Smarter Sponsorships for Booster Parents
Sponsorships don't have to be awkward. This is what we learned from the Sports Mom Collective.
If you've ever stood in a parking lot after practice doing mental math on what this season is actually costing you, this one's for you.
We recently sat down with Kathy Rickey of Sports Mom Collective for a webinar on something every sports family eventually runs into: the money.
The mulch sales, the popcorn buckets, the "just one more fundraiser" loop that somehow never ends. Kathy has been in the youth sports world for over 20 years, and she started Sports Mom Collective because she got tired of not having a single place to go for real, practical answers about funding our kids' athletic lives.
Spoiler: the real answer isn't more fundraisers. It's better sponsorships.
Here's what stuck with us from the conversation.
The Numbers Are Wild (and You're Not Imagining It)
Kathy shared that one weekend volleyball tournament in Louisville cost her family almost $1,800. One weekend. And her kid plays multiple tournaments a month. By the time you add it all up, a single club season can easily land around $10,000.
Even if you're not at the club level, you're feeling it. School athletic programs spend anywhere from $8,000 to $60,000 per team per year, and school budgets keep getting tighter, not looser. Youth sports is a $30–40 billion industry in the U.S. alone, and families are absorbing a huge chunk of that cost.
So when Kathy says she's heard of parents going to extremes to keep their kids playing, she's not exaggerating. This is the reality.
Fundraising vs. Sponsorship: The Mindset Shift
Here's the difference that changes everything:
Fundraising is a one-time ask. Buy this candle. Buy this bag of mulch. Donate to our GoFundMe.
Sponsorship is an ongoing partnership. A business supports your team in exchange for visibility, recognition, and connection to your community.
The mind shift is this: you're not asking for a handout. You're offering something of value. Instead of "Can you donate to our team?" you're saying, "We'd love to feature your business this season on our shirts, our signage, our social media, our sponsor page."
That conversation feels completely different. And it should.
Expand your Horizons
This was probably the single most freeing thing Kathy said: please stop expecting the local restaurant, the boutique, and the coffee shop to sponsor every single team that comes knocking. They literally cannot. Their margins won't allow it, no matter how much they want to help.
The businesses you actually want to be talking to are the ones already buying billboards on the main road. Think:
Orthodontists and dentists
Chiropractors
Financial planners and insurance agents
Real estate agents
Car dealerships
Attorneys
Home service companies (HVAC, roofing, plumbing, junk removal)
These businesses have actual marketing budgets. They want local visibility. They want families in your community to know and trust them. Kathy shared that her daughter's volleyball club's top sponsor turned out to be a junk removal company that was so excited to partner that they bought practice tees for all their employees with the team logo on the back.
That's the energy you're looking for.
Who Asks Matters More Than How You Ask
We got a great question from Kim in Indiana: "Businesses keep telling me no. How do I get them to say yes?"
Kathy's answer cut right to it. A "no" usually isn't a closed door, it's timing or budget or a fuzzy ask. But the bigger issue is who's doing the asking. You can't have one mom or one coach pounding the pavement alone, knocking on doors of businesses they have zero connection to. That's how you get a string of polite no's.
The asks should come from people with personal connections to the businesses. The dentist whose own kid is on the team. The financial planner who already attends the games. The parent whose neighbor owns the HVAC company. Warm asks beat cold asks every single time.
How to Actually Get Parents to Help
(Without Burning Out)
Tonya in Texas asked the question every team mom and booster club president has felt in their bones: "How do you get parents to help? I'm getting burnt out doing everything myself."
The answer is to make it ridiculously easy for them. Most parents aren't avoiding helping because they don't care. They're drowning in their own lives. So if your ask is "go figure out how to get sponsors," you'll get crickets. But if your ask is:
Here's a script you can text to a business owner
Here's a QR to our SponsorPlace code to send to your business owner friend
Here's exactly what to say in a Facebook post
Here are 3 businesses you'd be perfect to reach out to
…now you've got something a parent can actually do during a 10-minute window between work and pickup.
Meet parents where they are. Take what they're willing to give. Don't take it personally when they can't do more.
Thank Your Sponsors Like You Mean It
This was Kathy's favorite topic, and honestly it's the part most teams skip. The social media tag is fine, but it's the bare minimum. Real appreciation looks like:
Team photos with handwritten thank-you signs
A cheer team doing a private cheer for a top sponsor
The drumline showing up at a sponsor's office for a surprise mini-performance (film it!)
Ongoing shoutouts, not just a one-and-done post
Not only does this make the sponsor feel like part of the family, but other businesses see it on social media and start asking how they can get involved. The best partnerships don't feel like advertising. They feel like someone showed up to help.
The Real Problem: There's No System
Sponsorships don't fail because they don't work. They fail because nobody has a system to manage them. One parent has a spreadsheet, another is texting a business owner, somebody has a flyer on their kitchen counter, follow-ups get missed, and good opportunities just... evaporate.
That's where SponsorPlace comes in. It gives schools and teams one place to:
List sponsorship packages, individual assets, fundraising campaigns, and events
Share a single link or QR code that shows businesses exactly what they get
Let businesses purchase sponsorships directly online (funds hit your account within 48 hours)
Manage logos, artwork, messaging, and reporting in one place
There's no monthly fee. The page is built for you. There's a small transaction fee when a sponsor purchases, and that's it. And on top of all that, there's a real human team helping with consultation, prospecting, and follow-up after you go live.
We've seen schools raise $5,000 in their first week on the platform. We've had a single car wash business in Florida purchase banners from 10 different schools in one checkout, schools that had never even talked to him directly. That's the magic of having a real system.
Where to Start
If your head is spinning a little, that's normal. Start small:
Make a list of the businesses your families already have connections to.
Inventory your assets — banners, social posts, scoreboard ads, programs, livestream mentions, banquet sponsorships, athlete-of-the-week features. Anywhere people already pay attention is potential sponsorship space.
Build out one simple way for businesses to say yes — whether that's a page on SponsorPlace, a one-pager PDF, or both.
Recruit warm askers — the parents and supporters with real connections — and give them everything they need to make the ask in 30 seconds or less.
Show up for your sponsors all season long. Don't disappear after the check clears.
Youth sports are expensive, and they're not getting cheaper. But the money is out there, and there are local businesses genuinely looking for ways to plug into their communities. The teams that figure this out aren't the ones running the most fundraisers. They're the ones building real relationships with the right partners.
You've got this. And if you want a hand getting started, schedule a SponsorPlace demo or reach out — we love this stuff.
Huge thanks to Kathy Rickey at Sports Mom Collective for joining us. Follow her at sportsmomcollective.com for more practical resources for sports families, and follow @CampusMultimedia on social for what's coming next.