How do you give back to your donors?

Have your students and their families, players, cheerleaders...take pictures of themselves patronizing the businesses, and put those pictures in the Year Book.

Make sure to present each donor with a Year Book...maybe at some ceremony.

At small schools donor's usually give. I wouldn't do the tier. That to me would make it awkward in small town. Now one small school I was at auctioned off parking spaces and special seating, etc. It was kind of neat, did it after the soap scrimmage, yes I know no one calls it that anymore. I've been at several small schools, town with population of 400 or less, 10 to 15 in a class. I use to take rejected helmets, have my shop teacher cut them in half, find some nice 10 or 12 by 2 wood. Then I would stain it, attach helmet to it. Then I would get a brass plate with players name and number on it and attach it and give it to seniors on awards night. Probably spent 8 bucks a kid. Wood being up it might be more. The brass plate cost the most. You could give those to donors and get rid of old helmets.

I don't know that any really look for "perks," unless maybe they're trying to get their own kid some preferential treatment.

With that said, the very least you can do is patronize those businesses to make it a reciprocal relationship and "give back."  Take your family to their restaurant and say "hello."  If a screen printing shop gives you something, hire them to do your shirts.  Etc.

Instead of "donations," you could incentivize giving by selling some type of marketing thing where they are "sponsors."  For X amount of money, they get a banner on the fence.  For Y amount of money, they get a sign on the scoreboard.  For Z amount of money, they can sponsor something the PA announcer will say weekly.  For an even higher amount of money, they "sponsor" the first down call.  You can go on and on with this by selling "sponsorships" for 3rd down, for TDs, for various types of plays, etc.  Of course, you will need to get the AD and maybe the PA announcer onboard first.

That requires a more systematic, opportunistic, and creative approach than just hitting people up for money, but with a little thought and work you can actually raise a lot by coming up with a bunch of different things they can each specifically sponsor.  Then you can STILL hit people up for donations and do other fundraisers by selling things or charging admission/entry fees.

For no significant cost to them, you can put their name and a small discount or just a nice special they normally run on a discount card to drive business their way.  If they're worried about that 10% or 20% off or whatever, remind them this will actually make them money by driving more customers their way to offset the discounts.  You make your money off having kids sell the cards, which you can easily have printed online for cheap and turn into a very lucrative fundraiser at very little cost to you.

Another nice thing you can do to recognize their generosity is to just post their names somewhere next to things they helped pay for.  A small sign that reads "Thank you to John Doe Plumbing for this squat rack" is a classy gesture and if you mention it in front of the kids, they may say something in front of the business owner.  Even if all you do is send them a shout on on social media with a photo of the sign and their donation, that can go a long way toward building a mutually beneficial relationship.

For specific projects, this can be a nice way to get stuff paid for, which is why you see so many stadiums with special bricks with donors' names on them, or donors' names on scoreboards, etc.  You can go as small as the squat rack thing, or getting your team t-shirts and shorts paid by putting their logo on there, etc.  It helps to sell it to donors because now they see something tangible and concrete for their money, rather than just throwing it into a pile.

For most, a simple "thank you" and saying nice things about them to parents and kids works well enough, though.  You can also give a shout out to the really generous donors if you do a media day or "Meet the Team" day.  The big thing is that you want these people to feel appreciated and feel the donation is building goodwill for them, as well as a nice tax write-off.

soap scrimmage n. especially in non-professional American football, a practice game for which the cost of admittance is a bar of bath soap. Also soap game. Editorial Note: Other items needed by a sports team are sometimes substituted as the price of admittance. This term is occasionally applied to any scrimmage or pre-season match, regardless of the requirements for admittance. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

The name is a remnant of the days gone by when kids actually showered after games and practices. The school would collect the soap and then give it to the players throughout the year to use. Given the spread of mersa and other disgusting skin diseases because kids don't shower, and we've become generally disgusting as a society when it comes to hygiene, maybe these should come back.

At my HS it was called the Maroon and Gold game and admittance was a pack of Gatorade. They'd store the Gatorade in a closet and put it on ice before the game for us to have at halftime and after the game. Other places I've been have collected spare change, water, nothing, etc. I think the name and the "donation" is a regional thing.

we did as can food drive -- can of food for admittance.... it was part of a community service project benefitting a local food pantry

I am too but I'd still never heard of a soap scrimmage. 

Perks, no.

Recognition, yes.

Tiered sponsorships that are on display in the game day program or a banner on the fence are done by nearly every non-profit for a reason.

Ego will drive it, pride will drive it……doesn’t mean they don’t actually care, it’s just different when everyone is going to see what you gave, or at least what level you are at.

Most cars are bought out of want, not need. Your vehicle is a status symbol.

This kind of thing works the same way