Fundraising through Crowdfunding for A New Gym Floor

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is becoming an increasingly common method of fundraising, it’s time to spread the word about it! So what is crowdfunding? It’s a type of fundraising which usually takes place through the internet on secure websites. It allows for citizens (anywhere in the world) to donate whatever amount they would like if they like the project.

There are many examples of projects that have been fully sponsored by this type of fundraising. Gateway Green, a public works project, fully funded a $100,000 project through crowdfunding. And, Michigan State University raised over $15,000 for its Extreme Makeover: Sparty Edition crowdfunding initiative.

Crowdfunding is a great way to start fundraising for a new gymnasium floor for your basketball, volleyball, and other athletes.

How do I know when it’s a good project?

So, you have a project in mind, but is it the right one? It’s important to pick a project that resonates with people – those people are going to be the ones that push your project to the next level and help it become a reality. Crowdfunding makes it easier for people to market their passions and gain a following.

A new gymnasium floor for a high school basketball team, for example, not only benefits the school, but the students playing on it. Parents, community members, and students have a reason to back a new floor that could benefit everyone.

For a funding goal, start small. These passionate people want to see how they are contributing, and from then on, your crowdfunding can grow.

How do I choose a crowdfunding site?

There are so many crowdfunding websites, how do you know which one to use?Some sites are tailored to one type of project or another.

Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowdfunder are all well-known crowdfunding sites. RallyMe, NLAB, and Sportyfunder are a few sites that are built to support the funding of athletes, teams, or other sports initiatives, like a new gymnasium floor.

While selecting a crowdfunding site, it comes down to the terms of use. When looking at each one, consider the following questions:

• Does your project fit into the site requirements?
• Does the site charge a fee?
• Is the fee dependent on your project’s success?
• Will you still receive the donations if your goal is not met?
• What other tools does the site offer to help promote your project?

What do I do once it’s on a crowdfunding site?

Once the site is up, it’s like any other fundraising campaign: promote and spread it! Use word of mouth, social media, local media, press releases, and get the people close to it pumped about it.

It is like other fundraising campaigns – and it may fail in reaching the goal in the allotted time. But, don’t let that discourage you. It could be your best way in finding out what your supporters really want and help future initiatives.

You won’t know until you start; so, go out there and try!

For more in-depth information, check out Mass Appeal in Athletic Business.

State-Farm All-Star Saturday Results

Did you tune into the All-Star events this past Saturday? Read on for full results!

• Foot Locker Three-Point Contest:
  • Overall Winner: Marco Belinelli of San Antonio for the West
    • The East Winner: Bradley Beal with 21 vs. Kyrie Irving with 16
    • The West Winner: Belinelli with 19 vs. Damian Lillard with 18
    • Final Round: Three tie breaker rounds with a final score of 24 for Belinelli, an event-high score.

Belinelli shooting a 3-pointer (Photo from CBS sports)

• Taco Bell Skills Challenge:
  • Overall Winner: Damian Lillard of Portland (for the second year straight) for the West
  • First Round:
    • Lillard and Trey Burke beat Goran Dragic or Phoenix and Reggie Jackson of Oklahoma City to represent the West
    • Michael Carter-Williams and Victor Oladipo beat Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee and DeMar DeRozan of Toronto to represent the East
  • Final Round
    • The West Team edged out the East Team by a tenth of a second for a winning time of 45.2 seconds to dribble around obstacles, pass, and shoot from medium and close range

• Sprite Slam Dunk Contest:
  • Overall Winner: East Team with John Wall of Washington, Paul George of Indiana, and Terrence Ross of Toronto.
    • Freestyle Round: East Team: 3, West Team: 0
    • Battle One: Terrence Ross: 2, Damian Lillard: 1
    • Battle Two: Paul George: 3, Harrison Barnes: 0
    • Battle Three: John Wall: 3, Ben McLemore: 0
  • John Wall was named the Sprite Slam Dunker of the night.

John Wall dunking (Photo from CBS sports)

• Sears Shooting Stars:
  • Overall Winner: East with Team Bosh with Chris Bosh, Dominique Wilkins, and Swin Cash (WNBA)
  • First Round:
    • Team Bosh beat Team Hardaway with Tim Hardaway Jr., Tim Hardaway Sr., and Elena Delle Donne (WNBA) to represent the East
    • Team Durant with Kevin Durant, Karl Malone, and Skylar Diggins (WNBA) beat Team Curry with Stephen Curry, Dell Curry, and Becky Hammon (WNBA) to represent the West
  • Final Round, East vs. West:
    • Team Bosh: 31.4 seconds
    • Team Durant: 43.6 seconds

For complete details of the NBA-All Star weekend, check out the NBA’s website.

For more information on Horner Flooring, the manufacturer of the NBA All-Star floor, visit hornerflooring.com.

Hardwood Athletic Floors – Water Damage

Anyone responsible for maintaining a hardwood athletic floor has heard of it or experienced it: water damage. Whether it’s from a leak in the roof, fire sprinklers that went off, rainwater or snow from an open exterior door, a burst pipe, or something worse, no one wants to see water damage. While water damage isn’t likely to happen to most floors, it does happen and it’s important to be prepared for it in order to minimize the damage.

There are three basic steps to follow.

1. Control the source of the water (close the exterior door, seal off the burst pipe, shut off the fire sprinklers, etc.)
2. Remove as much surface water as possible from the floor (use towels to mop up as much excess water as possible)
3. Call a local hardwood flooring contractor to assess the floor and assist

Image from Athletic Business

Most of the time damage is done because no one noticed the problem soon enough or didn’t know what to do when they did notice the damage. Once the water reaches the sub-floor, the floor has a significantly smaller chance of being rescued. This is where finish comes into play. If a floor has several coats of finish on it, it has a higher chance of survival because the water can’t seep in as easily. The type of floor system also affects the amount of damage. For example, typical floating systems recover better than nailed-in systems because floating systems hold better to the sub-floor, where as once a nailed-in floor starts to come up, it loses it’s attachment to the sub-floor.

So you’ve got water damage and you’ve followed the three above steps. What happens now? The floor may be able to be dehumidified. If the floor is able to be dehumidified, it may simply need to be sanded down and refinished. If the floor isn’t able to be dehumidified, it may need to be replaced. The most important factor when dealing with a water damaged floor is time. It needs to be addressed ASAP and can take time to dry out and return to normal.

Fundraising: Walk-A-Thon

Another large scale event that could boost fundraising efforts for your new hardwood athletic floor is a walk-a-thon.

Consider having students sign up to walk a certain distance or for a certain period of time and find a sponsor (or two or three!) who will pay a small amount of money for every half-mile or half hour that the student walks. Consider holding the event on your current athletic floor to increase motivation for the new one. This is also a great opportunity for the youth to participate in the fundraising efforts so they can have a sense of pride for the new floor.

You could also consider inviting community members to sign up to walk. They can sponsor themselves or find another sponsor. This will help get the community further involved and help them feel as if they are included.

To make the event a bit more fun, consider having breaks during the walk for dancing or fun little games, such as a corn-hole toss or ladder ball. Consider offering small prizes for these fun game breaks, such as each win will earn you a ticket. You could have these tickets represent several things.

• A prize table
  • You could have a booth or table set up with dollar-store prizes as well as a few “big ticket” items. Set a ticket cost to each item, such as five tickets for a stuffed animal, etc. Have participants choose their prizes based on their wins!
• A concession stand
  • Also consider having a concession stand to further raise funds for your organization. If people are walking, they’re likely to get thirsty or want a snack. You could have each ticket represent a dollar or $.50 toward an item.
• A raffle
  • You could hold a raffle at the end of the walk-a-thon with the tickets (have each winner put their name and contact information on their tickets). The winner could receive a cash prize, an athletic clothing item with the school’s name or logo, or a designated seat or bench in the stands when the new athletic floor is built.

Want to consider another large scale event? See our blog post about a basketball tournament! For more information on fundraising for a hardwood athletic floor, visit our FREE fundraising eBook!

Horner Flooring in Canada

Check out this great article, Almost game time for Island Storm, published by the Journal Pioneer. It talks about the new hardwood athletic floor purchased from Horner Flooring. The floor will be used at Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown, Canada for the National Basketball League of Canada home opener this Saturday.

The Horner floor system was chosen partially for the “ease to install and remove it”. The floor will be put in less than 21 hours after a hockey game, in the same arena. It’s this type of versatility that makes Horner Flooring an industry leader.

Photo courtesy of Eastlink Centre Charlottetown

When the coach of the Island Storm, Joe Salerno, saw the floor he said, “I think it will be one of the nicest floors in the league. It is an NBA-calibre floor”. Comments like these really inspire Horner Flooring to continue to offer quality athletic floors and allow us to take a special pride in our work.

Fundraising: Quality vs. Quantity

Quantity does not always beat quality, and that’s true with fundraising too. Sure, every little bit helps, but keep in mind that quality can work better than quantity when it comes to fundraising. A group of small fundraising efforts can be very effective, but some studies have shown that more money can actually be raised through fewer events that are larger in scale.

So why do fewer, larger events work better?

Supporters who are expected to participate in less fundraisers are likely willing to spend more for a large fundraiser, as opposed to less for multiples fundraisers. It may also be easier on your organization to simply plan a few big events rather than to plan several smaller ones.

If your organization does decide to do a larger fundraising effort or project, make sure it is well organized. Perhaps make a committee of people committed to the project. You could even boost your fundraising efforts by featuring product sales, such as food, at the large scale fundraising events. An example of a large-scale fundraising event is a basketball or volleyball tournament with a concession stand and ticketed entry. Keep an eye out for our next post about the tournament fundraiser!

Looking for more information? Check out our fundraising eBook!

Fundraising Ideas

Are you trying to fund-raise for a new hardwood athletic floor or a synthetic athletic floor? Are you out of ideas to raise money or don’t know where to start? Here’s a few suggestions and fundraising ideas from us that have worked well for other organizations.

Restaurant Fundraisers:

Ask businesses or restaurants if they would be willing to create their own fundraising efforts for your cause, such as 10% of every order on Friday toward the fundraising efforts or 10% of the daily revenue, etc. Many local restaurants may be inclined to do this, as it may increase their own sales by directing more traffic on a certain slow day.

This will help to promote the business’s reputation within the community, potentially increase their own sales, and increase your own fundraising total. For their donation to the fundraising effort, consider hanging a plaque for them or their banner/logo in the gym.

Business Donations

“It doesn’t have to be a monetary donation, ask for donated snacks or drinks to help increase fundraiser attendance!”

Consider writing to or stopping by local companies, restaurants, or businesses to ask for donations. Offer to have a sponsor plaque that will hang in your gym above the new floor with donor names or to have donor banners. Mention that anything helps, the donation doesn’t have to be monetary – perhaps the business can donate snacks or drinks to fundraising events (such as a walk-a-thon or basketball tournament).

Book Fair

Consider having a used book fair at your school with all proceeds going toward the new athletic floor. What better way to raise money than to encourage students to read new-to-them books for a low price? Consider asking families and community members to donate books that may be sitting on a shelf collecting dust for the cause.

A Penny Jar

Consider putting penny jars in your classrooms. The new gym floor will be for the children, why not invite them to help make it a reality so they can feel involved? Kids generally like to help, especially if you put an incentive into place, such as an ice cream party for the classroom that raises the most money per month. Encourage students that no amount is too little, a penny per day per child adds up!

Interested in knowing more? Check out our FREE eBook: The Fundraising Guide for a New Athletic Floor!

Fundraising Tips

Is your school looking to purchase and install a new gym floor? Are you lacking the funds to pull it off? Let us help you with fundraising for a new athletic floor.

First, form a fundraising committee specifically for the project. Sharing the financial responsibility with a group of people will add accountability and reduce stress for those working hard to make the dream a reality. Second, remember there is no irrelevant fundraising effort. Every little bit helps and every contributor can feel pride in the new gym floor – regardless of how much they were able to donate.

 

Plant the seed and remember that everything starts small. Get everything together and organized before you attempt to fund-raise, especially if you’re planning a large-scale event.

 

 

Also try to keep the community informed on the efforts.Use social media to help promote fundraisers whenever possible. If the community knows about the project they’ll be more willing to support the cause. Regardless of what fundraising efforts are implemented, consider having a public sign advertising how much money has been raised and how much more is needed to reach your goal.

Looking for more information? Check out our fundraising eBook!

Purchasing a Hardwood Athletic Floor – Quality Assurance

When purchasing a hardwood athletic floor, you’ll want to make sure the performance and quality of the floor are what you expect. There are multiple sets of flooring standards and guidelines which can help you to determine if the system will meet your needs.

At Horner, we have several DIN floors known as our Performance Systems. DIN standards measure the following performance characteristics:

• shock absorption
• vertical deflection
• deflective indentation
• ball bounce
• friction
• rolling load

Horner Flooring also has a Long Life flooring option. As it’s name suggests, Long Life flooring will help to extend the life of the hardwood floor by providing a thicker hardwood surface. This will enable to floor to be sanded down and refinished more times than a regular 25/32″ floor. The life of the hardwood floor also contributes to its quality.

Horner’s Long Life flooring option

Also make sure you select a quality installer to install your new hardwood athletic floor. In order to assure quality, the floor must be properly installed. If you’re unsure about how to select an installer, see our previous blog post, Purchasing a Hardwood Athletic Floor – Installation, or ask your flooring provider for recommendations for your geographic area.

Looking for more information on what to consider when purchasing a new hardwood athletic floor? Download Horner Flooring’s FREE eBook, 10 Questions to Ask When Purchasing a Hardwood Athletic Floor!

Purchasing a Hardwood Athletic Floor – Installation

When considering purchasing a hardwood athletic floor, it’s important to consider who will install the new floor. You want someone who is trustworthy and reliable and is experienced with the flooring system.

The Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association (MFMA) has a list of accredited installers on their webpage. Each of these installers and flooring manufacturers are evaluated every two years. These evaluation tests ensure that the installation recommendations are being followed.

Do you want to find a Horner Dealer? We have made it extremely easy, simply type in your zip code on our website and we will give you a list of Horner Dealers near you.

Maintenance Tip: When your floor is installed, make sure to ask the manufacturer or installer the best ways to maintain your floor or for a cleaning demonstration. Many will do this free of charge.

Looking for more information on what to consider when purchasing a new hardwood athletic floor? Download Horner Flooring’s FREE eBook, 10 Questions to Ask When Purchasing a Hardwood Athletic Floor!