Ready to turn school spirit, team pride, or love for your cause into a profitable venture? Then keep reading, because a spiritwear fundraiser might be just what you’re looking for!
After all, combining passion with fashion is a great way to raise funds. In fact, it’s our favorite fundraising idea (and we cover a lot of these ideas on this blog).
Whether you’re championing a school, leading a sports team, spearheading a club, or making waves with a nonprofit, this one’s for you.
Below, we teach you everything about running an online fundraising store and how to get started. We also lay out why it’s one of the best ways to raise money while spreading love and pride for your organization.
So, let’s discover how to turn your school logo, nonprofit slogan, or team colors into funds for your cause!
Table of Contents
- What Is A Spiritwear Fundraiser?
- Spiritwear Fundraiser Items
- How Does A Spiritwear Fundraiser Work?
- How To Run A Spiritwear Fundraiser Online
- Best Online Spiritwear Store
- 6 Advantages of an Online Spiritwear Fundraiser
- Is Spiritwear Fundraising Right For You?
What Is A Spiritwear Fundraiser?
A spiritwear fundraiser leverages the power of branded, custom apparel to create a sense of unity and pride while raising funds.
This product sale fundraising idea is an awesome way for schools, sports teams, clubs, and nonprofits of all kinds to support their causes.
One of the best things about a spiritwear fundraiser is its convenience and reach. Since you’re not limited by geographical constraints, anyone from around the conutry can support your cause.
Additionally, setting up a custom apparel fundraiser requires little effort on your end, and there’s little to no risk involved.
For example, with a We Raise Together spiritwear fundraiser, we handle the production, shipping, and customer service on your behalf. All you have to do is:
- Provide a logo or custom design for the spiritwear
- Promote your online store
- Watch your fundraising numbers climb
We discuss the advantages of starting your online apparel store fundraiser, as well as how they work, in more detail below.
Spiritwear Fundraiser Items
There’s no shortage of custom apparel and school spirit items to sell.
In fact, if you can print an image on a product, you can probably sell it in a spiritwear fundraiser.
Below, we discuss your options. Just keep in mind that each product has its own unique pricing and profit margins.
Base prices for materials and printing, as well as shipping costs, can vary a lot from product to product.
Clothing
Clothing is a cornerstone of any spiritwear fundraiser. It’s customizable, practical, and offers a way for supporters to display their pride in any setting.
Here are a few popular clothing items:
- T-Shirts (available in adult unisex, youth, and toddler sizes)
- Long Sleeve Shirts (available in adult unisex and kid sizes)
- Tank Tops (available in adult unisex sizes)
- Hoodies and sweatshirts (available in adult unisex and youth sizes)
- Hats and beanies
- Infant bodysuits
Accessories
Beyond clothing, accessories also make a great addition to your online Spiritwear shop. Here are a few ideas:
- Face masks
- Phone cases
- Tote bags
- Socks
- Baby bibs
- Pet accessories (pet shirts, bandana collars, food mats, bowls, etc.)
- Kitchen accessories (cutting boards, coasters, aprons, placemats, oven gloves, tea towels, etc.)
- Car accessories (bumper stickers, vanity plates, etc.)
Home & Living
Finally, expanding your spirit wear fundraiser to include home and living items can increase the appeal to a broader audience. Here are some examples:
- Mugs
- Glassware
- Bottles and tumblers
- Posters
- Postcards
- Ornaments
- Wrapping paper
- Holiday stocking
- Journals and notebooks
- Magnets and stickers
- Towels
- Blankets
- Pillows and pillow cases
- Puzzles and cards
- Golf balls
- Rugs and mats
- Stuffed animal with mini custom t-shirt
How Does A Spiritwear Fundraiser Work?
There are two ways to conduct a spiritwear store: online shops or bulk orders.
While the bulk order method is the more risky and labor-intensive of the two, it could be the right option in certain circumstances.
Meanwhile, the online custom apparel option is risk-free and requires little work on your end.
We discuss how each strategy works below.
Online Apparel Store Fundraiser
In an online apparel store fundraiser, you work with a fundraising company (like us!) to set up an online shop.
The first step is choosing your items and design. For a school spirit wear online store, this could be your school’s logo or mascot. For sports teams, it could be your team slogan, and nonprofits can choose a design that represents their mission.
Once you’ve submitted your design and picked your items, the company then sets up your online store. After that, your supporters can purchase the items online, and they ship directly to the buyer.
If you work with We Raise Together, you can even set the retail price of the items. For example, for t-shirts, you keep anything over $20. Better yet, this wholesale price includes shipping, payment processing, and all other expenses.
The typical spiritwear fundraiser markup is anywhere from about 20% to 35% profit.
For example, if you set the price of adult t-shirts at $25, you’d make $5 per shirt (20% profit). Meanwhile, if you decide on a price of $30, you’d make $10 per shirt (33% profit).
Additionally, patrons don’t have to wait until the end of the fundraiser to receive their items. Instead, orders are shipped as they come in.
Finally, once the fundraising period is over, the company mails you a check for your percentage of the total sales.
Overall, this is one of our favorite fundraising ideas. It’s risk-free and requires very little work on your part. All you have to do is submit your design, choose your products, and spread the word.
Best of all, everyone gets a product they love so they can show their pride!
Bulk Order Spiritwear Fundraiser
While the online apparel store fundraiser is the easier of the two and the choice we recommend in most instances, there is another option.
The bulk order spiritwear fundraising method involves purchasing items in bulk for a wholesale price, and then reselling them at a markup. The difference between the prices is your profit margin.
Like the online option, the first step is choosing your items and design.
Once you have your design and logo, you have two options: estimate your number of sales or use order-taker forms.
If you’re selling shirts at an event, you’ll likely want to purchase them ahead of time. However, this can be risky because you don’t know if you’ll be able to sell all the items.
Meanwhile, with order-taker forms, your supporters collect orders and money over the course of a few weeks. Once the selling period is over, they submit their order forms to be compiled.
The fundraiser organizer then sends the bulk order and money to purchase the items. However, they hold onto the difference between the total collected money and the bulk order price. The spiritwear fundraising company then sends the bulk order to one central location.
Finally, the organizer and volunteers must distribute orders to those who ordered them.
While this option is more labor-intensive, you do lower production and shipping costs by ordering in bulk.
How To Run A Spiritwear Fundraiser Online
Running a spiritwear fundraiser is one of the most flexible and least labor-intensive fundraising ideas.
In fact, if you work with us, all you need to do is give us a design, select your items, and spread the word.
Below, we explain in detail how the entire process works.
1. Sign Up
The first step in running your spiritwear fundraiser online is signing up with a company that provides risk-free set-up, transparent pricing, and high-quality products.
Fortunately, we’ve built these core tenets into our custom online store fundraisers.
You can sign up by filling out this form.
2. Submit Your Logo or Design
Once you fill out our form and request a fundraiser, we’ll ask you to provide us with the design you want on your products.
For school spiritwear fundraisers, your school logo is often a good choice. However, you can get more creative if you want!
You may even consider asking students or members of your nonprofit team to create an entirely new design just for your campaign.
3. Choose Products and Prices
Once you submit your custom design, we’ll ask you to select what products you want to include in your fundraiser.
Popular items are typically t-shirts and hoodies, but the possibilities are virtually endless. In fact, you can include anything from phone cases to mugs to dog shirts in your sale!
Just keep in mind that more products doesn’t necessarily mean more sales. Take some time to think about the products your supporters would be interested in.
Additionally, we let you set the retail prices of your products.
Below, we provide a breakdown of pricing for some of the most popular online spiritwear fundraising items:
| Item | You Keep Anything Over… | Suggested Retail Price | Your Profit Per Item |
| T-shirt (Adult, Youth, and Toddler) | $20 | $25-$30 | $5-$10 |
| Long Sleeve Shirt | $25 | $30-$35 | $5-$10 |
| Tank Top | $20 | $25-$30 | $5-$10 |
| Hooded Sweatshirt | $40 | $50-$60 | $10-$20 |
| Infant Bodysuit | $20 | $25-$30 | $5-$10 |
| Baby Bib | $20 | $25-$30 | $5-$10 |
| Joggers | $35 | $40-$50 | $5-$15 |
| Socks | $17 | $22-$27 | $5-$10 |
| Face Mask | $15 | $20-$25 | $5-$10 |
| Phone Cases | $25 | $30-$35 | $5-$10 |
| Trucker Cap | $20 | $25-$30 | $5-$10 |
| Twill Hat | $24 | $30-$35 | $6-$11 |
| Tote Bag (Small) | $20 | $25-$30 | $5-$10 |
| Tote Bag (Medium) | $22 | $27-$32 | $5-$10 |
| Tote Bag (Large) | $25 | $30-$35 | $5-$10 |
| Canvas Lunch Bag with Strap | $20 | $25-$30 | $5-$10 |
4. Website Setup (we take care of this)
Now that we’ve got your design and product selections, we’ll take care of setting up your online spiritwear store.
We’ll ask for your school, team, or nonprofit colors to keep your website on brand. Then, we’ll set up individual pages for each of the following things:
- Store/product catalog page
- About page explaining the purpose of the fundraiser
- Pricing transparency information page
Setting up the website usually takes no more than a few days. Once it’s ready to go, we’ll send you the link which you can share with your supporters.
5. Promote Your Spiritwear Fundraiser
Your online custom apparel store is now ready to go, so it’s time to promote your fundraiser!
We’re happy to provide you with a custom flyer or email template to spread the word. Alternatively, you can create your own marketing materials. Ultimately, you should do whatever you think is best for your patrons.
We recommend sending an email out to anyone who may be interested in the fundraiser. For schools, this might involve sending an email out to all parents and guardians, or handing out flyers to students in homeroom.
For nonprofits, we recommend sending an email out to all of your existing donors.
Social media is also a great way to let people know about the shop. Share a flyer to your organization’s page, and allow people to share it on their personal profiles.
Remember, the more people know about your online shop, the more money you can potentially raise!
6. Supporters Make Purchases
Now comes the best part of the fundraiser–where you raise funds and your supporters get to show their school or team pride!
Contributors can visit your website and make their purchases. Then, their orders are shipped directly to them. This means no complicated handling for you, and less waiting for your patrons.
Additionally, as we’ve mentioned, there will be no surprise shipping or processing costs at checkout. This reduces the likelihood that people abandon their carts before making their purchase. It also increases transparency and trust between your group and contributors.
Typically, we suggest you run your sale for about two to four weeks. This gives buyers a chance to check out your store, but not so much time that they keep putting it off.
7. We Send Your Funds and Sales Report
At the conclusion of the fundraiser, we’ll calculate the total amount of money you earned from your fundraiser.
Additionally, to ensure transparency, we provide you with a sales report. This way you know exactly how much you raised and how you did it.
If your fundraiser is a success, the sales information can also provide some insights into your best-selling products if you ever run another one.
Finally, and most importantly, you can put the raised funds to good use!
Best Online Spiritwear Store
The best online spirit wear store should be risk-free, transparent about costs and profit margins, and deliver high-quality products.
These are the three cornerstones of our online custom apparel fundraiser, which you can sign up for here.
Additionally, we create a unique website using the colors of your choice. It will have a page for each of the following things:
- Purchasing products
- Explaining the purpose of your fundraiser
- Pricing information and transparency
We only collaborate with top-rated print-on-demand suppliers, ensuring your supporters receive high-quality items.
Finally, we have a simple, flexible, and risk-free pricing structure. For every product, we keep up to a certain dollar amount to cover costs like materials, printing, labor, shipping, and payment processing.
You get to set your retail prices and keep anything above our set prices.
6 Advantages of an Online Spiritwear Fundraiser
We cover a lot of different fundraising ideas on this blog, but our favorite by far is the spiritwear fundraiser.
Below we discuss why we believe starting an online custom apparel shop is the best option for any type of organization.
1. Risk-Free
One of the key reasons we believe spiritwear fundraisers are great is that you take on no risk in starting one.
With our custom merch fundraisers, there’s no minimum order or sales total. Additionally, we set up the website and provide marketing materials for free.
We make money by taking a small percentage of each sale. This means your success is our success!
2. No Waste
Another reason this type of fundraiser is risk-free is that there’s no waste.
Traditional bulk order fundraisers require you to calculate exactly how many of each product you need. This can lead to over- or under-ordering.
With online spiritwear fundraisers, however, every product is print-on-demand. This means you never need to worry about purchasing too many or too little items to sell.
It’s not only the more efficient and cost-effective option, but it’s also the more sustainable and environmentally-friendly choice.
Additionally, while there’s obviously an environmental impact for any type of shipment, we believe the direct delivery is actually more sustainable. Delivery companies use sophisticated logistics and routing algorithms to map out the most efficient routes, reducing fuel usage and emissions.
Meanwhile, bulk order pick-ups often result in numerous individual trips by supporters to collect their items. This can mean multiple separate car journeys, which can potentially generate more emissions than a single, well-planned delivery route.
3. Transparent Pricing
Not every spiritwear company is totally transparent about their pricing. For example, some companies charge supporters shipping at the end of checkout, creating a surprise expense and frustrating your patrons.
In fact, one study found that an unexpected shipping cost can cause 28% of buyers to abandon their carts.
Fortunately, We Raise Together includes shipping costs, as well as payment processing costs, into our base price.
The profit margin on each item in a spiritwear fundraiser is typically 20% to 35%.
Since you know your supporters better than we do, we let you set the retail price for each item. This allows the schools and nonprofits we work with to tailor their pricing to their unique audience.
The prices you see below cover materials, printing, shipping, and payment processing. All you have to do is spread the word about your fundraiser.
4. High-Quality Products and Printing
We only collaborate with top-rated suppliers, ensuring each product your supporters buy is of the highest standard.
Additionally, we don’t use lower-quality materials to cut costs. For example, for custom t-shirts, we could use the Gildan 5000, a slightly cheaper, heavy cotton tee. Instead, we deliver Bella+Canvas shirts, made using a light fabric with 100% Airlume combed and ringspun cotton.
We also offer a wide range of products, in addition to the spiritwear essentials like t-shirts and hoodies.
After all, we firmly believe that the success of a custom apparel fundraiser depends on offering awesome items that people really want to buy.
5. No Geographical Limitations
Another great part about the online spiritwear fundraiser is that supporters can make purchases from anywhere in the United States.
This is especially great for nonprofits with a nationwide presence. However, it’s also convenient for schools, because students’ family members can contribute regardless of where they live.
In bulk order fundraisers, it’s a difficult task to hand out all the orders once the bulk shipment arrives. Instead, with this online option, orders are shipped directly to supporters’ homes.
Overall, this allows patrons to receive their orders more quickly, results in less work for you, and makes for an overall easier fundraiser.
6. Show Pride and Increase Awareness
Going along with no geographical limitations, this fundraising idea allows supporters to show their school or team pride anywhere, anytime. This is true whether they’re local or live across the country.
For nonprofits, this is a great opportunity to spread the word about your cause and hopefully encourage more people to get involved!
Additionally, contributors can express their passion for your cause in many ways. For example, they can:
- Wear a hoodie to a sports game
- Carry a tote bag to the grocery store
- Sip coffee from a custom mug at work
Ultimately, these items allow your supporters to incorporate their pride into their everyday lives.
After all, it’s about more than just raising funds. It’s about fostering a sense of community and shared identity, regardless of where your supporters are or what they’re doing.
7. Spiritwear Fundraiser Setup Is Easy
Finally, one more great advantage of the online spiritwear fundraiser is that it’s so easy to get started.
In fact, we’ve mentioned a couple times throughout this post that all you need to do is provide a design, select your items, and get the word out.
No dealing with inventory, worrying about order forms, or handling any cash.
It’s a streamlined, hassle-free process.
This gives you more time to focus on what matters most: promoting your fundraiser and supporting your cause!
To get started, just fill out this form.
Is Spiritwear Fundraising Right For You?
A spiritwear fundraiser is a great way to raise funds for just about any type of cause. It’s easy to run, low-risk, and low-effort.
Better yet, it harnesses the power of community spirit, transforming it into tangible support that helps you achieve your goals.
Remember, it’s not just about raising funds. It’s about fostering a sense of community and celebrating your shared spirit.
So, why not see how much of a difference you can make? With the right spiritwear, your fundraising goal is closer than you think!
To get started, just fill out this form, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
