Planning a team fundraiser lands on a coach who already has practices to plan, a bus to book, and a roster to finalize. Nothing magically falls off the to-do list because there’s money to raise. So the question many coaches end up asking themselves when evaluating a new fundraising tool is, “how much of this fundraiser do I end up doing myself?”
Coaches we speak with describe the same two problems: they can't see who on the team has actually started, and the money that comes back is smaller than the number everyone celebrated. Both have practical answers, and neither one requires you to become a part-time fundraising campaign manager.
One post to your own followers isn't the plan
A coach posting a link to the fundraiser in their own feed reaches the people already following that coach. That is a real number, but it's a small one, and it's the same people every season.
The mechanic that changes the math is simple, and it isn't about algorithms. With Schoolfundr, every participant gets their own fundraising page, and those students then share the donation link with their family and friends. Thirty athletes reaching thirty separate circles is a different campaign from one coach reaching one circle, and it happens without you having to send a single message. Our overview of fundraising for athletic programs walks through how the personalized pages work.
What the athlete actually does
- Opens and personalizes their own participant page, which takes a few minutes.
- Shares the link by text and on social, in their own words from their own phone number not an automated one.
- Donors give in a few clicks, with no account to create and nothing to log into.
That last point matters more than it sounds. Every extra step between a grandparent and a donation is a place the donation stops.
What a coach actually has to set up
While there will always be some level of set up required for a fundraiser, Schoolfundr makes it easy for coaches, teachers, and administrators alike. Starting a fundraiser for your team or program takes only a few steps:
- Create the fundraiser and set the goal.
- Get the team registered, which works best in one sitting rather than chased over two weeks. We recommend running a Load Up or Kick Off Event using our Schoolfundr LIVE dashboard where students can track donations in real time.
- Instruct students to share their page once at the beginning and then again in the middle of the campaign.
- Log cash and checks as they come in directly into the dashboard.
Every Schoolfundr campaign also comes with a dedicated fundraising expert at no extra charge, which is the part that keeps this from becoming a second job.
What your program keeps
The best part about Schoolfundr is its fee-free pricing model. There’s no platform fee, no setup cost, no subscription, and no contract. Your program keeps every dollar donated, less the Stripe credit card processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per digital donation. Cash and check donations you log by hand carry no processing charge at all.
What funds the platform is an optional tip, which the donor can decline at checkout without impacting their donation.
Is your fundraiser taking upward of 20% of your donations? The numbers are worth running. Take what your last fundraiser raised, subtract what actually reached the program, and you have your real rate. Put another way: if you give up 20% of the funds you raise, you're fundraising for free every five years. Our piece on 100% donation fundraising platforms covers what to check in the paperwork, and fee-free fundraising in the K-12 stack covers why more districts across the nation are moving toward this fundraising model.
Seeing who has started, without a spreadsheet
Nobody should be counting checks at 10:00 PM. Schoolfundr keeps its own reporting on every donation as it arrives, and because each athlete has their own donation page, you can see who has started and who hasn't without asking around in the locker room. That is the whole purpose of the tracking: knowing where to give one nudge, not watching a number.
What to do next
- Ask your current vendor, if you have one, for the platform fee and the processing fee as two separate numbers. Instantly see how Schoolfundr can help you raise more and keep more.
- Pick the ideal time for your fundraiser to start. After tryouts, before the season gets heavy, is when teams get full participation.
- Decide now who logs the cash and checks, and how often.
- Get every student registered during a fundraising kick off event.
A team fundraiser should end with the money in the account and the coach still coaching. See how other coaches and booster leads hit their goals, and how districts track it all with Hometown's fundraising success stories.
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