Minor Hockey Fundraising Ideas

[Fighting Banana Slug]

I guess the old demonic "skate-a-thons" are a thing of the past? Pestering neighbours and family to sponsor me (literally 5 cents per lap), skating in circles for an hour and then disputing how many laps you actually made was absolute torture for all involved.

Worst. Fundraiser. Ever.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Angelamc

By far the most lucrative fundraiser we've done in the past was organizing a poker night. A bit of work but worth it (I think it was just over 10k for the team). Held it a community hall room, sold tickets for 20 bucks, cash bar, parents volunteered as dealers, servers etc., licenses were cheap and easy to get and mucho profit made from the gambling.
We've also hosted parents night, silent auction etc. at Schanks, they allow you to run around and sell your tickets, raffle or 50/50 or whatever to the other patrons in the bar, we had a busy night, made really good money.
I think a cash calendar was the only other one that made good enough money to be worth the time. I hardly recall but it involved selling tickets cheap to win cash, not a hard sell.
I guess it depends on what your parent group is like also, if they are cool and even like hanging out together, it helps. Good luck

A poker tournament is an interesting idea and something that I would be interested in.

Have you been involved in the planning/operations of a fundraising tournament before? I've done a bit of digging this morning and it seems like the team/association would need to get a "casino license" as a charitable donation but I'm confused on the "casino facility license." Can a community hall or hockey team/association obtain a casino facility license in order to actually host the poker tournament of the casino license holder?

[Angelamc]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

A poker tournament is an interesting idea and something that I would be interested in.

Have you been involved in the planning/operations of a fundraising tournament before? I've done a bit of digging this morning and it seems like the team/association would need to get a "casino license" as a charitable donation but I'm confused on the "casino facility license." Can a community hall or hockey team/association obtain a casino facility license in order to actually host the poker tournament of the casino license holder?

Not sure about the licenses to be honest I was in charge of appies but just today I got invited to a girls hockey poker thing this Saturday and they have hired a company that provides all the goods for a fee, dealers, chips, cards licenses (from my understanding) etc. Some guy named Vince, I should be able to get company name on Saturday to forward to you. I know that McKnight Assoc. does a lot of these poker things so they have a lot of this stuff already set up apparently, if that happens to be your asssoc.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Angelamc

Not sure about the licenses to be honest I was in charge of appies but just today I got invited to a girls hockey poker thing this Saturday and they have hired a company that provides all the goods for a fee, dealers, chips, cards licenses (from my understanding) etc. Some guy named Vince, I should be able to get company name on Saturday to forward to you. I know that McKnight Assoc. does a lot of these poker things so they have a lot of this stuff already set up apparently, if that happens to be your asssoc.

If you could get me the name or contact info for the company running the tournament that would be awesome. Otherwise I'll try to hunt down some information from the McKnight association. I'm with the Northwest Warriors.

[Ducay]

Gift cards sound like a no brainer, but a lot of these activities sound like a lot of work for marginal return, especially when the bulk of the cash is coming from the families involved anyways. Why not just pay the fees and be done with it?

[peter12]

Parents and relatives of kids are the best way to raise money. Always start with established networks. Do you have alumni lists? Call those guys up.

[peter12]

Getting a casino license is hard. I think there is a community outreach component that requires a record of service or demonstration of impact or something.

[gordo67]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

It could be an issue. I fired off an email to the association to see if they have any objections to jersey sponsorship.

It depends what age group. Novice and Atom are sponsored city wide. Pretty sure they don't want other sponsors on the jerseys they supply. That being said McAtom does let other sponsors on jerseys but might be association wide and usually is done when jerseys are ordered. We are sponsored by a car dealership for all our other divisions and we won't put any other sponsor on the jerseys per team basis. McKnight as an association doesn't do poker nights, a few teams have done it in the past and usually they do pretty good.

[VladtheImpaler]

Good luck. Not looking forward to this.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Why not just pay the fees and be done with it?

this is sort of where I am at; however, both my spouse and I work and we can afford it - but given the current economy lots of parents are not in the same spot.

one popular idea over the past few years is the "dreaded" silent auction - personally I hate these things, because my employer does not have a lot of stuff that can be donated, so I usually buy something to donate and then buy stuff at the auction and it just seems so much easier and cheaper to write one cheque.

with all of the above being said, the last three teams I was involved with raised a couple of thousand dollars in one night which was sufficient to carry us thru the season.

my struggle is always that lots of parents I know are involved in minor hockey, so if I invite them to our teams event I then feel obiliged to return the favour and contribute to their team in a similar fashion - so once again I feel no further ahead.

a few years ago a friends son played for one of the quadrant teams and they would go out and rake leaves. He told me the boys ahd a great time doing it. they'd rake the leaves into a big tarp and then load them into some kind of truck.

[MBates]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

How about charging fees that cover the cost of your kids participating in their activities instead of asking strangers to subsidize them?

I'm all for Kid Sport and the like enabling lower income kids to participate, but I have zero interest in loading someone's Range Rover with $60 in bottles for their kid.

So, if someone asks for your bottles say no.

Your post is pretty ignorant of reality. My brother is the president of a small town minor hockey association and the amount of families struggling to cover registration fees at their current level is way up. No surprise there.

On any given team there will be kids who get dropped off in the family Range Rover and kids who only make it to the rink if someone picks them up because the parents both work and don't have a reliable car and every variation in between.

What do you think "Kid Sport and the like" does? Sit around like Scrooge McDuck swimming in gold coins hoping somebody might need their help in a given year? No, they struggle every season to try to help as many as they can on a limited budget.

If you want the sport to become only for affluent people then sure, just raise the fees. Before any cash calls or fundraising, my son's registration this year was $1,200.00 for Atom. If it went up to $2,000.00 I probably could swing it but I know many who could not. By the way, if you are wondering, I have a Chrysler and a Kia...are those lowly enough to get a bag of empties?

Or, we could keep as many kids in the community playing this amazing sport by tolerating kids rolling up their sleeves and asking for some bottles once in a while (without putting any gun to your head and allowing you to just not donate anything). Oh the humanity!

[Northendzone]

should also note that there are many kids on a team, and some parents may have range rovers, while other parents may only have one car as many associations cover a wide geographic area

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by gordo67

It depends what age group. Novice and Atom are sponsored city wide. Pretty sure they don't want other sponsors on the jerseys they supply. That being said McAtom does let other sponsors on jerseys but might be association wide and usually is done when jerseys are ordered. We are sponsored by a car dealership for all our other divisions and we won't put any other sponsor on the jerseys per team basis. McKnight as an association doesn't do poker nights, a few teams have done it in the past and usually they do pretty good.

Country Hills Toyota?

[Aeneas]

Teams we have been on had the parents that would rather just pay another $100 or $200 rather than get involved. We already have a $200 cash call up front after fees.

The bottle collection was pretty easy for us. Just told some relatives to hold on to bottles if they could and we would come get them.

Also, have a great relationship with a dozen or so neighbours and they agreed to give our son bottles for a month. It really piled up.

The kids on the team did almost all of the work, they really enjoyed loading up the truck after practice. Cannot remember what we raised but it was surprisingly high.

I will be checking this thread for ideas; in case I get suckered into organising anything.

[Angelamc]

I've always thought that fundraising coordinator would be the worst volunteer position. Too much to deal with. I volunteer to wash smelly jerseys to avoid it actually.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Angelamc

I've always thought that fundraising coordinator would be the worst volunteer position. Too much to deal with. I volunteer to wash smelly jerseys to avoid it actually.

hahaha, no body actually washes the jerseys.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

I guess the old demonic "skate-a-thons" are a thing of the past? Pestering neighbours and family to sponsor me (literally 5 cents per lap), skating in circles for an hour and then disputing how many laps you actually made was absolute torture for all involved.

Worst. Fundraiser. Ever.

It has changed.

It is now a flat rate amount and the cut the team gets is set.

It is actually a pretty good money raiser, other than begging for donations.

The one in Sylvan gets split between the team and a charity in town (can't recall which one).

[peter12]

Originally Posted by angelamc

i've always thought that fundraising coordinator would be the worst volunteer position. Too much to deal with. I volunteer to wash smelly jerseys to avoid it actually.

Use established networks, you fools.

Also, is your team a registered charity so that you can issue tax receipts?

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by peter12

Use established networks, you fools.

Also, is your team a registered charity so that you can issue tax receipts?

The associations maybe but individual teams are not.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

hahaha, no body actually washes the jerseys.

And our association gives full volunteer credit, easiest job ever.