How to Run a Spiritwear Fundraiser for Your School
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with schools, teams, and organizations over the years, it’s that fundraising works best when people are actually excited about what they’re buying. That’s exactly why I love a good spiritwear fundraiser. Instead of asking families to purchase something they may never use again, you’re giving students, parents, teachers, and supporters a chance to show off their school pride while helping raise money for something that matters.
At The Awesome Company, we can help make the whole process easier, from choosing apparel and creating the artwork to printing your items and setting up an online store for orders. Whether you’re raising money for a field trip, a sports team, classroom supplies, or your PTO, a spiritwear fundraiser can be a fun and simple way to bring your school community together while reaching your fundraising goals.
What Is a Spiritwear Fundraiser?
A spiritwear fundraiser is a simple way for schools, PTOs, clubs, and athletic teams to raise money by selling custom apparel and accessories featuring their school name, mascot, colors, or logo. Families get something they can actually use and enjoy, while a portion of the proceeds goes back to the school or organization.
What I love most about spiritwear is that it keeps working long after the fundraiser is over. A student might wear their school sweatshirt all year. A parent may throw on their school tee for Friday night games. Teachers can wear spiritwear on special school days, and grandparents love having something that shows their support, too.
It also gives you a lot of flexibility. Your fundraiser can be as simple as offering one great T-shirt design, or you can create a full collection with tees, hoodies, crewnecks, hats, totes, and more.
At The Awesome Company, we can help you figure out which products make the most sense for your audience, budget, and fundraising goals so you’re not overwhelmed with too many options.
Step 1: Decide What Your Spiritwear Fundraiser Is Raising Money For
Before you start picking out T-shirts and designing logos, it helps to get really clear about why you’re fundraising in the first place. People are usually much more excited to support a fundraiser when they know exactly where their money is going.
Maybe you’re raising money for a class field trip, new playground equipment, athletic uniforms, classroom supplies, a school club, or an upcoming event. Whatever the goal is, make it part of the story you’re telling families.
“Buy some school spiritwear” is great, but “Help us raise money for new playground equipment while showing your school pride” gives people an even bigger reason to participate.
I also recommend setting a specific fundraising goal whenever possible. Having a number to work toward gives your school community something to rally around and gives you an easy reason to share updates throughout the fundraiser.
Once you know what you’re raising money for, everything else becomes a little easier. You can choose products, designs, pricing, and messaging that fit your goal and create a spiritwear fundraiser that feels intentional instead of just another school sale.
Step 2: Choose Spiritwear Your Families Will Actually Wear
One of the biggest keys to a successful spiritwear fundraiser is choosing products people genuinely want to buy. You don’t need a huge catalog with dozens of options. In fact, keeping things simple can make the ordering process easier for everyone.
I usually recommend starting with a few dependable favorites like:
T-shirts
Crewneck sweatshirts
Hoodies
Hats
Tote bags
It can also be helpful to offer a couple of different price points so families can choose what works best for them. A basic tee might be perfect for students, while parents or staff may be more interested in a cozy sweatshirt or embroidered hat.
It’s also important to think beyond just the students. Parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and alumni may all want to support the fundraiser, so choosing styles that appeal to a wider audience can help increase sales.
At The Awesome Company, we can help you sort through garment options and choose products that work well with your design, budget, and decorating method. Whether your project is best suited for screen printing, embroidery, or DTF, we’ll help you find the right combination so your spiritwear looks great and feels like something people will actually want to wear again and again.
Step 3: Create School Spirit Designs People Get Excited About
Once you’ve chosen your products, it’s time for the fun part: the designs!
Your spiritwear should feel like something people are excited to wear, not just something they bought because it was part of a fundraiser.
You can always keep things classic with your school name, mascot, or logo, but I also love giving families a few options that feel a little more modern. Think vintage-inspired school graphics, simple mascot designs, fun school sayings, graduation years, or designs that use your school colors in a fresh way.
Offering a mix of traditional and more casual styles can help you appeal to students, parents, staff, and other supporters.
And don’t worry if you don’t have perfect, print-ready artwork. That’s something we can help with at The Awesome Company. Our design team can take a look at what you have, help clean up existing artwork, or work with you to create something that’s ready for production.
We can also help you decide which decorating method makes the most sense for each design, whether that’s screen printing, embroidery, or DTF.
Step 4: Set Up an Online Spiritwear Store
One of the easiest ways to simplify a spiritwear fundraiser is to move the ordering process online.
Instead of collecting paper forms, keeping track of checks, or trying to organize everyone’s sizes by hand, families can place their orders directly through a custom online store.
At The Awesome Company, we can create an online store specifically for your school, team, PTO, or organization. Your store can have its own custom URL, making it easy to share through emails, newsletters, social media, and your school website.
We can also create a QR code for your store, which is one of my favorite ways to make ordering even easier. You can add the QR code to:
Flyers
Posters
School newsletters
Social media graphics
Take-home papers
Sporting event signage
PTO communications
Families simply scan the code with their phone and go straight to the store.
This can take a lot of the administrative work off the shoulders of teachers and parent volunteers. Instead of spending your time organizing individual orders, you can focus on promoting the fundraiser and getting your school community excited about participating.
The easier you make it for people to shop, the more likely they are to follow through and place an order.
Step 5: Set a Clear Fundraiser Timeline
A successful spiritwear fundraiser needs a clear beginning and end.
If your store stays open indefinitely, it’s easy for families to think, “I’ll order later,” and then completely forget about it. Giving people a deadline creates a little urgency and makes it easier for everyone to know when orders need to be placed.
I typically recommend giving your school community a few weeks to shop. That gives you enough time to announce the fundraiser, send reminders, and reach families who may not see the first message.
You might launch the store during the first week, spend the next couple of weeks promoting it, and then send a few “last chance” reminders as the closing date approaches. Those final reminders can make a big difference.
It’s also important to think about when you’ll need the finished spiritwear. If you’re planning around a big football game, school event, holiday, or field trip, make sure you build production time into your schedule.
At The Awesome Company, we can help you work backward from your ideal delivery date so you know when your fundraiser should launch and when orders should close.
Step 6: Promote Your Spiritwear Fundraiser Everywhere
Once your store is live, don’t be afraid to talk about it more than once.
Families are busy, emails get missed, and school papers have a way of disappearing into backpacks. A few friendly reminders throughout your spiritwear fundraiser can make a big difference in how many orders you receive.
Share the fundraiser through your school newsletter, PTO emails, social media pages, website, and parent groups. If you have a QR code for your online store, add it to flyers, posters, event signage, or anything else families will see throughout the week.
You can also have teachers, staff members, or coaches wear sample spiritwear to help build excitement. Seeing the apparel in person can make it much easier for families to picture themselves wearing it too.
And when you’re promoting the fundraiser, remember to talk about the reason behind it. Instead of only saying, “Our spiritwear store is open,” remind families what their purchase is helping support.
Keep your messaging simple, positive, and consistent. Make it easy to shop, make the deadline clear, and remind people that every order helps support their school community.
Step 7: Make Ordering and Distribution Easy
The last thing you want is for your spiritwear fundraiser to become a logistical headache.
Before launching your fundraiser, decide how families will receive their orders. Depending on the project, that might mean having everything delivered together to the school for pickup, distributing orders through classrooms, or arranging another pickup option that works for your group.
Clear communication is especially important here. Let families know when the store closes, approximately when their items will be ready, and how they can expect to receive them.
This is also where having the right apparel partner can make a huge difference.
At The Awesome Company, our goal is to make the process as simple as possible from start to finish. We can help with garment selection, artwork, printing, embroidery, online ordering, and the production side of your fundraiser so your school team doesn’t have to manage every little detail on its own.
Why Choose The Awesome Company for Your School Spiritwear Fundraiser?
There are a lot of moving pieces that go into a successful spiritwear fundraiser, and having the right partner can make the whole process feel a lot less overwhelming.
At The Awesome Company, we can help with everything from choosing the right apparel and preparing your artwork to screen printing, embroidery, DTF, and setting up a custom online store for your school.
We know that every school and organization is different, so we don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. Maybe you already have a logo and know exactly what you want, or maybe you’re starting with a rough idea and need help bringing it to life. Either way, our team can walk you through the process and help you choose options that fit your budget, timeline, and fundraising goals.
We can also create a custom online store with its own unique URL and QR code, making it easy for families to shop and for your school to share the fundraiser.
That means less paperwork, fewer order forms to keep track of, and a much simpler experience for everyone involved.
And when you work with us, you’re supporting more than just a custom apparel company. The Awesome Company is built around creating meaningful employment opportunities for neurodivergent adults, so every order helps support our mission, too.
Our goal is simple: make your school’s spiritwear look awesome, make the ordering process easy, and help you create a fundraiser your community is excited to support.
Ready to Start Your School Spiritwear Fundraiser?
A spiritwear fundraiser doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right products, a great design, an easy ordering process, and a clear plan for promoting your store, you can create a fundraiser that families are genuinely excited to support.
At The Awesome Company, we’re here to help make the process easier from the very beginning. Whether you need help choosing apparel, creating or cleaning up artwork, deciding between screen printing, embroidery, or DTF, or setting up a custom online store, our team can help you bring everything together.
If your school, PTO, athletic team, club, or organization is looking for a fun way to raise money while giving your community something they’ll actually use, we’d love to help.
Ready to get started? Contact The Awesome Company and let’s create a spiritwear fundraiser your school will be proud to wear and excited to support.
Frequently Asked Questions About Spiritwear Fundraisers
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A spiritwear fundraiser allows your school, PTO, team, or club to sell custom apparel and accessories while raising money for a specific goal. Your organization chooses the products and designs, promotes the fundraiser to your community, and receives a portion of the proceeds from sales.
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T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, hats, and tote bags are all popular choices because they’re practical and appeal to a wide range of people. Offering a few different products and price points can give families options without making the store overwhelming.
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A few weeks is usually a good starting point. You want to give families enough time to see the fundraiser and place an order while still having a clear deadline that encourages them to act.
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Absolutely. At The Awesome Company, we can create a custom online store for your fundraiser with its own unique URL. We can also create a QR code that links directly to the store, making it easy to share on flyers, posters, emails, newsletters, and social media.
