The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

There has been a lot of talk recently about the playing budget (or lack of it!) and I for one wouldn’t the board to increase the budget and potentially put the club in trouble however it’s clear that something needs to be done to improve the squad.....

How about fans donating a tenner a month by standing order that would purely go towards improving the squad? If 50 fans donated £10 a month over a year that’s 6 grand. Ok it’s not a massive amount but surely enough to bring in another player with a bit of quality. The fundraiser could even by named ‘tenner for a 10’- for example bringing in a number 10 with some creativity, something that we are massively lacking. I for one would be more than happy to donate a tenner a month if I knew it was going to hopefully improve what happens on the pitch.

I don’t expect us to be realistically challenging at the top end of the league as this is our level for the foreseeable future however the football needs to be entertaining to some degree. Let’s be honest the entertainment value has been almost non existent for some time now. If the quality of football continues as it is then I’m sure attendances will drop, in turn the budget will no doubt decrease. At the moment there is very little to encourage the casual fan to come along (apart from Hayden’s burgers)

Thoughts??

A few of us at the game last night discussed this exact thing. Many fan-owned clubs, and non fan-owned clubs have done this successfully.

Sounds like a great, positive idea DW.

Possibly one to approach the Club about - I'm sure they could help facilitate.

If you look at the shop part of the website, there is a section on the right-hand side where you can set up a monthly payment.

What about 100 or 200 Club with monthly prize.

100 people paying £10 a month = £1000. With £500 going to the club.

When I was much younger and living in Hastings. I helped as a fundraiser, paying a shilling a week, (5p to you younger folk). This was in aid of Hastings United. It was based on goals scored by Football League teams that Saturday. At our peak we had 15,000 members!

AndyKirkup wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 10:46 am Sounds like a great, positive idea DW.

Possibly one to approach the Club about - I'm sure they could help facilitate.

Will do

Beezus Fafoon wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 11:52 am If you look at the shop part of the website, there is a section on the right-hand side where you can set up a monthly payment.

Yes, I’ve seen that however if we were able to get a good number of people on board then it good be very beneficial to the club and in turn us fans.

I suggested a very similar idea few months back on here and reply was a short term boost to the budget wouldn't help.

I think its a great idea, i saw a club few seasons back cant remember who but did a campaign called boost the budget. Give the fans the option of a one off donation or set up a direct debit and make it clear it will go solely to the 1st team. We wouldn't necessarily have to release the amount we raised just the percentage the budget has been increased by. But also advise if some fans didn't want to donate solely to the 1st team they can still donate to the club in general.

Beezus Fafoon wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 11:52 am If you look at the shop part of the website, there is a section on the right-hand side where you can set up a monthly payment.

Probably needs to be done in a more structured way than this and ring-fenced for the playing budget, as I'm assuming any donations made via that link just get added to club funds. A web-link for this in the Shop section of the website is probably the way to go though.

UPDATE....

I’ve recently had a conversation with a board member and we’ve discussed the possibility of running something similar to a 100 club e.g people paying a £1 a week for 1 ticket and splitting the money raised between prize money and funds towards the playing budget. Do people feel this is a better idea than just trying to raise funds by fans donating on a regular basis?

The most obvious advantage to doing a prize draw is that a lot more people may be tempted to get involved thus potentially raising more for the squad!

Any thoughts or feedback would be very helpful!?