How to Fundraise for a Netball Club: Ideas That Actually Work for UK Clubs

If you need to raise money for a netball club — court hire, umpire fees, league entry, balls and bibs, or getting a junior squad to a tournament — the fastest route is usually a recurring online prize draw rather than another one-off cake sale. A 50/50 draw or club lottery run through Play Fund Win takes about ten minutes to set up, needs nothing up front, and gives your members something to buy into every month instead of something you have to organise from scratch every time. Below are the ideas that genuinely work for netball clubs in the UK, and the rules you need to know before you start selling tickets.

Why netball clubs struggle more than most

Netball has a specific funding problem. Most clubs don't own their venue — they rent sports hall or outdoor court time by the hour, often at peak evening rates, and that bill lands every single week whether the season is going well or not. There's rarely a clubhouse bar to subsidise things, matchday crowds are small, and committees tend to be small too. So the fundraising that works is the kind that produces steady, predictable income with very little admin, not one big push in November that nobody has the energy to repeat.

1. Run a monthly 50/50 draw

This is the single most effective option for most clubs. Supporters buy tickets online, and after the platform fee the pot splits 50/50 between the winner and the club. It works because the prize funds itself — you don't need to chase donated prizes, and the prize scales with ticket sales, so the club is never out of pocket if sales are slow.

• Set it to run monthly so it becomes a habit, not an event.
• Share the pot total in your team WhatsApp groups as it grows — that's what drives late sales.
• Announce the winner publicly and say exactly what the club's half is paying for.

2. Set up a weekly or monthly club lottery

If your supporter base is bigger — parents of a large junior section, alumni players, local businesses — a subscription-style club lottery gives you income you can actually budget against. Members pay a small amount each month by card, and you know roughly what's coming in before the season starts. That's the difference between hoping you can afford a second training slot and knowing you can.

3. Sell sponsorship in small, sensible chunks

Local businesses rarely say yes to a vague request for £500. They say yes far more often to something specific and visible: a dress or bib sponsor for one team, a match ball sponsor, a season-long banner at your home venue, or naming rights on a junior tournament. Go to businesses with a genuine link to the club first — parents' employers, the physio you already use, the local café your teams pile into after matches. Put the offer in writing with what they get and for how long.

4. Use the court you're already paying for

You are renting a facility. Use more of the hours. Back-to-back ideas that work well for netball:

• A one-day mixed or social tournament with an entry fee per team — cheap to run, popular with other local clubs.
• Back-to-Netball or beginner sessions charged per head, which also feed new members into the club.
• A shooting competition or skills challenge at half-time of a home fixture, with a small entry fee.

These raise money and grow the club at the same time, which very few fundraisers do.

5. Add a raffle to events you're running anyway

Presentation evenings, end-of-season socials and quiz nights are the natural home for a raffle. Ask local businesses for prizes rather than buying them, keep ticket prices low, and sell online in advance as well as on the night — advance sales usually beat door sales comfortably.

Getting the rules right

Prize draws, raffles and lotteries in Great Britain are regulated, and it's worth ten minutes of your time to get this right. In broad terms:

• A raffle sold only at an event, on the day, with tickets not sold in advance, is usually an incidental lottery and doesn't need registration.
• Selling tickets in advance, online, or to the wider public generally means a society lottery — which normally requires registration with your local licensing authority, or a Gambling Commission licence above certain thresholds.
• Ticket buyers must be 18 or over, and you should be clear and honest about how proceeds are used.
• Different rules apply in Northern Ireland, so check locally if that's where you're based.

If you're not certain which category you fall into, check the Gambling Commission's guidance or ask your local authority — and use a platform built for compliant club draws so the age checks, payments and record-keeping are handled for you rather than sitting on a volunteer's spreadsheet.

Start with one thing and repeat it

The clubs that raise the most aren't the ones with the cleverest ideas. They're the ones that pick a single recurring fundraiser, run it every month without fail, and tell people exactly where the money went. Do that for a season and you'll have covered a meaningful chunk of your court hire before you've organised a single bake sale.

Ready to get your netball club's draw live? There's nothing to pay up front and it takes around ten minutes at playfundwin.com.