Cheer Fundraiser Ideas: 5 Unique and Easy Fundraising Ideas for Cheer Teams

Looking for the perfect cheer fundraiser idea to help support your squad? You're not alone. Cheerleading teams across the country rely on fundraising to cover essential costs—whether it's new uniforms, travel expenses, or competition fees. From sideline to competitive, cheerleading has always been expensive. That’s where we come in.

At Teamfi, we know that while fundraising is crucial, it can also be a major headache. That’s why we created a platform to make it easy, efficient, and 100% free for cheer coaches and athletes. Below are five tried-and-true cheer fundraiser ideas your team can implement right away—each designed to maximize participation and fundraising dollars.

‍Cheer Fundraiser Idea 1: Run a Crowdfunding Campaign

A classic cheer fundraiser idea is running a digital crowdfunding campaign. With Teamfi, cheer teams can raise hundreds of dollars per athlete using a fast and automated system with a branded and customized team home page to incentivize donations – all for 100% free.

Not only is it effective, but crowdfunding with Teamfi is also simple, straightforward and timely. By utilizing Teamfi’s automated outreach to fundraiser supporters, your cheer team can raise funds for your team in just two weeks. The steps for crowdfunding are incredibly simple:

1. After a guided demo, create your Teamfi Account and Log in
2. Create your team’s fundraiser (requires answering just a quick questions)
3. Share your fundraiser participant sign up link
4. Have your participants add their friends and family as possible supporters
5. Press “activate” and start collecting donations via Teamfi’s automatic outreach

Dearborn Divine Child out of Michigan followed this exact process raised over $10,000 in donations over their Teamfi crowdfunding campaign in 2024. Five figures for any program is a game changer for sure, and it can take just 5 simple steps ofr your cheer team.

If you have any questions about crowdfunding with Teamfi, be sure to check out our Frequently Asked Questions page where we answer all of the most common questions coaches ask us.

‍Cheer Fundraiser Idea 2A: Run a Pick a Date to Donate Calendar Fundraiser

Want a visual and goal-driven cheer fundraiser idea? Try a Pick a Date to Donate Calendar Fundraiser. Much like crowdfunding, Teamfi’s digital calendar fundraiser is a highly efficient option for fundraising as it helps remove the headache of distributing paper calendars and needing to collect any cash or checks – everything is managed completely digitally using the Teamfi coach dashboard.

Like all Teamfi fundraising products, the process for running a digital calendar fundraiser is incredibly easy. In a calendar fundraiser, each fundraiser participant will have their own, customized digital calendar in which they will try to get sponsors for each date on the calendar. To “sponsor” a date, it requires a donation in the same amount of the number of day(s). For example, day 30 would be a $30 donation for a fundraiser supporter to sponsor it. The end goal is for each fundraiser participant to get sponsors for all 31 days on their calendars, resulting in a total of $496 raised for your cheer team for each fundraiser participant who completes their calendar.

In this way, a digital calendar fundraiser is a great method to raise money effectively while eliminating the hassle of manual calendars and donations. Additionally, it’s a great way to set a clear and visual fundraising goal for each fundraiser participant.

Cheer Fundraiser Idea 2B: Run a Pen & Paper Pick a Date to Donate Calendar Fundraiser

Prefer a more traditional, non-digital route? We totally understand – some cheer coaches might just prefer to run a calendar fundraiser the old fashioned, pen and paper way.

This cheer fundraiser idea is the paper version of digital calendar fundraiser (see idea #2A above), but there is a bit more added work. Instead of distributing a digital sign-up link to Teamfi like in the case of a digital calendar fundraiser, you’ll need to print off paper calendars and distribute them to your fundraiser participants, and then they’ll use it to collect any sponsors. Additionally, instead of collecting all the donations online (in the case of using Teamfi), you’ll need to keep all of the cash donations or checks organized over the duration of the fundraiser.

If you do opt for a pen and paper calendar fundraiser, you’ll probably need a template for what a calendar fundraiser looks like. While there’s plenty of templates available online for purchase, we’ve provided a free to download ready-to-print calendar fundraiser template for your cheer team to save you the $5-10 and make your life just a little easier.

Cheer Fundraiser Idea 3: Run a Fill My Bow Fundraiser

If you prefer to run a traditional, “pen and paper” style of fundraiser, a Fill My Bow Fundraiser is an incredible cheer fundraising idea. Designed specifically for cheer teams, each participant gets a printable paper bow graphic broken into different donation spaces that represent a donation amount. It's similar to a “pen and paper” calendar fundraiser (see idea #2B above), in that the goal of a Fill My Bow fundraiser is for a fundraiser participant to collect donations for each available space on their paper bow. This makes it a great fundraising option for cheer teams who want to set a clear and visual fundraising goal for each participant.

If completely filled, the Teamfi Fill My Bow template would collect 25 total donations for each fundraiser participant, totaling $425 each raised for your cheer team.

When running this type of fundraiser, we’d recommend holding a meeting to kick off the fundraiser where you hand out the paper calendars to each participant and explain the process. Then, after anywhere from two to four weeks, we’d recommend holding another team meetings and collecting all the paper bows and any donations.

‍Cheer Fundraiser Idea 4: Run a Cheer-a-Thon or Stunt-a-Thon

If you want to tie your cheer fundraiser directly to cheer performance, this cheer fundraiser idea is just for you – look no further than implementing an “A-thon” (see liftathon, shootathon, or hitathon for examples) for your cheer team. Whether you choose a Cheer-a-thon or Stunt-a-thon, this cheerleading fundraiser idea can tie together your team’s cheer performance with fundraising dollars.

In cheer-a-thon, you would set a time limit (usually anywhere from one to three hours), and each fundraiser participant would collect pledges before the event based on the number of cheers they could complete in the given time. For example, if a fundraiser supporter pledged $5 per cheer successfully completed in the cheer-a-thon, and your team successfully completed 35 cheers within the set time limit, that pledge would end up being a $175 donation for your cheer program. In this way, you can tie your cheer team’s performance directly to your team’s fundraising dollars.

As far as the timeline goes, a Cheer-a-thon can take your team just a few weeks from starting to collect pledges to running the event and collecting the money, making it a great fundraising option for your team. The best part? Teamfi’s a-thon software can handle absolutely everything from tracking your cheer-a-thon participants, progress, collecting pledges, and donations – all for 100% free.

‍Cheer Fundraiser Idea 5: Run a Community Fundraiser

Involvement of your team’s community is imperative in any fundraiser. While many of Teamfi’s fundraising options can be done from the comfort of your home, many fundraisers require getting out into the community and actively campaigning for donations. Whether you’re hosting a golf outing or thinking about a car wash or bake sale, here are some great ways to get out into the community and raise funds for your cheer program.

Golf Outing

Host a charity golf outing where supporters pay to play, with proceeds going directly toward your cheer team's goals. Costs include paying the golf course, food, but with a good volunteer core and appropriate golf outing pricing, golf outings can be a very effective fundraiser.

Consider adding cash prizes for teams to encourage participation and a silent auction can easily be paired with a golf outing to make a very efficient cheer fundraiser.

Silent Auction

Collect donated items from local businesses and run a silent auction during an event or online to raise funds. Local businesses are often eager to donate items to youth programs and school programs for fundraisers. It’s often little cost to them and gets their name out in the community.

Silent auctions can be paired with live auctions and golf outings to make a more efficient cheer fundraiser. A dinner is a great compliment to a silent auction, even something as simple as a cookout.

Live Auction

Energize your community with a live auction featuring high-value items or experiences, with a charismatic emcee to drive bids. If you’re looking for something a little more advanced than a silent auction, a live auction can be really effective.

Of all of these options, live auctions can be one of the more expensive to put on as you have to pay an auctioneer, and get a significant amount (around 20) of high value items to auction off. Make sure to promote the event well in advance and consider pairing it with a dinner or banquet to draw a larger crowd and create a full fundraising experience.

Discount Cards

Sell custom discount cards offering deals at local businesses, giving supporters year-round savings while funding your cheer program. This does take time and resources, including partnering with a discount card company, but you will provide a high value product for people in your community they’d be willing to pay for.

Partnering with well-known local restaurants, shops, and services can increase demand—and once the design is set, your team can resell the cards each season for recurring revenue.

Car Wash

Organize a cheerleader-run car wash in a busy parking lot for a low-cost, high-energy way to bring in donations. One of the simplest tried and true fundraisers out there, a car wash only requires your cheer team, a parking lot, and some car wash supplies. By getting the word out early, it can be a great way to raise a few hundred dollars.

Restaurant Partnership

Partner with a local restaurant for a fundraising night where a percentage of sales goes back to your team. Pick a popular restaurant willing to give 10-15% back to your cheerleading program. Put the word out to the community and help fill a restaurant while raising money for your program, a true win-win. Some restaurants will even let you set up a donation table or a raffle inside to increase  your fundraising impact.

Don’t have a good restaurant in your town? Consider a bake sale, where you make goods and sell at community events.

Running a community fundraising event doesn’t mean that software can’t still help you out. In many cases, Teamfi donation pages can be used as a free digital payment portal for these types of events. Instead of putting payments through software like venmo or paypal, all of your funds will be securely collected on a page with your team’s logo, branding, and mission to give it a clean and professional look.

‍Conclusion

These five cheer fundraiser ideas are proven, practical, and 100% free through Teamfi. Want to see them in action? Book a quick demo with our cofounder and we’ll show you exactly how your fundraiser would look on our platform.

Have any questions about these cheer fundraiser ideas? No problem, reach out to us anytime and we’ll respond as fast as humanly possible.