It’s baseball season! If you’re looking to hold a high school baseball tournament or a charity baseball game to raise funds, our comprehensive guide to baseball tournament fundraiser ideas is just what you need.
After all, it’s one thing to hold a simple bake sale, and another to hold a baseball tournament fundraiser altogether. With a baseball tournament fundraiser, you’re looking at hosting multiple baseball teams in one venue, getting spectators in to watch the games, actually collecting the donations, and more. In short, it’s a lot of work!
We’ve split our guide into three sections:
- Organizing the fundraiser
- Marketing the fundraiser
- Running the fundraiser
You can read our guide to baseball tournament fundraiser ideas in full, or jump straight to any of these sections as you please. Either way, let’s dive in.
Organizing the baseball tournament fundraiser
1. Nail down the essential fundraiser details
As you start organizing the tournament fundraiser, you’ll need to confirm details such as:
- When the tournament fundraiser will take place
- Where it is going to be held
- How much it will cost for players to participate
After all, people interested in attending the tournament will want to know the answers to these questions too.
Of all the different details to tie down, your venue may pose the biggest challenge. That’s because you probably won’t be the only organization looking for a venue. Other organizations may also be searching for one for their own event—and you’ll want to secure your preferred venue before it’s booked up.
With this in mind, contact potential venues as soon as possible to explore hosting your baseball tournament fundraiser there. Ask about their booking fees (if any), venue capacities, and their availability for your preferred dates.
And once you’ve confirmed the venue and fundraiser dates, don’t forget to publicize this info! Check out how the Veterans Memorial Baseball Booster did just that in the following tweet:
2. Recruit volunteers for the fundraiser
Many things will be going on at the same time during your fundraiser. For example:
- Players will need to be registered for their games
- Games will need to be umpired
- Prizes need to be handed out
- Food and drinks need to be served, and so on.
And no matter how efficient a multi-tasker you are, there’s no way that you can single-handedly juggle all these roles by yourself. Instead, recruit volunteers who can lend a helping hand and ensure that the fundraiser goes smoothly.
You can do so by putting out a public call for volunteers—like what the Coon Rapids Cardinal Little League has done:
Got your team of volunteers? Great! Arrange meetings with them ahead of the fundraiser so you can brief them on what they’ll need to do.
If needed, organize training for them as well. This way, they’ll be well-equipped to perform their duties on the big day.
3. Draw up a baseball tournament schedule
Which teams will be playing against each other? And on which dates? Draw up a baseball tournament schedule to keep everyone in the loop.
Here’s a simple one created for the 2017 Okeeheelee 12U Cooperstown Tournament Fundraiser that you can reference:
When preparing your baseball tournament schedule, you’ll need to be fair when pairing teams together—and to be seen to be fair. You don’t want to be accused of being biased against a team of beginners just because you’ve (inadvertently or otherwise) pitted them against an especially experienced team.
To maintain fairness, it’s a good idea to pick teams by randomly drawing lots. You can even hold this draw publicly to reassure players you aren’t playing favorites.
Marketing the baseball tournament fundraiser
4. Publish baseball tournament flyers on social media
You can’t have a successful baseball tournament fundraiser if no one shows up! Spread the word about your fundraiser far and wide by publishing baseball tournament flyers on your social accounts.
In your flyers, provide important information such as:
- The fundraiser date, time, and venue
- Entry fees
- Prizes to be won!
- How interested players can sign up (such as by calling a phone number, or filling out a registration form)
Also, make your flyers attention-grabbing by using large headings, an appealing color palette, and beautiful graphics. In this regard, STX Stealth Fundraiser’s baseball tournament flyer is worthy of mention:
If you’re working with limited funds, use PosterMyWall to create stunning baseball tournament flyers for a low (or even zero) cost. Simply browse through our baseball collage templates and customize your favorite using an easy-to-use design editor.
Finally, grab a social media download of your finished flyer for free!
P.S. In need of high school baseball poster ideas? This list of templates will get you started:
5. Create web pages for your fundraiser
While social media is great for sharing bite-sized information on your fundraiser, it may not be the best place for communicating more detailed instructions or procedures. That’s where a website comes in to plug this gap.
By creating web pages dedicated to your fundraiser, you can share more content about it with greater flexibility. No need to worry about character limits, or having to cram all your text into posts of a certain shape or size!
You’ll also be able to embed web page features such as:
- Interactive tables for visitors to browse updated tournament schedules
- Registration forms to collect sign-ups
- Calendar event buttons to help visitors easily add your fundraiser to their calendar
As an example, here’s the web page for the Region K 2022 Indoor Baseball Tournament Fundraiser held by Special Olympics Illinois:
6. Partner with a non-profit organization
Instead of holding your baseball tournament fundraiser on your own, it’s worth exploring if you can partner with a non-profit organization.
Why? Because any established non-profit organization will be a pro at holding fundraisers. Partner with the right one and they could bring a wealth of experience to help you successfully conduct your fundraiser. The non-profit organization can use its own channels to help you promote your fundraiser further.
For example, the Monroe Township Baseball Association previously partnered with non-profit organization Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey to hold a baseball tournament fundraiser:
From the fundraiser, the Make-A-Wish Foundation was able to raise over $45,000 and grant more than eight wishes for its child beneficiaries. That’s an amazing achievement!
7. Collaborate with well-known baseball players
Adding some star power to your baseball tournament fundraiser is a sure-fire method of boosting interest in it. So if you can, collaborate with well-known baseball players for your fundraiser.
There are many ways they can help out, such as attending your fundraiser to award prizes to winning teams. Alternatively, they can post about your fundraiser on their social media accounts (using a baseball tournament flyer or two!)
Last but not least, they can also contribute merch autographed with their signatures. This is what professional baseball player Roy Halladay generously did for a baseball tournament at The Ripken Experience Myrtle Beach in 2015:
Just be aware that pro baseball players are likely to be busy people. If you’d like to work with one (or a few) for your baseball tournament fundraiser, try to book their schedules as early as you can.
Running the baseball tournament fundraiser
8. Communicate the game rules
People who sign up to play at your fundraiser will likely know how to play baseball. However, don’t assume that they all know the rules down to the last detail! This is especially if you’ll be enforcing some rules that don’t apply in typical baseball games.
Write up the rules that will apply to the games at your fundraiser, then disseminate these rules to the players in advance. You can share the rules separately to each team in hardcopy format, or put out a general notice on your social media accounts.
Here’s an example of the latter in action, courtesy of the Pitches & Pitchers baseball tournament fundraiser:
Give players sufficient time to study the rules and raise any doubts beforehand. For greater transparency, and assurance that all players will be on the same page, you can also post your clarifications on the rules online.
9. Share updates on your fundraiser’s events
It’s fundraiser day! To drum up excitement, share regular social media updates on what’s going on. For example:
- Has a VIP arrived? Post an update about that.
- Did someone get injured on the pitch? Post an update about that.
- Has the winning team been declared? Post an update about that.
Or is the tournament just about to start? Post an update about that—just like Lynnhaven Baseball did:
In short, no event is too unimportant for being mentioned in an update. The more updates you post, the more happening your fundraiser will seem. You could even inspire people in the vicinity to drop by your fundraiser, check out a couple of games, and then make a donation!
And if resources permit, you can provide the ultimate live update if you:
10. Livestream the games
Not everyone will be able to be physically present at your fundraiser, but that’s okay. They can still get in on the action if you set up a livestream for the games.
To set up a livestream, mount your smartphone on a tripod at a location that provides a great view of the game. (You may need to block this location off ahead of time.)
Then, activate your favorite livestreaming app to start the live broadcast. You can also rope in a volunteer to give blow-by-blow commentary on the games for your viewers back home!
As the livestream is in progress, viewers will be able to leave comments on how they think the game is going. From this Facebook livestream of a previous Mustangs 13U Tournament game, for example, you can see Facebook users cheering the Mustangs on in the comments:
Even after the games are over, leave your livestream up on your feed! Let people rewatch and relive the experience anytime they want.
You can also save clips of your livestream footage. This is handy for promoting other baseball tournament fundraisers that you may hold in the future.
11. Solicit donations
You’re holding a baseball fundraiser tournament to raise funds for a certain cause. So of all the baseball fundraiser tournament ideas that you should implement at your fundraiser, it’s to solicit donations.
There are various ways of collecting donations. For example, you can:
- Set up a donation box at a prominent location for people to drop off cash or checks
- Publicize your fund transfer app username for people to make electronic payment transfers to
For security reasons, you can also authorize only certain members of your team to receive donations from donors. This was the practice adopted for a baseball fundraiser tournament organized by WRYSA Baseball & Softball:
Which of these baseball tournament fundraiser ideas will you use?
In this guide, we’ve shared many baseball tournament fundraiser ideas you can use for organizing, marketing, and running your baseball tournament fundraiser. Once you’ve identified the ideas you’ll be adopting for your fundraiser, assemble the manpower and tools you’ll need to execute them well.
Tools-wise, check out PosterMyWall if you need a graphic design platform for bringing your baseball tournament fundraiser ideas to life.
Our drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to design attractive social media flyers, banners, posters, and other marketing materials for promoting your baseball tournament fundraiser. Sign up for your free PosterMyWall account and start your design journey here.
Senior editor at PosterMyWall.
