The New York Red Bulls as a fundraiser

Table of content

Abstract

The New York Red Bulls as a fundraiser and donor

Background

Fundraising Actions
Wallington Youth Soccer & Red Bull Soccer Fundraiser
Former player Joe Vide
Convenant House New Jersey
Newtown Youth & Family Services

Donation
Donation Request
Families of slain NYPD officers
New York’s Got Wings
SHARE Africa

Conclusion

References

Abstract

The following paper focuses on the fundraising activities and donation from the New York Red Bulls. At the beginning of the paper there will be short information why the topic was chosen. The purpose of the paper is to find out if the New York Red Bulls are doing a good job in the field of fundraising and their different roles as a fundraiser and donor.

It is interesting to see that most of the activities are related to organizations that work with youths and that the donations are equipment instead of money. The fundraising events are hosted with other organizations and the Red Bulls give the whole money they raised to those organizations.

The paper shows that the Red Bulls are being very active when it comes to fundraising but they can still improve. Also, it helps the organization to get more fans and be more popular because the press is talking about their events.

The New York Red Bulls as a fundraiser and donor

“Thank You Red Bulls!” This was written on a sign from children in Kenya when the Red Bulls sent soccer balls and equipment with the organization SHARE Africa to Africa (Warshaw, n.d.). This is not the only donation the New York Red Bulls did to help non-profit organizations; at the same time the club organizes fundraising events to help other organizations.

The paper will focus on their function as a fundraiser and also as a donor. It will be interesting to see how they focus on both sides and especially why they do it. Most likely they raise money in cooperation with another non-profit organization; they do not raise money for their own organization; they do it to help other organizations. The organization has enough money that they could only donate money but instead they are organizing events to help raise money for the organizations. Also, they focus on donations for organizations that work worldwide, for example equipment or tickets to non-profit organizations. As a fundraiser they can focus on fans and athletes to raise money.

This paper will present a few events they hosted to raise money (e.g. sleep out at Red Bull Arena) and a few campaigns were they donate money (e.g. “New York’s Got Wings”). I choose this organization because I will be doing an internship in the event marketing department with the organization. Regarding to this, I want to find out what events they are doing in this field and what they can do better. Also, I am a soccer player and for that reason I am interested to learn about fundraising activities of a soccer club.

The purpose is to find out how their actions affect the club itself (e.g. popularity and number of fans) and why they do it. Also, I will focus on if they do enough in the area of fundraising or if they should focus more in this section.

Background

The New York Red Bulls are one of the 20 Major league soccer (MLS) teams and were found in 1996 under the name MetroStars. In 2006, the Anschutz Entertainment Group has sold the club to the Austrian energy drink company Red Bull; and renamed the club to its current name New York Red Bulls (Vescey, 2008). The team was re-branded with a new uniform and logo.

Red Bull started to invest in soccer in 2005 when they sold the Austrian soccer club SV Austria Salzburg and named them Red Bull Salzburg. In 2006, they did not only invest in the U.S. market, they also own a soccer club in Ghana which is named Red Bull Ghana and a soccer Academy named Red Bull Soccer Academy West Africa. Since 2007 the Red Bulls founded a soccer club in Sao Paolo, Brazil which is named Red Bull Brazil. In 2009 they founded a soccer club in Germany which is called RB Leipzig. Regarding to the law of the German soccer league (Deutscher Fußball Bund) they were not allowed to call the organization Red Bull Leipzig; for that reason the name is RasenBallsport Leipzig (Wöckener, 2014). Next to soccer, Red Bull invests in many extreme sports and sponsors many unique events. Red Bull New York works close with the other Red Bull soccer clubs worldwide; they are expected to hold friendly matches and training camps, and share merchandising, marketing and public relations campaigns (Havsy, 2006).

The New York Red Bulls are located in Harrison, New Jersey, where they also play their home games at the Red Bull Arena. The stadium is on of the top soccer-specific stadiums in North America with a capacity of 25,000 seats. In 2014, the team featured the MLS Golden Boot Winner Bradley Wright-Phillips, Thierry Henry who is a very famous French player, and several players with USMNT experience. The organization has partnerships with Regional Development Schools and has a Red Bull Soccer Academy, which offers one of the nation’s premier youth soccer development programs (NYRB, 2015a).

Fundraising Actions

Wallington Youth Soccer & Red Bull Soccer Fundraiser

On October 3, 2015 the New York Red Bulls had a special fundraising event at their home game against Columbus Crew. In cooperation with Wallington soccer they offered discounted tickets starting at $24.75. A portion of every sold ticket went back to the Wallington Soccer fundraiser. The event was dedicated to the Polish Community. The Wallington Youth soccer league is a non-profit organization that organizes the youth leagues in the area of Wallington (NYRB, 2015b).

Former player Joe Vide

Two years in a row the New York Red Bulls hosted a fundraising effort to support their former player Joe Vide. He was diagnostizied with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2009 and the efforts in which fans were included should help the financial burden regarding tot he cost of treatment; the efforts from the Red Bulls were hosted at games against Seattle Sounders FC in 2010 and 2011.

In 2010 the Red Bulls have organized an auction of a signed, game-worn jersey from the team captain Juan Pablo Angel. Also, they raffle of signed, game worn jerseys oft he entire starting team from the match. All the money that was raised due to this event went to Vide’s foundation. Also, the Red Bulls created an area in the stadium where fans can write a message to support the former player. They passed collection buckets throughout the stadium as another method to raise money. The team was passing out cards tot he fans which had the number of Vide’s 6uniform (14) on them to show support (NYRB, 2010). In 2011 the fundraising event was hosted at the same game; but the Red Bulls changed their strategy a little.

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