Sioux Empire Baseball Association Raises Up to $20,000 Annually

Each spring, baseball and softball teams across America gear up for action.

During the high school off-season, athletes are busy practicing, improving, and possibly playing in a few tournaments with their travel teams. Meanwhile, the parents of players at the Sioux Empire Baseball Association (SEBA) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, are busy using RaiseRight gift card fundraising (aka scrip) to support their teams. 

"Fees for the advanced travel baseball teams are higher than a recreational league," says SEBA RaiseRight coordinator Amy. "And high school baseball in South Dakota is a club sport, so SEBA wants to help families offset the fees for that as well."

With this mission in mind, SEBA started gift card fundraising in 2006, when Amy was an administrative assistant for the organization. She had prior experience as the RaiseRight co-coordinator at Sioux Falls Lutheran School so that she could pass along her knowledge to the Assistant Director of SEBA.

"The Assistant Director announced that SEBA would be offering RaiseRight, then shared some basic information about what the program could do for the families, and it just took off from there," Amy said. "The program caught on within a month!"

Amy's sons played for SEBA, and her husband also coached for SEBA, so she eventually became the coordinator in 2008 after taking over the Assistant Director position. She’s been growing the program ever since. "The program is so easy to start and maintain," she said. “Many think that RaiseRight is just for private schools, but it's beneficial for so many other types of organizations."

Getting families involved

SEBA isn't just a couple of baseball teams under one name—there are over 2,000 families who have players that participate in one of SEBA’s many leagues, ranging from recreational to advanced travel teams.

"Over 80 families are actively using RaiseRight as of right now," Amy said. "We also just started allowing families to build up credit for future years as their kids get older and fees increase, especially for the advanced travel baseball and high school fees."

In terms of marketing, every fall, SEBA holds a commitment meeting for families who have players on an advanced travel baseball team. Amy pitches RaiseRight at this meeting, mentioning it as a way to help them reduce their fees. Amy also communicates through email reminders.

SEBA runs their program all year, however, “sales tend to drop off a little bit closer to summer, and families are so busy going to games during summer that they tend to make fewer purchases in general," Amy mentioned. She also noted that “some families wait to use the program until they know if their player is assigned to an advanced travel team. But since expanding the program to be available to all families even outside of the advanced teams, I'm confident sales will remain steady all year."

Making the most out of RaiseRight

SEBA leverages multiple methods for selling and distributing RaiseRight gift cards. "Some families drop into our office to purchase gift cards that we keep on hand," Amy mentioned. Their inventory includes gift cards from popular retailers on RaiseRight, plus a few local businesses. "All our staff members are equipped to help those who want to stop by the office to buy gift cards. It just takes a couple of minutes."

In addition to an inventory program, SEBA places national orders (bulk orders). "Other families prefer to submit a form and pay the SEBA office directly," Amy noted. 

Lastly, most families now take the digital route by simply shopping for eGift cards or physical gift cards via RaiseRight.com or the RaiseRight mobile app. "As we've grown the program, we encourage families to shop online or through the app," Amy said. 

Fundraising success

Between the inventory program, national orders, and online gift card purchases, families raise between $10,000 to $20,000 annually, while SEBA receives $3,200 to $5,600 from their administrative fees on all gift cards sold. "That money goes back into SEBA’s programming to help purchase equipment, pay umpires, and cover other expenses that we incur with running a baseball program," Amy said.

RaiseRight has been incredibly successful for SEBA; since starting in 2006, gift card fundraising has brought in over $250,000, and Amy is excited to see that number grow as they continue to encourage more families to use the program.

In addition to gift card fundraising, SEBA also sells tournament book advertising space to businesses in Sioux Falls. But for Amy and SEBA, gift card fundraising is truly the star of the show. "RaiseRight is the easiest way to help pay for baseball fees. Families have to eat, get gas for vehicles, buy household items, and have fun—and there are gift cards available for just about everything!"