Popcorn sales, car washes, wrapping paper nobody wanted. Booster.club is building a different model for funding a track or cross country program, built on recurring support instead of one-time asks, and programs that mention Run Florida Run get $250 toward getting started.
Nobody actually likes fundraising season. Ask any coach, parent, or athlete and you'll get the same answer. Popcorn sales. Car washes. Wrapping paper nobody wanted in the first place. Programs run these campaigns every year because they have to, not because they work particularly well. The margins are thin once you account for the time and materials, and asking the same neighbors and relatives to buy something for the third year running gets old fast.
It doesn't have to be that way. Our friends at Booster.club have been building a different model, and it's worth knowing about for any Florida track or cross country program funding a season the old fashioned way.
Booster is built around recurring support instead of one time. Each team gets its own private, branded page where coaches, athletes, or parents post photos, videos, highlights, and behind the scenes updates through the season. Parents, grandparents, alumni, and local fans can subscribe to follow along for $10 a month or $100 a year, and that subscription is what funds the program.
There's no cost to set up, nothing to sell door to door, and no inventory to manage. The program keeps 90 percent of every dollar that comes through, with Booster handling the platform, the payment processing, and the recurring billing, and funds going straight to the program through Stripe. A coach can have a page live in about fifteen minutes.
The model fits distance sports in particular. Booster's own line is "there is no offseason," and for programs that train and compete nearly year round, the usual fundraising calendar of one push in the fall and maybe another in spring never quite lines up with how the season actually works. A subscription base carries over from year to year instead of starting from zero each time, and it grows as more families and alumni sign on.
It's still a newer approach, which means it works best for programs willing to try something different. Booster has already picked up some national attention, including mentions from outlets like Sports Business Journal and Yahoo, for the model it's building in youth and college athletics.
For programs that want to look into it, Booster.club has more detail on how a page gets set up. And for what it's worth, programs that sign up and mention Run Florida Run when they do will get $250 toward getting started, courtesy of Darrin and the Run Florida Run crew.