Raising additional funds for your club is crucial in order to increase revenues within your rugby club. However, sometimes trying to think of how to raise funds is tricky. We have created the below guide which will give you an idea of how to fundraise for your club.
Here are the 30 fundraising ideas with information of each one further below:
| 1. Team Sponsorship | 11. Rugby Grants | 21. Buy a brick |
| 2. Player sponsorship | 12. Race Night | 22. BBQ |
| 3. Advertising Space | 13. Loose Change Bottle | 23. Family Fun Day |
| 4. 200 Club | 14. Fancy Dress Race | 24. Sponsored Event |
| 5. Car Boot Sale | 15. Karaoke Night | 25. Wine Pull |
| 6. Secret Auction | 16. Sweet and Cake Stall | 26. Foreign Currency |
| 7. Stash Shop | 17. Special Training Sessions | 27. Golf Day |
| 8. Quiz Night | 18. Calendar | 28. Touch Rugby League |
| 9. 7s Tournament | 19. Car Wash | 29. Walking Rugby League |
| 10. Rent out your rugby club | 20. Battle of the Bands | 30. YouTube Channel |
1. Team Sponsorship
Draft a letter which offers team sponsorship opportunity to local businesses and organisations. The letter should detail the way that that companies can help by the rugby club supplying an amount of money and what the business can expect to receive in terms of a return for the sponsorship. The sponsorship can be in the form of a kit being purchased for a team or training equipment which can be embellished with the sponsors logo.
The sponsor should be offered a space for their logo on your website and the club should post about the sponsor on social media. Ideally the club will have a structure of the different levels of sponsorship which can be taken by a company.
2. Player Sponsorship
Players of each individual team could be sponsored by a local business; this is particularly helpful if you have a family friend who runs a local business and is happy to sponsor a specific player rather than a whole team. The sponsor can be listed under the players picture within the programme and the rugby club’s website. The sponsor could also have a club hoodie made up the sponsors logo and the players name which could be worn before a game.
An additional action which could be taken as part of the sponsorship is for the rugby player to share a post of the business on their social media once a month.
3. Advertising Space
Another way to raise funds for your rugby club is to offer advertising space. There is always space around the club to offer advertising space. This can be from the space in front of the urinals or back of the toilet doors, like in motorway service stations toilets. There is also usually space around the edge of the pitch or if you are lucky to have a stand, there is usually space at the back of the stand to have a hoarding.
Alternatively, there will be areas within the match day programme which can be sold for advertising for a fee and this can be offered to local companies on a match by match basis or for the whole season.
4. 200 Club
Created a 200 club whereby 200 members of the club pay a monthly fee to take part in a monthly lottery. Each member who takes part in the 200 club is assigned a number and at the first home game of the month a draw takes place to choose a winner for the month. The monthly fee is a nominal amount of £5 – £10 a month. The amount collected is split 40% into prizes and 60% goes to the club to upgrade areas of the club. The monthly prize could be £50 which could then additional prizes once a quarter and a yearly prize.
200 clubs may seem like a daunting task however, we made a 200 Club Guide to help.
5. Car Boot Sale
Rugby Clubs have a lot of space therefore, why not hold a monthly car boot sale in order to make money for your rugby club. Firstly, you could charge a fee for each car that turns up to sell on the day. This could be £10, when you think you could have a 100 cars that is an easy £1000. The rugby club would also charge a nominal fee say £2 for everyone who comes to buy items at the car boot sale. If you have 500 people turn up, then another £1000 can be earned.
6. Secret Auction
The key to a secret auction is to get as many amazing prices as possible. This can be anything from tickets to a premiership rugby game to signed rugby memorabilia. The items can be put on display and the members of the rugby club can write on a piece of paper and put the amount they are willing to pay into an envelope. Then at a set date the auction shuts and whoever has offered the most amount wins the prize, once payment has been received.
7. Stash Shop
A rugby club can have a stash shop to make extra money. If a club sells the physical products it is easy to add an additional club fee of a few pounds which helps bring in new funds into the club. If you have an online stash shop with a third party provider then again an additional fee can be attached to a product to ensure that revenue comes back into the rugby club.
8. Quiz Night
A quiz night is an excellent way of making extra revenue for your rugby club. Arrange a quiz for a specific date and arrange for a quiz master to come up with 10 questions for 10 different rounds. The questions and topics should be broad in nature as this will make the quiz more enticing to the wider rugby club. The quiz can be charged on a per person basis. If the quiz is held in the clubhouse then there is additional revenue through the bar.
We have put together a guide on how to organize a quiz night.
9. 7s Tournament
A 7s tournament is always good for a nice pre-season warm up and you can use this reasoning to encourage other teams to take part. There is an official entry fee and you can have a bbq and music to make a day of the event. Also takings behind the bar will increase with the more teams you have enter the tournament.
10. Rent Out Your Rugby Club
During the day throughout the week rugby clubs are usually quite quiet however, why not rent out your rugby club house to people to use as a meeting space or to use a yoga space. Maybe you have a an area of your club house which can be used for events such as birthday parties or even weddings. However, it is important to ensure that who ever rents the clubhouse is fully aware that it is a do it your self option and that they would have to pay extra for staff the bar.
Unsure of how to rent your club house, read our guide.
11. Rugby Grants
In England the RFU offers a number of grants dependent on your rugby club level, the finances of the club and the size of the project. For instance, so you need new rugby posts or flood lights or do you need a whole new pitch. There is a helping hand grant for improvements to a rugby club or a ground match grant for the bigger projects.
12. Race Night
Organise a race night at your club, of ten tables of ten. Get entrants to pay a small fee to enter the race night, then you can have sponsors sponsor a race and/or horse. Then you can have a race ticket with the race number and the number of the horse which individuals can buy tickets for. Rather than have odds you can count up the tickets purchased for each race. The horse with the most tickets will be seen as the favourite and awarded the favourites odd and the horse with the least amount of tickets will be assigned the outsider odds.
13. Loose Change Bottle
A rather simple but effective idea is to find a large glass bottle and put it on the bar and put a label on the bottle highlighting what the money will go to perhaps a new kit. Encourage people to put there loose change from drinks into the bottle. Slowly additional money will be raised, as the famous saying goes if you look after the pennies the pounds will look after themselves.
14. Fancy Dress Race
Create a race course around the rugby club and arrange a fancy dress race, perhaps at the end of a big game during the season or at halftime. There would be a fee to enter the race. There could be a prize for the fastest finisher and the best fancy dress.
15. Kareoke Night
Who doesn’t like a sing song and a karaoke night is an excellent way to raise funds this can be achieved by charging for a karaoke night at your rugby club and takings from the bar on the said night. It is best to have a night like this when there are a lot of home games on one weekend or a big game. However, be careful because if your team doesn’t
16. Match Day Cake and Sweet Stall
If your rugby club belongs to a Costco or wholesalers then you will be able to obtain large quantities of sweets, cakes and such like which can be bought the and sold for a profit on a rugby club match day or on a day when there is a large numbers, such as a mini’s festival or minis training. Any profit made can be passed to the club. Having a stall at a rugby game may not be enough and you may want to consider volunteers having a try and walking round the ground offering the cake and sweets. It is always important to remember that you need lots of change in a float, there is nothing worse then not being able to give people change.
17. Special Training Camps
In the school holidays or at weekends you can offer a skills camp with a local star from your rugby club first team or a well known face. This is great as it can increase funds to the club but also grows a sense of community across the club. If your club has a famous connection then it would be worth getting that individual down to do a camp. It would also be worthwhile to see if there are guest coaches who can com down and pass their wisdom onto the coaches of all teams across the club.
18. Calendar
The club could put together a calendar for purchase by the members. This does not need to be a calendar girls special it could be players associated with the club past and present. The calendar could be different event pictures throughout the year.
19. Car Wash
A car wash day is a great way to make revenue for the club. This would be ideal on a weekend in the off season as long as it is widely publicised, and members are encouraged to bring their cars down to the event. It is best to set up the car wash as a production line. It is important that you have an easy accessible water supply.
For speed it will probably be best just to wash the outside of the car and not offer the inside of the car as this can be time consuming and will take a large number of individuals to arrange quick results.
20. Battle of the Bands
Within the rugby club there will be someone who fancies themselves as a musician. However, you should look in the local area and offer a bands an opportunity to join the battle of the bands. There should be a crash prize or a trophy that can be won. A fee can be charged on the door for entry and there will be money taking over the bar for drinks. The crowd can be used as a a sign of how good the band was and a sponsor could additionally sponsor the event.
21. Buy a Brick
If the rugby club is building a new building a new area of the club then members of the club can buy a brick which can be included in the build and these can be engraved with their name. The bricks can be charged at £200 which can go towards the building of the new facility. This mean there will be a record of the members who contributed to the build for as long as the building stands.
22. Fundrasing BBQ
In the summer barbeques are a great way to make money. As food can be charged per item and can be done on a match day or at n event. As mentioned if your rugby club belongs to a wholesaler than the food can be purchased at a reduced rate and sold on for more.
23. Family Fun Day
A family fun day is a brilliant way to bring about club community spirit. The day can involve skills challenges, touch rugby and coaches vs over 18’s players. The day can have special guest speakers, bands, local business stalls and promotions by your sponsors. There can be competitions and raffles for members to take part in.
24. Sponsered Event
A local business can sponsor an event which can contribute money to the rugby club. Perhaps there is a big match which will result in a team winning the league and you can offer a local business to sponsor an event or perhaps the local business can sponsor the family fun day.
25. Wine Pull
A wine pull is where you buy 100 bottles of wine wrapped in wrapping paper for an event varying in price, the most expensive bottle being £20 and the cheapest being £5. Obviously, you have more cheaper bottles of wine rather than the expensive wine. Each individual that takes part pays £20 and pulls a bottle of wine, they unwrap the wine and see if they got a cheap bottle for their money or an expensive bottle of wine.
26. Foreign Currency
Another idea for fundraising at a rugby club is to have a bucket on the bar for foreign currency. When people have been on holiday they usually have loose change which is left around the house. Therefore, it should be encouraged for all loose foreign currency to be brought in and put in the bucket. The club can then change the currency up and put into the clubs bank account.
27. Golf Day
Have a golf day to raise funds for your rugby club. Each participant needs to pay an entry fee however, that needs to include the course fee and an additional fee which can be put towards the rugby club.
28. Touch Rugby League
In the summer the rugby club is quiet therefore, why not set up a touch rugby summer league to raise funds for the club. There could be weekly games which could result in a finals day. The teams can pay an entrance fee, such as £10 per player for the touch rugby for the number of weeks it is running.
29. Walking Rugby League
As there will be a number of older club members who are unable to play competitive rugby, the club could introduce a walking rugby league in order to generate extra funds. This would open rugby to the broader spectrum of the club and like the touch rugby you could charge a fee for a number of weeks or charge on a weekly basis.
30. Youtube Channel
A rugby club can record its matches and put them on YouTube, along with training drills and interviews with members from the club. A video can be sponsored by a local business, for a fee. Alternatively, if the youtube channel gets more than a 1000 subscribers then adverts can automatically be put on videos to bring in extra revenue.