Fundraising

 

“We made EQC but damn, it's expensive.” – every quidditch team ever.

 

Lack of money is probably one of the top problems faced by quidditch teams around the world. Luckily, there are some things you can do to help with this! Keep in mind that not all of these tactics will work for every team, and that you are unlikely to raise the full cost of your trip for all your team members. We're providing these suggestions to help you all, but they don't come with any guarantees.

 

 

Indiegogo

 

The mother of all crowdfunding sites. Most quidditch teams have run at least one or two indiegogo campaigns in their lifetime. The site allows you to provide rewards for donations at various levels, and the site itself takes a small cut of your profits for the fact that you hosted on their site – 4% if you reach your goal; 9% if you don’t. Here are some tips to make sure your indiegogo campaign is a success:

 

• Sell to non-quidditchers. Quidditch players pay lots of money themselves to go to the same tournaments you want to go to. Unless you have some really cool swag, they’re probably not going to buy your stuff. But your dad? Your aunt? All the people at your mom’s office? All of them have disposable income (unlike most of us) and want to see you succeed.

• Set a reasonable goal. Make sure your goal isn’t unachievably high, but also make sure that it’s not too low – people tend to stop donating once you’ve hit your goal. If you’re unsure how much you can set as your goal, look at it as a function of team members: a team of people with good networking can reasonably expect to make €75/player.

• Provide choice in your perks. This is not to say offer 5 different t-shirts, all priced at €20. You want to provide choice in the type AND the price range. Start things between €2-5; go all the way up to €50. Other quidditch players will buy a button or a sticker or a personalized poem for €5; your mom’s friends will buy the deluxe gift box for €50.

• Get creative. Your team has skills outside of quidditch, believe it or not! If somebody can draw really well, they can offer commissions. If somebody is an excellent strategist, they can offer quidditch analysis. If somebody can cook really well, they can deliver food on-campus. Use people’s skills and figure out ways to sell them. Skills are also better than merchandise, because if you don’t sell them? No big deal – you can’t have extra cooking lessons taking up space in your president’s house. You can (and probably will) have extra t-shirts in a cardboard box in their kitchen for quite a long time.

• Sell merch without sizes. If you’re just getting started, stick to small things. T-shirts are more expensive and so are unlikely to be bought by people outside of your own team, unless they’re REALLY creative or special. And, like we’ve established, hoarding excess XXL t-shirts is just no fun for anybody. If you sell buttons or pins or patches, those keep well, anyone can buy them, and they can fit in anyone’s budget. (€20 for a t-shirt with another team’s logo? Maybe not. €4 for a patch with their logo that I can put somewhere cool? Sure, why not!)

• PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE. Be those annoying people who post things on Facebook every two days. Tell people that if they donate sooner, they’ll stop seeing it in their newsfeed. Every time you see a teammate post it, like that post. Put it in all the quidditch groups. But also email it to friends and family, and ask people personally. An individual is more likely to donate if they get a specific message saying “Hey there Billy, my team is going to EQC and we need money – I know you think it’s pretty cool that I do quidditch, how about you buy a tote bag from us? I know you needed a new grocery bag, and this would support me and my friends as well!”

• Deliver on time. While this is not strictly necessary for this indiegogo campaign, if you get things delivered on time, people are more likely to support you again with your next campaign.

 

Food sales

 

If you have a campus (or if you’re a community team with connections in larger offices or on a campus) consider doing a bake sale or cookie order. Bake sales work very well in high-traffic areas, but if you don’t have the connections for that don’t discount it immediately. You can take preorders online and deliver baked goods (or dumplings, or perogies, or grilled cheese sandwiches, or any other sort of easy, cheap food) to people where they are. Here are some tips to make sure this is a success:

 

• If you’re at a stationary location, go out there and sell. Don’t wait for people to come to you – take a tray of cookies, stand a few steps away from the table with change in your pocket and offer cookies to people.

• If you can get a stationary location near drunk people, do it. It’s like taking candy from a baby. Drunk people have bar change, and also are always hungry – if you walk up to them with cupcakes, they will probably throw money at you.

• If you’re doing a food delivery service, promote through social media and email: same rules as indiegogo promotion. Be those annoying people who post things on Facebook every two days up to the day of the sale. Every time you see a teammate post it, like that post. Put it in all the local Facebook groups you’re part of. But also email it to friends and family, and ask people personally.

 

Use your talents

 

If you have particularly talented singers or instrument players, check out your town’s busking laws! If you’ve got camp counselors, start offering kidditch birthday parties. (Base your prices off other birthday party entertainers: take the average, then go a bit lower. Even with this price scheme you can probably charge €90-150 for a 90-minute party.) Figure out what your players are good at, and ask them to donate their time so all the monetary profits can go to supporting the team.

 

Auction your players

 

The most important part of this one is making sure they consent – but auctioning your players can bring in quite a bit of money. You can either auction your players to do whatever their buyer wants them to do (moving, painting a room, watching a movie with them, etc) within reason, or you can have your players organize a “date” and have people bid on the player/activity option. Here are some tips to make this work:

 

• Make sure your players consent to whatever they’re being auctioned off to do.

• Make sure the rules are explicit and buyers know what players will and will not do once they’re auctioned off.

• Publicize the auction well! Get friends and family out – chances are every player on your team has at least one non-quidditcher friend who would love the chance to make them look like an idiot for an afternoon.

• Publicize the players that are being auctioned, as well as the event itself – do player profiles, or interviews, or even just share photos of them: anything to draw attention to the event.

• Have a good auctioneer who can talk quickly and get people spending money! And make sure people are having fun at the event.