Being part of a youth or school sports team is a fantastic experience that encourages healthy activity, friendships and team spirit. But it also costs money! Sports equipment, refreshments and registration fees for games and tournaments all require cash. Are you scratching your head on how to raise a little more?
One way to help boost your funds this summer is through customised sports badges. Really, hear us out! Badges are a simple, budget-friendly, yet often overlooked idea to help your team. Instead of (or in addition to) selling the usual sweets and treats for your sports team, badges can be a great way to fundraise while building and engaging your local fanbase. In this post, we share a few ideas for raising funds for your team with sports badges and trading pins.
Sell Special Team Lapel Pins
One money-making idea is to create and sell unique branded badges or lapel pins to players and fans alike. Participants will be proud to wear these not only on gameday, but also outside of training and competition on their hats, backpacks or jackets. Lapel pins are an opportunity to engage your supporters, too. Family and fans can purchase lapel pins of their favourite teams to wear to games. They might also like to help the team with fundraising efforts and can pitch in to sell the pins during the offseason at fundraising events or other sporting events. As an example, here’s a budget-friendly enamel lapel pin we created for Sunderland AFC. Can’t you just picture your own sports team on such an item?
Launch an Annual Pin Drive
You’ve probably heard of a charity coat drive, but what about a pin drive? Another clever money-making idea is to host a pin drive at the start of every sports season. At your next meeting, get all of the parents together and brainstorm ideas for custom designs for a collectable team trading pin. For example, maybe it’s made in the shape of a jersey or designed around the team colours. One suggestion is to pick a new design every season so that your supporters can collect them over time for a long-term fundraising strategy.
These collectable pins can be sold on your sports or school website, at games and school events and in the community at local festivals, races or even at the check-out counter of retail stores. Bringing the parents back together to brainstorm a new design every season not only builds a collectable set that will raise funds, but also builds lasting memories.
Sports badges can also be incorporated into the competition. If you have a little more to spend on merchandise, consider crafting customised activity-based badges and medals. These could be awarded to the VIP or player of the game, the team captain or the player who showed the most teamsmanship. They could also be used in lieu of trophies or ribbons to award to the winners of a competition or match.
Need help designing?
Our always-free, in-house design team can help you create the perfect design for your team. We’ve worked with many sports teams across the UK and can help you craft the perfect badge for your players and your fans. For example, here’s a unique pin badge we did that combines the Caduceus, the symbol of medicine, with a sports theme. So creative!
We can work with you to develop a totally new design from scratch, or we can transform your existing sports logo or school crest into a stunning pin badge. We offer pantone matching to replicate your design perfectly and can make any size or shape you would like with a variety of finishes and polishes. After all, we like to say, if you can think it, we can make it. Get in touch with us today, and go team!
