11 Creative Volleyball Fundraiser Ideas For Your Program

As a Volleyball coach or program director, we understand finding new and creative ways for your team to fundraise is always top of mind. However, some options that are super creative can also be expensive, leaving less funds leftover for your volleyball team. Striking this balance between running a creative and cost-effective fundraiser is a difficult challenge, but have no fear, the Teamfi guys have your back!

We’re breaking down 11 creative fundraising ideas for your volleyball team can raise the necessary funds for your team. The first four are completely free (hint: they all use Teamfi):

Digital Fundraiser Ideas For Volleyball

1. Be incredibly organized with your crowdfunding fundraiser.

Look, we get it, leading off with “being incredibly organized” as a creative fundraiser idea is maybe not exactly what you were hoping to see, but stick with us here because it can be an absolute home run for your volleyball team.

This was exactly the case with Grand Ledge Volleyball in Grand Ledge, MI who absolutely crushed the organizational side of their Teamfi crowdfunding fundraiser to raise almost $14,000 for their volleyball team.

Here’s what their athletic boosters had to say about their fundraiser:

“We had all the girls bring their list of contacts to practice one evening - so it was a requirement at the end of practice to sit there and put the contacts in together as teams. I sat with them and answered questions if they had any. That seemed to be really helpful!!”

- Sarah Lake, Grand Ledge Volleyball Boosters

So, instead of just telling their athletes to add their fundraising contacts for their Teamfi crowdfunding campaign on their own time, they were incredibly organized and intentional about using practice time for it and it helped them run a tremendously successful fundraiser by ensuring that they maximized their potential fundraiser supporters.

2. Run a crowdfunding campaign without the texts/emails

Monroe Saint Mary Catholic Central Volleyball in Monroe, MI used Teamfi to run a free crowdfunding campaign for their team’s fundraiser, but opted to not use Teamfi’s built-in automated text outreach to potential fundraiser supporters.

Instead, they used Teamfi in a creative way – they wanted each of their athletes to share their customized donation pages manually and handle the fundraiser outreach on their own. By making each of their athletes “do the work” of individually connecting with any family and friends who could potentially support them in their fundraiser, it led to a very successful fundraiser for their volleyball team – using this creative technique they raised nearly $6,000 for their volleyball team!

3. Run a Serve a thon fundraiser

Another way your volleyball team can mix-up your yearly fundraiser to keep things fresh is with a performance-based fundraiser like a serve a thon.

In running a serve a thon, your team would give each player a certain amount of set serves (typically somewhere in the range of  20-30), and would allow fundraiser supporters pledge an amount of money for each successful serve of the athlete on the day of the serve a thon. For example, if a fundraiser supporter pledged $5 for each successful serve, and then the participant ends up with 25 successful serves, that would end up as a $125 donation for your team.

As a result, your team can keep the community invested in your team’s fundraising efforts and successfully tie your team’s performance to fundraising dollars.

The best part? You can run your volleyball team’s serve a thon with Teamfi for 100% free! Our A-thon software (see liftathon, shootathon, and hitathon) will take out all of the manual work of tracking and collecting your team’s pledges and donations.

And that’s a wrap! Three 100% free and creative volleyball fundraiser ideas for your team. If you still want to explore even more volleyball fundraising options, be sure to check out our volleyball fundraiser solutions page. If you’re interested in seeing how you can use Teamfi for your team’s next fundraiser, you can book a quick (<30 minute) demo with our founder and he will walk you through exactly how to use Teamfi for your next fundraiser. Also feel free to check out our FAQ page, which provides some simple answers to the most commonly asked questions about fundraising with Teamfi.

4. Start a Digital Volleyball Calendar Fundraiser

Like the idea of a crowdfunding campaign, but want to do it digitally?

A calendar fundraiser is a great way to go! It's a simple way for volleyball teams to raise money online. Each player gets a fundraising calendar and asks supporters to sponsor a specific day. For example, a donor may give $10 for the 10th, $25 for the 25th, or choose any amount they want.

You should have all of your players participate whether they are on varsity, JV, club, or a younger team. It also gives families another easy fundraiser to share by text, email, or social media without selling products or collecting cash. That's three different digital fundraising ideas that with Teamfi are free to use.

Product Fundraiser Ideas For Volleyball

5. Program T-Shirt Fundraiser

A volleyball t-shirt fundraiser gives players, parents, students, and fans a way to support the team while showing school or club pride. Teams can sell shirts with the program name, mascot, slogan, or season theme. Of course, apparel doesn't have to be limited to t-shirts, you can do hoodies, hats, water bottles, there are a number of great different options for merch.

Running an online store with an apparel company is a really easy way to avoid inventory issues.

6. The New and Improved Bake Sale

Bake sales still work. What you want is a bake sale that does more than break even after the cost of flour, eggs, ingredients, and most importantly, time.

First, tie your bake sale to a match, tournament, or school event. The more foot traffic the better. Instead of a basic table of baked goods, create themed snack packs, team-colored treats, or pre-wrapped items that are easy for fans to grab between games. Last, create premium goods you can sell at a higher cost with higher margin.

Community Fundraiser Ideas For Volleyball

7. Volleyball Night

A volleyball program night turns a a fun community exhibition event into a fundraiser. Teams can host a student-versus-teacher match, parents-versus-players game, or 3 on 3 tournament.

Charge a registration fee, sell concessions, and offer raffles or small contests during the event. These types of events are a good way to have a fun non-competitive event connected to your program.

8. Build a Pizza Night

Team bonding and program building can also be a fundraiser. A build a pizza night is a fun food-based fundraiser where families, athletes, and supporters create their own pizzas. The team can partner with a local restaurant, school kitchen, or community space to provide dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings. Charge families just enough to break even and then have a QR code to take online donations or a cash collect box for families to donate if they want to support.

Around the holidays, the same concept can also become a create-your-own cookie night with frosting, toppings, and team-colored decorations.

9. Alumni Game

An alumni game brings former volleyball players back to play in front of their community again. The event can feature alumni versus current players, alumni teams by graduation year, or a simple tournament format. The thing with alumni games is they have to be pretty relaxed to avoid injuries. Definitely make sure you can have an athletic trainer available.

Teams can raise money by asking for donations at the game. In many states you cannot charge admission as a school sports team for an exhibition like this, so that's why donations are usually the way to go.

10. Host a Color Run

We all know about 5k, walk-a-thons, and marathons. Jump into something a little more colorful with a color run.

Participants pay to register, then complete a short run or walk while getting covered in colored powder along the route. It's the same concept as the simpler "race-style" events, just more vibrant and even less competitive than a 5k which is already pretty relaxed usually.

Volleyball players can help promote the event, volunteer at color stations, and invite family and friends to participate. Having access to a school track or park makes this a little easier to run.

11. Golf Outing

Take some time away from the volleyball court this summer and host a golf outing. A golf outing is almost universally appealing, especially to parents and friends of the program. It's one of the more popular high yield fundraisers you can do because of how it pair with other fundraising opportunities. There's registration, yes. You can also pair the golf outing with a silent auction, 50-50 raffle, mulligan packs, hole sponsors, and a dinner afterwards.

This fundraiser takes more planning than a simple online campaign, but it can bring in larger donations when local sponsors are involved. It works especially well for club volleyball programs, travel teams, or high school programs with bigger fundraising goals.