High School Sports Fundraising 101: Let’s Talk About Discount Cards
Bianca Javate - Blog Writer
From washing cars to selling baked goods, merchandise, and more, athletes and teams have done it all when it comes to fundraising. Fundraising is an effective tool that can help elevate teams to more successful seasons. The money raised through these initiatives can cover the costs of their needs, which include—but are not limited to—new uniforms and equipment, travel expenses, and maintenance of facilities. It can also help fund their attendance to camps and trainings that can take their game to the next level.
Among the hundreds of sports fundraising ideas, selling discount cards has emerged as a go-to choice for most. Although it’s a bit tricky to figure out its exact origin and who popularized it, fundraisers that use this method have been around for over 30 years.
What Are Discount Cards?
In case you are new to this space and this is your first time hearing about the term, allow me to explain. Imagine having special promotions to more than 15 stores all at the palm of your hand; or in this case, listed at the back of a small card that you can tuck inside your wallet and bring with you wherever you go. That is essentially what a discount card is!
Discount cards carry exclusive deals to a variety of trades, and these offers can be redeemed from both local businesses and companies nationwide.
These cards have typically been in a physical format but thanks to technological advancements, digital variants are now available in the market; therefore making them more convenient and portable than ever.
Depending on the final agreement with the business, the duration of the discounts can last for up to a year.
How Are Discount Cards Created?
Now, you might be wondering: How do I get businesses to provide discounts? Who do I reach out to? How do I produce these cards?
Due to the popularity of this fundraising idea, several companies have emerged that offer to do all the production work for you and provide you with the cards to sell—what is left for you to do after is to simply sell them. Minimal work on your end, but a guaranteed high profit margin IF every card gets sold.
Companies usually follow this format for their service:
They will ask you to list down 15-20 businesses that you would like to include in your card. Alternatively, they will have a list of businesses that they are already partnered with and all you have to do is to choose from this selection. They will then contact these businesses and work on a deal that would work well for both parties.
When it comes to designing the card, most companies give you the liberty to customize it as you wish. Otherwise, there are templates available with changeable fonts, colors, photos, logos, and more.
Once you are happy with both the deals secured and the look of the card, the company will start making them. The lead time for production can vary, but it can range from 2 to 6 weeks. Some companies require a minimum number of cards to be ordered, so you have to consider this and factor in the size of your team before you proceed with an order. It might not be efficient for you to purchase 300 cards to sell for a team that has only around 10 members.
Given that these cards would be sold to raise funds, most companies allow flexible payment options when ordering. The flexibility can be either requesting for a small down payment or delaying the payment up to a certain number of days. However, if you would like to pay upfront, you would be incentivized and even given additional cards for free to increase your projected funds raised.
What Are The Benefits Of A Discount Card Fundraiser?
The card’s main selling factor is that it offers great deals that you can redeem until the indicated expiration date. But aside from the convenience entailed by having all of these discounts available at your disposal, there are other reasons why these cards have been both a popular and effective fundraising idea.
For starters, it is very easy to implement now that, as mentioned above, there are several companies offering services to produce these cards. As long as the fundraiser is planned well and the cards are divided evenly among the members, with each selling 5-10 cards, you can expect to generate funds in no time without doing too much preparatory work.
They are also considered to be a low-risk fundraiser that offers a high reward if executed well. How so? Well, the team does not have to shell out a large amount for investment and would not even need to shell out any money immediately to kickstart the fundraiser. On top of this, the team can set the cost at which they would sell their cards. Usually, the selling cost of each card can range from $10-20, depending on the number of discounts that it will carry. This immediately yields profit for the team as the wholesale cost of each card can more or less fall between $1-3.
Another great thing about discount cards is that it doesn’t just help the team, it can also help the small local businesses within the area whose special deals will be listed in the card. This provides them with community exposure that can usher in new customers, all while helping your team succeed.
There are numerous fundraising success stories that involve discount cards, with teams earning approximately between $10,000-20,000 for each iteration. However, there are some downsides to this initiative.
What Are The Drawbacks Of A Discount Card Fundraiser?
Since discount cards are prevalent in the fundraising sphere, the market continues to become saturated. A lot of people are already using this method and it is highly likely that another team within your area is selling a discount card. If there are several teams selling the same product in one area, sales can be affected.
Furthermore, the deals offered might not appeal to everyone within your community which can make selling difficult. You have to keep in mind your community’s needs and preferences, and to address this, survey and market research can be done. However, that can incur additional time and costs that your team might not have.
Speaking of time, the lead time for the production of these cards is something that you must also take into account. To create a quality card with the best, carefully-crafted deals in the market, patience is needed and this patience can equate to over a month of waiting. Once the cards are ready, you have to add perhaps another month to your fundraising timeline to give way for the actual selling to commence.
The team must be very motivated if they want to sell these cards fast; but in a saturated market, motivation might not be enough. You have to stand out and offer something unique, and this is something that Story of the Season can help you with.
Story of the Season will create unique weekly programs and media guides for your school’s sports teams that will include embedded videos, social media links, podcasts, and more digital features that can help parents, alumni, fans, and recruits to get detailed information about your team. These digital assets can easily be accessed through QR codes that are scannable in the stands and sporting venues. Local businesses and companies can pay to be seen on your media guide, therefore helping your team raise funds for every advertisement sold. It may cost more for a business to procure, but sponsorships like this can provide them more mileage and long-term exposure than a discount card will.
Now THIS is what you would call an absolute win-win situation: a business gets digital exposure that can lead to more sales, and a team gets funds while also getting lasting media exposure that can attract potential recruits and entice more business sponsors to advertise. Impact can be felt on both sides and a mutual partnership is forged.
Click here to learn more about Story of the Season’s services, its benefits, and how it can help your team in this digital age.
