Whether you’re part of a football, cricket, tennis, netball or karate club, we’re willing to bet you’ve helped out at or been part of a fundraiser for your sporting club.
You may have cooked a barbie, sold chocolates, run a quiz night or held a bake sale to entice your friends, family and the community to support the club.
With so many events fundraising for sports clubs in your community, getting your event out there and noticed can be difficult at the best of times. On top of that, we understand that some clubs might not have someone who is marketing-savvy to promote their fundraising efforts.
If you are putting in the hard yards to organise a fundraising event, we want to make sure your club receives those well-earned fundraising dollars.
Our team at Poker Deluxe have put together our top four tips to help you promote your fundraiser and increase your funds raised!
1. Slide into Your Supporters Email Inboxes
A great, cost-free way to let people know about your event is through email. Most sporting clubs would have a contact list of ex-players, life members, current players (and if under 18, their guardians), local businesses, and potentially even club sponsors who have an interest in the club.
These contacts are a great place to start your fundraising event promotion. You should aim to send three short and sweet emails about your event to these contacts – but make sure not to spam them!
Email 1: Save the Date!
Tell your supporters that you’ve locked in a date for the event and give them the basics, such as venue and time, as well as a basic summary of what type of fundraiser you’re holding.
Food for Thought: When you receive an email from a brand or company you like, what makes you open it? Do you open it because you support everything the brand does, or is it a catchy headline or the promise to win something that gets you curious? Try using an attention-grabbing headline that makes the reader want to open the email immediately.
Email 2: Event Details!
Once you have confirmed more information about your fundraising event, you should communicate it to your supporters. Highlight any drawcards of your fundraising event – if you’re fundraising with a Poker Deluxe poker night, tell them about the prizes to be won, drink specials at the bar and any other important information, such as ticket costs and payment methods.
Make sure not to leave this email too late, as your supporters may need to plan things such as baby sitters or time off work to come to your event.
Email 3: Last Chance!
Use this email to hype up your event, with an added sense of urgency to encourage people to RSVP or buy tickets to your event.
2. Use Social Media
While liking – and laughing at – memes or checking out what your distant relative is up to on their trip to Europe can be thrilling, social media can be used for far more than you might think.
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are home to visual, engaging content, so writing nice things to ask people to support your event won’t quite cut it – you need to catch the eye of the average person scrolling through.
A great way to do this is to use photos from previous events to accompany some text about the event. You could even ask around the club to see if anyone can put together a few marketing images using free design tools such as Canva.
Like your emails, make sure to include all the important details of your event and highlight anything different about your fundraiser that might entice someone to attend.
It is important to articulate why you are raising money, who will benefit from the fundraising and why your sports club is so special, as this will encourage people to support your club.
3. Encourage Your Teammates (and Community) to Get Involved
Promoting your event takes more than a one-wo/man army – it takes a team! In addition, your teammates are likely to have a number of contacts in the community who can support your event
They might have a friend from school who works at a sporting/leisure store or supermarket, who could sponsor prizes or provide discounted rolls and sausages for a barbeque.
Or maybe they can encourage their workmates at their company to buy tickets to the event.
Your fundraising event is also a good opportunity to build relationships with local businesses, as these businesses may attend the event, provide prizes, support you with a donation or simply promote the event for you on their noticeboard or via their e-newsletter.
4. Promote Your Event to the Masses
Promoting your event to the wider public can be as simple as sending the event details and date to your local paper, magazine, blog or local council to include in their publications or calendars.
For those who like a challenge, writing a media release about the event, with a newsworthy angle, is a great way to get the attention of journalists for paper, radio or TV broadcast.
If you have writers block, we found this great article on how to write a press release for your fundraising event.
How Can Poker Deluxe Help Plan Your Fundraising Event?
At Poker Deluxe, we are passionate about fundraising for sports clubs through engaging, fun and slightly competitive events such as poker nights!
Our team hosts fundraising events across Australia, helping sports clubs to reach their fundraising goals without the stress of organising the event themselves.
We make fundraising for sports clubs easy with unique fundraising ideas that get your community, family, friends, workmates and teammates involved.
And when you book an event with Poker Deluxe you receive a marketing pack which includes: posters to stick around the club, an electronic invitation to send to your database and put on your facebook page and a trybooking page set up so your attendees can purchase tickets online.
Contact Poker Deluxe today to chat to one of our friendly team about the different fundraising packages available for your event.
