PlayUltimate: The Money Issue

Photo Courtesy Bil Elsinger

Some day PlayUltimate will be a magazine and it will probably look a lot better than this. Until then, here's a little preview. "The Money Issue"
Let's face it, sports cost money and ultimate is no different. The one advantage ultimate has is that players usually front the money for their own equipment. Unfortunately, most high school teams are club teams rarely receiving sufficient if any funding from their schools. That means teams need to go to outside sources for funds. Here's my little guide to raising funds (some call it fundraising) for your HS team.

1. Basic Fundraising needs to be split into three different categories to be properly addressed: school fundraising, ultimate community fundraising, and at large fundraising.

a. School fundraising is just as it sounds: raising money at your school. The most basic concept is something similar to a bake sale. My team has been selling donuts outside of the school cafeteria during first and second hour. Krispy Kreme runs a sponsorship deal for schools if you have a school official contact them. Otherwise, it is tough to make a large profit. We sold donuts for $1 (they cost approximately 50cents without the fundraising discount) while playing disc 1. We did not make a great deal of money (~$45), but we did something else. The advantage to fundraising at school is that you create exposure, which may be more important to developing teams. You can also sell custom discs (which you can order through www.discraft.com or www.wrightlife.com . Wrightlife is a little easier to work with, but discraft is a little cheaper. Both offer discounts to UPA members).
b. Ultimate Community fundraisers involve getting area players to give you money. Most areas have local adult leagues. Talk to the organizers of said leagues and see if they'll let you sell Power Bars and Gatorade at weekly games. If they are willing to let you fundraise you can pick up sports drinks and bars in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club, etc. Again, this is not a huge fundraise, but combined with disc sales and asking for donations, can easily generate enough funds for a tournament fee.

The best fundraisers involving the ultimate community consist of tournaments. Reasonable tournament fees can range (depending on quality) from $100-$300 per team or $5-$30 per player. My recommendation would be to talk to the league directors about setting up a league sponsored tournament (that way you won't be as liable). The easiest tournaments are simple, one day hat tournaments with round robin play moving straight to finals. If you have the fields and organizing capacity I highly encourage you to host an entire tournament. Be sure to get someone with insurance to endorse the tournament (whether it be your school, the UPA, or your local league). That way if someone gets injured, you aren't liable.

c. At large fundraisers involve the outer community. Tons of local restaurants would be more than happy to host a "team night". These team nights can be great fundraisers. The idea is to generate business for the restaurants on low-traffic nights (ie Tuesday-Thursday) in exchange for a share of the profits (usually around 10-15%). The amount raised will probably be between $90 and $250 dollars. Again, you should be asking for donations. Last year my team, in order to raise money for Westerns travel, stood outside of a local sandwich shop with signs and a box for donations. We made ~$110 dollars from the restaurant plus $50 in donations from people driving by (we did it at a stop light, please don't run into the street asking for donations). Candy companies will run fundraisers for school clubs and these seem to work great (all of the choirs at my school do it and it seems to pay for a good chunk of travel to Europe). The car wash is another idea that can generate a small chunk of money ($5-$10 per car + optional donations). If you can find an area church or business to host it, you don't have to worry too much about space, water, etc. Any other sort of fundraising you can think of is great.

2. Sponsorship is the Mecca of all team endorsements. It is, however, very difficult to get a company to simply give you money. One day teams will be highly endorsed, receiving free travel and equipment and even getting paid. Sockeye will be sporting Pepsi jerseys by Patagonia and facing up against Furious in their new Coca-Cola, Nike duds. Until then, you have to prove to companies that you can offer them something in return for their endorsement. Your best bet is to go to EVERYONE in the area. That means hitting every restaurant (especially local chains) and every company you can find. Offer to sew patches to jerseys, put their names on a banner, or hand out gift cards or coupons at tournaments (or, if you're school will let you, at school). VC is offering a cool deal on their single color classic jerseys with a one color screen print. The deal is 20% off for high school teams. What are they getting in return? By offering the deal, VC hopes to generate enough sales to buy the jerseys in greater quantities, thus cutting costs and receiving the same, if not a greater, profit margin. The idea behind a sponsorship is that both sides benefit (usually the Sponsor more than the sponsored). Here's what you want to do: either write a letter like this:
Dear Company X,
My name is _______ and I am with the _______ High School Ultimate team. We are currently seeking sponsors for our 2006 season. In exchange for your sponsorship (in the form of monetary donations or whatever you may be able to supply), we will _____________ (what are you offering?). In the past we have had great success (you want to show how much exposure they will be getting for their dollar). We won __________ and place __ place at ____________, etc. This year we will be participating in ________, __________, and _________. We expect a very successful season this year. I would very much like to meet with you concerning a possible sponsor ship. Please call or email me any time. Thank You,

Joe Ultimate (phone) (email address)

The idea is to emphasize how much exposure you can get them. If it is a food place tell them all of the different things you can do to generate interest. If they are a clothing supplier, perhaps they would be a good source for jerseys, so tell them you will be like walking, running, talking advertisements. In addition to simply handing in the letter, you should try to talk to the manager. This way you know that they will actually take a look at your letter. You may encounter one, very often recurring problem. This is that many chains have no power on the local level. Instead they must "forward the information to the regional office". Chances are you will never hear from the regional office unless you either get lucky or go talk to them yourself. So go, go talk to them yourself. Hopefully you will have some good success. Your best bet, however, is to go to local chains or businesses owned by people you know. Remember that EVERYTHING helps, so always be willing to take whatever donations you can get.

Until ULTIMATE is all over TV and we have a few full print magazines (and no, CSTV does not count as Ultimate being on TV, not really), we have to rely on ourselves to generate interest and funds. Some day companies will be coming to us seeking teams to sponsor, until then, good luck, and I hope this (sort of) short guide has helped.

-harrison fast