Fund Raising

My first rule of thumb is to donate anonymously.   If you want to help and are worried about perception this is 100% the way to go.  This is certainly an option when giving to college programs.   If that is not possible I would stress money comes with no strings attached and you need to mean that (and you really need to mean that). 

High school donations where I live are mostly related to buying a car wash or a water bottle etc.  They don't come looking for big money.   Believe it or not, in all the years of travel I don't recall opportunities or needs to donate to travel.

I wouldn’t mind giving to the HS and wouldn’t mind college either. I hate travel teams that ask for fundraising or sending kids to the grocery store to beg for money.

Our high school softball and baseball programs made so much money off summer camps and clinics it was all the fundraising that was required. The players had to volunteer.

The baseball team had a program that was nothing but the roster and ads. No one bought it. The coach said it would be nice if everyone bought a $100 quarter page ad. It subsidized a package of two practice tees, two game tees and a game pullover.

I did one raffle for my travel team. Most of the parents bought the tickets. They requested to just charge more for the team the next season.

I never considered donating to the college program. It went into a general sports fund. There were plenty of five to seven figure donors. I wasn’t going to be one of them.

I don't give to any cash.  I might buy a card that gives discounts or such.  I think if you want to play you should be willing to pay in travel ball.  There are too many jobs right now that a kid can get to pay to play.  If a high school can't afford sports, it should drop them and the same with college.  Sorry.  Just my opinion.  Never been a part of a high school that did many fund raisers other than selling something that was an advantage to the purchaser such as cards, Royals discount tickets, and advertising boards or banners.

Donate new baseballs and you will know the immediate result.

Bob

Travel:  our team was one of 4 that sponsored a Memorial Day tournament for ages 8-12.  For the 3 years I was treasurer of the travel team (read: "I took over the money handling") I saved all the proceeds from three tournaments that paid for all the players to go to Cooperstown for the week.  After age 12, I don't remember fundraising.  Just wrote checks.

One travel team that came along behind us sold BBQ.  I bought a quart by preorder (Loved the preorder idea; pre-covid)

High School:   Sold Christmas trees and wreathes.  Casino night. 100 innings day. Monthly Bingo.  We were expected to do $X of fundraising or pay the difference.  One year I just wrote a check, but I did it reluctantly.  One 3 month season I outlaid $2000 for public school baseball, which included a spring break baseball trip for 2.  We parents didn't go.

College:  We could pay to join a "supporting club" that included a dinner and a pullover.  We "joined" one year then opted to just pay for the dinner the other 2 years. 

In HS they ran summer camps that earned money, and the team also spent one spring Friday afternoon going around neighborhoods selling a sheet with discount coupons.  Team had a program book, sold ads and "happy ads" that raised a bit, although we gave programs out for free.  Parents worked the concession stand.

I think there were families who donated money, but we weren't asked to do so.  I was doing a lot of concession stand duty (especially when son pitched ), organized the program for 2 years, and bought discount cards, so I figured we were doing our part.  I cannot fathom paying $2000 for high school ball, but then, our school never took spring break trips.

Travel organization tried to do some fundraisers sometimes, we lived far enough away that we never participated.

For college, I think we have bought some shirts and hats that may have been part of a fundraiser.  Which is to say, my son used our money to buy them for our Xmas presents.

The latest in fundraising is companies that do online solicitations by asking students in the group to give names of friends and family, and then pestering them by email and text to donate money.  I was part of a HS organization that raised $15,000 (from about 160 students) - I was stunned, the teacher-sponsor was thrilled.  No-one was required to donate, but I didn't like it.  Now that I think of it, a collegiate summer league team did that the winter before covid.

Be careful with bingo, lottery tickets tournament pools and NFL Sunday pick’em. You might be breaking state gambling laws if you don’t have a license.

@RJM posted:

Be careful with bingo, lottery tickets and tournament pools and NFL Sunday pick’em. You might be breaking state gambling laws if you don’t have a license.

True.   We parents and players went to a state sanctioned Bingo hall to work monthly.  Not sure how much money we made, but I had to change clothes right when I came in the door due to all the smoke.  It was the one volunteer opportunity to make money for the team that I didn't have to outlay my own money.

@PitchingFan posted:

I don't give to any cash.  I might buy a card that gives discounts or such.  I think if you want to play you should be willing to pay in travel ball.  There are too many jobs right now that a kid can get to pay to play.  If a high school can't afford sports, it should drop them and the same with college.  Sorry.  Just my opinion.  Never been a part of a high school that did many fund raisers other than selling something that was an advantage to the purchaser such as cards, Royals discount tickets, and advertising boards or banners.

So schools in low income areas shouldn't offer sports?  Those kids just get to miss out because of where they live?

I don't know about most places but I have coached in Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri and South Carolina.  I do not know of a single public school that charges to play in the areas I coached.  There are some that make their players pay but that money is used for extra tournaments or trips over spring break which to me could easily be dropped if money was a problem.  The states I have lived in and coached in all provide enough money to provide sports.  Schools/coaches that choose to go way above and beyond should do the fund raising instead of forcing the players to do it.  We did fund raising for extra stuff but it was not required other than they had to sell one ad for $25 and if they wanted to play in our exhibition game at Kauffman stadium they had to sell ticket vouchers.  But to play there was no requirement.

I would love to know about low income public schools that cannot afford to play sports.

Above and beyond what is required absolutely should be self funded.  Low income schools tend to do without or have the bare minimum or stretch what they have far beyond what they should.  Example would be I used to coach at a school outside of Louisville so we would sometimes run into teams who were low income.  Most of the time their uniforms were a hodge podge of uniforms from several different years.  They resembled one another but you could tell they had different uniforms on.  Several times I gave them buckets of balls as we left because the ones they had were pretty bad.  Helmets probably weren't safe or maybe met the bare minimum for safety. When talking to their coaches they all said they had to get their CDL license so they didn't have to pay for a driver.  The school system provided the bus and fuel but if they had to get a driver it would generally run about $20 per hour.  They never had JV teams.  Sometimes they would have hats of professional or college teams and not the school.

They were almost always great kids to be around who played as hard as they could.  Most weren't very good but you could see they had athletic ability but no clue about baseball.  Their coaches were normally the guy who got roped into it and rarely stayed for more than 2 years.  The stipends were terrible and the lack of winning is hard to put up with. 

They existed from fundraising, grants and stretching the budgets.  That school I was at survived on fundraising because I wasn't allowed to charge a gate since our field was at community park instead of school.  Luckily my student body had enough we could make it happen but if I had to buy a dozen game balls the school wouldn't pay for it - I had to raise that money or pay it out of my pocket, which I did quite a bit. 

So you ask how do they survive?  They just do.  They figure out ways to make it happen but the end result tends to be a very poor product.  I'm not saying we need to distribute money differently to even playing fields but folding the tents and quitting isn't the answer either.

@PitchingFan posted:

I don't know about most places but I have coached in Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri and South Carolina.  I do not know of a single public school that charges to play in the areas I coached.  There are some that make their players pay but that money is used for extra tournaments or trips over spring break which to me could easily be dropped if money was a problem.  The states I have lived in and coached in all provide enough money to provide sports.  Schools/coaches that choose to go way above and beyond should do the fund raising instead of forcing the players to do it.  We did fund raising for extra stuff but it was not required other than they had to sell one ad for $25 and if they wanted to play in our exhibition game at Kauffman stadium they had to sell ticket vouchers.  But to play there was no requirement.

I would love to know about low income public schools that cannot afford to play sports.

School districts charging to play sports is the norm in Massachusetts.