Fundraising Tips

If you are responsible for fundraising to help outfit, equip and keep your tennis program running, there are a number of creative ways to increase your income, and many of your fellow coaches across the country are using them.

Even if fundraising is not part of your job description, you may be coaching an under-funded tennis program (and you’re not alone). At a USHSTA coaches workshop, coaches from around the country told stories of team members having to pay for their own uniforms, players who couldn’t afford racquets, kids playing on courts with holes in the nets, weeds growing out of the surface and tattered windscreens, practices conducted with used balls donated by local clubs, and other heart-breaking examples of boys and girls trying to play for their high school with little or no support — to the point that as many as one-third of those juniors trying out for some tennis programs have to be cut!

Fundraising is not as difficult as you may think, and raising an extra $500, $1,000 or more is fairly easy in almost any community. In addition to bike-a-thons, car washes and bake sales, there are many ways to bring in cash for your program. The following ideas will help you get started in your fundraising efforts and should help prime your creative pump, so to speak, in order to bring in the cash needed to upgrade your program.

Set Goals
Decide what your uniform, equipment, meals, travel and other needs will be before talking to your athletic director. Check out websites, local retail stores and catalogues for the best prices. Determine which vendors will take school purchase orders.

Involve the AD First
Meet with your AD to determine what he or she feels are your program needs and compare your assessments. Athletic directors may not always be familiar with the intricacies of every sport they must direct and it’s never inappropriate to request extra dollars if you feel there has not been enough money allocated to provide you with the right amount of balls, hoppers or other needs.

Once you’ve found out your AD’s firm budget, discuss fundraising with him or her. Find out what (if any) fundraising is required of you and your team, and then ask if you are allowed to conduct extra fundraising activities. At this point, you should be prepared to share your specific ideas with the AD (including events, dates, target goals, etc.) in order to allow your AD to spot potential conflicts with other school fundraising activities. Look at other school fundraisers for ideas and to stay away from conflicts. Finally, talk with players and parents about their ideas or any knowledge of previous fundraisers.

Item Sales
At South Lafourche High School in Louisiana, coach Moe Collins’ team sold Krispy Kreme donut to raise $1,500 (contact your local franchise). Other schools have sold candy bars, Hardee’s biscuits, Yankee Candles, gift wrap and other items. Talk to your AD to make sure your plans don’t conflict with other sports teams or clubs at your school. Your AD may also have a list of vendors you can contact for item sales.

Volunteer Work
Many sports events need volunteers to work as ushers, parking attendants, concessionaires, etc. If you have a major tennis tournament in your area or permanent sports franchise (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, etc.) contact their public relations department to find out what programs they may offer to nonprofit groups.

Coach Steve Turman at the Oak Hill school in Ohio has his team work a booth at the Oak Hills Family Festival each year, raising about $8,000 to 10,000 annually for the school’s the athletic department, which disperses it back to the various sports. There may be many festivals and events in your area which can use bodies to staff booths, and which will allow you to fundraise (even via a tips jar) if you contact them early enough.

Events
Karen Turman at Land O’ Lakes High School in Florida runs a “serve-a-thon,” with players getting pledges or flat donations for their performance. You can develop your own “thon” (e.g., number of minutes or rallying without a break; number of serves in out of 100; number of hours playing without a break) based on the number of courts you have.

Another way to earn money is via a “Pro/Am” with your team members pairing with local tennis enthusiasts for a fee. Set up a tournament or round robin with prizes, snacks and drinks, charging a free of $50-$100 per entry, depending on the level of your team members’ ability and the type of tennis community you have.

Many schools run tournaments each year, inviting schools to play each other in the upcoming league format as a preseason tune-up. You’ll need to budget for t-shirts, balls and trophies, but you may be able to get all of these costs sponsored. Sell additional t-shirts and concessions on site during your two-day event. Your local umpires will often donate their time, and local clubs might also donate courts. Make sure to get a reduced hotel room rate or a per-room kick-back from a local hotel you name “official lodging.” You may also be able to arrange $50 endorsement fees from a local restaurant or two if you steer teams to them. For some teams, every little bit helps!

TeamTennis
A great format for kids and adults is TeamTennis, where each game a player wins counts toward his or her team’s final score. TeamTennis includes singles, doubles and mixed competition, providing something for every player interest. A TeamTennis match can be played in one evening and is a convenient alternative to a multiple-day tournament. TeamTennis can also be used for the “Pro/Am” format above.

Tennis Carnival
A tennis carnival which tests the skills of players and provides prizes and refreshments can be a great way to get the tennis-playing community out to your facility. Most of the major tennis companies have sales reps who will come to your school to help with a carnival and who will set up games, contests and competitions and provide some prizes. Below are some events you can run at your tennis carnival…

Fast-Serve Contest
A fast-serve court is one of the most popular at any tennis carnival. Your local police department will likely be able to lend you a radar gun for the event. Your baseball coach may even have one. You can use a variety of formats for a fast-serve contest:

#1 Players pay $1 for three serves and the fastest serve of the day wins a prize. Divide player categories into men, women, boys and girls and award four prizes. Only serves that land in count.

#2 Players pay $X and serve six serves, with their average speed determined and used to award prizes. Players have their fastest and slowest serves tossed out (to prevent a “0” from being averaged.

#3 Players pay $X and get eight serves, serving four combinations. Each combination consists of a first serve that lands anywhere in the service box, and a second serve which must land in one half of the service box, which has been marked down the middle with chalk, rope or cones. Players must call to which side of the box they are serving (left or right). Player serve in alternate service boxes each time. Players’ first and second serves are averaged (you may throw out one first serve and one second serve).

There are two keys to fast serve contests: 1) you must be consistent and apply the same rules to everyone; 2) you should go through the entire contest prior to the carnival to ensure that there are no unforeseen problems that would affect scoring.

Prize Hit
Spread as many prizes as you are able to collect (cans of tennis balls, wrist bands, t-shirts, gift certificates, strings, caps, grip tape, water bottles, etc.) on one side of a tennis court. (Manufacturer’s sales reps will usually have lots of prizes for these types of contests). Players line up on the baseline on the other side of the net and hit for targets. Players pay $1 and are allowed to hit until the hit a prize.

Target Contest
Set up realistic target areas on one side of the court. Players pay $1 for X number of balls (depending on the skill) and attempt to make as many shots into the target area as possible. For example, place a large hula hoop in the deuce court, halfway between the service line and the baseline and in the middle of the deuce court. Players get to hit five backhands and must hit down-the-line backhands into the hula hoop. Do the same for down-the-line forehands, crosscourt forehands and crosscourt backhands, for a total of 20 balls. You may add volleys, lobs, serves, returns, etc.

Serve accuracy
Divide the service box into three equal zones (forehand, into the body, backhand). Players pay $1 for X number of serves to the deuce court and ad court. Players must serve one serve to each of the three target areas and call their targets before serving. A dozen balls (two chances to play the game in the deuce and ad courts) gives players a fair, fun chance. Divide players into men, women, boys, girls and award four prizes.

Raffle Tickets
Instead of limiting contests to one winner (in each player category), you may want to consider awarding players one raffle ticket for each good shot they make (each target they hit). After each contest, players get their raffle tickets (picking from a drum) and take them to a board, where numbers have been pre-drawn for posted prizes. This will speed things up and not require players to wait until the end of the day. Nothing drags on longer than an entire crowd standing around while an emcee calls out raffle ticket numbers one at a time!

Think Long Term
If you have been involved with a program for more than a few years and feel you will be around for years more, consider a long-term plan to raise money for your big-ticket items, such as courts, fencing, bleachers, etc. While $3,000 may not seem like a lot now, if you can raise that amount every years, in five years you’ll have a nice chunk of change that may be able to generate more funding for you.

Case Study
Hilton Head High School’s tennis courts were in such poor condition in 1992 that visiting coaches told the school they would not return to the Seahawk Invitational the following year if the courts were not resurfaced, due to the danger the coaches believed the worn-through courts presented to players.

A new court surfacing company was looking for a reference and agreed to apply two coats of base and one coat of color on six courts for only $9,000 if the school supplied the labor for carrying material to the courts and painting the lines. The coach was able to get a $1,000 donation from the Tennis Association of Hilton Head Island and a $2,000 donation from the local Rec Center (in exchange for use of the courts for some of its programs). This left only $6,000 left for the athletic director to find. Seeing that he had $3,000 in cash ready to be donated, the AD worked with the Hilton Head High’s Booster Club and secured an interest-free, three year loan for the court resurfacing. In essence, the AD was able to get his courts resurfaced for a first-year outlay of only $2,000 and labor (supplied by players and parents)!

Depending on your school’s rules, you may be able to sell naming rights to your tennis facility. For an annual fee, you can sell a corporate sponsorship to a local tennis retailer, bank or car dealer; you can try selling a multi-year sponsorship to a business, or you may sell permanent naming rights to an individual or couple who fund a major, long-term improvement.

If you can’t sell naming rights to the facility, you may be able to sell sponsorships to individual courts, with a plaque or metal sign designating that a court has been sponsored by a business or individual. If you need a new sidewalk, you can sell each square, or individual bricks, to persons or businesses. Your AD should be aware of state or conference rules which limit commercialism (even on team uniforms).

Fundraising is easier than you might think if you think creatively and gather input from your AD, other coaches, team members and parents.