Club Fundraising 

Tips and Ideas for Fundraising Ventures

While a membership-driven organization is often supported by membership fees, there are several occasions when membership dues don’t quite cover the costs of need. Whether it be a clubhouse renovation, new boats, or running an event – increasing membership fees is not always the answer.  

Depending on the specific monetary need, fundraising can take the shape of donations, events, corporate sponsorships, or community grant opportunities. Three key ideas to keep in mind are:

• Many people are not aware of a need for money – You just need to ask.
• You are not asking for yourself, you are asking for the club.
• ‘No’ does not always mean ‘no’, just not now. 

There are clearly differences between charities and boating clubs, but we can still learn from the professionalism and structure build around charitable fundraising. 

Make it easy to give:
There are several online platforms now developed to raise money and make it easier for people to give from the comfort of their home.  From here, people can view different organization profiles, create awareness online, as well as offer different giving packages and options.  Why not set up online giving options for your various fundraising ventures? Check out the various online fundraising platforms available for non-profit organizations: paypal, indiegogo.com, kickstarter, causevox, etc. 

Make people want to give:
With the three main ideas of fundraising listed above kept in mind, a successful fundraising campaign should be a well organized and thought out process. Every measure needs to be taken to ensure potential donors are met with a positive experience and will want to give to your worthy campaign. Think about:

• Your Critical Path – a timeline for fundraising goals and performance indicators.  Creating fundraising structure and goals will help fundraising committees break down goals into more achievable parts and therefore a more successful processes. 
• Track donor information – This will enable you to keep the donors updated about what was achieved with the help of their money, invite donors to events, send newsletters, and overall recognition throughout the years of an individual’s contribution. This can be done on a simple spreadsheet, or more elaborate database. 
• Recognition & Stewardship – You want the donor(s) to remember that they made the donation so the thank you should reinforce their action and reward them for that decision. 
• Volunteer Engagement – Recruit, train, recognize, and debrief volunteers.  They are the reason why your event will be a success!
• Communication Plans – Establish key messaging ideas and communication plans which will make sure that your messaging is clear, consistent, timely and regular. 
• Proper Thank-You letters – Coordinate the thank-you with the appeal or campaign that brought in the donation.  Draft a thank-you letter when you make your fundraising templates.  Think of it as part of one campaign package.  Make the letters as personal as possible. 
• A Good Planning Committee – Recruit great volunteers. Advertise for volunteers widely and publicize opportunities in order to create a functional planning committee. 

Read through the Event Critical Path Template and the Fundraising Best Practices found in the Shells & Sails online resources to get more fundraising ideas.  If you did not receive the password, contact the Shells & Sails Program Manager. 

Sport Is Fund – A tax reduction for donations opportunity for clubs. Apply through Sport Alliance Ontario and the Sport IS Development Fund. The Sport IS Development Fund will assist provincial sport organizations and their member organizations to establish revenue generation programs for which a charitable tax receipt will be provided to qualifying donations.