Fundraiser Playbook

Team Merch as a Fundraiser: The Math Behind It

Teams can turn branded merch into a reliable fundraiser without the complexity of a bake sale or a raffle. The gang sheet is the tool that makes the margins work at small quantities.

Build a Gang Sheet4 min read

$Youth soccer team holding branded hoodies after a merch fundraiser with proceeds supporting a tournament trip$

How a Team Merch Fundraiser Works

The team sells branded shirts, hoodies, or hats to players, families, and local supporters. A portion of each sale goes to a specific goal: travel to a tournament, new equipment, a facility upgrade. The merch is the product. The team's story is the pitch.

Unlike a traditional fundraiser where the product has no lasting value, branded team merch is something people keep and wear for years. It creates ongoing visibility for the team and generates word-of-mouth that a bake sale cannot. The downside is that it requires upfront planning and a minimum viable order.

Why the Gang Sheet Is the Key Tool

A gang sheet tiles all copies of your design onto one large transfer sheet. For a 40-person team selling one tee each, a gang sheet holds all 40 front designs on a single sheet. You pay for the printed square inches only, not the dead space.

The gang sheet also makes the math on a mixed-item fundraiser cleaner. If 25 people order tees and 15 order hoodies, you build one gang sheet per design type, order them together in a single transaction, and capture the volume discount on the combined total.

Running the Numbers on a 40-Unit Run

A tee blank at $6, a 10-by-10-inch transfer at $6.00 base rate, combined order of $240 in transfers clears the $150 threshold for a 17% discount. Decoration cost per shirt: $4.98. Add the blank and you are at $10.98 per shirt. Price at $22 and you net $11.02 per shirt, or $441 on 40 shirts.

A hoodie blank at $20, a 12-by-10-inch transfer at $7.20 base rate. On a 15-unit hoodie add-on, your combined transfer spend with the tees crosses $250 for a 22% discount. Hoodie decoration cost: $5.62. Total cost: $25.62. Retail at $45. Net: $19.38 per hoodie, or $291 on 15 hoodies.

Setting the Retail Price

Price team merch at what your audience will pay, not at an arbitrary markup. For a youth recreational team selling to local families, $20 to $25 for a tee and $40 to $50 for a hoodie is comfortable. For a competitive travel team with a strong community following, you can push $28 and $55 without losing many sales.

Announce the fundraiser goal publicly so buyers know their purchase is going toward something specific. A team raising money for a national tournament trip converts better than one raising money for unspecified expenses.

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