All Sports Clubs, Schools and local organisations will have to admit, times are hard. With rising costs and in some cases, falling memberships, it has never been harder to raise funds for the urgent schemes that need to be completed. Since the pandemic of 2020, finances of clubs have become even more difficult and basic survival in many cases is the only expenditure planned. Unfortunately many businesses are also finding times difficult and are less likely to be supporting local clubs through sponsorship. Sadly, not every club can call on a rich Arab or Russian tycoon to help out. I know there are members within your club that have skills that never get used and many also have fundraising ideas that remain untapped.

Fundraising is often thought of in a negative way, as ultimately, some see it is a form of begging. Getting people to support your ideas and raise as much as possible, is often the hardest bit. In most clubs, there are a few people, that do most of the jobs and they are reluctant to add another job to the list. Most people do the roles as volunteers. Sports governing bodies, have reduced the amount of funding available and a lack of spending on sponsorship from local businesses, making fundraising, more vital for their survival, than ever.

With only 2 or 3 club members, a huge amount of money could be raised. First though, it is important to understand the reasons for raising money for the club. It could be a number of things:-

• raising funds for tours, whether this is adult or junior, will decide where Vclub cc shop  the committee members come from. If it is a Junior tour, the members will need to be made up from the Junior section
• paying for a fulltime club coach or paying for members to go on coaching courses.
• improve/upgrade or buy new Coaching equipment.
• improving the club facilities either by improving the club house, buying new cricket nets or improving machinery.

Form a small committee and hold meetings in a local pub. The reason to hold the meeting in the pub and not the club, is now you can also ask for the support of the landlord and other drinkers at the pub. The more this venue is used the more likely they will support you and your club. This committee can now decide the goal, How much needs to be raised and for what project. It should now be easier to get other members to support your efforts. Remember the best way to get support is to come up with fun ideas that make fundraising simple, FUN and most importantly, not a chore.

It is important, not to run too many projects at once. Pick one and make it a big fundraising target. Put up a ‘thermometer’ to show how much has been raised so far. Try to make your event attractive to outsiders, players from other clubs should want to be involved in you efforts too.

Clubs can set up a Fantasy league, either using club members or join a professional one. The advantage of the club one, is it will raise more money as you do not have to pay someone else to run it.

Ideas could include:-

• Many Professional Clubs offer group booking discounts up to 40%. Fill a coach and make a day to remember.
• Guess the amount of runs scored from all adult teams within the club. Charge anything from £3 to £5 per entry. This can also be offered to the Junior section as totals from previous years can be published, giving everyone an equal shout.
• How many sixes or boundaries will be hit in a season by all teams within the club, including junior sides.
• How many catches will be taken within the whole club again, include the junior section or alternatively, how many will be dropped.
• How many extras will be conceded by the Adult section. Try not to include the junior sides as this could be deemed as a negative action. It will be seen differently by the adult section and encourage a bit of banter in the dressing room.
• Set up a 100 club, each member puts in a set amount per year. The club then make various draws throughout the season. If 100 people put in £50 that would bring in £5000. 11 x Monthly draws of £200 and 1 big £500 draw at the end of the year leave £2300 of funds to be used as required.
• A club raffle or a giant sheet of card with squares on could be offered to players and supporters from other clubs. This would widen the target audience and take some of the burden away from your own club members.