Experience shows that the perfect mix of fundraising is a balance of large events held infrequently, smaller events or product sales held regularly, and background fundraising running continuously. This is true regardless of whether you are a school, a sporting club or charity.
Passive fundraising works because it ticks along in the background, meaning that your community are constantly making small, ad hoc purchases. Therefore, the best type of passive fundraisers are those with products or services that are required at least annually and by a large proportion of your members. There are a few passive fundraising options for schools available in Australia (you can check out my other article here) but this article introduces some new ideas and they have specifically been chosen for their potential to raise funds for both schools and sporting clubs on a regular basis.
Although this post is sponsored by one of my advertisers, all opinions are my own, and I think they are great products I want to share with FRM readers.
1. School Active Sports
School Active Sports is an Aussie owned and run business, offering high-quality sport leggings and shorts to schools and sporting clubs. Their range includes shorts, ¾ length and full-length leggings in a range of colours, made of the best technical fabric, so they will keep their shape and maintain integrity over time.
Aiming to empower girls so they can do anything, these quality leggings are suitable for wearing under school uniforms or as sport uniforms, as well as being used by sporting clubs and gymnastics teams (boys can also wear them under their running shorts). The School Active Sports fundraising program offers schools and clubs a generous 20% of all sales, and you can even order customised printing with your school or club name. This is a unique passive fundraiser and potentially very lucrative.
Learn more about Active School Sports here: https://schoolactivesports.com.au/
2. Play for Purpose fundraising raffle
Play for Purpose is an online fundraising raffle that operates in most Australian states and is designed to help sporting groups and not-for-profits. Clubs sell raffle tickets for $10 to their supporters and keep half of the money for their fundraising efforts. It’s completely free for eligible groups to join, and includes a fundraising portal through which you can sell tickets to your members. Around four raffles are run every year, and first prize is worth $250,000, while the club associated with the winning ticket earns a bonus $10,000.
Play for Purpose is backed by the 50-50 Foundation and Tabcorp Charitable Games and is 100% not for profit.
3. Selling Newsletter advertising
If you send a regular newsletter (either paper or digital) it can mean easy money to your cause. By selling space in your newsletter you can not only help local businesses who want to advertise to your community, but it can bring in much needed dollars with minimal work. You can sell multiple spaces per issue, offering good prices to companies willing to commit for 6 or 12 months, and remind them that if they provide different ads or ‘coupons’ for every issue, it will result in greater uptake (people zone out if they see the same ad all the time). To learn more about selling newsletter advertising and what other schools charge, click here.
4. Cashback sites
There are a number of cashback sites in Australia which donate a proportion of online sales back to your fundraising group, and if you have a community which does a lot of online shopping (even just the weekly grocery shop) it’s worth researching as an option for your school or club. Once you have selected your cashback site and members sign up, it’s usually just a matter of sending out regular reminders to members to shop via the site in order to get the full benefit of the cashback.
Learn more here: https://fundraisingmums.com.au/cashback-fundraising-need-know/
5. Spare Change Challenge
This is a simple DIY fundraiser, and a simple matter of asking your community to donate their loose change to your cause on a regular basis. There are a number of ways you can make this more fun, including having a huge ‘fundraising thermometer’ which shows the level of funds raised or setting up friendly competition between classes or teams. Don’t forget to include parents as well as kids. Modify the rules of the Aussie Penny War so that it can take place over a whole term or season, set up jars every week at practice and add incentives that won’t cost you anything by checking out my special article here.
Related article: For more great Passive Fundraising Ideas, click here
