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

If your swimming club needs to raise money regularly rather than once a year, the simplest place to start is a digital 50/50 draw — a single prize pot split between one winner and the club, sold online so parents can buy from poolside or from home. Play Fund Win lets you set one up in about ten minutes with nothing up front, handles the payments and the draw, and pays the club its share of every ticket sold. It's the closest thing most clubs will find to dependable, repeatable income, and it doesn't lean on the same three volunteers every month.

That said, no single method carries a swimming club on its own. Here's what genuinely works, and why.

Why swimming clubs need a different plan

Most grassroots sports pay for a pitch and a set of goals. Swimming clubs pay for pool water time — and that's the problem. Lane hire is charged by the hour, it usually rises when the leisure centre's costs rise, and it lands whether or not your squad turns up. On top of that sit coach qualifications and CPD, entry fees for open meets, travel to galas, timing and officiating kit, and the cost of getting volunteers through their officials' training.

The practical consequence: subs alone rarely cover it, and clubs that rely on one big annual event spend the rest of the year firefighting. You want a small amount of income arriving every month, topped up by a few bigger moments.

1. Run a monthly 50/50 draw or club lottery

This is the workhorse. Supporters buy a ticket, and after the platform fee the pot splits 50/50 between one winner and the club. It works for swimming because your parent base is engaged, already at the pool several times a week, and used to paying online.

• Keep it monthly and automatic. A recurring draw beats a one-off every time — people forget to buy once, not every month.
• Promote the total, not the ask. "Last month's draw paid for a block of lane hire" lands better than "please buy a ticket".
• Sell beyond the squad. Grandparents, former members and local supporters buy readily if you make the link shareable.

A club lottery or 200 Club works on the same principle with a fixed number of numbered entries — worth considering if you'd rather have a predictable monthly figure than a variable one.

2. The sponsored swim — still the best one-off you have

Swimming clubs have an advantage most sports don't: the sponsored activity is the sport. A sponsored swim needs no venue hire beyond your existing session, no extra kit, and no persuading anyone to do something unusual.

What makes the difference is the framing. "Swim as far as you can in an hour" is fine; a squad-wide distance target — the Channel, the length of a local river, a lap of the coast — gives you a number to count towards and something to post about each week. Set up one online page for the whole club so sponsorship doesn't arrive as forty envelopes of loose change, and add Gift Aid to it (more on that below).

3. Turn gala days into fundraising days

You already have a hall full of parents with several hours to fill between their child's events. That's a captive, willing audience — use it properly:

• A refreshments table run by a rota, not by one exhausted volunteer
• A raffle or draw sold on the day, with entries taken by phone rather than a cash tin
• Programme or heat-sheet advertising sold to local businesses
• A guess-the-time or sweepstake tied to a relay

Hosting an open meet is a bigger lift, but for clubs with the pool time and enough qualified officials it can be one of the largest single earners in the calendar.

4. Sponsorship that suits a swimming club

Swimming has no pitch-side hoardings, so sell what you actually have: club kit and poolside presence. Squad hoodies, caps, kit bags, your website and your social channels all carry a logo well. Approach businesses whose customers overlap with swimming families — physios, opticians, dentists, driving instructors, local trades — and offer a clear, honest reach figure rather than a vague promise of "exposure". Smaller sponsors renewing each year beat one large sponsor you spend six months chasing.

5. Don't leave Gift Aid or grants on the table

If your club is a registered charity or a CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club), eligible donations from UK taxpayers can be topped up by Gift Aid. Membership subs generally don't qualify, but genuine donations and most sponsored-swim sponsorship do. It's paperwork, but it's paperwork on money you've already raised.

Grants are worth a look too — your national governing body, your local authority, and community funds run by utilities and supermarkets all fund grassroots sport. Facility and equipment costs tend to be an easier sell to funders than running costs.

Keep it legal and simple

If you're running a draw or raffle in Great Britain, the rules matter. In short: a small society lottery must be registered with your local authority and run by a non-commercial society, and there are limits on how proceeds and expenses are handled. A raffle sold and drawn entirely at a single event during that event (an "incidental lottery") has lighter requirements. Entry is 18+, and you should describe honestly how proceeds are used.

The Gambling Commission's guidance is the authority here, and your local authority licensing team can confirm what applies to you. The straightforward route is to use a compliant platform that handles registration requirements, age checks and record-keeping for you — it removes the risk of a well-meaning committee getting it wrong.

Start with one thing

Pick the monthly draw first, because it keeps money coming in while you organise everything else. Add a sponsored swim once a season, make your galas earn their keep, and treat sponsorship as a slow build rather than a rescue plan.

If you'd like to have your club's first draw live before this week's training session, you can set one up at playfundwin.com — nothing up front, and the club keeps its share of every ticket sold.