| by Howard Gottlieb, President, Easy
Fundraising Ideas
Event Fundraising: Popular Alternate Event Options
Part Ten
If planned properly, fundraising events offer some of the
best returns in the world of fundraising. When it comes to
successful event fundraising, the biggest challenge is making
the event fresh and appealing to a large audience. It's very
important to have strong leadership and staff in place.
There is a virtually limitless selection of event
fundraising ideas. Below we will review some of the
most common:
Golf Tournaments
Holding a golf tournament is a wonderful way to raise money.
Golfers will happily pay slight premiums to play golf on
better golf courses if they know part of their fee is going
to support a good cause and they have a chance
to win some nice prizes. Successful golf tournaments often
seek out well-known local personalities to become the face
of the tournament. In addition, they offer spectacular prizes
for holes-in-one and the chance to win prizes in contests
like closest-to-the-pin and the longest drive. Golf tournaments
need to be heavily promoted. Fees are charged to participate
in the tournament and, depending on the quality of the event,
can reach more than $1,000 per player. The tournament organizers
also make money by getting local companies and business people
to become sponsors of holes. Raising money with a golf fundraising
event can be a lot of fun for the community and easily becomes
an annual event to which people look forward.
Spaghetti Dinners
Fundraising dinners of all sorts can be extremely profitable;
spaghetti just happens to be the most popular food option.
The trick to holding a successful dinner fundraising event
is to attract as many people as possible, which can be accomplished
by providing some type of local entertainment that acts as
an additional draw. Schools that hold dinners usually will
have them in conjunction with student awards or a production
put on by the school band or orchestra. Many groups will
get a local restaurant to donate the food in return for promoting
the restaurant in all promotional materials. If possible,
it's always preferable to work out such an arrangement. If
not, you need to make sure your food costs are as low as
possible. Low overhead is what makes spaghetti dinners so
attractive. The most successful groups ask for suggested
donations for tickets to their dinners, rather than setting
a fixed price. Your organization might even consider a challenge
to everyone to top the highest previous donation, so people
will know you would appreciate more than the asking price.
Silent Auctions
Silent auctions are great either as stand-alone fundraising
events or held in conjunction with fundraising dinners. Planning
should start as early as possible if you want to hold a successful
silent auction. A committee should be formed that can make
a list of all local businesses that you can contact to request
a donation of merchandise or services to offer at your silent
auction. Restaurant or hotel packages are very popular. Golf
packages that include green fees, carts, and lunch also garner
excellent bids. Other possibilities include tickets to sports
and entertainment venues, salon and spa treatments, art work,
auto services, home repairs, etc. To attract the most participation,
make sure you include signs letting people know which local
business or organization provided each item. You will also
want to set a minimum opening bid of approximately half of
the actual retail value to eliminate low opening bids. One
hurdle to holding a successful silent auction is making sure
people have good reason to attend, which is the main reason
most silent auctions are held only in conjunction with other
events that will attract large crowds.
These are but a few suggestions from among the endless possibilities
for event fundraising. Your organization is limited solely
by people's collective imagination and their commitment to
plan and execute a successful event.
Whichever fundraising method or methods your organization
decides to pursue, keep in mind that the best means to ensure
success is to take the time to plan so that your fundraiser
is tailored to the talents of your staff and volunteers and
the needs of your organization. |
