The 2018-19 school year was the first official year for Tiger Boosters. In addition to the obvious fundraising and financial support most athletic teams need, our primary goal was outreach and education, and to determine what kind of support the teams needed.
It became quickly apparent that each team was managed very differently and most of them would benefit tremendously from a higher level of support than we anticipated. Some teams had high levels of parent involvement and regularly traveled to tournaments and events outside the DMV, while others had limited parental involvement and almost no fundraising. Frankly, our coaches and athletic department have done amazingly well with the limited resources that they’d been provided.
ESTABLISHED OPERATIONS & LEGAL COMPLIANCE
- Focused on setting up the foundation. The Tiger Boosters is fully registered as a 501 C (3) and compliant with DCRA with a business and charitable solicitation license—so we are ready support your fundraising efforts.
- Started establishing Tax-Exempt status in different states (to be finished in 2019-20).
- Insured to the hilt.
COMMUNICATIONS
- Established weekly meetings with the Athletic Department to maintain open and ongoing communications
- Personalized team onboarding, where we met with coaches and team parents to introduce them to the Tiger Boosters and identify needs
- Launched our social media pages, which are getting quite a bit of traction. Follow us at @wilsontigerathletics on Instagram and Facebook!
- Provided WilsonLive a home base and support.
TEAM MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
- Purchased a TeamSnap subscription, a sports management platform, which will help teams organize and better manage team rostering, registration, scheduling, communications, and payment management. We launched a trial this Spring with the lacrosse teams. It went well, so we are rolling out to include other teams for the 2019-20 season.
- Purchased subscriptions for tools for team and Tiger Boosters use (C2Auctions, GiveSmart Auction Platform, TeamSnap, etc.)
TEAM FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
- Offered each sport a general ledger in our bank account so that they can accept donations and better access and manage their money from fundraising and collecting team fees.
- Provided stop gap measures for when Student Activity Fund (SAF) did not issue payments in a timely manner. This meant that teams were able to attend events they would have otherwise had to forfeit.
- Established multiple payment avenues for the teams including cash, checks, PayPal, WePay, CarPoint, onsite electronic payment options
- Provided regular general ledger reports to sports, so they knew exactly how much money was in their accounts with Tiger Boosters.
FUNDRAISING EFFORTS & SUPPORT
- Designed and sold WTF (Wilson Tiger Friends) t-shirts and Wilson Tiger car magnets.
- Hosted Tiger Athletics Bash, where we raised over $12,000 net
- Supported the Tenley Tiger Run (supporting the running programs), The DC Sneaker Expo (supporting Boys Basketball), and Ultimate Frisbee’s online auction.
- Helped teams come up with creative fundraising efforts that did not depend on the Wilson community: Sneaker Expo (Boys Basketball), Silent Auction (Ultimate Frisbee), Crab Feast -Upcoming (Football)
CELEBRATIONS
- Paid and supported the ESPY Awards event.
- Supported the Wawa grand opening on June 20, 2019. Tiger Boosters received a $1,000 donation for this.
COACHES SUPPORT
- Brainstormed and supported coaches fundraising and other efforts.
- Created checklist and onboarding packet for all coaches
- Held the End of Year Coaches Mastermind Summit. This was so popular among attendees that we will be hosting this approximately 3x a year.
GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS
- Paid coach stipends ($22,000)
- Raised over $2000 for the Shelly Bowers Scholarship Fund. Awarded $1000 at the ESPY Award.
- Awarded $760 in scholarships so athletes could attend regional and national competitions
- Contributed a $1,000 grant to Wilson Crew for the boat purchase used to win Nationals
WHAT’S COMING UP
- Rolling out a new website, and each sport will have its own page that’ll include things like team pictures, team schedule, coach bios, and bragging rights.
- Hosting a Crab Fest with the football team and cheer team in September (9/7/19).
- Establishing a grant process to support the athletic scholarships, travel fees, and capital equipment needs.
- Actively recruiting parent volunteers to fill key roles on the Tiger Boosters Board.
- Seeking a CPA and a part-time bookkeeper.
- Hosting tournaments, clinics, camps and other events to benefit sports programs (a form of fundraising)
- Hosting additional Coach Mastermind events
- Co-hosting with Athletic Department Sports Interest Meetings for each season
- Hiring additional athletic trainers
- Establishing proactive coach support especially for coaches who are not inside Wilson High School
- And a whole lot more!
SPORTS
EVENTS & FUNDRAISERS
Tiger Bash
Tiger CrabFeast
Tenley Tiger Run
Homecoming
DC Sneaker Expo
CAMPS, CLINICS & TOURNAMENTS
Basketball Summer Camp
Cheer Camp
Contact Us
Jackson-Reed High School
3950 Chesapeake St NW
Washington DC 20016
202-282-0120