The 20+ Best Cheerleading Fundraisers for Your Squad

Whether it’s cheering for their school’s football, basketball, or other teams, it’s no secret that great cheerleaders are just what every school needs to rally school spirit. Many cheer and dance squads also participate in cheerleading competitions that require travel and expensive uniforms. Since items like cheerleading uniforms, props and supplies, training, travel for competition, and even rental of cheering space can be quite expensive, cheerleading squads often need to run cheerleading fundraisers.

We’ve put together some of the best cheerleading fundraising ideas to get your next campaign up and running for the sake of the cheer.

Our #1 Cheerleading Fundraising Idea – Cheer Crowdfunding Campaigns

Cheer Crowdfunding Campaigns work for cheerleading fundraising

A cheerleading crowdfunding campaign (AKA a cheer-a-thon, flip-a-thon, or stunt-a-thon) is the perfect idea for cheerleaders to get their stunts down and earn money at the same time. This is especially great for competitive squads practicing routines for nationals or big competitions. Cheerleaders get to do what they love while raising money. Here’s how it works. Your cheerleading team commits to cheering all day or for several hours on a Saturday. For all-day events, you will need to have different squads and activities. Time can be spent working on dance routines, tumbling, working mounts, and learning cheers. Generally, the cheer-a-thon is held in the school gymnasium and open to the public. Another option is to live stream the event if supporters want to watch it.

About a month before the cheer-a-thon, launch your team’s crowdfunding website. Cheerleading team members can customize their fundraising page and ask supporters to donate funds to the cause. You can easily get donations and spread the word about your cheerleading squad on the cheer-a-thon website. This will motivate your cheer team to work harder in their practice time and get a lot of money for doing what they do best.

Cheer websites work for cheerleading fundraisers

More Great Cheer Fundraisers to Consider

If a cheer-a-thon is not what your squad has in mind, there are plenty of other great options to raise money for your squad. Many of these fundraising campaigns can be run virtually online, extending your reach.

Host a Walkathon or Color Run

Themed Fun Runs and walk-a-thons are great fundraising ideas for cheerleading school groups. Have your runners dress up as their favorite superhero or holiday character. Or make your run a Color Run cheerleading fundraiser where runners wear white and throw colored powder. Make it fun and festive, and your supporters will get excited about an event that allows them to support your organization and get some exercise. Hosting virtual run/walk events is also possible.

Our walkathon software is essential for secure registration and donation collection. Each runner has a personal fundraising page with a fundraising thermometer and links to social media, allowing your organization to reach new supporters online.

Spirit Night Out for the Squad

Host a Spirit Night with a local business, where a percentage of profits from patrons on a certain night goes to the cheerleading squad. These events work well at local diners, pizza joints, and popular family restaurants near the school. Cheerleaders should help staff the event and sell raffle tickets during the evening. This is a relatively easy cheerleading fundraising idea to host as long as you can find a restaurant willing to support your squad.

Present a Fashion Show

Cheerleaders are generally natural performers, so why not set up a fashion show starring them? First, create a theme for the fashion show – a retro theme, an eco-friendly show, or something that uniquely represents your school. Ask local clothing stores and boutiques to donate clothes for the students to model, and in exchange, they can set up a booth to sell items at the show. Charge entrance fees to a glamorous night of fun and fashion. As always, add in fundraising raffles and concession sales to boost profits.

Open a Refreshment Bar at the Game or School Event

Set up a bar to provide refreshments at school sporting events, with donations from parents to help cover the cost of ingredients. Serve lemonade, iced tea, juices, energy bars, and healthy fair. The Varsity cheer team can sell during the JV game and vice versa. If the Booster club is already fundraising with a concession stand, cheer teams can still make quite a bit of money at school meetings or other high school events by selling refreshments.

Run a Cheerleader’s Car Wash

Have the cheerleading team band together for a car wash fundraiser. Hang flyers to spread the word about your team-run car wash, and get the soap, water, buckets, and sponges ready for a fun afternoon where you can make a lot of money for the team. Be sure to set up at a busy location like right next to the weekend Farmer’s Market or soccer fields on Saturday game day.

Sell Goods Online

Cheerleaders are outgoing and connected members of the school and community. For that reason, product sales are always a good idea for cheer fundraising. Here are the most popular product sale fundraisers in schools:

School Spirit Wear: Get the crowd ready to shout and cheer with all the right school paraphernalia and custom spirit wear. These include mascot stuffed animals, temporary tattoos, foam hands, pom-poms, jerseys, t-shirts, baseball caps, and more.
Sweets: Shop for the highest profits for selling such sweets and goodies as flavored popcorn, cookies, chocolate or 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, often including 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.
Sell Gift Certificates: Work with local businesses to sell their gift certificates that give a certain percentage of the certificates sold towards the cheerleading fundraiser.

Fundraising product sales can be difficult to run and manage, but not with our online stores for peer-to-peer sales. Each student or group has a personal fundraising page where items are sold and sales are tracked. Top fundraisers are rewarded with a rewards badge, and prizes can be configured for the top salesperson or team. The platform makes it easy for cheerleaders to send a personal URL to friends and family, asking them to purchase items securely online.

START AN ONLINE STORE

Host a Gourmet or Pancake Breakfast

Breakfast fundraisers are popular school fundraising ideas, that will get cheerleaders excited. Pancake breakfasts are a school fundraising staple, but offering gourmet and brunch-like options will allow you to charge more for admission and draw a larger audience. Of course, you’ll need the chef and cook volunteers to make this event happen. Add live entertainment and a bake sale afterward to take home some of the treats for later.

Establish The Cheerleading Squad 100 Club

Set up a campaign where you ask 100 people for $25 each. Entice them to support your team by joining the 100 Club. This is great for smaller, tight-knit communities, as everyone will want to join. You could place their names on a plaque or brick in exchange for cheer squad donations. Just consider the best way to recognize club members for their contribution. Of course, you can change the amount to $50 or anything else you’d like.

Hold a Raffle for the Squad

Consider promoting a fundraising raffle for spectators during the major sports events at your school. Ask local businesses if they will donate free merchandise or a gift certificate to raffle winners. Charge for the raffle tickets and raffle them off during the big day. Remember that prizes are key to raffle fundraising success, so if you can’t solicit sufficient in-kind donations to make the raffle exciting, consider hosting a 50/50 raffle or purchasing a unique vacation package to drive excitement.

Again, taking your raffle online will net a much larger profit and keep everything well organized. DoJiggy can help!

Hold a Raffle for the Cheerleading Squad

Create and Sell Cheerleaders’ Calendars

Have everyone show up for a photo shoot and get some layout and graphic designers from the art or design department together to create a cheerleading calendar that everyone will love. Get some creative shots in, do a few mounts or stunts, and you will have material for a calendar that will sell very well, with all proceeds going to benefit the cheerleading squad.

Create Pep Rally Pie Time

Take advantage of high spirits at the Homecoming game pep rally and host a “We’re Going to Cream the Other Team” theme, which can involve cream pie-related games. One game can be a pie-eating contest where contestants pay to play. Another game involves attendees dropping money into a bucket or pitcher in front of the teachers, coaches, principals, and school staff they want to see pied in the face. These cheerleading fundraisers must have buy-in from the school administration to succeed.

Host a Community Yard Sale

Spring cleaning time! If your cheerleading squad and their friends and family have things they no longer need (and who doesn’t?), this could be a very successful cheerleading fundraiser. There’s no reason to keep items in storage or junk in your basement and garage. Instead, donate them to a cheerleader’s rummage sale. Selling them off that way could make plenty of money to add to the cheer fund. Read more on how to run a yard sale fundraiser.

Shave a Teacher’s Head Drive

Find teachers or coaches willing to volunteer to have their heads shaved for the cheerleaders’ cause. Students vote with secret donations on which teacher they’d like to see shave their heads. The coach or teacher with the most votes (money collected) loses their hair at the next pep rally.

Put on a Dog Wash

Do your team members love furry friends as much as everyone else? If so, consider running a dog wash day where the community can bring their dogs for grooming. Ask for donations to cover the costs; just be sure to set a minimum of about $10 per dog. You can cut costs by having pet owners or cheerleading parents donate shampoo and towels. Bake and sell dog treats on the way out.

Offer Summer Cheer Clinics for Little Cheerleaders

Do your elementary or middle schools have a lot of young, aspiring cheerleaders who want to make the team when they get older? A cheer camp or clinic run by your squad will be the perfect summer day camp for younger kids to try out being a cheerleader and learn new skills. Your coach and cheerleaders run the camp and use the school facilities, so costs are minimal. Just charge for camp participation, and you’re set to make some money with this fun cheerleading fundraising idea.

Host a Dance-a-thon Cheerleading Fundraiser

Cheerleaders love to dance, so why not host a dance-a-thon cheerleading fundraiser? Dance-a-thons are designed for participants to seek donations and pledges before the event from their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family. Dance-a-thons or dance marathons are tons of fun and can be quite lucrative cheering fundraisers when run online with a P2P crowdfunding website. Have people place wagers on who will come out on top and watch them battle for victory.

Run a Cheer Squad Flag Football Game

Cheerleaders are generally very athletic and can play many sports well. Change things up a bit by having your cheerleading squads play against each other in a friendly round of flag football. This time, the sports teams can support the cheerleading team by volunteering at the event. Charge family and student entrance fees, sell refreshments, and make room for donations on the big day.

Gather Loose Change

Another classic cheerleading fundraiser is to create labeled jars or bottles and distribute them at local establishments, such as grocery stores and restaurants. Put up a sign inviting people to drop their loose change in for the cheerleading squad, then pick a date for collecting and counting all that change. This one works best when you set a specific fundraising goal – like new Varsity uniforms and pom-poms.

Hold a Classic Bake Sale

If you have cheerleaders who love to bake (or parents who do), a bake sale is an easy cheerleading fundraising idea. Set up a bake sale and sell freshly made pastries and other delights to the school and the rest of the community. It’s a classic fundraising idea to help your team earn much-needed funds. Think about offering healthy and gluten-free options so that everyone can enjoy a treat.

Pro Tips for Successful Cheerleading Fundraisers

Plan the Goals for the Year: Start the school year with a clear fundraising goal. How much will your squad need to raise to successfully reach your goals? From there, decide how many cheer fundraisers and events are needed to achieve your goal, with enough room in between each event to gather all of the resources to execute the event.

Gather a Team to Succeed: Not only do the cheerleaders participate, but get the parents, coaches, and community involved. Parents and coaches may have established relationships with community businesses that are essential in gaining sponsorship support for in-kind and monetary donations.

Use the Right Tools: Use fundraising websites that can ease your planning and reporting efforts. Another benefit of utilizing fundraising software is that you can raise more money by taking mobile and online donations, especially for peer-to-peer cheerleading campaigns.

Evaluate the Event’s Success: Event evaluation and recap are important parts of planning fundraising events. Your team needs to learn what worked well and what can be done better the next time. Be sure to get together and discuss the event within a week when everyone’s memories are fresh.

Pro Tips for Successful Cheerleading Fundraisers

Thank your Supporters and Sponsors: After a successful cheerleading fundraiser, it is important to thank your supporters and sponsors for their donations and efforts. Keeping your supporters in the loop on the impact of their donations is vital to maintaining their support for future events. Go, team!

Conclusions for Cheerleading Fundraisers

Cheerleaders are important members of a school or university’s student body, and many people will come out to support your fundraising efforts. We hope these cheerleading fundraising ideas will work wonders for your team. By getting creative and having fun, you can build team spirit and support the squad.