Founded by several members of the Delaware County community, Delco Dills Pickleball Club in Wallingford, Pennsylvania seeks to be a community-forward organization in an area underserved in the pickleball space. Liz Gallard and Kathy Dolphin are two of the founding members of Delco Dills and currently serve as board members for the club. They were eager to share their experience as a pickleball club working with a fiscal sponsor toward their goal of making the game more accessible for players of all skill and athletic abilities. Gallard is quick to note that while other states, and even areas not too far away such as the Jersey Shore, are writhe with pickleball courts and amenities, the Delaware County area is severely lacking in local resources. Delco Dills is working to address this gap and are on a mission to “raise funds to build properly surfaced pickleball courts in our community,” according to their website.
Delco Dills grew out of a partnership between Gallard and the local recreation association as she organized an eight week pickleball program for residents to familiarize themselves with the sport and develop their skills. However, she “had bigger dreams” for what pickleball could look like in Delaware County and because the program was hosted at a school facility, they were limited to after-school hours. Gallard’s initiative and desire to bring pickleball into a part of the country where people are generally less familiar with the game led her to “eventually [buy] a storage container to hold [pickleball] equipment” and set it up at city courts. This system allowed “people [to be] able to use the equipment when they want and not just after school hours.” Further, having a storage container with pickleball equipment for community use at city courts lowers the barrier of entry to the sport for those interested in trying it out but who don’t have to spend the money to invest in a net and paddle yet.
As the club grew and founding members began to crystalize their long-range goal to build courts of their own, “one of [their] major concerns was handling donations to their newly formed club [and] assuring they could be considered tax deductions.” Additionally, this community club did not have the administrative manpower to handle donations from an accounting perspective. This is where their partnership with the Foundation for Delaware County came into play as a critical part of the Delco Dills support system. The Foundation for Delaware County is a philanthropic foundation located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania that works to address challenges faced by the community by investing in organizations aligned with their mission.
As part of their venture to build public pickleball amenities in the area, Delco Dills asks for donations in exchange for accessing their pickleball equipment. In order to properly govern the donations, founding members “wanted to join a larger umbrella organization that had a quality reputation” to assist with holding the funds and distributing it properly when the time came. Moreover, their relationship with the Foundation for Delaware County gives credibility to their fundraising in the eyes of donors and gives them an opportunity to make a tax-deductible donation to a reputable community organization. Further, because their goal is to provide public amenities, it is important for Delco Dills to have buy-in from the township and be able to communicate a firm plan for fundraising. Partnering with the Foundation for Delaware County offers Delco Dills validity to their fundraising and helps transform the reputation of pickleball in the community from a niche sport to well-established recreational activity.
An established 501(3)(c) and known commodity, the Foundation for Delaware County makes donors feel more comfortable giving their donations. “People will open their wallets if they know it’s going to get done,” says Gallard of potential donors’ need to see concrete progress toward a goal. While the foundation takes a modest percentage of the funds as a fee, Delco Dills believes this is a reasonable and worthwhile cost to have their funds well taken care of and readily accessible when they are able to build their own courts. The foundation is responsible for “sending every donor a tax receipt for their records” while the club has direct access to their database that allows them to download donation records pertaining to the club for themselves, says Dolphin. She is very complimentary of the Foundation for Delaware County saying, “Their staff is always available for support and they did a great job getting us set up.” It was even a member of the foundation’s administrative staff who came up with the club’s name. Because they are not having to allocate time to administrating donations, the club’s board is able to spend more time on their court creation project.
It is critical for a club to choose their fiscal sponsor wisely and identify an organization whose interests and goals align with their own. “Both the Foundation and Delco Dills are striving to make the communities in which [they] live and work stronger,” making these groups wonderful partners. Together, they are working to create opportunities and improve the lives of residents in their community through recreational activity, community building, and various other avenues.
If your club finds themselves in a position in which having a fiscal sponsor would be beneficial, Dolphin is a passionate proponent of this type of relationship as it allows the club to focus on pickleball and let their fiscal sponsor manage the financial side of things. Moreover, Gallard suggests crowdsourcing as a productive means to identifying the right partner because people in the community tend to know who will be able to help. When it came to selecting the Foundation for Delaware County, it was a relatively easy choice because the club’s board was familiar with their work and reputation and knew they would be a good fit to work together.
Having raised somewhere in the five-figures so far, Delco Dills Pickleball Club is eager to bring public pickleball amenities to Delaware County and have found their relationship with the Foundation for Delaware County extremely beneficial to this cause. In partnership with the foundation, Delco Dills has banded together with the local community to materialize their vision for pickleball in the area and is now advocating to get dedicated courts built for all to enjoy.
