Why Digital Fundraising Is Transforming US Sports and Community Clubs

For many sports teams and community clubs, fundraising is no longer simply a way to raise a little extra money at the end of the season. It can help cover the costs of keeping programs running, making participation more accessible and giving athletes opportunities they might otherwise miss.

That matters as the cost of participating in sport continues to rise. The Aspen Institute's Project Play found that U.S. families spent an average of $1,016 on their child's primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019. When spending on other sports was included, the average family spent nearly $1,500 per child.

For clubs, that creates a familiar challenge: how do you raise enough money without asking the same volunteers to do more, run more events and manage more paperwork?

Digital fundraising is changing the answer.

Rather than replacing traditional fundraising altogether, digital tools give clubs another way to collect donations, sell tickets, run auctions and raffles, and reach supporters who aren't at the clubhouse, field or stadium.

Why fundraising matters more for community sports

Fundraising can make a practical difference to how a club operates. For some organizations, it helps pay for equipment and uniforms. For others, it might contribute towards tournament travel, facility improvements, coaching, insurance, scholarships or financial assistance for families.

And when those costs rise, fundraising can become part of the club's ability to remain accessible. The 2025 State of Play report highlighted the continuing increase in youth sports costs and the access gaps that can result. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association also reported in 2025 that 41% of parents identified increased costs as the primary barrier to their children's participation in youth sports.

That puts pressure on clubs to find sustainable ways to raise money without making fundraising itself a burden.

For volunteer-run organizations in particular, the question isn't simply "How can we raise more?"

It's also:

How can we make fundraising easier for the people running it?

Traditional fundraising still has a place

Bake sales, raffle tickets, sausage sizzles, sponsorship drives, concession stands and fundraising dinners aren't going away - and they don't need to.

These activities can be an important part of club culture. They bring people together, create opportunities for sponsors and give families a reason to get involved. The challenge comes when everything has to be managed manually.

A physical raffle might mean selling and reconciling hundreds of tickets. A silent auction can involve printed bid sheets, volunteers monitoring tables and someone entering the final results. An event might require separate systems for ticket sales, donations and payments.

None of these tasks is particularly complicated on its own. Together, however, they can create a substantial administrative workload. Digital fundraising doesn't have to replace the event. It can take some of that administration away from it.

What digital fundraising changes

A digital fundraising platform can move many parts of a campaign online, allowing supporters to participate from their phones or computers.

Instead of requiring everyone to be in the same place, a club can share a fundraising link with parents, grandparents, alumni, sponsors and supporters in the wider community. That means someone who can't attend the annual dinner can still buy a ticket, make a donation, enter a raffle or bid in an auction.

It also creates the possibility of fundraising before, during and after an event rather than concentrating every fundraising activity into a few hours.

This broader reach is particularly relevant as digital giving continues to grow. Blackbaud's 2025 Trends in Giving data found that digital fundraising increased by approximately 11% year over year across its dataset of more than 7,500 nonprofit organizations.

The broader nonprofit sector isn't the same as community sports, but the data does illustrate the direction of online fundraising: supporters are increasingly comfortable completing transactions digitally.

Mobile matters, but simple matters too

For a sports club, a digital fundraising experience needs to work where supporters actually are. That often means on a phone, standing on the sidelines, sitting at a dinner, watching a game or scrolling through a club's social media.

M+R's 2026 Benchmarks found that mobile devices accounted for 52% of nonprofit website visits in 2025. At the same time, desktop users still generated the majority of donation transactions and revenue, showing why a good fundraising experience needs to work across devices rather than assuming everyone participates on mobile.

Payment choice matters too. In the same research, 57% of nonprofits offered Apple Pay and 58% offered Google Pay on their donation pages. For a club, the practical lesson is simple: don't assume that putting a fundraising campaign online automatically makes it convenient.

The experience still needs to be quick, clear and easy to navigate.

Digital fundraising can extend the life of an event

One of the biggest changes isn't necessarily what happens during the event. It's what can happen before it. Imagine a club hosting an annual fundraising dinner.

With a traditional setup, the fundraising may begin when guests arrive. With a digital campaign, the club could start promoting the auction or donation appeal days or weeks beforehand.

Supporters could browse auction items, buy tickets or make donations before the event. Guests could continue bidding from their phones during the dinner. People who couldn't attend could still participate remotely.

That gives the club more opportunities to engage its existing community without requiring everyone to be in the same room. The same principle works for tournaments, presentation nights, end-of-season celebrations, club anniversaries and community fundraising days.

Engagement is part of the fundraising experience

Sports already has something many fundraising campaigns have to work hard to create: competition.

A live fundraising total, auction countdown, leaderboard or real-time bidding activity can turn a passive donation appeal into something people actively participate in.

For example, instead of simply asking supporters to donate $50, a club might invite them to:

• bid on a signed jersey
• enter a raffle
• sponsor a player or team
• contribute towards a specific equipment goal
• compete on a fundraising leaderboard
• make a donation during a live event

The point isn't to make every campaign complicated. In fact, the opposite can be true. The best digital fundraising campaigns give supporters a clear reason to participate and make the next step obvious.

From one fundraising activity to one campaign

One of the advantages of bringing fundraising activities together is that clubs don't necessarily need a separate system for every part of an event.

A single campaign could include donations, ticketing, a silent auction and a raffle, depending on what the club is running.

That can make things easier for supporters because they have one place to go. It can also reduce the amount of information volunteers have to manage across different platforms.

What should a sports club look for in a fundraising platform?

Choosing a fundraising platform can feel overwhelming because there are plenty of options designed for different types of organizations.

Rather than starting with a long list of features, it can help to think about the experience from three perspectives: the supporter, the volunteer and the organization.

1. The supporter experience

A supporter shouldn't need to understand the technology behind a campaign. They should be able to open a link, understand what the club is raising money for and take the action they want to take.

Look for a platform that works well on mobile, doesn't require unnecessary downloads and makes payments straightforward.

It's also worth testing the experience yourself. Don't just look at the administrator dashboard. Open the public fundraising page and try making a donation, buying a ticket or placing a bid.

2. The volunteer experience

This is often overlooked. A platform might have an impressive list of features, but if volunteers need extensive training to use them, the technology may simply replace one administrative burden with another.

Consider how easy it is to create a campaign, add fundraising activities, communicate with supporters, monitor progress and access reports.

Support matters too. For many community organizations, fundraising is managed by people who already have full-time jobs, families and other responsibilities. Having access to real human support can therefore be just as important as the software itself.

3. The financial experience

Clubs should understand what happens to the money before choosing a platform.

Find out:

• Who processes the payments?
• Where do funds go?
• When are they deposited?
• What payment processing fees apply?
• Are there platform fees?
• Are there optional charges?

Don't rely solely on the headline price. Look at the complete payment journey and ask the provider to explain anything you don't understand.

How GalaBid works for sports and community clubs

GalaBid brings donations, event ticketing, online auctions and raffles together in one campaign, giving clubs a single place to manage different fundraising activities.

Supporters can participate through a browser on their phone or computer, while clubs can use branded fundraising pages to present their campaign to supporters.

GalaBid also connects with Stripe for payment processing, so organizations connect their own Stripe account and funds go directly to their account rather than being held by GalaBid.

For clubs that run different types of fundraising throughout the year, having those activities available through one platform can help create a more consistent experience for supporters and reduce the need to manage multiple fundraising systems.

Explore how sports and community clubs use GalaBid to see it can support your next campaign.

Digital fundraising doesn't replace community

The most important thing to remember is that technology isn't what makes a sports fundraiser successful. The community does.

Parents, players, coaches, grandparents, sponsors, alumni and local supporters are the people who make a campaign work. Digital fundraising simply gives them another way to participate.

For clubs facing rising costs and limited volunteer time, that can be valuable. Instead of asking volunteers to do everything manually, digital tools can take care of some of the repetitive administration while giving supporters more ways to get involved.

The result doesn't have to be a completely different approach to fundraising. It can simply be a more flexible version of what your club is already doing.