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DC Dolphins Fundraising
09/01/2009
Dear Dolphins,
DC Dolphins has grown immensely from a small club with a few hundred athletes, managed from the basements of some great volunteers, to a club that now registers 2,000+ athletes a year, with offices and paid staff, training, equipment, facilities rental, league fees, insurance, etc. With the growth of the club, the need for fund raising has grown as well.
A couple of decades ago, registration fees never covered all of the costs of providing the football and baseball programs - the fees would have been too high to allow everyone to participate. The teams offset their costs by selling butter braids, greeting cards, candles, popcorn, etc., in addition to obtaining donations from local company sponsors. DC Dolphins parents and the local community always responded with great generosity. This model worked well when we only had 10-20 total teams asking for money. At that time, there were fewer organizations competing for the local dollar. Fast forward to today! The Dolphins provide six sport programs, there are 120+ teams in all of the sports, countless other youth organizations in the community asking for money from the same local businesses, and the economy is not what it once was.
As the operating costs for each sport continue to increase (costs for fields, leagues, referees/umpires, insurance, etc.), more and more was being asked of our coaches in regards to fund raising, organizing activities, managing helping hands and product, and doing the accounting. It was getting to the point where the coaches no longer could or would perform these duties. They reached out to parents to help raise the money, via local sponsorships, or simply asked for additional funds from the parents. We were not being as respectful of our local sponsors as we should be. They were being asked by every single team for the same donation. Parents were being asked to cover more of the costs each year, for every sport that they and their athletes were involved in.
It was time to get organized!
We have had and continue to have great volunteers that perform all of the necessary functions to get the athletes on the fields and courts. However, asking them to continue to volunteer 20-40 hours a week, provide timely and competent professional services, be available to respond to questions or provide service during working hours, free of charge, was no longer an option. Since 2005, we have hired a part-time office manager, retained a CPA, a lawyer, rented office space, purchased telecommunications and computer and office equipment, acquired internet and website technologies, contracted training services for coaches and motivational speakers, and the list continues. Now, we add fund raising services to that list.
The Executive Board created the Business Development position in 2007. It was quickly filled with a person that had the drive, the initiative, the contacts, the skills, etc. - basically everything that we were looking for. The only thing this person didn?t have was the time. It became obvious that this position was really a full-time position as raising money, nurturing contacts, managing the events, etc. takes a ton of time. The person that volunteered felt that they were not doing the position justice. So, they resigned. The position remained unfilled until 2009. Our fund raising capabilities remained minimal during this time.
In 2008, the Executive Board decided to create a new position, the Director of Fundraising. As a Director, the individual filling this position sits on the Board but is not an executive officer. Thus, the Board was then able to contract and pay for the functions of this position. Through a recommendation and interview process, the Board elected to contract a professional fund raising service to fill this position. This does not eliminate the need for members of the Dolphins community to volunteer their time and talents, but allows us to raise more money with that donated time and talent.
Happily, we have already begun to see the benefits of getting professional help, as we are now in a position to begin addressing the needs and goals of the club.
The goals of fund raising for the club are to:
- Minimize registration costs
- Provide more and better training for coaches
- Provide more and better customer service
- Generate seed monies for grant writing and applications
- Rent/buy/build recreation facilities for youth sports
Some methods that we are using to achieve these goals are:
- Recurring revenue. Examples of this are: website advertising, field banner advertising, fanware sales
- Events. Examples: Cow Chip Bowl, Silent Auction, Team Picture Carnival
Stay tuned as more events will be announced this year and next - some will be annual events - others will be sport specific - all will require volunteers!
Sincerely,
Chris Marrs
President, Douglas County Dolphins Youth Sports Inc.
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