Football club fundraising ideas that raise real money for grassroots clubs

Most football club fundraising ideas are built to raise a few hundred pounds at a time: bag packs, car washes, sponsored keepy-uppies. They all help, but they don’t pay for a new set of goals, a mower or a clubhouse roof. For that you need a handful of bigger moves, done properly.

I’m Kevin Durham, a charity auctioneer and event host. I work the floor at 60 to 80 events a year, mic in hand, and the money at a fundraising dinner nearly always comes from the same two places. Here is how a grassroots club can use them, alongside sponsorship and grants.

What are the best football club fundraising ideas?

The best football club fundraising ideas are the ones where one evening or one conversation brings in hundreds or thousands of pounds, not tens. For most grassroots clubs, that’s three things.

Everything else (the tuck shop, the bag pack, the club draw) keeps the lights on. These three change what the club can afford.

How do you run a club dinner that raises real money?

You run a club dinner that raises real money by keeping the auction short and sharp and then running a live pledge. The dinner tickets mostly cover the dinner. The auction and pledge are where the profit is.

Build a short list of great lots

I’d take ten lots that half the room wants over fifty that nobody fights for. A long list drags, the room drifts and good lots go cheap at the end. Whoever holds the room holds the total, and nobody holds a room through lot 43. Football helps here. A signed shirt or a stadium tour at a local professional club sells well. My guides to running a football shirt auction and buying in sports memorabilia cover how to source and check them.

Run a live pledge straight after

A live pledge asks the room to give a set amount, starting high and working down, with no lot in return. It is the single most powerful segment of any night I work. At the Jigsaw Trust’s event, the team expected £14,000 from the auction. It made £27,000, and a live pledge they hadn’t even planned raised another £30,600.

That was a powerful team behind a powerful charity. But it shows where the real money lives.

Tie the pledge to one thing the club needs, such as new goals for the juniors, and say what each level buys. People give more when they can picture the under-9s running out between new posts. My piece on how a live pledge works sets out the structure, and my sports dinner guide covers the running order.

If your club is a registered CASC, pledges from UK taxpayers can carry Gift Aid. Auction lots can’t, because the buyer gets something back.

How should a grassroots club package sponsorship?

A grassroots club should package sponsorship in clear tiers, each with a price and a list of what the sponsor gets. “Would you sponsor us?” invites a polite no. “Our pitch-side board costs this much for the season and comes with a post every month” invites a decision.

Sport England’s Club Matters frames it as three questions: what can your club offer the sponsor, what can the sponsor offer your club, and who are the potential partners. Set your prices by what local businesses would pay to reach your families.

A simple ladder looks like this:

1. A main shirt sponsor for each team, with first refusal on next season.
2. Pitch-side boards, plus match-day mentions on the club’s socials.
3. Player or match sponsors for local firms that won’t stretch to a shirt.
4. A table at the club dinner, where sponsors get thanked by name from the mic.

Two rules shape the ladder. For youth teams, County FA guidance says gambling, alcohol and breweries are unlikely to be permissible on kit under any circumstances, so check before you sign. And for the business, HMRC treats sponsorship as an allowable cost only when it is wholly for the trade, while hospitality can fall under the entertaining rules. Put what the sponsor gets in writing.

Which grants can a football club apply for?

A football club in England can apply to the Football Foundation for facilities and equipment, and to wider community funds for activities. These are the terms as listed on each funder’s own pages in October 2026.

• Football Foundation. Its funds cover goalposts, floodlights, grass pitches, changing pavilions and more. The goalposts grant, for example, has a minimum grant of £400 against a total project cost of £533. Kit and equipment, routine maintenance and facility hire are not funded.
• National Lottery Awards for All England. Grants of £300 to £20,000 for projects of up to two years, with a decision in 16 weeks.
• Sport England Movement Fund. Up to £15,000 for community activity projects lasting up to 12 months. Some awards come as a crowdfunding pledge: Sport England gives half and your community raises the rest.

And here’s where the dinner earns its keep twice. The Football Foundation’s machinery grant asks for evidence of partnership funding, and it only accepts applications from the Chair, Secretary or Treasurer. Money raised on one good night can be the share that unlocks a much bigger grant.

Registering as a CASC: the reliefs clubs miss

A Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) is a sports club registered with HMRC, and plenty of grassroots clubs never get round to it. A registered CASC can reclaim tax on Gift Aid donations and apply for up to 80% business rates relief. Trading profits are exempt while turnover stays under £50,000 a year.

Membership fees can’t carry Gift Aid. Donations can, and the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme lets an eligible CASC claim a top-up on cash gifts of £20 or less without collecting declarations. That turns the match-day bucket into a better earner. Registering is worth an evening of the committee’s time.

Smaller fundraising ideas for a football team

The smaller fundraising ideas for a football team are the steady ones that run all season. A quiz in the clubhouse is reliable, and my quiz night guide covers the format. A charity football match and a football card are both popular too, though a match is usually played for a charity rather than the club, and a card raises tens of pounds, not thousands.

A club draw or 100 club is a lottery in law, and the Gambling Commission sets the rules:

• Inside the club. A sports club can run a private society lottery. Members can buy, non-members only at the club’s premises, tickets are physical only and everyone pays the same price.
• At the dinner. A raffle run at the event is an incidental lottery. The Commission says it raises money for charity, not private gain, with tickets sold only at the event while it runs, £500 of takings on bought prizes and no limit on donated ones.
• Online or to the public. Register a small society lottery with your council: £40, then £20 a year, buyers aged 16 or over and at least 20% to the club.

If you’re not sure which applies, ask your council’s licensing team before you sell a ticket.

Do these fundraising ideas work for rugby and other sports clubs?

Yes, these fundraising ideas work for rugby clubs, cricket clubs and most other sports clubs. A dinner with an auction and pledge, a sponsor ladder and a CASC registration don’t depend on the sport.

The grants differ. The Football Foundation is for football, so a rugby or multi-sport club should look first at Awards for All and the Movement Fund. The kit rules differ too, so check with your own governing body before a youth sponsor goes on a shirt.

Where to start this season

Pick one big move and do it well. If the committee can only manage one thing, make it the dinner. It raises money, puts your sponsors in a room together and hands you the match funding the grant forms ask for.

If you’d like a professional on the mic for the auction and the pledge, call me on 07596 851647. I’d rather talk it through than trade emails.