Help Your Youth Sport Team! Organize a Discount Card Fundraiser Using Membership Management Software

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If your youth sport's organization has seen a decline in participation in recent years, it may be due to the high costs that parents have to shell out so their children can participate. Parents pay out an average of $671 per child, per year for uniforms, registration costs and other sport-related essentials. And 21% pay $1,000 or more per child, per year. Given those alarming numbers, it may be a good idea for you to increase your club's fundraising attempts with discount cards.

Discount cards, which are typically good for one year, allow costs per child to decrease while businesses in your community benefit from increased sales. Each card can be sold for a specific amount your organization sets. The discounts your customer/donators will receive from each business will be set by the businesses. Here's how to do it, and how membership management software can help.

Register your non-profit for fundraising

First, you'll need to register your non-profit with the IRS for fundraising. Depending on your local and state ordinances, you may also be required to register your fundraiser locally and in your state. Registering will help your organization keep more money in the coffers because you will be exempt from paying taxes on the money you raise for your non-profit organization.

Purchase membership management software

Keep track of everything for your fundraiser with membership management software. These types of programs allow you to manage databases of businesses and your team players. It can help you generate sales reports and show if you are meeting your fundraising goals at any time.

Find sponsors

Visit the businesses in your community to see if they would like to be included in your discount card fundraising opportunity. Their name or logos will be on each discount card, which is great for their advertising needs. Allow the businesses to set their own discounts, but feel free to offer suggestions. Here are a few examples:

The businesses get more customers, your team raises funds, and people who buy the discount cards receive discounts. It's a win-win solution for everyone involved. Keep track of the sponsors with membership management software.

Sell the discount cards

Set a price for your discount card. This is easier to determine after you've already found sponsors for your fundraiser. If the majority of the businesses offered a nice discount, you can easily set the price of the discount cards a bit higher than you may have thought. At the same time, you have to consider the finances of people in your community and what they can afford.

Have your team players ask their friends, family members and people in the community to buy discount cards. Use a sign-up sheet so the customer/donator information can be entered into membership management software. Give your team players incentives to sell the most discount cards. The sales from each player, as well as the contact information from each of their discount card buyers, can be entered into the membership management software to help your organization keep track of who your star sellers are.

Organize events for more discount card use

To keep the businesses interested in participating in future discount card fundraisers, organize events with businesses who would like the additional marketing. For example, you can schedule team days, such as at restaurants, on specific days of each month to help increase in participation from the people who bought your discount cards. Send fliers or emails to the discount card holders for optimal participation.


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