Baseball is America’s pastime, with a long, rich history of teaching the values of teamwork and sportsmanship. Like other team sports, baseball helps kids understand how to deal with failures, wins, and personal responsibility.
Fundraisers like hit-a-thons allow your sports team to cover costs and deliver these lifelong benefits to every interested player. In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know to host one of the most popular baseball fundraisers:
Before digging into more tactical steps and tips, let’s hit it off with some basic FAQs about this fundraising idea.
Hit-a-Thon Basics
What are “thon” fundraisers?
“Thon” or “a-thon” fundraisers are a type of peer-to-peer campaign in which supporters participate in an activity and collect donations. While donations can be flat (e.g., “I pledge $50 if you complete the activity), they can also based on the participant’s performance. For example, in a walk-a-thon, a supporter might pledge $5 per mile a participant walks in a race—if the participant walks 5 miles, they’ll receive $25 from the donor.
What does a hit-a-thon look like?
During a hit-a-thon, your team members are the participants. Before the event, they’ll collect pledged donations, practice, and complete the activity. Pledges are typically based on how many times your team members hit the ball or how many feet the ball travels. If donors pledge $5 per hit and the team member hits 14 out of 20 pitches, they’ll receive $70 per donor. Or, they might earn $5 for every 20 feet the ball travels—it’s up to you and the donor!
While hit-a-thons are generally hosted by baseball teams, any sport, club, organization, or school can adopt this idea.
Check out this quick video about hit-a-thons to learn more:
What do you need to hold this baseball fundraiser?
Because this fundraiser is so simple, the only equipment you need is balls and bats. Ensure players arrive wearing proper attire and protective gear, just like they would for a typical game. Additionally, you’ll need a large space like a park or practice field to run the event.
One of the most important assets to have on your side for the hit-a-thon is fundraising software. Choose a solution tailor-made for schools, sports teams, and pledge drive fundraisers, like 99Pledges. With our software, the process is simple and streamlined:
- Each player gets an online pledge page—we’ll set these up so you don’t have to.
- Encourage team members to share their donation pages with their peers and family members.
- Players will collect pledged donations per hit or foot the ball travels. We accept all major credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal to make donating a breeze.
- Track the campaign’s progress and record each player’s performance. Players will get 10 to 20 opportunities to hit the ball.
- You submit the total number of hits for each player, we bill the donors, and you receive a check!
We’ve got some additional features that can help you hit your fundraising goals out of the park, including access to a fundraising coach, data tracking and reporting, and automated communications. Explore our solution for yourself and check out our sample campaigns.
Your Hit-a-Thon To-Do List
While hit-a-thons are simple, they involve many moving parts that can be difficult to manage without proper planning and organization. To help you stay on track, we’ve put together a handy to-do list:
- Select fundraising software
- Research possible solutions
- Compare features and customer reviews against your team’s needs
- Book demos and ask questions (if applicable)
- Implement the solution
- Determine a fundraising goal
- Follow the SMART goal framework
- Evaluate historical and current financial health
- Outline rules and event structure
- Determine how you’ll measure success (e.g., hits vs. distance)
- Implement rules and guidelines to keep the event fair and honest
- Plan logistical details
- Determine event date and time
- Book venue
- Secure other vendors and rentals (e.g., a batting cage or bouncy castle)
- Engage participants
- Ensure each participant has a link to their individual donation page
- Set up a way to communicate with parents and players during the campaign via text, email, etc.
- Promote the campaign
- Select communication channels
- Create marketing assets, like flyers and social media graphics
- Add a campaign landing page to your website (optional)
- Engage your community
- Seek partnerships or sponsorships from local businesses
- Organize event activities
- Create a schedule
- Gather equipment, supplies, and volunteers
- Coordinate with vendors
- Host the hit-a-thon!
- Complete post-event follow up
- Thank donors, participants, sponsors, and other supporters
- Share the results
Feel free to add or remove steps as you navigate the process, perfecting your campaign for future iterations. Keep track of wins, improvement opportunities, and areas where you can save time or costs.
5 Tips for Maximizing Your Hit-a-Thon’s Profits
Our software and hit-a-thon checklist will help you get your campaign off the ground. But because we’ve helped so many teams achieve fundraising success, we know a few tips to take your hit-a-thon from the second base to a home run.
Check out these strategies to motivate more supporters to attend, engage, and donate:
Leverage social media.
Of course, your team and its players should share campaign details on social media. This is the best way to spread awareness of the fundraiser to supportive friends and family members, even if they’re far away.
But these social media ideas can dial up the competition and anticipation, boosting engagement:
- Start a challenge that gets the broader community involved, like challenging them to post clips from their training or workout sessions each day.
- Show behind-the-scenes content, like videos of your players practicing their batting skills or baseball gameplay.
- Create countdown posts to drum up excitement during the final week before your event.
- Share interactive polls or quizzes consisting of baseball or softball trivia or ask supporters to predict who will get the most hits.
- Post leaderboards and fundraising thermometers to illustrate your fundraising progress.
In each of your posts, aim to build a sense of “FOMO,” or fear of missing out. Make your audience feel like the event is something they shouldn’t skip, as they might miss an incredibly engaging, rare experience.
Secure sponsorships.
In a corporate sponsorship, a business agrees to sponsor a nonprofit, school, or other organization, typically in exchange for marketing perks. For example, your team could work with a local athletic shoe store or running club. They would donate funds to offset the costs of your hit-a-thon, and you would feature their business name on signage to help them reach your audience.
Sponsorships can enhance your hit-a-thon by:
- Maximizing your revenue by covering expensive event costs.
- Forging new, strategic partnerships with businesses and institutions in your area.
- Exposing your team to a new pool of potential supporters.
- Providing in-kind donations such as food, games, activities, and services that take event entertainment to the next level.
- Lending you more helping hands in the form of volunteers!
To find an event sponsor, start with your existing contacts—would any of them be willing to make a small contribution? From there, research businesses in your area that have a related focus or similar values to your team. Gyms, sports shops, healthy restaurants, and wellness-related companies like massage businesses are great options.
Consider themed challenges.
Themed challenges shake up the classic hit-a-thon, which come in handy if you plan to make this an annual event. Here are a few examples of challenges you could add:
- Home Run Derby: Challenge participants to see who can get the most home runs in a set time frame.
- Costume Hits: Have kids dress up according to a theme and hit the balls—just make sure they wear their safety gear when they’re up to bat.
- Batting Average Challenge: Have players compete for the best batting average. This will motivate them to be more consistent and, in turn, secure more donations!
- Target Practice: Improve players’ aim by setting up targets at various distances in the outfield. Assign points to each target based on difficulty.
Consider extending some of the challenges to your spectators, too. For example, they may want to dress up in a themed costume, even if they’re just watching from the sidelines.
Sell commemorative merchandise.
You want supporters to remember the hit-a-thon for what it was—an exciting event that also raised money for your team’s players. What better way to do this than to send them home with a tangible souvenir?
Sell products like custom apparel, drinkware, magnets, or stickers at the event. Include your team’s name, colors, logo, and the name and year of the campaign. Not only will attendees leave with high-quality memorabilia, but you’ll also bring in some extra income outside of pledged donations.
Incorporate interactive activities.
Finally, have some ideas in mind to keep attendees engaged. After all, if they have fun at this event, they’re more likely to attend future games and fundraisers.
Plan out an interactive activity or two, such as:
- Raffles: Put together a few fun prizes and sell raffle tickets. For instance, create a baseball-themed gift basket or secure a couple of tickets to your area’s Major League Baseball team’s next game.
- Prizes: Offer prizes to motivate participants to do their best and heighten the stakes for onlookers. At the end of the event, award the player with the most hits or distance and award the player who brought in the most donations.
- A batting cage: Give attendees the chance to show off their batting skills. Create a batting cage just for attendees or find a vendor who can help you set one up.
- Carnival-style games: Set up fun games and activities like ring toss, balloon darts, duck pond, face painting, and wheel of fortune. Have attendees purchase tickets to play to generate more funds.
Don’t forget to offer food at a concession stand and plenty of seating. If your event will occur at your school’s stadium or the baseball field, consider selling cushions or blankets to make the stands more comfortable.
Wrapping Up
Hit-a-thons help you raise money, rally community support, and show off your players’ skills—all at once. Plus, with a partner like 99Pledges, they’re low-cost, have a low time commitment, and are entertaining campaigns for participants and supporters. To see how simple our solution makes fundraising, give it a test drive!
Looking for more fundraising knowledge? Explore our comprehensive resources:
- 8 Fundraising Platforms for Schools to Skyrocket Revenue. Browse our list of top school fundraising solutions that will supercharge your campaigns.
- 5 Walk-a-Thon FAQs + How to Get Started. Now that you’ve been introduced to “a-thon” fundraisers, why not check out another classic? Get your walk-a-thon questions answered here.
- 30+ Top PTO Fundraisers for Schools. As a PTO member, it’s hard to keep the fresh fundraising ideas flowing. Consider this guide your cheat sheet for inspiring campaigns.
