Club Fundraisers

[JimStynes]

What sort of good fundraiser events does your club run? We are always looking ways to gather a few pound but struggling for new ideas. The charity boxing thing has been played out I think. Anything at all that would make a few?

[illdecide]

Saying there is plenty of cattle around your way u farmers should do the cow clap on the pitch...whoever guesses the spot wins the clap money. You might laugh but if you haven't done it before you could easily lift £10k from it

[NAG1]

Saying there is plenty of cattle around your way u farmers should do the cow clap on the pitch...whoever guesses the spot wins the clap money. You might laugh but if you haven't done it before you could easily lift £10k from it

Sorry I for a moment thought we had dropped back into the seventies 

[BarryBreensBandage]

With fundraisers you obviously have to involve as many people as possible. I know it has been held the country over, but Jigs and Reels or Strictly Come Dancing should seriously be considered, if you have not done so already.

13 pairs dancing means that 26 sets of families are immediately involved. Our club (junior level) have done this on two occasions and raised in excess of 20k each time, drink revenue excluded.

Very little outlay - a lot of organisation and imagination from the usual few will see it a success.

And I find it is much more rewarding to be involved in something like this rather than breaking your heart over 6/7 nights a year, standing at the door of the club, willing people to arrive and collecting a couple of hundred quid.

[AZOffaly]

We do a duck race every year on the local river. Usually guaranteed a couple of grand. Ducks sell for 5 euro a go, and we normally sell about 500 at least. Prizes are normally tickets to All Irelands, vouchers from local shops, club gear, county gear etc.

Always brings a good crowd down to the bridge in the town on the night as well.


This year we also did a calendar. Printer did them for about €4 a copy, and we printed off 300 initially. That's an outlay of €1200. We sold ads in each month for €200, which garnered €2400 (nothing wrong with my maths ). We then sell each calendar for a tenner, they are very nice job, very professional and glossy. A double page for each month with photos on the top page and around the days of the month on the second page. Ad at the bottom of the second page. We did it as a juvenile club so we had a month for each team, or year group. We had 2 pages for U14s because they won county football and north hurling. We had a page to our sister club, the camógs, who won the All Ireland Feile, and also a page for pictures from various events during the year like trips to other clubs, Fota Island etc. It looks really well, loads of photos.

At our presentation night we sold a pile of them, so we reckon we'll reach the 300 mark before Xmas no bother. That will be €3,000 clear profit on top of the €1200 surplus for the sponsorship. You wouldn't do that every year now, but it's been a winner for us this year. Parents have been coming up to me congratulating us on the idea, and how well it looks. (Of course we've made sure that every boy and girl appears somewhere if at all possible).

That's two ideas from us, neither required a huge pile of work other than maybe gathering and selecting the photos, and we'll get about €6.5k out of both of them.

[5 Sams]

www.thousandaire.ie

We've run this twice and will most likely run it again at some stage. There's a bit of work involved but if you follow the plan these guys set out for the event it's a guranteed money maker. £20k-£30k is easily achievable. PM me if you want more details.

[armaghniac]

This year we also did a calendar. Printer did them for about €4 a copy, and we printed off 300 initially.

I think a tastefully laid out calendar is good PR, as well as raising some money. Noadays there are lots of photos around that can be included. With the kids teams featured, people can give them to Godmothers and the like and can send them to family abroad.

[AZOffaly]

Yep, that's all true. We've been surprised at how positive the reaction has been. Mind you, as I said, it's not a trick you could repeat every year.

[Bingo]

We have run a 12 week fitness and well being programme. Programme is to help adults get healthier, eat better, start getting fit and lose weight (been the added bonus if other steps are followed!)

Weekly programme is as follows
Tuesday nights  - circuit class (instructed by club members/players - no charge)
Friday night - different class every week  - Pilates, Yoga, Boxercise, Kickboxing, bootcamp etc etc (local instructors volunteer to do it and it drums up business for them)
Sunday morning - running club. Two groups, beginner runners who will follow a couch to 5k programme and the others are more regular runners who will do different runs each week.
After 12 weeks we host 5km road race for all these people plus many others, gives them a taste of competing in a race where they'd not have dared go.

Also weekly weigh-ins and menu plans.

It finished this week with the 5km this sunday.

It costs €60 this year (with branded tech t-shirt given) plus €10 for the 5km.

Last year we had 100 or so. This year the registration had to be closed early and we had 200 signed up with dozens turned away.

Its a great fundraiser, bar the t-shirts had no cost. Lot of work incolved and luckily we had the people in the club to provide the expertise in the various areas.

A few other clubs have contacted us to talk about it with a view to taking it on themselves.

Aside from the money end, the goodwill and interest in the club has greatly increased. Parents now keen to get involved and kids numbers inreased at underage, plus we've a few new committee members from it. And as they say, healthy parents = healthy kids.

[screenexile]

For a small one to raise a few grand is to recycle clothes. Our Ladies team did it last year and raised £1500 whilst the Feile team did it the year before and raised £2.5k - 3k.

All it takes is to disperse the plastic bags throughout the parish and say you will come back in a week to lift them. You can then sell them to a company who will usually give between 60-80p per kilo. It includes things like bedding/curtains/duvets/shoes as well as just normal clothing so it doesn't take long adding up.

[WeeDonns]

You could try this..


https://www.facebook.com/CrumlinsNextTopCoddle/

[balladmaker]

The old fashion way still works and is seeing a revival ... Marquee on the field, book a good act to appear, price your drink sensibly ... You'll make a packet.

PM me should you need any recommendations or assistance in getting a crowd pulling act or a fair priced marquee hire :-)

[AZOffaly]

Failing that, the old Cow Shite Lottery still works!

[5 Sams]

The old fashion way still works and is seeing a revival ... Marquee on the field, book a good act to appear, price your drink sensibly ... You'll make a packet.

PM me should you need any recommendations or assistance in getting a crowd pulling act or a fair priced marquee hire :-)

Good point about marquees but the hoors in the insurance industry make it prohibitive to use one.