Fundraising has long been central to the success of swim team culture. Whether involved in high school, club, or summer rec swimming, swim parents are very familiar with the concept of fundraising. In fact, ensuring an influx of cash is critical to the operations of swim teams across the country. With this in mind, SwimTopia offers a couple of features to make fundraising as easy and navigable as possible. Read below to learn more about linking a SwimOutlet team store with your SwimTopia account and SwimTopia’s merchandise features, the two biggest ways you can bring in the big bucks next season.
Link to a SwimOutlet Team Store
Linking a SwimOutlet team store with your SwimTopia account is the first way we make it easy to raise funds. When you create a SwimOutlet team store and correctly link it to your SwimTopia site (using SwimTopia’s easy-to-use integrated snippet), you have access to hundreds of items from which to choose. Swimsuits, goggles, fins, sweat suits, t-shirts—you name it! Not only does SwimOutlet allow SwimTopia admins to mark up their team store items and keep the profit, they additionally give teams a percentage back on anything purchased in their SwimOutlet team store. Read more about how the Queechee Otters benefited from their SwimOutlet team store integration.
This means if you or your coach have ever recommended swimmers purchase anything at all from SwimOutlet, but your team doesn’t have a team store, you are letting money slip through your fingers! SwimOutlet collects payment from parents and ships merchandise straight to them. This removes the stress of collecting orders/money and then distributing apparel. Not only does your SwimOutlet team store help raise money, it also significantly lightens the workload for merchandise coordinators! Watch our video on how to properly link your SwimOutlet team store and SwimTopia account here!
Merchandise/Sponsorships/Donations with SwimTopia’s Merchandise Features
SwimTopia’s merchandise section is the second way to fundraise via team gear, sponsorships, or donations. Whether selling inventory like shirts and swag, or donations such as sponsorships and shout-outs (or essentially anything else), you can do it all in the merchandise section of your site. These items can be sold both during swimmer registration as well as through a team store tab year-round. Team admins simply need to upload item pictures, set the price, and enable orders. Typically, in the SwimTopia merchandise section, teams sell items like fun end-of-season tie-dye shirts, yard signs, and stitched ball caps (items not found on the SwimOutlet website). It’s a fun place to let team spirit and personality shine!
Read more about fundraising in our previous blogs:
As always, SwimTopia’s primary goal is to save customers time and money. Assisting with fundraising is one of our favorite ways to accomplish this. The top ways to fill your team’s pockets are through the SwimTopia/SwimOutlet team store integration and SwimTopia’s robust merchandise section. Use one or the other (or both!) and crush next season’s fundraising goals!
