Sports club fundraising for members costs

[CooksDryMeasure]

My kids are part of a sports club that competes a lot. Competition are expensive. Historically the club has fund-raised throughout the year and used that to pay for members competitions costs.

reading between the lines some people have been irritated that members who don’t take part in fundraising (mostly social events, raffles etc) then get their costs paid anyway.

the club is now proposing switching to a points system, everyone will pay upfront and then at the year end depending on how many events you’ve attended, raffle tickets you’ve bought etc you will be refunded some of your competition costs.

I get what they are trying to achieve, and have to say at the last social event where I dropped £70 I did say I would rather just pay £70 next time my kids competed & not having to spend the evening playing bingo!

I am intrigued to hear how other clubs might handle this, or any issues that people can see?

I think that proposed system doesn't help the less well off, which is presumably the point?

Who is attending the events? Donating raffle prizes etc?

Just members... might create ill feeling. But could be seen as fair.

General public... it needs to go to all the children.

Mostly attendance is from members but some members of the public will sometimes buy raffle tickets, or come along. But primarily funds come from members.

the new system benefits the mum & dad who attend with 2 kids & bring along grandparents (2 competitors in the kids but 6 credits) vs the single mum & daughter I guess.

Ok so the single parent working full time, less disposable income to drop at these events earns less points and has to pay more than the couple with an established family network to support them? Yep, seems like a variation of poverty tax. The fundraising should be helping those financially less able to keep pace with the competitions - surely you want your children competing against the best and not just the ones with the best bank balance?

I would also just pay the £70 rather than attend events I didn't want to. It seems a strange idea to do this. Wealthier parents will be able to just pay and those less well off will be forced to attend to reduce their outlay. Could mean events raise less money so counter productive.

I've never seen this setup before. Surely the best way is to ensure membership fees are set at a rate that covers competition and/or make people pay per competition. You only then pay if your child attends. Which sport is this? Are they paying per event, like swimming or is it a one off competition cost? Imo if per event the child pays for what they are competing in or is it a situation where the costs are being spread over the team?

By paying up front do they mean at the time of each competition or up front for the whole year? Because up front for the whole year will likely rule out a lot of people.

One of DDs clubs did that and it meant several children from poorer families left. Which, sadly in this case, was the intention.

This entirely defeats the object of helping those who struggle to afford to take part in competitions. Surely if they can’t afford to compete they probably don’t have extra money for fundraisers, raffles etc.

Is it an actual charity? I think it sounds like they need to completely rethink the funding model!

It’s not a charity.

Competing in this sport is expensive. £180 for one event, and you’d travel 3-5 hours to get there.

I was thinking, you could attend all events & then your child could not qualify for the national competitions anyway so you needn’t have put your credits in the pot!

adults & children both compete btw.

So am I understanding that individuals aren't paying for their own slots but that the club is paying some/all? So my DC could be doing 10 events and someone else's 3 so my DC is subsidised more?

Surely the only fair way to do it is each family pays for their own events. The fundraising should cover stuff that everyone benefits from?

I do think it would be helpful if you name the sport OP:

Swimming, judo, taekwondo?

I do get what they are trying to do. I still remember the Brownie jumble sales we did to raise money for our pack trip that was me and three others with Brown Owl every single time. My mum was so annoyed!

But I’m not sure what they are doing really works. Although I have no good suggestions what would improve it. Things like this are hard. In the end this type of thing rarely raising money from anyone other than the parents and so they may as well just pay it in the first place. The only exception is if you can financially support people who are highly talented but can’t afford events. That really is opening a can of worms though! (I am the treasurer for one of my kids sports. The only event we did that made serious money was an online thing during lockdown when everyone was so bored that they all joined in!)

I should have just named changed and said the sport as anyone would recognise it anyway who knew the club!

it’s riding. So they take part in regional qualifiers, and then go through to national competitions. Regionals are day events & cheaper (maybe £40 per class entered?) but nationals are expensive - stabling is £100 a night.

Historically the club has paid for entry fees & stabling for all entrants on an equal footing, but they are looking at changing this as proposed…

I can see what they are trying to do, & it would be quite nice to be off the hook with having to attend social events sometimes! Eg I don’t want to go to the NYE party, we always have plans with family for NY, & now it will be a straightforward lost of credit impacting on my kids so very clear & no guilt?

Maybe suggest low earners are exempt from the new policy ie those claiming UC.

Or they set up a fundraising committee, those who sign up commit to attend 80% of fundraising events and get fees paid in full. Those who don't want to attend get an equal share of left over donations towards their fees.

Are there actually any low earning families whose DC ride? It's an expensive sport full stop isn't it? Honestly, I think if DC wanted to get involved with riding as a hobby, I'd be evaluating the complete cost before I let them. All the sports DC are involved in (netball, athletics and rugby) costs are funded by parents. There are some hardship funds which lower earners can apply for if they need help, these are funded out of annual subs.

Oh ok that's very expensive! Agree with pp surely no-one who is low earning encourages their child to do this. Everything about it is expensive and my (limited) knowledge is that it's hard to compete because rich parents just buy their DC ££££ horses?

To be honest I'd be surprised anyone wants to go to a NYE party like that! They may find that attendance just drops off. Maybe this is what they are hoping? Change how it works, attendance drops off, they say it's not sustainable and just start saying everyone has to pay their own. Let's face it, organising events are a thankless task esp given everyone, schools etc, are constantly asking for money. How do other parents feel? You might find you need to just do what works for you and pay a bit more.

There are absolutely low income families in our club and going out competing. One of the things I’ve trumpeted about this club is that it does make it accessible in what can be a very expensive sport!

we are a higher income family so in a way it’s no skin off my nose however it works as if I need to pay £300 for my DC to compete one weekend I can do it if I must.

So to save money you have to spend money? That's just cruel and not equitable at all.

This makes no sense at all. Is it PC or something different? We have to suck up all the costs.

No it’s riding club.

If they want to subsidise costs for lower income families then they need to look at sponsorship etc, what they are proposing just seems like a waste of time.

I think they need to have:

Membership fees for all- set to cover weekly costs, not competitions, but with a little extra to form a bursary pot

Competition fees are paid by those competing but those on low incomes who are selected for competitions can apply for their competition fees to be covered or part covered by the bursary pot

No need for fundraising events at all… can have social events instead but no guilt about not going

Would this work?

Ds' scout group puts money from fund raising activities to off set costs to those who contributed to the activity. For example the scouts who turned up to help man stalls got money from that event and the scouts who attended the supermarket bag pack got money from that. I think this is fair however this is for older children ( 14 - 16 year olds) so the scouts can do this with no parental involvement needed.

Sounds a complicated system to organise, ie keeping trace of who’s attended what competition, event etc.

Can’t the fundraising be used to keep overall subs down etc ?