Booster club fundraising provides essential financial support to enrich student programs, sports teams, and school activities throughout the year.
Top campaigns include:
- Peer-to-peer walkathons and fun runs
- Sports challenges (kick-a-thons, hoop-a-thons, and hit-a-thons)
- Community serve-a-thons
- Golf marathons and tournaments
- Spirit wear and school merchandise sales
- Restaurant dine-and-donate spirit nights
- Online auctions and raffles
- BBQ tailgates and community dinners
- Battle of the bands competitions
- Recurring monthly membership drives
Get started with DoJiggy’s free fundraising platform to easily collect online donations and manage your next booster campaign.
Booster clubs play a vital role in supporting school programs, such as sports teams, music departments, theater groups, or other extracurricular activities. Booster club fundraising can make a real impact on the success of these school organizations. Often run by dedicated parents and operating as nonprofits, these clubs shoulder the responsibility of raising funds to enrich student experiences.
In this guide, you’ll find creative ideas, practical strategies, and insider tips to help your booster club succeed in its fundraising efforts.
What We’ll Cover
- Start here for the best fundraising ideas for school booster clubs
- A few more booster club fundraising ideas
- Looking for virtual booster club fundraising ideas?
- Legal and financial guidelines for booster club fundraising
- More considerations for booster club fundraising
- Plan the booster calendar
- FAQs for booster club fundraising
Start here for the best fundraising ideas for school booster clubs
Booster clubs raise school spirit by providing funding to cover the costs of extracurricular activities and programs. Your friends, family, and school community will be your go-to donors and supporters for your fundraising campaigns.
What do they like to do? What type of event or sales campaigns are they most likely to support?
Here are some of the best booster club fundraisers to get your group started.
1. The #1 booster club fundraiser: peer-to-peer fundraising events
Peer-to-peer fundraising has become the go-to school fundraising plan. That’s because it works! Peer-to-peer events raise money for booster clubs while bringing people together to support the cause.
Host a p2p crowdfunding campaign, such as a 5K walk or fun run, at the school track. A walk-a-thon or run fundraiser provides a great opportunity to raise money and school spirit. Each participant and team works diligently to raise donations.
This excites participants as they create a personal fundraising page to set goals, upload images, and share their stories. Try adding a theme, such as a Color Run, to up the fun and raise more.
2. Football, basketball, and baseball crowdfunding campaigns
These sports teams can easily fundraise via their preferred sport – kick-a-thons, hoop-a-thons, and hit-a-thons. Encourage healthy competition to motivate participants and teams to raise more donations by offering incentives and prizes to the top performers.
Make it easy for your sports team by providing a powerful peer-to-peer fundraising tool that lets them customize their fundraising page and collect donations.
Our P2P software for booster club fundraising includes a prize management system where participants receive prize widgets upon reaching predefined fundraising levels. Offer prizes for the top individual and team fundraisers, and your fundraising will soar.
Your community sponsors can also assist with prizes. For example, partner with a local sporting goods store to donate new equipment to the team that collects the most donations.
3. Community serve-a-thons
A unique and meaningful booster club fundraising idea for marching bands, cheerleading squads, and other groups to consider is a serve-a-thon.
In a serve-a-thon, participants commit to a service project at the school or in the local community. Serve-a-thons not only help to raise money for your booster club but also make a positive impact on the community.
Club fundraisers raise money by reaching out to family and friends to solicit pledges and donations in support of the service project. Supporters donate online to participant and team fundraising pages.
4. Golf marathons
With a Golf Marathon or golf-a-thon format, your golfers commit to raising donations to participate in your booster club fundraising golf tournament.
They register on your golf tournament website and then contact friends, colleagues, and family members to solicit donations for your booster club fundraising campaign.
This is an excellent event for both the golf team and the booster club’s parent supporters.
5. Host a special event for the community
While community participation can be rewarding, going down this path often requires more logistical planning.
Special events for booster clubs often center around food, such as BBQ tailgates, pancake breakfast fundraisers, spaghetti dinners, and more. You will likely need to have some cash on hand for an effort like this.
6. Paint night
Painting nights offer a chance for your art-inspired students and parents to shine. With this event, participants sit in front of a canvas and paint together while one of your art teachers supervises.
These events are gaining popularity and can even be held in wine bars or paired with wine for adult-only gatherings.
7. Movie night
A movie night is an excellent consideration for an easier booster club event. Sell tickets to the show and advertise in advance at all sports events.
You can even get creative and allow people to set up camp with fold-out chairs and blankets on the football field and come through the rows with concessions.
8. Comedy show
Gather some teachers, parents, booster club members, and student comedians to host a comedy night in the school auditorium.
Asking a professional comedian to donate their time is another option, as giving of their talent for school fundraising may be right up their alley.
9. BBQ tailgate events
If you’ve got some grill masters in your booster club, take it to the next level and have them do their due diligence behind the grill at a tailgate/BBQ fundraiser.
Although this will involve considerable effort (consider the amount of meat, chips, and drinks you need to feed the hungry crowd before a football game), it can be quite profitable.
10. School carnivals
One of the more complex yet lucrative booster club fundraising events to host is a school carnival. For a successful carnival, you’ll need to organize fair stalls, rides, a bouncy castle, food trucks, and more.
Popular games can be engineered by volunteers with some ingenuity (such as milk bottles and basket tosses).
11. Scavenger hunts
A scavenger hunt is a popular activity that many clubs organize around the spring or summer holidays. Why not make it bigger so students, teachers, and parents can participate?
Booster club funds can be raised via registration fees and upgrades to improve hunting advantages.
12. Spirit night at a local business
Reach out to your town’s favorite hangout spots or restaurants to host a spirit night, where a percentage of proceeds for the evening is donated to the school.
Booster club restaurant fundraising is made fun and easy with restaurant fundraisers.
13. Host a booster club tournament or competition
Sporting events and tournaments can be a fun way for a booster club to raise funds.
They generally raise money successfully (after all, you know your audience is sports fans for sports boosters).
14. Golf tournaments
Golf tournaments are popular fundraisers for many sports groups. Some organizations host Topgolf or mini-golf events to let the whole family play together.
Proceeds can be amplified by securing tournament sponsors and hosting a post-event celebration luncheon.
All of this is easily managed with our donor-friendly golf tournament software.
15. Dance competitions
Why wait for prom? Dance-a-thons are a great idea to raise money for the booster club and get some exercise.
If there are dance schools or notable instructors in the area, you can upgrade this fundraising event to “Dancing with the Community Stars,” increasing event proceeds to $10,000 or more.
16. Bocci tournaments
A bocci tournament is a great idea for booster club fundraising, bringing in net proceeds that may surprise you.
If your school can provide space for the tournament and you can arrange to rent the bocce balls, you’ll be coming in at minimal cost.
Event ticketing software allows you to register players, promote sponsors, and take the tournament to a higher level of professionalism.
17. Basketball tournaments
Basketball tournaments can be fun, familiar fundraising events to host, with just three or more team members.
They can be single or double elimination to manage the time. You can get a helping hand from your school’s basketball coaches with assistance on tournament logistics and referee support.
18. Battle of the bands
Gather students, teachers, and parents to perform and bring a bit of competition to the stage with a Battle of the Bands. Donations are generated from the sale of admission tickets, refreshments, and raffle ticket sales.
The popularity and fun of this event make it one of the best school fundraisers.
19. Booster club fundraising sales
Many booster clubs sell items to raise funds for their organizations. This school fundraising idea offers a valuable teaching opportunity for students to learn about business, marketing, and sales, gain confidence, and achieve their goals.
Choose products that align with your target audience’s interests. Here are some ideas:
- A popular choice for booster club fundraisers is sweets of all kinds – candy bars, chocolates, frozen cookie dough, and lollipops. These fundraisers work especially well around the holidays.
- Selling gift cards for restaurants or dinner/movie combos can be a great choice for a booster club fundraiser.
- Show your team spirit with custom merchandise sales – hoodies, t-shirts, baseball caps, and more.
- In rural and suburban areas that tend to have space for gardens, there are options to purchase planting kits, bulbs, or seeds.
- Magazine subscription sales.
- Candles or home decorations.
Profit shares for this type of fundraising can range from 30% to as high as 90%.
20. Unique sales and service fundraising
Booster Clubs can consider selling handmade, unique items rather than relying on affiliate companies or pre-made goods.
These types of booster club sales typically include bake sales, garage sales, or arts and crafts sales.
Organizations can also sell services, such as car washes and gift-wrapping during the holidays. Since volunteers provide the labor, the costs are low, and profits can be quite high.
A few more booster club fundraising ideas
Here are more lucrative fundraising ideas for school booster clubs. Consider the costs and resources required when running a special event to ensure the potential proceeds are worthwhile.
21. Duct tape your coach to the wall
A fun and easy activity to do for a small profit, or in conjunction with a school crowdfunding event, is to charge a small fee to duct-tape a coach, teacher, or principal to the wall. A student favorite will bring in the most donations.
Simply charge for the strips of duct tape ($1 to $2 per strip). Let kids stick them on, and hilarity is bound to ensue.
22. Car wash
The good old car wash is a frequently visited fundraising idea for groups.
On a nice summer day, you can even consider adding another idea, such as a BBQ or a fresh lemonade stand, to satisfy patrons’ appetites during their wait.
23. Yard work for hire
Students and booster club supporters can sign up for yard services, including lawn mowing, raking leaves, and shoveling snow.
These services can be pretty expensive and require only a strong work ethic.
24. Booster club membership drives
An excellent option for booster club fundraising is a monthly membership campaign. Your group can establish an online donation website where supporters can easily make a recurring monthly donation.
To promote this booster club fundraiser, send email blasts with a link to your fundraising website and post a fundraising widget on your school’s home page. You’ll also want to share on social media, partner sites, and blogs.
Encourage booster club members to post on social networks and create viral campaigns. Consider offering a prize for the best video appeal – a great way to spread awareness and drive traffic to your website.
25. Give the booster club a fundraising boost with auctions and raffles
There are many ways to increase revenue during fundraising events. One proven method is fundraising raffles and charity auctions with prizes donated by local businesses.
Raffles can take different forms, but 50/50 raffles are always popular with booster clubs. Promote these fundraising campaigns during high school sports and music events.
DoJiggy can help with easy-to-implement raffle fundraising websites.
Looking for virtual booster club fundraising ideas?
Virtual fundraising has become a valuable tool for schools, PTOs, and booster clubs looking to raise more money while engaging supporters near and far.
Whether you’re supplementing traditional events, reaching busy families, or expanding your donor base beyond your community, virtual fundraising offers flexibility, convenience, and strong results.
Explore these creative virtual fundraising ideas for schools to help your organization achieve its fundraising goals year-round.
26. Virtual walkathons and fun runs
Virtual walkathons are great fundraisers for schools that can raise a lot of money with few upfront costs.
With parental involvement, these are fun and easy to organize.
27. Virtual happy hours and performances
Get your livestream ready!
Virtual performances work great for booster club fundraising and can be used to highlight school music groups, marching bands, and choirs.
28. Online product sales with P2P pages
Virtual merchandise sales are a no-brainer for no/low contact fundraising.
Our simple stores make it so easy, your club can get set up and selling in no time.
29. Fundraising raffles
Online raffles are the perfect way to raise money for many booster clubs.
We offer the ability to incorporate peer-to-peer fundraising in raffles, where students sell tickets via a personal fundraising page. Our raffle software can even randomly select and notify winners. Just find a prize and go!
30. Virtual bikeathons
Much like virtual walkathons, bikeathon fundraisers can be run virtually with just a few tweaks.
Biking is a great socially distant sport, so some kids may even bike together.
Students create a fundraising page and commit to biking in support of the club.
31. Virtual reading challenges
Readathons are a great way to keep kids busy during COVID and raise money for the Boosters at the same time.
All you need to do is set up the Athon website where students can track the number of books or pages read.
Donors make contributions based on the reading results, and top fundraisers are highlighted.
32. Charity auctions
All you need are some great auction items and our software. Simply create your fundraising auction website and add unlimited auction categories and items.
Set the time for online bidding to start and begin advertising your auction. Bids are made online and via text to bid.
33. Food delivery campaigns
Since many people are staying in to promote social distancing, why not sell groceries or other items online and deliver them right to your supporters?
Create and sell online food packages with a theme – for example Italian Night or Mexican Night. Get booster members and supporters to volunteer and deliver the packages.
34. Virtual watch parties
Select an educational movie or documentary to share with students. Supporters can register on your website to watch the movie and buy popcorn or other movie treats.
You can launch the watch party with a live stream presentation, letting parents and kids know what to look for and discuss after the film. Generally, users watch the movie on their own streaming device.
Use a free DoJiggy website for easy booster club fundraising
While traditional booster club fundraisers involve door-to-door sales and cash collecting, fundraising websites make planning and collecting funds much easier.
For ticketed shows or events, an event website handles online ticket sales.
If you’re selling goods or services, a fundraising store offers easy payment and the data you need.
Our crowdfunding software is designed for booster and sports team fundraising of all types – basketball, football, cheerleading, swimming, track and field, volleyball, softball, baseball, and more.
Booster clubs and their supporters collect donations for their clubs using our flexible peer-to-peer platform, which can accommodate donations and pledges per unit of effort (e.g., per mile walked).
You’ll be able to easily configure your booster club fundraising website, and your participants will have fun personalizing their fundraising pages.
Booster club fundraisers vary from club to club, and it is essential to tailor campaigns to your booster club’s needs.
- Administrators choose the type and date of the fundraising campaign, as well as a time period for accepting donations leading up to the event
- Create your booster club fundraising website with us!
- Import your students or ask them to register online with our easy registration page to create their personal fundraising pages
- Students and fundraisers send out links to their pages (via email and Social Media) and get supporters who donate or pledge in support of their efforts
- Fundraising progress is tracked throughout the fundraising event with our booster club fundraising software
- Leaderboards are posted with top fundraisers and teams as a motivating factor for booster club and community members
- Administrators wrap up the event and add off-line donations made via checks
Legal and financial guidelines for booster club fundraising
Operating a booster club requires clear legal and financial practices to maintain tax-exempt status and maintain trust within your school community.
Most booster clubs operate as independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations separate from the school district itself. Key best practices include:
- Maintain dedicated bank accounts: Keep booster funds completely separate from personal accounts and school district funds.
- Comply with gaming regulations: Ensure all raffles, bingo nights, or games of chance meet local state laws and licensing requirements.
- Issue proper tax receipts: Provide donors with written receipts for contributions to ensure tax deductibility.
- Maintain clear record-keeping: Track all sales, expenses, and meeting minutes to ensure smooth annual reporting and audits.
More considerations for booster club fundraising
Booster Clubs must carefully and honestly assess their resources when deciding on the best fundraising ideas for their club. Busy parents generally run booster clubs, and time is of the essence.
How large is your booster club, and what level of support can its members contribute to planning and executing fundraising campaigns?
Are you looking for an easy fundraising idea, or do you have the resources for a more complex campaign?
While hosting a black-tie gala may sound lucrative, online raffle ticket sales may be a more effective way for your organization to achieve its goals.
Remember that this is a teaching opportunity for students. Booster club fundraisers can be a rewarding and empowering experience for participants.
The club is part of a bigger picture, serving the needs of students, the administration, teachers, the athletic director, and coaches behind the scenes.
Meeting with the administration and coaches of the teams or clubs you are fundraising for is always a good way to understand their needs.
Plan the booster calendar
Once you understand your fundraising needs and resources, begin planning the school fundraising calendar for the year. What fundraising initiatives will your Booster Club run, and when will they happen?
It is best not to overwhelm your school and community with too many fundraisers. Instead, plan just two or three fundraisers a year.
With strong, focused planning and promotional efforts, your booster club can successfully reach its goals.
FAQs for booster club fundraising
Peer-to-peer fundraising events like walkathons or sports challenges are the most profitable options for booster clubs. They allow students to set up personal donation pages and gather contributions from friends and family.
Booster clubs raise money legally by obtaining official 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, managing a dedicated bank account, maintaining transparent financial records, and complying with state regulations for sales tax, auctions, and raffles.
Most booster clubs achieve their goals by running two or three major fundraising campaigns each school year. Spacing out these events prevents volunteer burnout and keeps community supporters engaged without creating donor fatigue.
Booster clubs can easily accept online donations by setting up a dedicated web platform. Software allows groups to collect registration fees, host peer-to-peer campaigns, sell merchandise, and process secure payments safely.
Top selling items include school-branded spirit wear, custom t-shirts, tumblers, cookie dough, discount cards, and holiday wreaths. Selecting useful, high-margin products that resonate with local school families maximizes overall profits.
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