OFFICIAL Suffolk FA partner easyfundraising have come up with a three-step summer game plan.

Although most football activity is on hold, running costs like maintenance, pitch fees and staff overheads have continued for many clubs.

In fact, most clubs have felt the impact of COVID-19 on their finances, and with no official date for a return to grassroots football, traditional means of funding like match fees, clubhouse revenue, sponsorship and face-to-face fundraising may not be possible for some months yet.

That’s why Suffolk FA are recommending affiliated clubs use the summer to really make the most of online fundraising platform easyfundraising to keep funds coming in at this difficult time.

How easyfundraising works

With easyfundraising, your entire community – supporters, staff, coaches and players - can generate free donations for your club simply by shopping online with their favourite retailers like Amazon, Sky, Just Eat, Trainline, eBay, Screwfix M&S and Booking.com.

They just use the easyfundraising website or app to access these retailers and 4,000 others and when they buy anything, the retailer sends your club a free donation at no additional cost.

It’s completely free to register and use and very simple to manage. 7,500 clubs are already using it successfully and we think it can work for you.

All you need to get started is register your club as a cause with easyfundraising then follow the three-step summer game plan below.

1 - Tell your club community that you have registered with easyfundraising – and why

Your club will be given its own easyfundraising page so share that page with your club community and ask them to sign up to support you. It’s also important to tell them why their support is needed so explain how you have been impacted by lockdown and what a difference their support can make to the future of your club.

Top tip: easyfundraising provide pre-prepared wording and images for your social channels, emails and website to help you get the message out easily and quickly.

2 - Show them how easy it is to support you

There are over 4,000 retailers so your supporters can raise donations with all their favourite online stores. They can raise on everything from groceries, travel and mobiles to DIY, fashion and insurance and much more. They can even raise a donation from their Friday night takeaway from Just Eat!

Top Tip: Look out for emails from easyfundraising with retailer offers and share them with your supporters.

3 - Remind your supporters – and thank them too

Our top raising clubs regularly remind their supporters so they don’t forget to use easyfundraising when they shop. People are busy so it can sometimes slip their minds but if you make sure that you regularly post on Facebook, send a whatsapp message or drop them an email, you’ll keep raising funds for you at the forefront of their mind.

Top Tip: It’s just as important to thank the supporters who are raising for you – easyfundraising lets you easily send personalised messages to supporters when they hit an important milestone such as raising their first donation.

FAQs

Our club isn’t a charity – can we still use easyfundraising?

Yes – you don’t need to be a charity to use easyfundraising

Will it cost us anything?

No – easyfundraising is completely free to register and use for both you and your supporters. And your supporters will not be charged anything extra on their shopping either

How do we get our donations?

Providing you have raised over £15, easyfundraising total up all the donations raised by everyone supporting you every three months and send them to you by bank transfer or cheque. There is no charge for this. If your club hasn’t raised over £15 in the previous three months, the amount simply rolls into the next payment instead.

How does easyfundraising make money?

Like price comparison websites, easyfundraising makes money through affiliate marketing. This means that retailers pay them commission each time a sale is made through their site and they pass at least 50% of this on to your club.

The donation rate shown on the website is what’s paid to a cause when one of their supporters buys something from a retailer.

Finally, congratulations to Stowupland Falcons FC who have won a £100 donation from easyfundraising as part of the May competition.

Julie Eves, secretary of Stowupland Falcons, said: “We feel extremely pleased to be the winners, it could not have come at a better time as we all struggle through the current pandemic! We had to cancel our BIG 5-a-side this year and this is our biggest fundraiser that we rely on.

“It will be a great help with the upcoming costs that the club will have within the next few weeks for next season’s affiliation to the FA and league fees.

“Easyfundraising is an extremely easy way to raise much-needed funds for the club without any effort, just shopping and we all do that, even more so now than ever online, it couldn't be simpler!”