Funding and managing sporting clubs

It has been a while

2009-03-17T23:34:00.001+11:00

After some time on the sidelines I have decided to come back to this and start making comment about the state of the world, and support for the local community (the one you live in) especially given the current state of the world economy.

It seems to me that although significant parts of the world economy are falling apart, predominantly in the USA, there are still a number of very stable and significant businesses in this country and overseas that continue to grow and make profits.

In the main these are the ones with some form of monopolisitc position in the markets they are in or those who actually have a clue, or more correctly had a clue, about what the issues would be if you lend money to people who cant possibly pay it back.

It is interesting as a person involved in trying to help local communities, both here and at the job that pays my bills, that so few of the companies that can afford to support the people who got them thru this, choose not to do so.

After a little research and digging thru web sites and annual reports it came as no surprise that the single biggest contributor to charities was you and me. That is the large corporations whose names hang loudly from many a charities door in fact often contribute a bare 10% of the charities annual funding.

Of course when there are only a handful of companies willing to sign cheques for six figure numbers the charities have to give them back a great deal. For the several thousand of us handing over $10,$50 or $100 at a time we have no immediate value unless there are not so many of us doing it.

Those companies that get really clever setup there own tax haven, sorry charity, and then pay themselves to hand out the money and reduce their tax liability. Evil and clever at the same time .

All of this leads me to the point I wanted to make. In Australia the banks, Telstra and now a raft of Health insurance organisations have gained approval to charge us more for the very poor level of service they offer. How does this make sense under the current economic climate?

Yes sure they are all still viable and profitable businesses and we are happy to have them that way rather the basket case that is the US economy, but isn't that because you and I funded it?

If the government was really interested in keeping the economy sound would it not reduce the abilility of service providers, that we all use and need every day, to increase prices?

Whilst I am gratefull for any handout the government makes surely it makes more sense to control the cost of living than increase the hand out levels and then have some other evil bastard come take it from you anyway in charges.

Ultimately we all need to look around us, inparticular the government and decide what it is that is really important to us and our communities.

Shop local, go to the green grocer, the local store, the local designer, the local egg farmer, and the local bank with the manager who has actually been there for more than 5 minutes and help yourself in the process.

For our communities to survive we need to think local and act local. Make it your goal for the next months and see the difference it makes.

Corporate Social Responsibility

2008-04-19T14:13:00.002+10:00

Over the past 50 years many corporations have grown to such a size that they have greater financial resources than many small or 3rd world countries.

In Australia some of our corporations have turnovers that make neighboring countries appear miniscule by comparison - PNG has a GDP of only $14B yet the NAB and Telstra are 2 or 3 times that size.

In 2007 the NAB Bank listed a profit of over $4.5B and Telstra despite its protestations grew its profit to over $3.2B. Despite this the two companies total contribution to amatuer sport was less than 0.001% of profit (lets not even think about what it is against their turnover). Of course if you look at payments to professional sport that is another thing entirely.

If you have the time go here and read the NAB banks CSR review of itself.

After you see the side bar on the second page you will realise that there is a lot of talk and little real world activity - CSR makes for good press copy but not good business apparently. When you dig deeper you will find the one section on Community support and then you will see a small amount of detail. You have to love a bank that regards loaning money to people as a community service!! Ok it's a "low interest loan" but its still a loan, how is it that they can regard this as a community service?

They do invest in AUSKICK which is a great program - but then lets see what they do about that - OH YES they market it to death....so is it really being responsible and helping the community or is it just another clever marketing ploy?

I'll let you decide on that one.

It would be quite simple to go through the pages and compare what they regard as a serving the community to servicing themselves or their business needs. The entire document is quite frankly self serving drivel and deserves to be dealt with the way you would any fluffy 3 layer piece of paper on a roll..........

As for Telstra and many many other organisations in Australia CSR is a dirty acronym.

CSR should be about total responsibility to the community. Banks have and continue to offer over priced services to their customers mortgages, insurance and credit cards are signficant profit earners yet when things get tough for those that have these "services" the bank seems to lose its community spirit entirely. Witness the repossesions over the recent months for those that were sold in to mortgages that they really could not afford.

If corporate Australia is to truly value its social responsibilities then it needs to start providing returns in direct proportion to the spending of its customers.

As customers we need to start looking at who we associate ourselves with and decide if they are really doing the right thing by you and your community.

Australia has over 90 companies listed in the top 2000 companies in the world yet their total contribution to the communities that put them there over the last 10, 20 or 50 years would be negligable.

Each and every corporation owes a debt to the community that put it their and it is now time for those companies to start repaying the debt, just like a "low interest loan" in the end we want our share back.

Working with difficult sponsors

2008-03-02T18:48:00.001+11:00

sponsor money rewards loyalty membership

As a club manager you are always at the mercy of those that keep the club afloat, be that the members, the sponsors or your sports local or state association. With so many vested interests and your committment a voluntary one it is no wonder that many club managers have a short time in office with such a thankless task.

Sooner or later the club will find itself in the situation of being involved with a sponsor who proves far more difficult to manage than you would have expected. So what to do and how to manage it ?

The simple answer of course is to step away and find another sponsor in the same area of business. The catch being, as has been discussed in previous blogs, that finding sponsors in the first place is not easy.

If you are stuck with a sponsor whose demands far exceed the value of the sponsorship you are receiving from them then you need to make a difficult decision. In the harsh reality of business the sums have to be added up and when the costs do not make sense they walk away.

For a sporting club that decision is never easy and as every dollar is precious it is even harder. For all that though my advice is simple - cancel the agreement.

When personal time committed to the cause far exceeds what you expected and even worse if the club is having to deliver more than it could reasonably have been expected to do, then the sponsor needs to be told and you must be prepared to walk away.

When there are now other valid and simple solutions to help you raise funds you don't need that kind of sponsor.

Sponsorship values

2008-02-16T16:15:00.000+11:00

sponsor sponsorship fundraising

When you are a small club it is often difficult to maintain a strict value relationship with your sponsors.

With larger sporting bodies, who have real media exposure, they tier the costs of being involved and utilising their Intellectual Property (IP). Each sponsor pays for a level of association that ranges from very little, other than the rights to use the name on their own activities, to a large scale brand attachment and exclusive naming of the team. Of course all of this comes at a cost and at the high end this is often in the millions.

For a local club or school the realities are very different. The only real asset you have are your participant numbers, even harder is that if you live in suburbia then there are likely to be a lot of other groups with the same proposition as you.

So how do you set a value for a potential sponsors attachment when really all you want to do is just grab their money and run?

Even harder is how do you offer 1 sponsor a deal that you are not giving to another and keep them all involved in your club?

In the end local sponsors, unless they are emotionally attached to the club, want 1 thing and 1 thing only - SALES.

If the sponsor can see that their attachment to the club is creating business then what they paid can be measured against those sales. From this your best strategy is to set your values in relation to the potential business your sponsor will get, making sure you are honest with yourself about the realities of that potential is not easy, 200 members does not mean 200 sales.

If you are looking for ways to measure sales, or in fact take a return of sales you send to your sponsors (which is often more profitable) then a tracking system is needed. With no money and no infrastructure how do you build that? The simple answer is you don't.....why should you when there are already solutions available, so now all you have to do is sell it.

Have a look here for one solution.

Registration days

2008-02-11T09:13:00.000+11:00

club management registration software online store

As a member of my sons club committee I had the joyful experience of being involved in a registration day to try and ensure that everyone is ready for the 2008 season.

We decided to fix 1 day and try and turn it into an event. Rather than just settle on the usual table and chairs we invited players from our premier state team, The Waratahs, to run training sessions, setup a BBQ, arranged to have ID photos and jersey sizing done and had every committee member and most of the coaches on hand to answer any questions from players and parents.

To ensure we had a good turn out we sent 3 emails to our player base from last year, put up posters and banners around the suburb and ran advertisements in 5 of the local newspapers.

Doing our math we expected to get around 180 plus from our junior ranks and 60 or more from our seniors. After 5 hours we had 75 registered players and a pile of food left over.

Those that did turn up had a good run and got to learn some new skills those that didn't, well, who knows?

I write this as one of those - what the? thoughts.

We have a good size club and plenty of motivated players but despite all that we have less than 1/3rd of the club turn up for the day, and that makes the management process just that much harder. Now we have to call or email those that didn't turn up and arrange the entire process in another way, what a pain.

At SportCard we built Payment Manager to try and solve a few of these issues, certainly the payment and tracking process and those little reminders for everyone who hasn't paid yet, but when there is a need for physical intervention, like trying on jerseys, these days are a necessity.

My experience from today and previous years is that the hardest thing to do is create passion for the club and team, from all involved. Without it how do you make anything work? Every player and to a greater degree their parents need to share it just like the coach and committee members.

So what motivates everyone?

I wish I knew...........

Why are there never enough sponsors?

2008-02-10T04:28:00.000+11:00

fundraising sponsor sponsorships sport club

With the winter sporting season just about upon us, in Australia, it is time for most amateur sporting clubs to start knocking on doors looking for some money to survive the years sport.

Parents, friends, neighbours, business partners and acquaintances are all asked for a few dollars to try and shore up the clubs finances. Of course then there is the walk of the local shopping malls, car yards, a few hundred emails spammed out to any one you can find and so many phone calls your cell phone bill makes you cry at nights.

In the end you may, may, get 1 good sponsor and a couple of smaller ones. If your really lucky one of the club parents is in a business that is recession proof and the club can stay afloat for another year. Next year you get to do it all again. - Fun eh??

Yes I have been there and done that.

The reality is that for most business they dont see the value. I have had discussions with large local retailers who have poured good money into 1 or 2 clubs only to get nothing in return.

Why? Because the club thinks it is a good will gesture.....well ladies and gentlemen when a business gives you money they want to know they are getting some thing in return and that means sales!

If you cant track them, or more importantly if they cant track them, then next time around they won't come back.

This of course is what creates the problem, business gets burnt and decides that all sponsorship is the same. If you cant manage a sponsors expectations then just dont ask them, it's bad for them, you and everyone else.

With so many clubs simply not understanding or not wanting to deliver what business needs then it is no wonder every year it gets harder and harder to find the sponsorship dollars.

Think if this as a small wake up message for those seeking sponsorship dollars. With the world economy changing every dollar counts and it will only get harder if you cant deliver the sponsors needs.

Here at SportCard we measure the sales and that is how clubs make money. Very simply your members spend, the club gets a return.