Lightning Baseball Fundraising Programs

Lightning Baseball of New England is committed to help players raise funds to offset the investment needed to participate in our programs. We have instituted a formal “Fund Raising Program” because we want all qualified players to be able to participate regardless of their families’ financial position. Our players, on an informal basis, have successfully used the fund raising programs outlined in this document. The primary premise behind our fund raising programs is that we need to provide a variety of programs you can try in your community so you can find the ones that work the best. The other main premise of our fund raising programs is that all of the money you raise goes directly to you.

We have five types of fund raising programs available for you to try:
1. Corporate Sponsorships
2. Raffles
3. Player and Coaches Clinics
4. Canning
5. Pizza Parties

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS

Local businesses and corporations, in your hometown and surrounding cities, are a very good source for raising funds to help offset the investment in the Lightning Baseball program.

Lightning Baseball offers two programs to help attract donations from local businesses. There are two prerequisites to any corporate sponsorship program. The first is to identify the businesses you want to reach and the second is offering each business something in return for the donation.

Identify and Categorize Businesses

The most effective way to get donations from businesses is to categorize each business in your area then prioritize each category so you start with and spend the most time on businesses most likely to donate. In order of importance, here is how you should categorize the businesses in your town.

Category 1: Personal Contacts

Make a list of people you know well enough to ask for help i.e. parents, relatives, neighbors etc. The companies for which they work are the best prospects for making a donation to support you.

Category 2: Little League Sponsors

Businesses that sponsor Little League teams in your town, or who buy signs on outfield fences are already pre-disposed to support the youth of your town & baseball in particular.

Category 3: Newspaper Advertisers

Businesses that advertise in your local town newspapers both daily and weekly recognize the need for local publicity and are likely to be interested in supporting you particularly if you offer them some way to let the community know about it.

Category 4: Other Businesses

List all other businesses that you think might be worth contacting.

Offer Each Business Something

1. Businesses that rely on retail traffic, (restaurants, gas stations) like to put up signs, posters etc. to let their customers know they support the community. These types of businesses will display a poster similar to the following:

“ This Burger King”
is a proud sponsor of
Lightning Player Name
Picture of you in your Lightning Uniform
and Lightning Baseball of New England AAU/USA

You can make these signs up on your computer and either attach a copy of the picture or get a color copy made at a place like Kinko’s. The cost will be less than $2.

2. Businesses that don’t rely on retail traffic like to see their name in the local newspapers. What you offer these businesses is a chance to be listed as a supporter in the local weekly paper in an ad that you purchase. The size of the spot you give to each business will depend on the cost of advertising space in your local weekly paper. For example, if a _ page ad will cost you $250 then you want to set the price the donations so that you make at least $500. The ad in the paper should something like the following:

Player name and Lightning Baseball
Would like to thank the following business for their support

One Way to Reach the Local Businesses – Direct Mail

Lightning Baseball has a four (4) step approach to getting local businesses to donate money to support your involvement in our program.

1. Mail each of the businesses on your list a letter requesting a donation. Lightning Baseball will provide you with four letters, on Lightning Letterhead, one for each category of business on your list. You should customize these letters to include your name as well name of the business and the person to whom you are mailing the letter.

2. For businesses that don’t respond to the first mailing (and most won’t) you will have to make follow up phone calls.

3. For businesses that still haven’t donated, Lightning Baseball will provide you with a second letter, which you should also customize. This letter will describe the concept of the newspaper ad promotion. In addition, we’ll help you get the sports editor to write an article that will run along with the ad.

4. For businesses that still haven’t donated we will provide you another letter that also describes the concept of the ad and your desire to run a second ad. You should also send a copy of the article and the previous ad long with this letter.

Another Way to Reach Local Businesses – Monthly Newsletter

A less formal approach to corporate fund raising is a monthly newsletter, which you can produce on your own. This newsletter can include updates on the team’s progress, highlights of games, bios on a different player each month, your personal accomplishments, status of fund raising efforts etc. Smaller, family run businesses or those, which cater to retail customers, might like this approach more than the formal direct mail campaign. If this approach interests you we will be glad to provide you with samples of newsletters one of our players used last year.

RAFFLES

There are two kinds of raffles that you can participate in to help raise funds to support your participation in Lightning Baseball. The first is a Lightning sponsored “Calendar Raffle” in which all Lightning teams participate. The second kind of raffle is a personal 50/50 raffle or a raffle with money prizes.

Calendar Raffle

Each team is responsible for acquiring approximately 8-10 prizes, a total of 30-40 prizes. Each day during the month of May a different prize will be given away. Once all of the prizes have acquired Lightning Baseball will produce copies of a calendar, for the month of May, listing each day’s prize. We will also provide you with books of raffle tickets. The cost of printing is included in the administrative fee and since the prizes are donated all proceeds from the sale of raffle tickets go directly to you. The cost of these tickets is $10 each or 3 /$25.

Personal Raffle

Another kind of raffle that you can participate in is a “personal raffle.” For instance you could plan to sell $500 worth of raffle tickets and give out $250 in prize money. For this raffle you get to pick the price of the tickets i.e. $5 each and 3 for $10, or $2 each and 3 for $5. You tell us how much you want to raise, how much you want to give away and the price for the tickets. We’ll print a sheet of tickets for you, which you can take to Kinko’s to be copied, cut up and stapled into packets. Once again the amount you want to raise, the amount you want to award as prize money, and the price of the tickets is all up to you. If this kind of fund raising is effective in your town you can repeat it more than once i.e. Fall Raffle, Winter Raffle, Spring Raffle etc.

CANNING

If raffles are not effective in your town then another option you have is “canning.” This is the most tried and true of all fund raising techniques. Wrap a Lightning bumper sticker around an empty coffee can or ice cream container, make up a poster, stand in front your local Dunkin Donuts, grocery store, Burger King etc and ask the customers to help support your trip to the National Tournament. To be most effective you should vary the locations, day of week and time of day. For example, mornings are best at Dunkin donuts, Friday nights are good at grocery stores and Saturday lunchtime is good at fast food restaurants.

PLAYER AND COACHES CLINICS

Your Lightning coaching staff can conduct clinics, during the fall and winter, in your hometown. We’ll give you a flyer to post around town, a letter to mail to coaches and players, and a press release for your local paper. We can run a variety of clinics from fundamentals for players and coaches as well as drills and practice organization techniques for coaches. You will need to acquire a location for the clinic i.e. a field in the fall or a gym in the winter. Fees for these clinics can range from $5-$25 depending on what you think is best for your town.YOU CAN RAISE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY FOR THE ENTIRE LIGHTNING SEASON!!

We strongly recommend that you start your fund raising campaigns early. The fall and winter months are the best because you will have very little time on the weekends once the outdoor season starts in April. We have a variety of Fund Raising Programs available and no player should be prevented from participating because of a financial hardship. A little work on the part of the player and his family will go a long way to raising the needed funds.