HOW TO COORDINATE YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISER EVER, EVEN ON A TIGHT BUDGET!
With what seems like yearly budget cutbacks, many organizations are now more than ever having a difficult time offering the same services that not so long ago were assumed to be standard offerings.
To try and make up the shortfall, groups will resort to many different tactics to raise those funds. An emerging popular choice is to offer an entertaining fundraiser. An entertaining show is offered at a venue in the evening which tickets are sold for. Not surprisingly, a large portion of the people will often elect to attend, making it potentially one of the best fundraising options available.
This special report will give you some good ideas about what makes for a successful fundraiser, and what things you should avoid. You may want to place this report in your group’s file for reference by future planners. Ultimately your goal is to provide a fun, appealing option that you can be excited about, as well as raise the money your group needs.
Before you get far with your planning, your group should decide on what your goals are for the fundraiser. Having clear goals will help insure a successful event that everyone will enjoy.
Do you want to:
Once you determine your goals you can then begin the process of selecting a program that will help you meet them.
Now it’s time to think about what you would like to offer for a fundraiser. Your imagination is the only limit when coming up with ideas.
Some ideas could be:
You’ll want to choose an event that your group can get excited about attending and also provide good value for their money.
This is a popular choice since so many groups have a wide variety of music talent that would love to showcase themselves to their friends.
Sometimes a fundraiser can be as simple as a movie screening, themed around Halloween or Christmas perhaps.
Your group loves to laugh, participate and watch their friends onstage. This type of show allows them to do all of that!
Different fundraiser solutions are going to cost different amounts of money. When choosing your fundraiser you’ll want to weigh the costs against the benefits and the goals that are accomplished with it. A movie screening can be done inexpensively, but does little to boost your groups spirit or get the group very excited, for example. You also would only be able to charge a nominal amount for a movie screening, but much more for something special that everyone will be excited to see.
Before you get any further you’re going to have to clear your idea with the entire group and get it on the calendar. Some groups will allow very few events per year, while others will be open to more proposals. To help insure a positive reception you’ll want to be as prepared as possible when pitching your proposal to your group.
If you’re working with an outside entertainer or group, they should have provided you with many testimonial letters and other references from their past performances, as well as a comprehensive package covering what they do. These tools should be given to you during the proposal process. Generally these days they are included on a website. By including these materials with your proposal, you’ll be showing them that you have done your homework and have selected a qualified solution that can be relied on, without concern of a lackluster show or inappropriate content. Your group will be impressed with your proposal as they compare it to previous ones they’ve seen over the years, and you’ll be that much more likely to get the go ahead for your fundraiser.
Some groups will have specific dates and times already allocated for events, and in those cases you would schedule yours in an available slot.
Setting your ticket prices will depend on what it is you’re offering. Something like a sporting event or movie would probably only warrant a ticket price of around $5.00-$8.00, whereas something as unique and exciting as an audience participation program such as a hypnosis show can easily sell for $15.00-$50.00 or even more, comparable to a first-run movie ticket. You’ll want to weigh these ticket prices and how much money you can generate when you’re first selecting your program as well. Ticket prices also depend greatly on what the entire event entails.
To help spur sales, and perhaps cut a break to those that might have trouble coming up with money for a more expensive program, you could offer tickets in advance (bought days or a week before the show) for a discounted price. All professional entertainers that you hire will be equipped to produce custom tickets for your event and should easily accommodate printing tickets at two price points if you wish. Generally most entertainers will use a tool like event-brite to keep track of ticket sales. Alternatively you could leave your tickets all at the same price and have the tickets you need printed with the one price, depending on what you think would work best for your group.
Tickets in general always seem to sell at the last second, so never worry too much about how tickets are selling if you’re promoting the show properly.
The most successful events are those that are the most heavily promoted. It’s often easier to promote a show that your group can get excited about, so that can factor into your selections as well. If you choose to book me for an event I will provide you with – Poster templates, Social media post templates, Press release templates, and other tools necessary to promote the show.
If hiring a professional entertainer, they will have printable posters ready for you to use and post around your community. If you’re not hiring a professional your group should get together and design your own posters to promote the event.
In addition, you’ll want to do things like promote the event on the radio. Again, professional entertainers will be equipped to give you customized announcements to get everyone talking, or someone from your group can do it. To get your event on the radio you can submit to their local events calendar or you can purchase radio advertising. One other way would be to submit press releases to the local media in the hopes for a radio or television interview.
Social media can play a very important role in selling tickets. From my experience this is the best way to currently get the word out to a larger audience. The problem is that this method is very saturated so you need to repeat the message many times. Long term you should be finding key people in your group and set up pages about your groups. From there you can promote not only this event but all events coming up for your group. Using consistent updates as well as well timed promotions this can be a useful tool not only for this fundraiser but all future ones.
Most importantly – word of mouth! Most of all you want to continue getting the word out and getting everyone excited about the fun program you are offering! Everyone will go if their friends are going, so you want to get that tide coming your way. The more exciting the program you’re offering the easier this will be.
It’s now the big day of your event for which you’ve been promoting and selling tickets.
Now it’s time to watch, enjoy the fruits of your labour, have fun and laugh with your audience. A job well done!
You’ve done it! You’ve provided your group with a fun, exciting break from their regular routines, built spirit and left everyone with something to remember and talk about, while you raised money for your group. Congratulations and best of luck with your future events!