15 Unique Ways Your Basketball Team Can Fundraise For A Shooting Machine

Getting new training equipment, like a basketball shooting machine, isn’t always a quick process. It requires budgeting, planning ahead, School Board or Booster Club communication, and even team fundraising. Here are 15 unique fundraising ideas to help your basketball team easily get a shooting machine in the gym.

1. ask local businesses to sponsor

Ask businesses in the community to sponsor your team in return for ad placements on the school website or “activities” webpages. Businesses could also get physical signage in the gymnasium, sponsor the bench chairs, or even game live streams and broadcasting.

2. hold a 50/50 raffle

With the help of the school administration, your team could run a 50/50 raffle at other home sporting events. Have your basketball team sell the raffle tickets before other basketball games, wrestling matches, hockey games, etc. You can also coordinate with the PA to make announcements about the 50/50 throughout the event before the winning ticket is drawn.

Not sure if spectators still carry cash? Use a CashApp like Venmo to set up a team account to make contributing easy for anyone!

3. host a community meal 

Work with your school’s kitchen staff or plan with the team's parents to host a community meal at the school. This could be anything from a Pancake Breakfast to a Spaghetti Dinner. Tickets can be sold in advance by players or purchased at the door of the event. Don’t forget to advertise in the community, at school, and on social media!

4. host a restaurant night

As an alternative to planning and preparing a meal, partner with local restaurants for a fundraiser night. Restaurants like Chipotle, Chick-fil-a, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee’s will have dedicated nights where you can send supporters for a meal and a portion of those meal sales will go towards your program.

Some businesses, like Pizza Ranch,  also do Tip Nights, where your team can help with the dining room in return for the tips made that night.

5. sell team apparel online

Partner with a print shop or school apparel store to have team gear available for purchase during the season. Online stores like BSN Sports  or SquadLocker help create a custom store for your team including school logos and colors. Your school could also set up an apparel store on the main website. Who doesn’t want more team apparel?!

6. organize a 5k or walk-a-thon

Looking for a fundraiser that helps to promote wellness and activity in your community? Plan, or even partner with your school’s Sports Boosters Club, to host a 5k or walk-a-thon. Be sure to contact city hall to help put together a safe race or walk route. Runners and walkers can get a custom shirt with their registration fee and your players could line up along the route with signs to motivate participants during the event.

7. hold a laundry detergent fundraiser

Laundry detergent is something everyone uses, especially parents with children in sports. Sudz Fundraising helps teams set up their laundry detergent fundraiser and gives coaches a fundraising starter kit equipped with order forms, marketing materials, and instructions. Your players can easily raise money and supporters receive quality detergent. 

8. run a youth clinic or camp

Get younger athletes interested and involved in the program early and give your players leadership opportunities by running a skills clinic or camp. This could be anything from an inexpensive, short clinic on Saturday mornings to a camp during the summer where you offer a t-shirt and lunch each day of camp with registration. Your school’s Community Education office could also assist in planning for gym space and promoting to parents.

9. organize a basketball tournament

Your entire program could help put together a number of tournaments where you could raise money from entry fees and concessions. Host a Freshman tournament with surrounding schools. Or be a spot to host your youth traveling team’s annual tournament. You could also get alumni involved by hosting an Alumni Tournament. Another option would be hosting a Holiday Tournament where your team can play against surrounding teams over Winter Break.

10. utilize fundrazr

FundRazr helps teams raise money for equipment, tournament fees, and even travel expenses in minutes. Teams can easily set up custom fundraising pages to collect funds and promote those on social media with FundRazr’s secure online process.

11. Have a "Dunk the coach" Tank

This fundraiser will excite younger athletes, community members, and your players. If your community or school is hosting an event, simply rent a dunk tank and have a booth where participants can purchase “throws” to try and dunk the coach! This could also be an option during halftime of another sporting event or after one of your own games.

12. hold a silent auction

A silent auction is an easy way to get people involved, and could even be done online. Have a starting bid for school apparel/uniforms, gift cards, parking spots, or spectator seats in the gymnasium and whoever has the highest bid is the winner of that prize. A silent auction could be in conjunction to a tournament, community event, or community meal.

13. sponsor a school hat or pajama day

Students can have a little fun for the day by wearing their favorite hat or comfy pajamas to school as long as they bring $1 (as an example) to participate. Announcements could be from players or sponsored by the team and players could visit classrooms to collect the money raised that day.

14. sell candy bars

One easy, popular fundraiser is selling candy bars. Each player can get a box or two of candy bars to sell during the fundraiser. You could also give prizes to the players who sold the most candy. Companies like World's Finest Chocolate, See's Candies, and Old Fashioned Candy help you create a turnkey, successful fundraiser.

15. help run a meat raffle

While it may only be a Minnesota thing, schools and sports teams can help local bars and restaurants run meat raffles on the weekends. This is an easy fundraiser for parents to be involved in. They can volunteer to help organize raffle numbers, collect money, and hand out meat to winners and get a portion, sometimes even half, of the raffle’s proceeds for the program.