BoosterHub

Booster Club Name Ideas: Building Your Brand

Did you just get chosen to start a booster club? If so, you might have even been unofficially selected as the club’s inaugural president. Talk about feeling the pressure.

At this point in the journey, you are probably feeling a bit overwhelmed with ideas and are being pulled in a million different directions. The question is, what should you do first?

When you’re starting a booster club, one of the first things you will need to do is come up with a name for your club. Here are some practical tips for choosing a memorable, practical, and engaging name.

Keep It Simple

Naming your booster club might sound like the perfect opportunity to flex your creativity and come up with a clever title for the organization. It’s best that you resist this urge, though. You will have plenty of opportunities to get creative when planning events, designing flyers, and launching fundraising campaigns.

When naming your club, keep it simple. A basic, easy-to-remember club name is great for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. SEO is all about making your club’s site easy for supporters to find on search engines like Google.

Avoid Jargon

It’s also best that you avoid sports-specific jargon, even if you are running a sports-specific booster club. In other words, don’t use phrases like “gridiron” or sports-related acronyms. Instead, stick with something simple and obvious like “Central High School Football Booster Club.”

If you are running an athletic booster club that supports all sports and teams at the school, you should drop “Football” from the name. Instead, formulate your club name by adding the phrase “Booster Club” to the school’s name.

Using obvious phrasing makes it easy for older donors like grandparents to find your website and social media pages. When you make it easy to support your club, you’ll have a lot more donors and more opportunities to support your teams.

Beware of Common School Names

In the example above, the school name is incredibly common. In these instances, add something to differentiate your club from others at similarly named schools. For instance, if your school is located in Florida, add “FL” to your club’s formal name. This will ensure that supporters can easily find the right organization.

Get Your Team Involved

Get your team involved in the naming process. While coming up with a name should be pretty simple, collaborating with other club founders can be an excellent team-building exercise. The goal is to start building chemistry, as the next stages of forming a booster club will be a bit more challenging and complex.

You’ve Chosen a Name — Now What?

Choosing a name for your booster club is step one. After you’ve done that, it’s time to get incorporated, file for a 501(c)(3) exemption, and find some user-friendly software to power your club activities.

Be diligent, as the initial process can seem daunting. However, it is also incredibly rewarding and worthwhile. Forming a booster club will empower you to raise funds and support student-athletes at your school.

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Ways to Fundraise for a Booster Club

Fundraising is perhaps one of the most important functions of your booster club. However, it can be tough to build momentum, especially if you are new to fundraising as a whole. You can also get stuck in a rut and feel like you are running the same two or three events on repeat. That’s when it’s important to mix things up to keep club members and donors engaged, ensuring a steady stream of support for your student-athletes. With that in mind, here are a few ways to raise more money for the student-athletes you support:

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Non-Profit Donation Receipt

Whenever someone donates to your club, you must ensure that you send them a clear receipt so they can take advantage of their tax deduction. These receipts are your club’s way of saying, “Thanks for being on the team,” and they’re essential for keeping records organized. Providing a timely and well-documented receipt also makes your club appear professional and organized. In turn, you’ll be able to more easily build trust with donors and encourage them to give again in the future. After all, donors need to be confident that you’re acknowledging and managing their contributions properly. On that note, here are a few tips to help you create compliant receipts:

Booster Club Best Practices

Booster Club Rules

You certainly wouldn’t sign up for a sports league without knowing the rules of the game, so why would you attempt to run a booster club without a clear set of guidelines? In a booster club, the rules take the form of bylaws, which are policies and procedures that are vital in keeping everyone on the same page, helping to avoid misunderstandings, and ensuring that each member understands their part in supporting the club’s mission. In some cases, these bylaws will spell out who can and can’t be members, as well as who is eligible to serve on the board. Some states even have standardized playbooks that you need to follow. The University Interscholastic League (UIL) in Texas, for instance, has a playbook of its own, covering specific bylaws for booster clubs that support school programs. In any case, here are some tips for ensuring everyone in your booster club plays by the rules so you can have a productive year: