RAISING FUNDS
In addition to raising and granting money to the Athletic Department as a whole, the BAF acts as the fiscal agent for your team funds. Per BHS policy and CIF and NCS Bylaws, ALL team funds must be managed in a BAF account. We are a registered 501C-3 non-profit, so funds deposited into your team’s account are tax deductible. Our organization is an all-volunteer organization, and in particular the treasureer & clerk jobs are extremely time consuming. In order to keep the jobs manageable, we ask you to work with us to make it as easy as possible.
TEAM CAMPAIGNS
BAF helps all teams fundraise with the help of a fundraising software platform. Each team has access to the platform to create their own custom team fundraising campaign. Team parents have realtime access to how much the team is raising. You can see all these campaigns on our main fundraising page.
PARKING LOT
Parking lot fundraisers are an easy way for Berkeley High sports teams to raise money for their own programs by selling our parking spots on Friday and Saturdays in the Berkeley High staff parking lot. We also have a team rotation for parking during Cal Football games and the Berkeley Half Marathon.
EVENTS
Some teams run bake sales, offer a snack shack, hold clinics,o r other small in-person events and collect $$ during those events. Please reach out to the BAF clerk (bafclerk@berkeleyathleticfund.net) to coordiinate depositing those funds &getting them allocated to your team accounts.
How raising funds with BAF work?
BAF operates with a collective model, 80% of the funds a team raises remain in team accounts, while 20% goes into BAF's central fund. That central fund combines team contributions with the money BAF raises directly to support Berkeley High Athletics as a whole. A significant portion goes right back to teams through the tens of thousands of dollars BAF awards in team grants each year. BAF also makes a payment back to the District at the end of each year on behalf of BHS, to cover the gap in coaching stipends + athletic trainer. We also fund investments such as strength & conditioning coach, shared tools & technology, safety & training for coaches, and our Senior Awards scholarships.
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Some of the central fund also supports the less visible but essential infrastructure that makes all of this possible - bookkeeping & accounting, taxes and nonprofit compliance, payment processing, tracking thousands of transactions, maintaining our fundraising and team-management platforms, getting teams registered and bills paid, and making sure families and coaches are reimbursed quickly and accurately. We work hard to keep those administrative costs low so that as much funding as possible can go toward our athletes and programs.
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BAF is intentionally a collective model. Every team won't contribute or benefit in exactly the same way every year. Some teams raise more and some less. Some receive larger grants in a particular year. Some rely heavily on shared resources that others may barely use. That's okay. We aren't trying to calculate an individual team's return on every dollar contributed.
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We're trying to do something bigger: pool our resources, close as much of the funding gap as possible, and elevate the student-athlete experience across Berkeley High Athletics. Because ultimately, what we're investing in isn't just equipment, coaches, tournaments or fields. We're investing in the experiences that help our students grow into stronger teammates, leaders and people.