RWSC Fundraising

Registration fees only cover a portion of the RWSC budget while donations and fundraising make up the remainder. 

For many years the Red Wing Swim Club hosted two large weekend swim meets in the Winter and Spring with 300-400 participants – the type of meets which we attend on weekends.  However, Minnesota Swimming changed the way meets are awarded and no longer protected host club meet weekends.  This meant that there was no longer a consistent draw to our facility as more events were being hosted in 8 lane pools with better facilities. The club chose to no longer host a weekend meet as they were a lot of work in planning, running and expenses with a small return.  RWSC continues to hold “Mini-Meets” at intervals during the year for the benefit of our newest swimmers to learn how meets work before attending a weekend USA Swimming meet.  These events are far easier to run and coordinate with lower expenses since they occur during our regular practice time.  Other clubs have been attending our Mini Meets and they are also a great training ground for new officials as well as the swimmers.

To make up the shortfall in revenue; rather than increase fees, the club held many small events throughout the season such as Dine In at Culvers and Perkins, selling discount cards, multiple Grocery bagging for tips events, car washes, etc.  While these events did raise a lot of money in total over the year, they also were a lot of work to coordinate.  Also, often, the same small group of families was shouldering the load of planning and running them while the majority of swimmers and families did not participate.

The Board recognized that it was not a fair nor sustainable method of fundraising and decided to instead host a smaller number of major events that would potentially raise the same amount of money with less overall work.  Consideration was also given to holding events that could reward families by receiving a portion of the money they raised back into their family account. To ensure that all families share the responsibility of fundraising, participating in these major fundraising events is mandatory either by participating or choosing the buyout option.

The current buyout amount for the major fundraisers is $100.00 for each fundraiser – this is a FAMILY buyout amount not per swimmer.  All major fundraisers also have a mechanism which allows the family to earn funds into their account once the minimum is raised.  That money can be used for registration fees, meet fees, apparel, or even the buyout of another fundraisers.

The major events chosen were a Heggie’s Pizza Sale, a Swim-A-Thon, and a Raffle Drawing.

Heggie’s Pizza Sale:  Families take orders for delicious Heggie’s Pizza and there is a pick-up day set up.

The goal is to have all families sell a minimum of 20 pizzas regardless of the number of swimmers in the Club. The price for the pizzas is very comparable to store pricing. This fundraiser also allows families to earn money for your club account to offset registration or meet fees.  Once you have reached your 20 pizzas, you earn $4.00 per pizza credit into your club account.

For example, a family sells 62 pizzas, the family earns $4.00 into their account for each of the 42 pizzas above their 20 pizzas minimum so $168.00 is earned.

Swim-A-Thon:  This is a fundraising event for the club in which swimmers will swim a set number of lengths over a period of 2 hours.  Swimmers invite people to sponsor them for the event.  It can be either per length of the pool or a set amount.  Example:  10 cents per length, or a flat $20.00.  While the goal is to have each swimmer receive $100 in pledges, the expectation is that each family will receive $100 in pledges.  The time frame is 2 hours of swimming time, performed during regular practice time.  Diamond / Gold Swimmers goal is 200 lengths, Silver is 150 lengths, and Bronze is 100 lengths.  Swimmers receive incentives from both RWSC and USA Swimming for individually reaching certain dollar amounts in donations. Name embroidery or silk screen is included. The incentives vary from year to year.  In 2022, once the total donations for all family members exceeded $250, then 20% of the entire amount was credited back to the Family Account. 

The 2022 Incentives were:

Raffle Drawing

The Raffle Drawing is a Cash Prize Raffle. In 2023 tickets were priced at $10.00 each with Cash Prizes of $1000, $500, $250, and 2x $100 amounts awarded through a Need Not Be Present to Win Drawing which was held prior to the 2023 Spring Mini Meet.  The Family minimum was ten $10 raffle tickets.  Any ticket sold beyond the required 10 gained a 50% credit ($5.00 per ticket) to the family account.  Raffle Packets with twenty (20) $10.00 tickets are distributed to families, but a family may sell as many tickets as they wish.