How to run an effective Booster Club

We’re here to show you our best tips on how to run an effective Booster Club.

High School Booster Clubs have two basic functions.  It is debatable which of the two functions is most important.  The two functions are; raising money, to purchase items for the team that the school either will not or cannot purchase and supporting the team or teams by increasing community support.  In Texas, the University Interscholastic League (http://www.uil.utexas.edu/policy/booster_clubs.html) is a government body that sets standards for booster clubs and produces a list of rules that booster clubs must follow.  Not following UIL rules in Texas can put individual players and programs at risk of loosing eligibility so it is important that they be followed.  One basic way to stay out of trouble with the UIL is to ensure that the booster club does not pay for anything for the team directly.  The UIL rules state that we can donate money or merchandise but cannot pay for items directly so it is important that you make sure that anything that you supply to the team is in the form of a donation to the district.

Legal

501c3 (non profit) – There are two types of 501c3 filings with the IRS, 501c3 Corporation and 501c3 Association.  The Association is less expensive and easier to file as well as easier to run on a day-to-day basis.  The filing for a 501c3 costs about $750 and the paperwork, though time consuming, is not difficult to do on your own.  The 501c3 gets you out of paying income taxes but not sales tax.  To get exempt from sales tax you must also file for a sales tax exemption with the state comptroller.

Insurance

It is important to protect your club and the officers of the club from liability.  Insurance specific to booster clubs is available from many sources and there are companies that specialize specifically in booster clubs.  Policies that should be considered are Officer protection and General liability.  There are other policies that can be considered as well.

Community Support

The most important job of the booster club in my opinion is community support.  Next is a list of ways to increase community support but this area is limited only by your imagination.

Marquee messages – Make a list of businesses in your area and visit each of them to ask that they put sayings on their marquee that supports the school team.  This has been very effective in our town and the messages range from a simple “Go Pirates” to a more elaborate electronic board that has moving graphics with the school logo and game times.  This might seem like a small item but team spirit is contagious and the best way to spread it to everyone in your community is to constantly bombard them with small reminders.

Spirit flags – This has been the most effective support campaign we have run.  We purchase 1500 – 2000 flags each year with sayings and logos in support of our teams and we sell them to the local community with poles made of 1/2 inch metal conduit.  We also put 60 up on our stadium and have a dozen for each team to take to away games.  We put 100 flag pole holders on the telephone poles in town and we put up 100 flags each Thursday and take them down each Saturday after the game.  This flag program has really galvanized our community support.  The spirit flags can be purchased on line and you can find them for $5.50 each by searching for www.boosterbannerstore.com. ; These flags have become so commonplace in our town that it is impossible to travel any route to any place in the city limits without seeing one.  Kids have them hanging in their rooms, one school receptionist even made one into a window shade.  They can be strung together to hang across the basketball gym etc.  Our booster club sells them for $10 each and earns about $6,000 per year just on the flags.   Some clubs sell them for $10, some for $20 and recently some have been selling them for $25 each.  Having been involved with the flags for 7 years now, my belief is that $10 is the perfect price.  People feel that they are a good value and the booster club more than triples its money.  For those clubs that cannot afford the initial outlay to purchase 1000 flags, I suggest getting a local business to buy the flags and put their logo and contact information on the lower left corner of each flag.

Shirts for Staff – Our club recently got the local hospital to purchase 1000 collared shirts in our school color with the school logo embroidered on the left breast and the hospital logo on the left sleeve.  These shirts were handed out to all employees of the district by the football players at convocation prior to the start of school.  The employees are required to wear them on Fridays and the entire district is purple.

Travel uniforms – To be successful your team needs to look the part.  This year we purchased 150 collared shirts and had them embroidered for the team to wear as a travel uniform.  They wear khaki pants and the collared shirts to school on game days and then wear them on the bus to the game and they look very sharp.

Action shots – Each week we pick two action shots taken by local photographers and get 18”x24” pictures made to hang in temporary frames at the entrance to the locker room.  The next week, those two pictures are removed and hung permanently behind Plexiglas in the hallway and two new ones take their place.

Fundraising

T-shirts, Hoodies etc. – We purchased a vending trailer for $4,500 and have it stocked with all types of merchandise for sale.  This comes under the heading of support and raising money as we typically double our money on each item sold.  Our goal is to put a shirt with our logo on every back and a sticker on every car window in town.  You need to restrict the number of people involved in the merchandise sales due to the large amount of money involved (typically $20,000 to $25,000 per year) .  I recommend that you find one couple that will be able open the trailer before every Varsity game and close it at game time.

Discount cards – There are many companies that specialize in producing discount cards for teams to sell.  The cards typically have a dozen or so merchants listed with discounts for presenting the card.  The cards sell for $10-$20 each and the team typically gets 60% of the money.  This can turn into a real hassle if the card company is a drop-and-go type that just drops the cards off and has you mail them the check.  When interviewing companies for the job, be sure to insist that they will be there to hand out the cards and to collect the money, there is a lot of money to be made and they need to earn it.

Sponsorships – We contacted a local sign company and had them make us 6 sponsor boards that are mounted on the side of the stadium.  Each board is a different sponsor level ($5000, $2500, $1000, $500, $250, $100).  We formed sponsor packages that contain different perks for different levels of sponsorships.  The top three levels get a full-page ad in our program, the $500 level gets a half page ad and the $250 level gets a quarter page ad.  In addition they get their business name on the appropriate board as well as other items such as parking passes, season tickets etc.  This typically nets us about $25,000  – $30,000 each year.

Programs

This is a full-time job and requires someone with good computer skills and business savvy.  The printer needs to be chosen early (January) and they need to be easy to work with and willing to help.  The ad/sponsor sales need to begin in January when the businesses have a fresh advertising/donation budget.  You need to organize the parents and the team to get out and sell sponsorships and ads early.  There needs to be a deadline for sales and another for ad copy submission.  The sales should be halted in mid July and the absolute last day for ad copy has to be not later that August 1st or you will never get your program printed by the first home game.  There are as many ways to produce a program as there are printers to print them but one thing that you must keep in mind is that this is a service, not a money maker.  Our programs cost between $10 and $12 each to print and we sell them for $6.