Fill the Jersey: How a Claim-Grid Fundraiser Works

A claim-grid fundraiser turns your goal into a picture that completes itself. Take a jersey (or a ball, a bracket, a mascot), divide it into squares, give every square a price, and let supporters claim squares until the image is filled. Every claim colors in a piece — so the fundraiser's progress bar IS the jersey.

The psychology is the same as the donation calendar's, with one upgrade: completion. People finish things. An 80%-complete jersey on the scoreboard at a home game creates an itch the crowd wants to scratch before the final buzzer.

The math of a 90-square jersey

A mixed price ladder beats a flat one: a spread of $5 to $100 squares gives small donors an easy entry and big donors a visible flex. As a worked example, a 90-square jersey laddered from $5 to $100 can be structured to total around $4,500 fully claimed — and the same grid at 2× or 3× prices scales to $9,000 or $13,500 without adding a single square.

The game-night play

1. Launch the grid online a week before a marquee home game so it arrives 30–50% claimed.
2. Put the live board on the lobby TV or scoreboard screen with a QR code.
3. Have the PA announcer call progress at every break ('twelve squares left to fill the jersey!').
4. Give athletes their own share links — the grid fills fastest through family group texts.
5. When it completes, celebrate loudly and publicly thank every name on a square.

What to avoid

• Too many squares — 300 tiny squares stall; 60–120 keeps every claim visibly meaningful.
• No deadline — tie completion to a date or a game, always.
• Hiding the board — a grid nobody sees is just a spreadsheet. Visibility is the mechanism.

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