20 Fundraising Ideas for High School Sports Teams
Updated November 2025
Table of Contents
Easy to Implement Fundraisers
Moderate to Implement Fundraisers
- Swim-A-Thon
- Rent-A-Team
- Sell Discount Cards
- Fitness Class
- Spaghetti Dinner
- Raising Bail
- Worm Charmer
Challenging to Implement Fundraisers
Looking to throw a fundraiser for your sports team? Here are 20 fundraising ideas to raise money for your high school sports team.
Run Your High School Sports Team Fundraiser with FutureFund
Our platform comes with powerful tools that can help you fundraise for your high school sports team more effectively before the new season arrives. These include:
- Ready-to-go campaign templates so you can sell tickets or items for different sports events.
- A built-in messaging system you can use to announce your fundraisers and provide all of the details.
- Opportunity to create volunteer sign-up lists to optimize parent and community involvement from the people most interested in the sport or team.
- Powerful financial reporting tools to help you track your earnings, stay compliant, and plan future fundraisers more effectively.
Get started with FutureFund today or book a demo to see how it can work for you.
Donation Campaigns
These campaigns encourage parents and volunteers to donate directly to your sports team. FutureFund makes it easy to collect money online during the campaign, but you can also include an in-person event with a specific theme, such as a certain sport like basketball or softball, if you want to make your fundraiser more meaningful.
Learn how to run a donation campaign with FutureFund here.
Tip: Use FutureFund's messaging system to announce the fundraiser and include a link to the online campaign so that people can still donate even if they can't attend the event.
Direct Donation Drives
| Ease of Implementation | Easy |
| Time to Implement | 2-3 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (promotion materials only) |
| Volunteers Needed | 2-3 (communications and tracking) |
| Ideal For | Teams needing funds for equipment, travel, or uniforms without planning an event |
These are a great way to organize a fundraiser that doesn't require a lot of volunteers or an event location. Donors can send their contributions directly to your FutureFund campaign through your online platform, and then you can access them for your needs. Be sure to explain exactly what the money will go towards for your team-new equipment such as cleats or a batting cage, jerseys, travel costs, etc.
Pass-the-Pail
| Ease of Implementation | Easy |
| Time to Implement | 1-2 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (pail, signage) |
| Volunteers Needed | 2-3 (collection, counting) |
| Ideal For | Any sporting event; in-game fundraiser |
Ask contributors to donate coins or cash throughout a game. Every time the team scores, the pail gets passed around to collect donations.
Alongside a physical pail, you can set up a donation campaign through FutureFund for parents and others throughout the community to donate various amounts in tandem with passing the pail. You can even make sure the link to the donation campaign is posted on the pail to invite larger online donations.
Go Viral
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 3-5 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (prizes and social media promotion) |
| Volunteers Needed | 4-6 (content review, video uploads, outreach) |
| Ideal For | Online engagement fundraisers or community participation campaigns |
Why not host a Go Viral campaign for your school's fundraising goals? Have students, teachers, and family members upload videos based on their talents within that certain sport. Then provide prizes for videos or pictures that get the most traction and attention.
Donors can help fund through the FutureFund platform. Regardless of whether you go viral or not, there will be a lot of memories to look back on that can recirculate during your end-of-season banquet.
Rent A Team
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 3-5 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (transportation, materials) |
| Volunteers Needed | 6-10 (supervision, scheduling) |
| Ideal For | Off-season community support projects |
Put out the word that you're renting out your team in exchange for donations! All you have to do is set up a donation campaign online to collect donations for anyone who wants to "rent a team" and get some community chores done around the town.
Fitness Class
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 4-6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $-$$ (space, equipment, refreshments) |
| Volunteers Needed | 4-6 (trainers, registration, setup) |
| Ideal For | Off-season conditioning or open community events |
Have the athletes put together a fitness class and then collect donations for the community to participate. You can create a donation campaign online and class goers can enjoy the class while helping a local sports team!
Hairless For Help
| Ease of Implementation | Easy |
| Time to Implement | 2-3 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (clippers, cleanup) |
| Volunteers Needed | 3-5 (promotion, logistics) |
| Ideal For | Charity partnership or awareness campaigns |
This event is pretty easy as long as you can find interested participants: set a donation goal and once the goal is reached, the team, the coaches, or everyone involved must shave their heads! Collect donations online and then you can sell tickets to watch the shaving of the heads take place!
Raising Bail
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 3-5 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (props, signage) |
| Volunteers Needed | 6-8 (promotion, collection, supervision) |
| Ideal For | School rallies or pep-week fundraisers |
"Jail" a few of the team's popular players or coaches in a public place and collect online donations for their bail to set them free. Have someone keep watch on the money rolling in so they know when to set everyone free!
Purchase Campaigns
Any kind of fundraiser where you sell physical items or event tickets is a Purchase campaign. Add each item type to your school team's online store in FutureFund by creating a specific Purchase campaign for it.
Learn how to run a purchase campaign here.
Tip: Always run Purchase campaigns alongside physical events like school spirit wear sales, since this allows you to make sales 24/7 and lets people make purchases even if they can't attend the event.
Team Training Camp
| Ease of Implementation | Ambitious |
| Time to Implement | 6-8 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$$ (gear, insurance, permits) |
| Volunteers Needed | 10-15 (coaches, trainers, logistics) |
| Ideal For | Summer break or preseason programs |
Sell a chance for non-team members to train like their favorite athletes! Keep the training camp as close to the athletes' actual training as possible while keeping the participant's capabilities in mind.
To keep your team involved, have them nearby to run their patrons through different drills while keeping everything fun and upbeat! Have participants register for camp through an online Purchase campaign.
Team Spirit Sale
| Ease of Implementation | Easy |
| Time to Implement | 3-4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (shirts, printing) |
| Volunteers Needed | 3-5 (ordering, fulfillment) |
| Ideal For | Seasonal kickoff or championship week |
Sell your spiritwear online with your FutureFund online storefront. This can be available all year long for students, families, and community members to purchase what they need or want just by visiting the link. Everything from t-shirts to hoodies to water bottles adorned with the school's mascot can be sold this way.
Spaghetti Dinner
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 4-5 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (food, venue, décor) |
| Volunteers Needed | 8-12 (servers, cooks, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Pre-game or pre-season fundraising dinner |
Tap into the athlete carb-loading concept by hosting an event where everyone comes and enjoys a spaghetti dinner! This is a great opportunity to combine a bunch of smaller events together to make one big fundraising event, or you can keep this event small and focus solely on the spaghetti.
Sell tickets in advance in your school's online store with FutureFund, so you can ensure to have enough tables for patrons and spaghetti to go around.
Candy Sales
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 4-6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (ingredients or bulk candy purchase) |
| Volunteers Needed | 6-10 (baking, packaging, delivery) |
| Ideal For | Seasonal sales or family-friendly community events |
Food-based fundraisers are a classic option-so why not continue the tradition? Have families make homemade candies and sweets to sell online. Buyers can pre-purchase treats so no one wastes ingredients and then the delivery can happen at the school or through the students themselves. You can post your items in your team's store through FutureFund and advertise the options!
Community Car Wash
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 3-5 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (soap, sponges, signage) |
| Volunteers Needed | 10-15 (wash teams, registration, promotion) |
| Ideal For | Outdoor summer fundraisers or team-building events |
Sometimes you don't have to look any further than a classic option-a Community Car Wash! Get everyone excited about getting their car cleaned by posting ahead of time on social media and selling vouchers for a wash online. This option requires a location and the players to do the washing.
You can have a little male vs. female team competition as well. Will it be the softball or the baseball team that raises the most money?
Sell Discount Cards
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 4-6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (printing, coordination) |
| Volunteers Needed | 5-8 (sales coordination, distribution) |
| Ideal For | Booster clubs, team merchandise drives |
Partner with local businesses and put together cards for discounts on their merchandise and then sell them online in your FutureFund storefront. This event is a win-win for everyone involved: not only do the club's patrons get a percentage off of their purchases when they visit the stores, but the store will see an increase in patrons as people who purchased the cards will come to visit the store.
Learn more about how to set up an online store for your school for free.
A-Thons (Pledge Campaigns)
An "A-Thon" fundraiser is a special kind of pledge campaign you can run in FutureFund. Once you create the campaign for the event, students who sign up to participate each get a link they can use to collect donations from family and friends.
Find step-by-step instructions for successful pledge campaigns here.
Tip: The link you'll share when you create the campaign is what you'll use to sign up student participants. When they register for the event, they'll each get their own unique link that they can use to raise money from members of the school community.
Homerun-A-Thon
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 6-8 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$-$$$ (permits, prizes, refreshments) |
| Volunteers Needed | 15-20 (setup, safety, event coordination) |
| Ideal For | Baseball or softball programs showcasing player skills |
Show off your players' hitting skills with a sports event that will wow attendees and bring in the dough. An event like this needs some planning and volunteers to pull off, however, it sure will be a...hit...when it comes to fundraising for the team.
A baseball hit-a-thon, homerun-a-thon, or free-throw-a-thon fits in perfectly with the sports theme of this kind of fundraising!
Swim-A-Thon
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 4-6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (venue, equipment, prizes) |
| Volunteers Needed | 8-12 (timers, registration, safety) |
| Ideal For | Swim teams or aquatics clubs |
Accept donations and pledges for your swim-a-thon event and see how many laps your club can swim within a certain time frame. This event is pretty easy for event organizers as all they'll need to do is secure an event space and maybe have some extra space for games to keep those waiting for their turns busy.
A-Thon fundraisers, where student participants in events collect pledges from family and friends to support their progress, are some of the most cost-effective ways to raise money for K-12 schools. Learn how to run your A-Thon for free.
Mud Run
| Ease of Implementation | Ambitious |
| Time to Implement | 8-10 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$$ (permits, course setup, cleaning) |
| Volunteers Needed | 20-30 (course setup, safety, registration) |
| Ideal For | Spring/summer endurance fundraiser |
Get approval to use a local field and turn it into a muddy obstacle course. Feel free to make the course a 5k, 10k, half-marathon, or marathon length. If space is an issue, compensate by requiring the participants to go around the obstacle course however many times necessary to complete the set length of the course.
A Mud Run is a type of Fun Run, which is historically one of the most profitable types of school fundraiser there is. Read this guide to learn how to run a fun run without hiring an outside company and keep every dollar you raise.
Worm Charmer
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate |
| Time to Implement | 3-4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (tools, prizes) |
| Volunteers Needed | 5-7 (setup, judging, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Outdoor/agriculture clubs, science tie-ins |
Have a plot of land that needs to be worked and the soil turned over? Have an event where people compete to see who can dig up the most worms in a certain amount of time using a teaspoon to dig. Have participants gain pledges ahead of time and see how many worms get uncovered.
Color Run
| Ease of Implementation | Ambitious |
| Time to Implement | 6-8 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$$ (powders, safety gear, cleanup) |
| Volunteers Needed | 15-25 (registration, safety, stations) |
| Ideal For | Large-scale community or district-wide events |
Give attendees an opportunity to work on their fitness while also working toward supporting their favorite sports team! Organize a fun Color Run for competitors and run it like an a-thon where participants can register beforehand and grab donations for their work at the event!
Just like any a-thon, you can have prizes ready for the winners and make sure to blast the event all over the school's and school teams' social channels.
Other Fundraising Ideas
Partner With A Local Restaurant
| Ease of Implementation | Easy |
| Time to Implement | 3-4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (promotion only) |
| Volunteers Needed | 2-4 (coordination, promotion) |
| Ideal For | Team nights, post-season celebrations |
While you will need a restaurant that is willing to partner with you, this option will be easy to execute. Let the attendees know ahead of time about which days they should visit the establishment and make arrangements with the restaurant to receive a portion of their profits. Accept donations online for those who cannot make it in person.
Auctions
| Ease of Implementation | Easy |
| Time to Implement | 1-2 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (raffle tickets) |
| Volunteers Needed | 2-3 (ticket sales, accounting) |
| Ideal For | Game-day add-on or halftime event |
By using a site like Future Fund, you can organize an auction for your school! Before you begin, ensure that auctions are allowed in your state. Then source donations from various businesses or private individuals and use our messaging system to help communicate and coordinate the event.
List items online and have people bid for the item! Participants love a chance to win something and your school will be the ultimate winner!
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I use FutureFund's messaging system to promote my high school sports team fundraiser?
FutureFund's messaging system lets you:
- Send messages to every parent in your school community or filter your audience to reach specific groups.
- Create unique sender profiles to make sure the message is always coming from the appropriate party.
- Use customizable message templates to save time when broadcasting updates or announcements.
How do I sell sponsorships with FutureFund?
FutureFund displays sponsors on your school group's online directory once they have agreed to make a contribution. You'll be able to set the price for sponsorships on your own-but our team can provide guidance and support if you're not sure what to charge.
How can I use FutureFund to track my fundraiser's success?
FutureFund gives you the ability to generate financial reports for fundraising campaigns in just a few clicks. To do this, navigate to Store and click the Reports tab near the top of your screen. Then choose Campaign Summary from the drop-down menu and click Generate Report.