Fundraising is a nonstop responsibility for most club and school teams. Between uniforms, tournament fees, and hotel costs, there’s always another expense to cover. And the pressure often lands on the same small group of overextended parents and volunteers.

Most team fundraising efforts, like bake sales, car washes, canning efforts, and donation drives, take a lot of work and rarely bring in what your team actually needs. And with only 62% of parents participating in club sports fundraising efforts each year for their kids’ teams, the weight falls on a few people to do it all. More clubs are looking for fundraising ideas for travel teams that don’t burn people out. What if we told you there’s a way that can be implemented in minutes, and it will drive revenue from something you’re already doing anyway? 

This guide walks you through one of the simplest, most sustainable options: earning fundraising revenue from hotel bookings your team is already making. Hotel booking software, like Presto by EventPipe, makes it super simple. It’s easy to use, easy to set up, and turns a travel expense into financial support without asking anyone to sell a thing.

5 Reasons Traditional Team Fundraising Is  Challenging

Let’s face it. Club team fundraising is challenging. Between rising sports costs, limited donor reach, and constant volunteer turnover, most teams are stuck doing more for less. Here’s what’s holding them back:

1. Rising sports costs make fundraising even harder

Between 2020 and 2025, the cost of youth and club sports jumped nearly 46%. Soccer and baseball costs alone are up more than 60%. That financial pressure makes it harder for families to participate, let alone donate. When parents are already stretched paying for travel, equipment, and tournament fees, there’s little left to give to fundraising efforts.

2. Small donor pools lead to donor fatigue

Most teams rely on the same small group of supporters… parents, relatives, and local businesses. But asking the same people over and over leads to donor fatigue. Contributions shrink, enthusiasm fades, and it becomes harder to hit goals. Without a way to expand your reach beyond your local circle, fundraising stalls out fast.

3. Club fundraising lacks a clear strategy and goals

One of the biggest club team fundraising challenges is a lack of structure. Many efforts fail because they don’t have measurable goals, realistic timelines, or strong messaging. Organizers may not know what motivates different audiences, like how parents want community impact, while sponsors want ROI. Without a plan, most fundraisers never reach their full potential.

4. Volunteer burnout limits fundraising capacity

Clubs rely on unpaid volunteers to keep things moving, but those volunteers are often juggling careers, school, and family life. Without training or tools, it’s easy for them to burn out. When key people leave, teams lose momentum, and fundraising efforts must start from scratch every season.

5. Corporate sponsorships are tougher to secure

Corporate sponsorships for club sports are difficult to land. More companies now focus on large-scale causes or data-driven campaigns that offer clear ROI. Most club teams don’t have the marketing resources or reach to compete. Without that sponsorship income, they fall back on low-yield efforts like car washes or raffles.

4 Key Benefits of Using Hotel Bookings as a Revenue Driver for Your Club Team

In club sports, hotel bookings are a constant. Teams spend thousands every season getting players where they need to go, but most of that spend just disappears.

This isn’t about Stay-to-Play tournaments. If you’re booking through a required Stay-to-Play policy, that’s a different process. What we’re talking about here is everything else: non-stay-to-play travel, regular season games, and any time your team books independently.

Here’s how this model helps you generate real fundraising revenue, without extra work:

1. Revenue grows with your travel calendar

Regular season weekends. League matchups. Non-stay-to-play tournaments. Every trip your team takes becomes an opportunity to earn. Each hotel booked adds to your fundraising total, so there's no need to plan separate events or start from scratch each time.

• • Earnings build game after game
  • Say goodbye to one-off fundraisers
  • More bookings = more revenue as families get used to the process

2. No time-intensive coordination

Once your booking links are set up, the hotel software does the work for you. No fundraising events to plan. No supplies to buy. No volunteers to track down.

• • Takes pressure off staff and families
  • Let's coaches and admins stay focused on the competition
  • No spreadsheets, follow-ups, or manual tracking

3. Works across multi-team and growing clubs

Whether you’re managing a single team or a full club system, hotel booking software like Presto keeps everything organized in one place.

• • Every team gets its own booking link
  • Track fundraising revenue across teams, tournaments, and dates
  • Easier and cleaner than managing email chains and group codes

4. Low effort for families, real impact for your program

Families and teams are booking hotels anyway. This just connects those reservations to your bottom line.

• • No added cost or commitment
  • No upsells, codes, or sign-ups
  • Families only have to reserve their rooms

When you combine innovative technology with everyday travel, you unlock a team fundraising model that’s predictable, scalable, and built for the pace of club sports.

5. Your travelers get discounted rates

When you book through Presto by EventPipe, your team gets access to deeply discounted hotel rates, often lower than what’s publicly available on major travel sites. That means families and teams save money on every trip, without having to hunt for deals or compare prices across platforms.

How to Implement Your Hotel Booking Revenue Strategy with Presto by EventPipe

You don’t need a new system, extra staff, or a complicated setup to start earning from team travel. With a smarter system, regular bookings turn into real revenue automatically.

Presto by EventPipe makes it easy to turn travel into a team fundraising engine. You can start in minutes, and everything is built to work with how your club already operates.

Here’s what it looks like:

Step 1: Create your organizer account

Visit Presto by EventPipe and sign up as an organizer. It’s free to get started and built for coaches, club directors, and admins, no tech background needed.

• • Designed for teams, clubs, and tournament operators
  • Works across multiple age groups or divisions
  • No contracts or setup costs

Step 2: Share your team’s custom hotel booking link

Presto gives each team a unique link to send out ahead of each tournament. Families use it to book like they would on any hotel site. No group codes, no manual coordination.

• • Keeps all bookings centralized and visible
  • No spreadsheets, no chasing down confirmation numbers
  • Saves time for both parents and organizers

Step 3: Monitor bookings and track revenue automatically

Your dashboard shows exactly what’s been booked and how much your club earns. Real-time tracking means no reports to build or manual follow-ups.

• • Track confirmed stays and earned fundraising revenue
  • View results by team, tournament, or date
  • Share clear progress updates with booster groups or leadership

It’s easy to implement and is designed to deliver value as your season unfolds. Using Presto, you can turn your tournament travel into a predictable stream of team fundraising revenue, without adding to anyone’s workload.

Final Takeaway: Raising Club Team Revenue Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard

Running a club takes everything you’ve got. Traditional fundraising methods take more than they give (and don’t scale).

Presto puts a revenue engine behind something you’re already doing: booking hotels for your team. No extra selling. No added pressure. Just a simple, sustainable way to keep dollars flowing back into your program, every time you travel.

Ready to stop chasing dollars and start earning from every trip? Book a demo and turn your team’s travel into fundraising revenue without the hassle.