Rugby Tour Fundraising 30 Proven Ideas
Everything your club, school or college needs to fund the tour of a lifetime, events, sponsorship, online fundraising and a 12-month plan.

Rugby Tour Fundraising 30 Proven Ideas To Fund Your Team’s Tour

A rugby tour is one of the best experiences a team can share, but there is no getting around it, tours cost money. Flights, accommodation, matches, festivals and excursions add up and the difference between a half-empty tour bus and a full squad is almost always fundraising.

The good news? Clubs and schools raise thousands every year with the rugby tour fundraising ideas below and the fundraising itself often builds as much team spirit as the tour.

At Irish Rugby Tours we have helped school, club, college and senior teams tour the world since 1997, and we have seen what works. Here are 30 proven fundraising ideas, a 12-month plan to organise them and answers to the questions every tour organiser asks.

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Step 1

How Much Do You To Raise?

Get a free quote for your destination, multiply by your touring party, and subtract what families can reasonably pay themselves. The gap is your target. Split it across 12–18 months and several events and makes it less scary!

Before picking your fundraisers, set a target. A 3–4 day European tour might run a few hundred euro per player, while a long-haul tour to South Africa, New Zealand or the USA is a bigger commitment. Get a free quote for your destination first, multiply by your touring party, then subtract what players and parents can reasonably contribute themselves. The gap is your fundraising target and once you split it across 12–18 months and several events, it stops looking scary.

Rule of thumb: Aim to fundraise 30–50% of total tour cost, with players and families covering the rest. Set a per-player figure so everyone knows exactly what their share is.

Step 2

Get Organised First: The Fundraising Committee

The most successful touring teams do three things before a single euro is raised. They appoint a small fundraising committee (a treasurer, an events lead and a sponsorship lead is plenty), they open a dedicated tour bank account so funds are transparent and separate from club money, and they build a simple calendar of events so fundraisers are spread out rather than crammed into the final months.

Check whether your club, union or school has rules about raffles, lotteries and street collections.

In Ireland, certain collections need a Garda permit, in the UK, small society lotteries are regulated & in the North America, your school or booster club may need to approve fundraisers.

Every idea in this guide is rated for effort (how much organising it takes) and return (how much it can raise), so you can build a balanced plan of quick wins and big earners.

Club & Community Events

1. Table Quiz Night

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

The classic for a reason. Get the clubhouse or a local pub to donate the room, write 8–10 rounds, charge per table of four and add a raffle at half-time. Have each round sponsored by a local business and you can double the take. Players collect answer sheets in their jerseys so everyone knows where the money is going.

Pro Tip: Sell “cheat cards” (€5 to peek at one answer) a fun extra that adds 10–20% to the night’s total.

2. Race Night

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

Screen pre-recorded races in the clubhouse, sell each horse to an “owner” and take bets on the night.

Race sponsorships, the bar and a raffle stack three income streams into one evening.

A licensed race night kit handles the legality and logistics.

3. Sportsman’s Dinner & Auction

Effort: High

Potential Return: Very high

The biggest single-night earner on this list. Sell tables, book a guest speaker (every club is one or two phone calls away from a former pro) and auction donated items. A signed provincial or international jersey can raise hundreds on its own. Add experiences like “coach for a day”, restaurant vouchers and golf fourballs.

Pro Tip: Run a silent auction alongside the live one so quieter bidders still spend.

4. Coffee Morning & Bake Sale

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Low–medium

Cheap to run and brilliant for visibility.

Hold it in the clubhouse before a home fixture, ask parents and players to bake and ask a local supermarket to donate tea and coffee.

Small money, but repeatable every month and a great way to advertise your bigger events.

5. Club BBQ / Food Stall on Match Days

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Your club already has a crowd every weekend, feed it.

A burger-and-sausage stall at home fixtures, priced fairly, is easily repeatable and adds up fast over a season.

Ask a local butcher to sponsor the meat in exchange for a banner.

6. Fun Run, Walk or Cycle

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

Low barrier to entry means the whole community can join.

Set a 5k route, add fancy dress and sell sponsorship of the start line, finish line, water stations and km markers.

Keep the entry fee small and chase footfall, a big crowd lets you charge sponsors more.

7. Golf Classic

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

Book a local course, sell team entries to members and sponsors, then layer on extras like, nearest-the-pin, longest drive, sponsored holes, on-course refreshments and a post-round raffle.

Corporate fourballs are an easy ask for businesses that want to entertain clients while supporting the club.

8. Duck Race

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Number a few hundred rubber ducks, sell them as tickets, then race them down a local stream on a family fun day with food and music.

Quirky, memorable and very photogenic, perfect content for your social channels.

Match-Day & Clubhouse

9. Supermarket Bag Packing

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Book a busy Saturday at the local supermarket, bring branded buckets and have players pack bags in club jerseys.

Little skill, big commitment, great community visibility.

In Ireland, check whether you need a Garda collection permit first.

10. Car Wash

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Run it during senior home fixtures, supporters pay on the way in, players wash cars during the match and everyone drives home in a clean car.

Make sure to have it placed near an outside tap so a hose can be attached.

Easily repeated every few weeks.

11. Match-Day Programme with Paid Ads

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

Produce a special programme for your biggest fixture and sell quarter, half and full-page ads to local businesses.

Add player profiles, club history and a feature on the tour itself so supporters see exactly what they are funding.

12. 50/50 Draw

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Sell tickets at every home game, the winner takes half the pot and the tour fund keeps the rest.

Zero prize cost, runs all season and totals grow as the jackpot rolls over on unclaimed weeks.

13. Club Lottery / “400 Club”

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: Very high

Recruit members who pay a small monthly amount (€5–10) by standing order for a fixed number.

Winners are drawn monthly. With 200–400 members this becomes the steadiest earner a club can have and it keeps paying after the tour bus comes home.

14. Meat Draw / Hamper Raffle

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Ask your local butcher to donate hampers, then raffle them at training, matches and socials in the week before the draw.

Name the butcher loudly and often, they will likely do it again.

15. Pitch Squares (a.k.a. Cow Pat Bingo)

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium to high

Mark the pitch into a grid of numbered squares and sell each square.

The winning square is chosen at a club event, rural clubs can let a cow decide, town clubs can drop a ball from a drone.

Hundreds of squares at €5 each adds up quickly.

Stack the Steady Earners:

A lottery + 50/50 + food stall running quietly all season often out- earns every one-off event combined.

Sponsorship & Business

16. Tour Sponsorship Packages

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: Very high

Build three tiers (e.g. Gold/Silver/Bronze) offering logo placement on tour kit, training wear, social media, the tour blog and a thank-you event.

Businesses respond far better to a clear menu of benefits than a vague request for help.

Two or three good sponsors can cover a large slice of any tour.

17. Sponsor-a-Player

Effort: Low

Potential Return: High

Local firms or families sponsor an individual player’s tour place, in full or in part.

The player wears the sponsor’s patch, name-checks them on social media and writes a thank-you after the tour. Especially effective for school and youth teams where the story is personal.

18. Tour Kit & Jersey Sponsorship

Effort: Low

Potential Return: High

Your touring squad needs polos, hoodies and kit bags anyway, sell the branding space.

A business logo on a tour jersey worn across Ireland, Italy or South Africa and across hundreds of photos is genuinely good advertising.

19. Club Calendar

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

Twelve months, twelve sponsors, photos from the season and every kitchen in the parish has your club on the wall all year.

Sell to members and have each month’s sponsor cover print costs before you sell a single copy. If you are a ladies senior team, this will sell very well.

20. Pitchside Advertising Boards

Effort: Medium

Potential return: High

Sell annual pitch-side boards with the first year’s fee directed to the tour fund.

It is a lasting asset for the club and a recurring revenue stream after the tour.

The Sponsorship Secret:

Businesses respond to stories and visibility, not bucket-shaking. Show them exactly where their logo appears, who sees it, and follow up with tour photos. Sponsors who feel valued sponsor again next season.

Online & Digital Fundraising Ideas

21. Crowdfunding Page

Effort: Low

Potential Return: High

Set up a GoFundMe, Crowdfunder or (for US teams) Zeffy page telling the story of your tour, who is travelling, where and what it means.

Share it relentlessly in the club newsletter, WhatsApp groups, local Facebook pages, past players abroad.

Diaspora support is real, emigrant club mates love funding a tour from afar.

22. Online Club Lottery

Effort: Low

Potential Return: High

Platforms like Clubforce or Give Circle let supporters enter monthly by direct debit from anywhere in the world.

Perfect for clubs with a strong social media following and overseas members.

23. Virtual Quiz or Bingo Night

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Run a quiz over Zoom or a clubhouse-streamed bingo night so the whole community including the diaspora can join from anywhere.

Sell entry online and draw prizes live on camera, get the whole club involved.

24. Tour Merchandise Store

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: Medium to high

Print-on-demand stores let you sell tour hoodies, tees and caps with zero upfront stock cost.

Supporters get spirit wear they actually want and every sale margins into the tour fund.

25. Cashback & Community Grant Schemes

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Register the tour with supermarket community token schemes, cashback platforms and local authority or credit union sports grants.

Free money that most clubs simply never claim and assign one committee member to chase it.

Player-Led Challenges

26. Run/Row/Cycle to Your Destination

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

Touring Italy? Cover the 1,800km to Rome as a squad on treadmills, rowing machines and bikes in a 24-hour relay at the clubhouse or even a local plaza / mall. Make sure permission is sourced first.

Sponsorship per km, live totals on social media and a finish-line party.

The story sells itself, local press love it.

27. Rugby Skills Camp for Kids

Effort: Medium

Potential Return: High

Your touring players run a 2–3 day camp for minis and youth players in the holidays.

Parents get childcare with a rugby twist, kids get coached by the players they look up to and the tour fund gets the entry fees.

This one builds the club while it builds the bank balance.

28. Sponsored Head Shave, Leg Wax or “Dry Month”

Effort: Low

Potential Return: Medium

Cheap, fast and funny.

Pick the bravest or hairiest volunteers, set a sponsorship target and do the deed publicly at a club event.

Maximum social media value per euro of effort.

29. Host a Tag Rugby or Touch Blitz

Effort: Medium

Potential return: High

Run a summer tag league or one-day touch blitz for local businesses and social teams.

Entry fees, food and drink, jersey sponsorship all feed the fund and you introduce new people to the club.

30. Host Your Own 7s or 10s Tournament

Effort: High

Potential Return: Very high

This is the big one, invite neighbouring clubs to a sevens or tens tournament with entry fees, food stalls, a bar and programme ads.

It takes a strong committee, but a well-run tournament can become an annual flagship earner and great preparation for the rugby festivals you will play on tour.

Your 12-Month Rugby Tour Fundraising Timeline

Spread your fundraisers across the year so you never exhaust the same supporters twice in a month. Here’s the countdown that works.

When	What to do
12+ months out	Get your tour quote and set the target. Form the committee, open the tour account, launch the club lottery and crowdfunding page, approach tour sponsors.
9–12 months out	Run your first big event (quiz or race night). Sell calendar and programme ads for the season. Register for grant and cashback schemes.
6–9 months out	Golf classic or sportsman’s dinner. Launch tour merchandise. Start match-day 50/50 and food stalls for the season.
3–6 months out	Player-led challenge (run/row/cycle) timed for maximum publicity. Skills camp in the school holidays. Second quiz night.
0–3 months out	Final push: raffle with a headline prize, bag packing weekends, sponsored head shave. Publish the tour itinerary so supporters see exactly what they funded.
After the tour	Thank every sponsor publicly with tour photos. Keep the lottery running. Start the fund for the next tour — the best time is while the buzz is alive.

Five Rules of Successful Tour Fundraising:

Small committee with clear jobs.
Spread events across the year.
Make sponsors visible.
Tell the story of who’s touring and why.
Close the loop with photos and thank-yous after the tour.

FAQS & Touring From North America

Do we need a licence for raffles or lotteries?

Ireland: Some collections and lotteries need Garda permits.

UK: Small society lotteries register with the local authority.

Nth America: Rules vary by state and school district, please check first.

How far in advance should we start fundraising?

12–18 months before departure. It spreads the cost for families, lets you run several events without exhausting supporters and gives sponsorship conversations time to land.

How much does a rugby tour cost?

It varies hugely by destination, group size, season and duration a short European tour costs a fraction of a long-haul tour to South Africa or New Zealand. The only accurate answer is a tailored quote: Contact Irish Rugby Tours for a free, no-obligation quote for your squad and destination.

What if some players can’t afford the tour?

Combine three streams: Player contributions in instalments, team fundraising events and sponsorship. Sponsor-a-player schemes exist precisely so nobody gets left at home.

What’s the most profitable fundraiser?

Per Event: A sportsman’s dinner with an auction. Over a full year: a monthly club lottery, because it never stops earning.

US & Canadian Teams Touring Ireland:

If your club or booster has 501(c)(3) status, donations can be tax-deductible a game-changer with local businesses. Zero-fee platforms like Zeffy, restaurant give-back nights, “sponsor a mile” campaigns (3,000+ miles to Dublin!) and college alumni funds all work brilliantly.

Talk To Us Early:

A confirmed itinerary and quote gives your campaign a concrete, credible target.

Ready To Put That Fundraising To Work?

Once the fund is growing, the fun part is choosing where to tour. Explore our rugby tours or get a free quote.

Get A Free Quote

Want the whole guide to keep and share?

Download the free Fundraisng Guide (PDF)

Irish Rugby Tours Testimonials

Raymond O'Grady
June 16, 2026