3 August 2026 · The Entrypoint team
Most fundraising listicles ignore the one thing that decides whether an idea works for a football club: timing. A grassroots club's year has a rhythm — registration in summer, the long autumn slog, a Christmas lull, spring finals — and the best fundraising plan follows it. Here's a season-shaped plan for 2026/27, with honest effort levels.
Launch a Premier League Last One Standing before GW1. This is the highest-leverage fundraising hour of your year. Members, parents and mates pay one entry (typically £10/€10), pick one Premier League team to win each gameweek, can't reuse a team, and elimination does the rest — the last one standing takes a prize and the club keeps the remainder. It runs itself until spring and keeps your club in everyone's group chat all season. A junior club with a handful of girls' teams ran a 15-player World Cup version this summer; season-long Premier League versions routinely draw 100+ entries. Set-up guide →
Bundle fundraising into registration. Membership is fundraising: a £5 optional "club development" add-on at registration, or family-rate memberships, raises hundreds with zero extra asks later.
Sponsor renewals. Businesses budget in Q3/Q4 — get kit and pitch-board renewals agreed before the season starts, with a simple package sheet.
Matchday income done properly. A tea hut with a card reader out-earns a cash biscuit tin every week of the season. Small, boring, compounding.
A five-a-side or crossbar-challenge tournament on a home Saturday: team entry fees, local-business prizes, and the bar/tea hut take. One good tournament nets more than three raffles.
Quiz night in November when evenings close in — a few hundred pounds and a proper social.
A festive 50/50 draw (winner takes half, club takes half) sells easily in December. Note that draws are games of chance — small society lottery registration in the UK, permit rules in Ireland (general information, not legal advice; check your local authority).
Elimination check-in content. By Christmas your Last One Standing field will have thinned dramatically — "8 still standing from 140" is your best social post of the year and free promotion for the spring competition.
Launch a second Last One Standing from a mid-season gameweek — you choose the start gameweek, so a February start catches the title run-in, and everyone eliminated in autumn wants revenge. Second competitions consistently outdraw first ones.
Golf day or race night for the presentation-season fund, and end-of-season awards night with a modest ticket price.
August: Last One Standing #1 + registration add-on. September: sponsors signed. October: tournament. November: quiz. December: 50/50. February: Last One Standing #2. April: golf day. May: awards night. That's eight actions, most of them light, spread across ten months — and the two competitions likely raise more than everything else combined. See what clubs actually raise, or start your competition free.