About Prideraiser: Supporting with Pride

This page is written for an audience composed of soccer supporters group membership/leadership. Click here if you are involved with a local LGBTQ+ charity.

At Prideraiser, our mission is to build larger, more inclusive supporter communities that foster a positive, local impact (and put new fans in the stands along the way).

Using our voices as supporters is one thing, but it's also critical that we use our influence to help realize the full potential of the beautiful game. Prideraiser was accidentally founded in 2017 when a couple of fans realized the power of the platforms given to us by soccer. We not only used those platforms to raise money for important causes, but we also saw that reaching out to new fanbases strengthened our own supporters groups and brought more people together to support our teams. The model was shared with the supporter community and evolved into what it is today - Prideraiser was built by supporters, for supporters.

We invite you and your supporters group to join the incredible, growing Prideraiser movement. Organize a campaign through June (that's Pride Month!) that benefits a LGBTQ+ organization in your community and will pay dividends for your supporters group into the future. We are offering our platform at zero cost to make your efforts easy and effective.

Read on to learn about the Prideraiser pledge model and the benefits Prideraiser can bring to your community and supporters group.

Yours in the spirit of community soccer,

—Dan, Galen, and Dean

The Volunteers of Prideraiser.org

WHAT IS PRIDERAISER?

Prideraiser is a COALITION of independent soccer supporters that raise money for LGBTQ+ causes in their local communities every June, a novel, engaging fundraising MODEL, and a free PLATFORM that makes it all easy.

Our coalition consists of organizers from more than 70 supporters groups, at every level of the "pyramid," in the US and Canada, as well as a core team of administrative volunteers.When you join Prideraiser, we’ll invite you to our Discord workspace where we discuss our fundraising campaigns almost as much as we talk about soccer, supporter culture, stadium/front office relationships, and new ideas worth kicking around. It's a special place that makes us all better at what we do inside our own supporters groups and the communities we each call home, and we want you to join our broad, vibrant community.

Our fundraising model is based on fans making a pledge per goal scored by your team during Pride Month (June)For example, if your team scores 5 goals in June, a fan's $5-per-goal pledge means $25 goes to further the mission of the local LGBTQ+ charity selected by your supporters group. This pledge model is effective at raising significant money for these organizations, and fans consistently report that celebrating goals with a good deed attached feels even better.

Prideraiser.org is our free platform that makes the magic happen.

With Prideraiser.org:

Your fundraising campaign gets a beautiful online home.
Fans can record their pledges (and edit them later) and, if they wish, pledge anonymously.
Fundraising numbers are automatically calculated so you, your fans, and the organizations you support can see your impact.
Donating at the end of the campaign is easy—we’ll send instructions to everyone who pledged.
And when we say free, we mean it: Prideraiser charges zero application fee, zero setup fee, zero transaction fees, and we do not sell our data.

With the trust and participation of our supporters group partners, Prideraiser has become the best way to raise funds for worthy causes and provides a simple avenue for outreach to new fans.

GETTING STARTED

Forming a relationship between your supporters group and a community organization serving LGBTQ+ individuals is the core of a successful Prideraiser campaign. An ideal campaign will result in much-needed fundraising for your partner organization while also benefiting your supporters group and club—more match tickets sold, more contributors in your supporters group, and new friends along the way. Your beneficiary can be a 501(c) organization or another group near to your heart. After you've selected an organization to partner with, determine what goals you want to base pledges on: At home and away? Does your SG support both a women's side and a men's side? Let your schedule guide you! (There is even precedent for Prideraiser campaigns to record pledges based on yellow cards.)Fill out a Prideraiser application to tell us about you and your campaign. We can't wait to review your application and help you get set up on Prideraiser.org!

Apply to join Prideraiser now

CONDUCTING YOUR PRIDERAISER

Once your campaign is live on Prideraiser.org, there are a few things you'll need to do and a few things we'll handle for you.

Things you need to do:

Drive those pledges! Spread the word by sharing your campaign on social media, discussing your effort with fans before, during and after matches, and encouraging others to take pride in your campaign by sharing why they made the decision to pledge. Getting new pledges is even easier than you think; submitting a pledge at Prideraiser.org can take a fan less than a minute, in the middle of a halftime conversation, and without putting down their beer.
Check in on our Discord. The Prideraiser Discord workspace is a great place for strategy and discussion with your peers across the continent. The Prideraiser Discord bot can also send you reminders when new pledges are made to your campaign (which is always a seratonin boost).
Update your Goals. Updating your goal tally on the Prideraiser.org page after each match keeps your fans informed of the local impact of their pledges. It also helps us at Prideraiser HQ track all of our campaigns' progress as a whole.
Tend the relationship with your local partner org. Your Prideraiser campaign's long-term impact is tied to how much work you put into this relationship. Have a regular dialogue to keep them updated on your campaign's progress. Boost each other on social media. Invite them to a match and use your platform to share their mission and celebrate their work. And ask other supporters groups for suggestions in Discord on how to foster further collaboration.

Things we'll do for you:

We'll contact everyone who makes a pledge at the end of the campaign with instructions to donate directly to your partner organization.
We'll offer beautiful, low-cost Prideraiser merch to leverage when promoting your campaign.
We'll keep a close eye on the Prideraiser Discord during campaign season, so we can answer questions and resolve technical issues.

Sophisticated campaigns can recognize supplementary efforts from your club or other businesses using Prideraiser's "Partner Contributions" facility, and credit it in your fundraising total at the of the month.

BEYOND PRIDE MONTH

What comes after your campaign ends, and your fans have fulfilled their donations? That's truly up to you, but we encourage you to stay involved by continuing to build the relationship with your partner organization. Keep in touch to see what they are able to do with their Prideraiser funds. Ensure those fans who attended matches for the first time because of your Prideraiser campaign are excited to come back for more by making them feel at home in your supporters community. Even during the pandemic, in the soccer-free June of 2020, we saw that local LGBTQ+ organizations were able to raise needed funds thanks to the lasting relationships they had built with supporters groups during previous Prideraiser campaigns.The relationship with your supporters group, your community, and your beneficiary can be a deep and lasting one, so spend a little time throughout the year investing in it.