If you’ve been part of youth hockey long enough, you probably know the routine.

Sell the chocolate.

Sell the raffle tickets.

Sell the coupon book.

Work the concession stand.

Wash some cars.

Ask your relatives—again—if they would please support another fundraiser.

And apparently, depending on where you live, sell some poinsettias too.

Fundraising has been part of youth sports for generations because the need is real. Hockey is an expensive game, and teams continually look for ways to reduce the financial burden on families.

But that raises an important question:

Does the way we fundraise need to evolve?

On Our Kids Play Hockey, Lee Elias, Mike Bonelli, and Christie Casciano Burns sat down with Ryan and Justin from Hero Picks to discuss a different vision for fundraising—one built around technology, participation, competition, experiences, and community.

The conversation wasn’t simply about raising more dollars.

It was about changing what fundraising feels like.

The Problem With “Just Send Me the Money”

Ryan shared a story that will probably sound familiar to plenty of hockey parents.

His son’s travel hockey team was selling poinsettias.

Instead of enthusiastically taking orders, some parents essentially asked:

Can I just give you the money instead?

That response says a lot about the current fundraising experience.

People understand why teams need money.

Many are willing to help.

What they may not want is another product they don’t need, another sales obligation, or another request to send to the same group of friends and family.

Eventually, fundraising can become transactional.

“How much do you need?”

“Here’s my donation.”

“Please don’t ask me to sell anything.”

That may accomplish the financial goal, but it misses something youth sports are supposed to be very good at creating:

community.

What If Fundraising Became Something People Wanted to Participate In?

That question sits at the heart of Hero Picks.

Instead of treating fundraising as nothing more than a digital donation page, Ryan and Justin are exploring ways to make the experience interactive.

That could include:

• Individual fundraising links for players

• Team leaderboards

• Friendly competition

• Prediction questions tied to games or events

• Sweepstakes entries

• Prizes

• Custom equipment

• Experiences with athletes or public figures

• Social-media engagement

• Opportunities for supporters to remain connected throughout a season

The fundamental shift is simple.

Instead of saying:

“Please give us money.”

The experience becomes closer to:

“Come be part of this with us.”

That distinction could matter.

Fundraising Has Always Needed Engagement

Think about the most successful fundraising events.

A charity golf tournament isn’t only about the donation.

A gala isn’t only about writing a check.

A raffle isn’t only about the money spent on the ticket.

People participate because something is happening.

There is anticipation.

There is competition.

There is a social component.

There may be a prize.

There is a shared experience.

Hero Picks is attempting to bring more of those elements into a digital environment.

Justin described competition as something people have rallied around for thousands of years. Whether it’s an arena, stadium, rink, or modern sports broadcast, people naturally become more invested when there is an outcome to follow.

That same psychology can potentially make fundraising more engaging.

A Hockey Team Can Become Its Own Friendly Competition

Imagine a hockey team with 15 players.

Each player receives an individual fundraising page.

The team establishes a campaign.

Instead of every family simply sending out the same generic donation link, the players can see how their efforts compare.

Maybe the top fundraisers receive custom hockey sticks.

Maybe an athlete provides a unique experience.

Maybe there are prizes supporters can win.

Suddenly, the fundraiser has a scoreboard.

That creates another layer of motivation.

For kids who already understand competition, seeing themselves move up a leaderboard can make the process more exciting.

Of course, the goal remains raising money.

But the experience around raising it changes.

Community Can Extend Far Beyond the Rink

One of the most interesting possibilities discussed in the episode is geographic connection.

Youth hockey families rarely exist in one small circle anymore.

A player may live in Arizona.

Their grandparents may live in Pennsylvania.

A former teammate might be in Minnesota.

A cousin could live across the country.

Traditional fundraising does not always make those people feel particularly connected.

They may receive a text:

“Can you donate $20?”

They donate.

Transaction complete.

But what if that same person could follow the campaign, make predictions, participate in giveaways, watch a leaderboard, or remain connected with the team over time?

Now the fundraiser can become a bridge between people.

That is one of the larger ideas behind combining fundraising with technology.

Experiences May Be More Powerful Than Stuff

Youth sports fundraising has traditionally relied heavily on products.

Candy.

Popcorn.

Gift wrap.

Discount books.

Merchandise.

Those can certainly work.

But Ryan and Justin believe experiences may create another level of interest.

They discussed possibilities like interacting with professional athletes, receiving unique training opportunities, participating in events, or accessing something that simply isn’t available in a store.

That matters because an autograph can often be purchased online.

A one-on-one experience usually can’t.

Experiences also have another advantage:

They create stories.

A child may eventually forget the gift card they won.

They are less likely to forget skating with a professional hockey player.

For fundraising organizations, that difference can create excitement that goes far beyond the monetary value of a prize.

What About the Comparison to Sports Betting?

The discussion naturally raised an important issue.

When people hear words like predictions, sports outcomes, and prizes, it can sound similar to sports betting.

The episode addresses that distinction directly.

The Hero Picks concept described by Ryan and Justin involves using predictions to potentially gain additional entries into a sweepstakes rather than placing wagers on sporting outcomes.

The hosts also openly acknowledge why sensitivity around gambling matters.

That conversation is important because sports betting has become much more visible throughout professional sports, media, and culture.

Any platform using prediction-based engagement around sports needs to be thoughtful about that environment.

In the Hero Picks model described during the episode, the financial contribution is directed toward the fundraiser or charitable cause, while correct predictions can influence entries associated with the contest.

For teams considering any fundraising platform, families should always make sure they understand the specific rules, costs, eligibility requirements, and legal terms involved before launching a campaign.

Transparency Is Critical in Team Fundraising

One issue that doesn’t receive enough attention in youth sports fundraising is transparency.

Families deserve to know how much money has been raised.

They should understand where it is going.

And fundraising organizers should not have to constantly send manual updates to everyone involved.

Ryan and Justin described a model where fundraising totals can be visible as donations arrive.

That serves two purposes.

First, it creates accountability.

Second, it makes the competition more engaging.

If a family can see that their player is close to moving into the top five on a leaderboard, they may decide to make another push.

In that case, transparency itself becomes part of the engagement.

Technology Should Reduce Work, Not Add to It

Every team manager reading this probably has the same concern:

Please don’t give me another job.

Team managers already handle enough.

Schedules.

Hotels.

Tournament registrations.

Communication.

Forms.

Payments.

Jerseys.

Last-minute changes.

Fundraising cannot become another full-time responsibility.

Ryan and Justin discussed their effort to reduce that administrative burden by giving organizations a playbook that can include suggested emails, text messages, social posts, and outreach ideas.

They are also using AI behind the scenes to operate more efficiently.

But they emphasized an important balance:

Use technology for efficiency without removing people from the experience.

That principle has applications far beyond fundraising.

Youth sports technology is most valuable when it saves people time while preserving the human relationships that make sports meaningful.

Teams Don’t Only Have to Raise Money for Themselves

Perhaps the most valuable part of the conversation comes when the discussion moves beyond a team simply paying its own bills.

What if a team is already financially comfortable?

Could it still fundraise?

Absolutely—but perhaps for someone else.

A team could raise money to help new players enter hockey.

It could support a Learn to Play program.

It could help provide equipment.

It could raise funds for a local family.

It could support veterans, first responders, or another charitable cause.

That changes the lesson for the players too.

Fundraising stops being:

“Help pay for my season.”

And becomes:

“Our team is using hockey to help somebody else.”

For older youth players especially, that can become a meaningful part of learning leadership and community responsibility.

The Bigger Lesson: Innovation Matters

Our Kids Play Hockey has always encouraged families to question whether the way something has always been done is necessarily the way it should continue to be done.

Fundraising deserves the same conversation.

The traditional model is not automatically bad.

Raffles work.

Concession stands work.

Product sales work.

Direct donations work.

But technology gives organizations more options than they had twenty years ago.

And the most interesting possibilities may be the ones nobody has thought of yet.

During the episode, Justin points out that the Hero Picks platform has already been used or explored in ways the founders did not originally anticipate.

That adaptability is important.

Innovation rarely moves in a perfectly straight line.

Someone builds a tool for one purpose.

Another person sees a completely different opportunity.

That idea evolves.

Something new becomes possible.

Competitors Can Become Collaborators

There is also a lesson hidden inside the origin story of Hero Picks.

Ryan and Justin were once competitors.

They operated in the same market.

Eventually, circumstances changed, conversations happened, and they decided to build something together.

That is a valuable lesson for hockey players too.

The athlete across from you today may become your teammate tomorrow.

Your strongest opponent may be the person who pushes you to improve.

Competition does not always need to create enemies.

Sometimes it creates respect.

Sometimes it creates relationships.

And occasionally, it creates a business partnership.

Could Fundraising Actually Become Fun?

That may be the simplest question coming out of this entire conversation.

Does fundraising have to feel like an obligation?

Maybe not.

If teams can create competition, community, transparency, experiences, and a sense of shared purpose around a campaign, fundraising might become something families actually enjoy participating in.

That doesn’t mean every hockey organization should abandon what already works.

It means there are more possibilities available now.

Explore them.

Ask questions.

Understand the costs.

Understand the rules.

Make sure the approach fits your families and your organization.

And always keep the purpose clear:

Fundraising should help create opportunities—not become another burden that makes youth hockey harder to enjoy.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Our Kids Play Hockey with Ryan and Justin from Hero Picks for the complete conversation about technology, fundraising, community engagement, unique experiences, and where they believe the space could go next.

And if your team has found a creative fundraising idea that actually works, share it with the Our Kids Play Hockey community. The next great idea in youth hockey may already be happening at a rink somewhere.

Keep questioning, keep innovating, and keep finding ways to make the hockey experience better for the families who make the game possible.