Seeking to go above and beyond in their community engagement and philanthropic efforts, KC Crew, based out of Kansas City, Missouri, has established their fundraising arm as a foundational element of their social sports league. Hosting a multitude of different types of sports leagues throughout the area, including cornhole, sand volleyball, kickball, and yes, of course pickleball, KC Crew is a diverse entertainment and recreational organization that uses these various activities to create a lasting impact on their community. In addition to their regular league programming, KC Crew hosts a variety of public, private, and fundraising events in partnership with numerous businesses and organizations throughout the Kansas City area.
As a club whose primary goal is to host leagues and events to bring adults together through fun activities, socialization, and some drinks along the way, KC Crew loves to utilize their mission to support local nonprofits. They are eager to “[bring] the fun to the nonprofit world with [their] events.”
Up until 2023, KC Crew’s nonprofit consulting had been largely an organic function of the club, beginning several years ago with a 5k race through Kansas City’s oldest cemetery to raise money for the cemetery’s maintenance. This race has become an annual occurrence having just completed the 6th edition of the fundraiser. After several years of informally flexing their nonprofit muscles, KC Crew “started to make a more [intentional] effort into fundraising events in 2023 as [they] realized the massive need for nonprofits,” says Greg Malloy, KC Crew’s Manager of General Things. KC Crew’s leadership noticed that most nonprofits are already stretched thin with regard to resources and they wanted to step in to help where they could. The best way they could think to do this was to “create awesome events to help bring in funds” for the organizations.
KC Crew’s involvement with nonprofit consulting blossomed largely due to their foresight and innovative thinking. Through various discussions with other organizations, the KC Crew team realized that “there is a bubble about to pop in the nonprofit world…as the current generation steps away from their respective nonprofits, the golf tournaments, 5ks, and galas will start to go away as well.” KC Crew is eager to create solutions to replace the fundraising opportunities that may be lost as the current generation moves away from their nonprofit work. From their view, “the world [is] moving toward being more health-conscious and experience-driven,” therefore they believe they can provide a valuable service within the nonprofit world, offering wellness-related activities to help promote and raise funds for nonprofit organizations. Through their work running various sports leagues throughout the city, KC Crew attracts a primary demographic of individuals ages 25-35, which is a prime demographic of next-generation leaders in the nonprofit world.
When working with an organization to put on an event, KC Crew aims to make the event as feasible as possible for the nonprofit and puts them “in a position where their main goal is to sell sponsorships for the event.” Malloy believes the nonprofit organization “should not be the one worrying about how many teams can play or managing team registrations or rules or any of that.” During an initial phone call, the team at KC Crew will discuss a potential partnership with a nonprofit to see if the two organizations will be a good fit to work with one another, discuss their fee structure, and explain the services that KC Crew is able to offer to the organization and allow them to make a decision about whether or not to move forward. If they decide to move forward with the partnership, they first determine a date and location and then work to “lighten the load on the nonprofit” as much as possible. KC Crew handles the events logistics, planning, staffing, equipment, programming, allowing the nonprofit to dedicate as much of their resources as possible to generating sponsorships. Additionally, KC Crew provides marketing assistance by creating a landing page for the event and connecting it to their website. They are confident their events will be run well and “are happy to offer support where [they] can.”
Because the nonprofit consulting arm of KC Crew generates so much activity, the club has two full time staff members who are fully dedicated to events and sponsorships. These two individuals, in addition to Malloy, work collaboratively on the backend to get contracts signed and handle the logistics. Further, KC Crew employs “an army of 40-60 part time staff to pull from for additional support on the day of the events.” These staffers’ work is primarily focused on the club’s various sports leagues but they are also utilized to make these nonprofit events a success as needed.
KC Crew maintains a flat fee for their consulting services “based on the type of event and scope of services.” However, they do participate in sponsorship consulting in order to help an organization hit their financial goals and maximize the impact of the event for the nonprofit.
In order to execute a successful event for a nonprofit, KC Crew focuses on three key factors. Firstly, they ensure players are evenly matched within their divisions so matches are competitive. Further, KC Crew emphasizes timely communication with participants prior to the event so everyone knows what to expect when they are. A friendly KC Crew staff member will personally welcome each participant and make sure they have all the appropriate information they need to seamlessly engage during the event. Malloy notes that “an experience can go south pretty fast if [participants] are just talking around without a clue of what is going on for the event.” Finally, and perhaps most importantly, KC Crew views themselves as the ‘firefighters.’ “The nonprofit should not have anything to do on the day of the event except for having fun,” says Malloy.
Always striving to maximize the monetary impact of these events, KC Crew “take[s] pride in thinking outside the box.” One way they do this is by generating unique sponsorship opportunities for organizations that go beyond a typical sign with the organization’s name. Each event presents its own variety of opportunities to ideate creative sponsorship opportunities and that is constantly a question the KC Crew team is asking themself when planning an event.
Along with making a significant impact on the work of the nonprofits themselves, these events help KC Crew increase their brand’s awareness within the community as they connect with all types of organizations who participate. “A lot of people only know [them] for one or two things, so it is a great opportunity for [them] to talk about what all we do and offer while executing an awesome event for [the community,]” says Malloy.
Through the years, KC Crew has had a tremendous impact on nonprofit organizations throughout the Kansas City area and beyond. For example, they have held an annual pickleball tournament for Volley Llama, which generates between $200,000-$300,000 each year for Noah’s Bandage Project. Through another initiative, KC Crew partnered with the VFW, which is headquartered in Kansas City, to host a three day cornhole tournament during their National Convention. Although the goal was simply to break even in the first year, they “helped raise over $31,000 in year one and are now an indefinite staple of the VFW National Convention.” These numbers are significant as they represent the quality with which KC Crew executes their vision to support nonprofits through fundraising events.
During his time working with various nonprofit organizations, Malloy has observed that most are desperate for support on the event planning side of things so he encourages any club looking to partner with nonprofits to not be afraid to reach out. “If you can come in, help execute an awesome event and take the work off of the nonprofit’s plate, it can be very beneficial” to the success of the event and the work of the organizations. For clubs who do not have the manpower to actually plan the event, Malloy suggests co-opting the assistance of a local sports group to plan the event for a nonprofit while the club can provide the facility and programming.
With so many pickleball fundraising tournaments happening each month, there is ample opportunity and need for clubs to get involved in these kinds of collaborative efforts with nonprofit organizations. Because of their skill set and desire to bring people together through fun sports events, KC Crew is able to provide a significant value add to nonprofits through their consulting services and experience hosting excellent events.
