Best Softball Fundraising Ideas
Looking for softball fundraising ideas? Softball has become one of the most popular sports. Not only are there plenty of school softball teams, fastpitch teams, summer leagues, and traveling teams, but there are also a number of co-ed softball teams and softball teams that cater to retired baseball players. Regardless of what type of softball league you belong to, the sport can be expensive. There are fees for team uniforms, new equipment, training tools, umpire fees, and for travel expenses or tournament entry fees. Therefore, many softball teams look for softball fundraisers to earn extra money to support their sport.
There are many softball fundraising campaigns to consider. However, softball fundraising ideas that are fun for the players to participate in and cater to a specific need will work best. Make sure to explain the cause for the fundraiser, as people are more willing to contribute to help if they understand where the money is going. Below are some great examples of successful softball fundraisers.
Our #1 Softball Fundraising Idea: Organize a Hit-A-Thon or Pitch-a-Thon
A fun fundraising event for softball teams is a hit-a-thon or pitch-a-thon. This type of peer-to-peer fundraiser works just like a walk-a-thon in terms of fundraising potential. Players ask relatives, friends, and neighbors to make a pledge or donation to help a certain cause – covering tournament fees and travel expenses, paying for new uniforms, and the like. Pledge amounts can be calculated either by “per foot” that the ball is hit or the speed of a pitch. A pitch-a-thon may work best for a fast-pitch team. Contributors can also choose to donate a fixed amount. A great way to obtain a lot of donations easily and quickly is through a crowdfunding software program like DoJiggy Pledge. 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 that includes a link to the online donation page. Softball leagues can even do this together and you can encourage fundraising by awarding the top team fundraisers.
Planning a hit-a-thon or pitch-a-thon in conjunction with another event tends to work really well to increase attendance. For example, host the fundraiser on team picture day when parents, players and friends are already gathered together to take team and individual photos for the season. For more information about hosting an “a-thon” fundraising event including sample pledge forms, fundraising event budget, forms, and “how-to” planning guidelines, visit our walk-a-thon resources.
DoJiggy’s Fundraising Software makes planning these events easy,
and your softball team will raise more money by going online.
5 More Great Softball Fundraisers
Community Fundraising Events
Why not consider organizing a fun event to raise money for your softball team? A fundraising event is just like planning a party or social gathering. Not only will team members have fun with the planning, but they’ll also be working together with family, friends, community members, and businesses thus strengthening the local commitment to the team or league. And with DoJiggy fundraising event software, collecting donations, and managing all the details of the event couldn’t be easier! Events can be virtually anything… from an afternoon picnic at the park to a large gala event with catered food and a silent auction. It all depends on your resources, budget, and what is of interest to members of your team. If you belong to an adult softball league, you may want to consider a fundraising event that appeals to an older crowd such as a charity poker tournament.
Be creative! Look for local businesses to sponsor
your event. For example, plan a “dinner and a movie” fundraising event. Partner with a local theater to see if they can donate a cinema for one night for your fundraiser. Partner with the local pizza shop next door to donate $5 pizzas. Then charge
$20 per person for dinner and a movie. Add a fundraising raffle for even more revenue! Contact local businesses to donate prizes and gift certificates to raffle off at your event. Set up a display table at the
entrance of the movie theater and sell raffle tickets. Then, just before the movie starts, announce the winners. You’ll have a very captive audience and distributing prizes will get the energy flowing in the room!
Be sure to visit our creative fundraising event ideas page for even more ideas.
Community Yard Sales
Whether you play for a community league or a school, there’s a good chance that members of your team are part of the same community. Perhaps 
you’d be interested in hosting a fundraising community yard sale or similar community-based
fundraiser? Summer is prime-time softball season, which also happens to be the best time for yard sales. In fact, people often dedicate days to drive around specifically looking for yard sales to hit-up for great deals. Take advantage of this
opportunity and organize a community yard sale to raise funds for your softball team. Encourage team members to clean out closets and garages for items they’d like to pass along. Ask friends and neighbors to contribute as well. Often people have
things they’d like to donate because they don’t have the time or energy to organize their own garage sale.
Look into a popular community spot to host your events such as a community recreation center or school gymnasium. Promote the event: share on Social media sites, put up flyers on popular bulletin boards around the community, post ads on Craigslist, and encourage team members to spread the word. Engage team members and their families to work at the garage sale. You’ll need people to set-up, tear-down, manage money, label tables, and price items. Make it fun! Play music at the event, and sell lemonade and snacks for additional revenue.
Softball Team Sponsorships
Lastly, don’t forget to consider team sponsorships to help bring in money for your softball team expenses. Players, coaches and parents can help identify and reach out to local businesses to ask for sponsorship donations. Your softball team may want 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. Benefits could include the company logo on team uniforms, links and advertisements from the team website, and recognition on team trophies and plaques. If a local restaurant comes on board as a sponsor, offer to host team parties at their establishment. This is a great benefit for restaurant owners as you’ll be introducing parents and community members to their restaurant, who will hopefully become regular customers. 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 willing to throw in a few extra bucks to support your cause.
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 web site or newsletter, and inviting sponsors to team parties are all great ways to show appreciation and possibly bring them back again in future years.
Color Run Fundraisers
A Color Run fundraiser is a
non-competitive Fun Run or running event where participants and observers throw brightly colored paint on the runners. All participants should wear white to start to make the most of the colorful splashes. Kids love color run fundraisers and by
using paint that is non-toxic, everyone can participate. A color run fundraiser is run similar to a walkathon fundraiser in which your participants collect donations and pledges in an effort to raise money for
your softball team. Include an After-party and sell refreshments, fundraising raffle tickets and more.
Discount Card Sales & More Selling Fundraisers
There are a lot of excellent fundraising sales opportunities for softball teams as well. From selling flower bulbs to kick-off the arrival of summer or wrapping paper and cookie dough during the popular holiday fundraising season, to selling fundraising discount cards which provide great value to the purchaser through numerous discounts at local businesses within the community. A discount card fundraiser can make for a fun softball team fundraiser because it encourages healthy competition and offers a chance to motivate team members by providing incentives for top performers. These discount cards can be securely sold online and top fundraisers tracked with our peer-to-peer software.
More Softball Fundraising Ideas
Still looking for software fundraising ideas? We offer fundraising ideas for baseball teams, high school fundraising ideas, the 40 best fundraisers for schools, and elementary school fundraisers. Also, there are plenty of alternative sports fundraising ideas that can be applied to a softball or baseball team, so take a moment to read through the various pages until you find the right fundraiser for your softball team. Whatever your team chooses, we can help with easy, affordable fundraising software.
