down menu and name your page. Next you will need to put in a picture for the pages profile image. That’s really the basics to making the page. To see a good example of a collegiate program’s Fan Page, visit Ohio State Buckeyes – lots of updates, pictures and discussions.

Now comes the important part to your Facebook strategy: getting a fan base and creating page content. First, you need to get people connected to your program to become fans of your page. Each Fan Page has a link at the top that reads “Become A Fan.” Users just click that link and they will receive your pages updates. Make all the players on your team become a fan along with their parents. Then have each of them send a message out to their Facebook friends to also become fans of your team page. This will create an immediate fan base. Second, you will need to be active in creating content for your page.  The page should rarely be used to promote your fundraiser. A good rule of thumb is that about 95% of your pages content should be non-fundraiser related. The primary use should be to give updates on your team, game results and best of all, pictures of your team. People love to look at pictures on Facebook.  Only every once in while post a note with an update about your fundraiser with a link to an online giving page.  You should be putting 5 – 8 updates a week on the page to keep your fans engaged.

2) Insert “Share” Widgets: A share widget is a small button that can be put on websites that allow users to directly relay information from that site to their social networks. An example of a share widget on a team fundraiser web page can be found here under “Help Promote Our Fundraiser.”  On the widget, if a user selects Facebook, then a brief description of that website will be added to this users Facebook profile. The benefit is that all of the user’s Facebook friends will see the post about the website that was shared. So with just one click of the mouse, your fundraising page can get a lot of exposure.

To insert a widget to your fundraising website, you will need your web masters to insert HTML code (this is easier then it sounds). A good widget to add to your website is call “Add This” and can be found here. Get the code for the widget and add it to your fundraising home page. Once the widget is in place make sure to encourage visitors of your page to click on the widget and help promote your fundraiser.

These are two quick tips that can help spread the information about your fundraiser at no cost at all using social media.

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Ask not what you can do for your fundraiser, ask what your fundraiser can do for you. Translation: You are paying a fundraising company to help you raise money, therefore the fundraiser should be easy and efficient for your team. Below are five tips your team should be aware of so that your fundraising campaign runs smoothly and effectively.

1. Check the Profit Margin: It’s all about the profit margin with team fundraising. Profit margin is the amount of money you actually end up with after the costs associated with your fundraiser are paid. Many sales based fundraisers have lower profit margins due to the cost of the products you are selling. A typical candy fundraiser has around a 50% margin – so you are only getting to keep half the money you bring in. The other half pays for the candy. Your team should look for fundraisers that have a 70-90% profit to them. For the effort you are putting into raising money, you should be able to keep a majority of the money.
2. To Sell or Not to Sell: Selling products such as candy, magazines, and discount cards can be time consuming and take away from your real focus: a successful season. Furthermore, athletes can grow tired of the selling process and sales usually drastically drop off towards the end of your fundraiser. For these reasons, it may be best to utilize a fundraiser with little or no-selling involved. There are many fundraisers out there that involve direct mail and online tools to raise money without selling. These usually have much higher profit margins because the costs associated with their production are low.
3. Watch for Upfront Costs: Many fundraisers that involve sales make you pay a large fee upfront to purchase the products you are selling. This can be a problem because there is no guarantee that you will be able to raise money once you make this payment. Look for companies that guarantee you a profit and don’t make you pay a fee until money starts coming in.
4. How do You Look: A fundraiser is an extension of your sports program – anything you are selling or sending out to potential donors reflects on what people think about your organization. Make sure to choose a fundraiser that makes your program look professional and not commercialized. Does selling cheap candy or discount cards really make your team look top notch? Probably not. Furthermore, make sure your organization’s branding is consistent in all your fundraising activities. Branding is the specific colors, logos and overall look that your team has incorporated over the years. Your branding should be well represented on any marketing materials that are going to be in potential donor’s hands.
5. Check with Your School: Finally, before actually choosing the type of fundraiser you will utilize, check with your school administration on their fundraiser guidelines. You do not want to start a fundraiser to find out that you are not in compliance with the proper procedures. If your fundraiser is done incorrectly, it can take time and headaches to get back on track. Some things to watch out for include:
   1. Mailing Guidelines – many schools have specific rules for how mail pieces are sent out.
   2. Donor Gifts – After a person makes a donation to your fundraiser, schools may require that the donor receives a gift.

These are just some of the things you should look into before starting to raise money and choosing your fundraiser type. Remember, you are paying these outside companies to help you raise money – so this should not require a significant effort on your part.

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Direct Fundraising LLC

http://www.directfundraisingllc.com