Fundraising for Cheer, Dance and Drill Teams

This guide is part of fundraising for school clubs, teams and boosters. School cheer squads, dance teams and drill teams usually raise money through a school activity account, a parent booster club or both. A competitive studio team that isn't part of a school has different rules and options, covered in the guide to dance studio fundraisers.

What a season costs

Spirit programs have more line items than most teams, and several are due before the first game. Build the budget with your coach from real quotes, not last year's total, and list who pays for each line.

Put the whole season in the fundraiser budget worksheet so the team can see its gap before choosing fundraisers. Music for competition routines and showcases is a licensing question as well as a cost; the music licensing guide for dance events explains what to ask.

Fees, fundraising and fairness

Most spirit teams combine a member fee with team fundraising. The fairest structure, and the one that keeps a tax-exempt booster club out of trouble, is to raise money for the whole team and lower everyone's fee by the same amount.

Example A 20-member squad's season costs $18,000, or $900 per member with no fundraising. The team raises $8,000 together through a clinic, a showcase and sponsors. The remaining $10,000 works out to $500 per member. A separate needs-based fund, decided privately by criteria the school approves, covers members who can't pay.

What doesn't work is letting each member's sales count toward their own fee: in a tax-exempt booster club, that is the individual-account setup the IRS has treated as private benefit, as pooled funds versus individual accounts explains. Celebrate top fundraisers with recognition, not credits.

Check, too, whether fees are allowed at all. Miami-Dade County Public Schools' booster guidelines expressly prohibit parent groups from charging students or parents for equipment or team uniforms required to take part in a school activity, and they name cheerleading as an example. Other districts allow uniform fees. Either way, a quiet fund for students who can't afford gear helps; covering gear and uniforms for families who can't pay explains one approach. Ask the activities director which rule applies to your team before you send families a bill.

Rules that apply to spirit programs

Spirit teams can fall between athletics and activities, so the rules depend on how your state and district classify them. Two published examples show what to look for.

State association rules: the Texas example

Texas's University Interscholastic League (UIL) treats cheer and spirit differently from athletics in its booster club guidelines:

• No spirit amateur rule. UIL has no cheerleading or spirit amateur rule, so the athletic limits on what students may accept don't apply in the same way.
• Travel needs district approval. Booster support for spirit travel violates no UIL rule if the local district approves and coordinates it.
• Trips must be educational. A trip counts as educational when it includes something like an adjudicated spirit contest, a clinic or a recognized performance. A purely recreational trip doesn't, and can run into UIL's awards rule.
• Camp and training scholarships are allowed if recipients aren't chosen on the basis of competitive success.
• Awards for competition results, such as patches or shirts, fall under the awards rule and should be handled by the district.
• Coaches' limits still apply. UIL coaches and directors may not accept more than $500 in money, product or service from any source in a calendar year, and should not control or sign for booster funds.

District booster policies

District policies add their own conditions, especially for travel. Winslow Township's board policy on booster clubs in New Jersey, for example, requires a club to contract with the board for its activities, ask the board's permission before taking any group of students on a trip, carry liability insurance that protects the board, account to the board for all funds raised through school-related activities, and get the superintendent's approval before raising money in the district's name.

Fundraisers that fit spirit teams

Spirit teams have skills families will pay to see and children want to learn. The best fundraisers put those skills to work, and the first two below are the ones a cheer or dance team can run better than any other group at school.

1. A kids' clinic or mini camp

   Squad members teach elementary students a short routine, and the children perform it at halftime. It is the most profitable spirit fundraiser for the hours it takes; the full plan is below.

2. A ticketed showcase

   An evening of the season's routines, with the clinic kids as guests, a silent basket auction and a bake sale at intermission. The showcase budget shows where the money comes from.

3. A dance-a-thon

   Members and friends collect pledges for hours of dancing, which plays to the team's strengths and needs no inventory. The middle and high school dance-a-thon guide has schedules and pledge sheets.

4. Competition season sponsors

   Local businesses cover travel, mats or warm-ups in exchange for recognition. See the sponsor tiers.

5. Smaller, steady income

   Bows, ribbons and face painting at home games, a shared shift in the football boosters' concession stand, spirit wear in team colors (usually taxable, and the logo may need district approval), or a place in the athletic program's sports team walk-a-thon with the split agreed in writing beforehand.

Running a mini cheer clinic

A mini clinic is a half day in which squad members teach younger children motions, jumps, a chant and a short dance, ending with a performance for families and a second one at a home game. Families pay a registration fee that includes a shirt. Late summer or a Saturday in early fall works best: the gym is easier to book, families are looking for activities, and the halftime date is close enough that the children still remember the routine.

Age groups and supervision

• Group by grade. Kindergarten through 2nd grade, and 3rd through 5th, is a common split. Add a middle school group only if you have enough squad members to run a separate station.
• Staff each group with squad members. A workable target is one squad member for every four or five of the youngest children and one for every six to eight older ones, so a 60-child clinic needs roughly 10 to 12 members on the floor. If your district sets a ratio for youth programs, use its number.
• Keep adults in charge. Squad members are students. The coach and at least one other approved adult supervise the whole time, handle injuries and do every pickup. Ask the district whether adult volunteers need background checks for a program serving children.
• Keep skills on the ground. Motions, jumps, a chant and a simple dance. Leave stunts and tumbling out; there isn't time in a half day to teach and spot them safely.

A sample half-day schedule

Registration, waiver and medical information

Use the district's release or waiver form if it has one; a booster club's homemade waiver is no substitute, and many districts require their own form for any program on school property. Collect the rest on one registration form:

Pricing and a worked net

Price the clinic so that shirts and snacks are covered by each registration and the fixed costs (gym fee, insurance, supplies) are covered by the first dozen or so children. Ask the district what it charges for the gym and custodial time, and whether the booster club's insurance covers a youth program or needs an event rider.

Example Sixty children register at $35, which brings in $2,100. Per-child costs are an $8 shirt and $1.50 in snacks and water, or $9.50 each and $570 in all. Fixed costs are a $150 gym and custodial fee, $100 for an insurance event rider and $60 for supplies, or $310. Total costs are $880, so the clinic nets $1,220. Each child contributes $25.50 toward the fixed costs ($35 − $9.50), so the clinic breaks even at 13 children.

The halftime performance

• Book the slot with the athletic director and band director before you advertise the clinic. Halftime is short and the band usually has it; a pregame or end-of-quarter slot may be easier.
• Tell families exactly where and when to drop off, and whether children and parents get into the game free. The district decides admission, not the booster club.
• Hold children in one marked area on the sideline or track with the same squad members who taught them, and walk them on and off as a group.
• Release children only at a set pickup point to an adult on their registration form.
• Clear the music with whoever runs the stadium sound, and have a rain plan, such as performing at the next home game.

A ticketed showcase and its budget

A showcase is the team's own night: the season's routines, the clinic kids as guests, a silent auction of donated baskets (bids, not raffle tickets, which bring in state gaming law) and a bake sale at intermission. Because it is in the evening, Smart Snacks limits on food sold to students don't apply. Program ads and sponsor thank-yous add income without much work, and families who bought clinic registrations are a ready audience.

Example One showcase evening:

On music: the Copyright Act's section 110(4) exempts some nonprofit, non-broadcast performances of nondramatic music where no one is paid for the performance and ticket proceeds, after costs, go only to educational or charitable purposes (the copyright owner can object in writing at least seven days ahead). Cheer and dance routines usually run on edited mixes, though, and making a mix, posting video or streaming the show raises rights that exemption doesn't cover. Ask the school what licenses it holds and use mixes the provider has licensed for public performance. Donated baskets need a bid sheet and a receipt for each winner, and the cash box gets the same two-person count as a game night.

Competition season sponsors

Competition travel is the cost families feel most, and it is the easiest to sponsor because a business can see exactly what it paid for. Send letters in spring, before businesses set their budgets, and offer a short menu of recognition. Ask the district before putting any sponsor's logo on uniforms or warm-ups: district sponsorship rules often cover it, and some competitions restrict what teams may wear on the floor.

Example A four-tier menu:

Keep the recognition to names, logos and thanks so the payment stays a sponsorship; the sponsorship letter templates cover the wording and the written acknowledgment. Report to sponsors at the end of the season with a photo and what their money paid for.

A season fundraising plan

Spirit costs arrive early, so the fundraising calendar runs ahead of the competition calendar. Map it against the other groups at school with the fundraising calendar maker, and see how far apart to space major asks.

1. After tryouts: budget and approvals

   Agree the season's costs with the coach, decide what the fee covers and what fundraising covers, and submit the year's fundraisers and trips for approval.

2. Before summer: sponsor letters

   Businesses budget early. Use the sponsorship letter templates and offer recognition at the showcase and home games.

3. Late summer: the clinic

   Run it before or just after school starts, with the halftime performance booked for an early home game.

4. Season: steady, small asks

   Game-day sales and one pledge event, not a new sale every month, with a two-person count for every cash box.

5. End of year: report

   Tell families what the team raised, what it paid for and how much it lowered each member's fee. That report is what brings sponsors back.

Sources

1. Booster Club Guidelines, University Interscholastic League (Texas) (accessed 2026-10-30)
2. Booster Club Guidelines (with Board Policies 9211, 5830 and 7510), Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Division of Athletics and Activities (accessed 2026-10-30)
3. Policy 9191: Booster Clubs, Winslow Township Board of Education (New Jersey) (accessed 2026-10-30)