Booster club online fundraising is a great way to make use of your booster club online presence. If your booster club has a website, or if your booster club is thinking about building a website, then you likely realize that having a it is one of the great ways to connect to your community for support. Sports booster clubs, music booster clubs, academic booster clubs… they all benefit from the extra reach a website, and raising booster club funds digitally, can give them.
Depending on the website builder platform used to create your booster club website, there may be a number of different online payment systems you could use to set up your booster club online fundraising system. Raising booster club funds digitally is safe and will add to the revenue the booster club already raises at events. Below, you will find a few tips about collecting donations online for your booster club.
Website Building Platforms To Integrate Booster Club Online Fundraising
If you wish to accept booster club digital donations through your booster club website, it is best to make sure the website builder you use to build your site will allow booster club online fundraising. Squarespace, for example, is one website builder that makes it possible to accept booster club digital donations through your website. Squarespace even offers advice for how best to build a Squarespace nonprofit organization site, as well as specific steps for managing donations. When building your website through Squarespace, you can insert a donation button on one of your pages that, when clicked, will lead the viewer to a page where they can specify how much they’d like to donate and then proceed to pay through via credit card. To start collecting donations online through Squarespace, having a merchant account that is linked to Squarespace is necessary. Be mindful of the fact that accepting donations via credit cards, through services like Stripe, comes with the cost of merchant accounts and other fees. However, many merchant card services offer discounts for nonprofit organizations. Other website builders sometimes allow the use of PayPal or other online payment systems for donations, some of which also offer special deals for nonprofit organizations as well. Make sure to look into a variety of different options before deciding which online payment system (or systems) you would like to use for online fundraising for your booster club.
Nonprofit Organization Bank Accounts
Even before you start collecting donations online, remember to make sure you set up your nonprofit organization bank account correctly. Banks typically have certain guidelines and requirements for opening a nonprofit bank account. There are also differences between national banks and local banks concerning the options they offer nonprofit organizations, which is important to consider when setting up a bank account for your booster club. Make sure that you are acting according to state and federal law when setting up your booster club financial system.
Managing Booster Club Funds Legally
One of the benefits of raising booster club funds digitally through online payment systems is that the funds can be transferred to your booster club bank account without any hassle. However, it is still important to make sure that all the funds are managed properly. Even if you’re booster club digital donations are always transferred to the booster club bank account, it is always a good idea to make sure that more than one individual is aware of how the booster club bank account is being handled. Sadly, there are many booster clubs that are forced to disband due to dishonest conduct like embezzlement. However, there are strategies and rules your booster club can create to prevent any opportunity for illegal use of booster club funds. Athleticbusiness.com provides a few tips for booster clubs wishing to ensure their booster club funds are handled properly:
- Find a local accountant (ideally a parent or alum) who will provide pro bono assistance to ensure that proper accounting procedures are followed by the treasurer. Better yet, ask that person to be the treasurer.
- Invite the athletic director, principal or another school administrator to sit on the club’s executive board. This will send a clear message that the club values and respects its relationship with the school.
- Require that all money collected from game-night concessions and merchandise sales immediately be deposited in a local bank’s 24-hour drop box or locked in the school’s safe. No booster club member should ever take money home.
- Consider purchasing fidelity bond insurance (also known as a commercial crime policy) to protect against losses resulting from stolen money.
- Upload financial records and files of all booster clubs onto a school computer, ensuring backups.
- Consider creating an executive booster club to oversee all of a school’s booster groups. This organization can serve as a reporting agency, as well as mediator and mentor – helping generate fair opportunities for booster clubs of smaller sports and training all new members in proper policies and procedures.
Once you have set up some precautionary measures to make sure all your booster club funds are handled properly, you will also be able to avoid the stress that can come with disorganized rules of conduct concerning money management. Furthermore, once the rules surrounding your booster club fundraising are firmly established, you will be able to devote more attention to reaching out to the community and supporting your school team or program.
You can learn specifics about how your booster club should be created / managed and run based on the state your booster club is created in via our handy Booostr state by state guide to managing booster clubs!
