Fundraising 101

[daylightkate]

I didn't want to hyjack the "How much is too Much" thread. I had been PM'd by one of the members about a few fundraisers that we did as well as someone had asked about it in the other thread so I thought that I would share. This is what I PM'd back.

Hi there, we rented a small local bowling alley that had 5 pin bowling ($400 from 6 pm - 1 am closed privately for just our event). The facility had about 17 lanes in total. We charged $20 per person entry to come in to have unlimited bowling and buffet meal(Adults only). Each family on the team was required to prepare one dish for the buffet and as well donate a door prize of $20 or more. We had crown and anchor wheel and a black jack table. We also had a Texas hold'm tournament that players could pay in $25.00 and guaranteed a percentage of the pot. We also had someone donate Platinum tickets to the Toronto Raptors game ($650 value). In your case one of your Pro teams. We had a seperate raffle for that which we sold 1 ticket for $10. We sold tickets for the raffle table but I can't remember how much that was for. Our last money maker was what we call a toonie toss. Patron's would take a toonie ($2.00 coin) and toss it down the alley. Their toonie would have their name on a label. Closest to the texas mickey was the winner. We actually stop all events just to run this one event so everyone is involved. Same goes for the horse racing. You make 6 horse heads on a stick (kids toy) and you designate a rider (pretiest moms and good looking dads). You mark off squares on the floor to indicate a spot. You sell tickets to people to bet which horse they think is going to win. Someone then rolls two jumbo dice. The number on the one dice indicates the horse number. The second die number is the amount of spots the horse gets to move. Usually done midway when everyone is having fun, laughing and in good spirit. 50/50 draws are good too. So once we paid off the bowling alley, rental of the gambling equipment, tickets, $100 to the DJ and $120 tip to the bowling alley staff's kids (because they where great and helped out all night) and all other misc. expenses, we ended up with just over $3500 profit. We had about 100 people show up.

Roller Skating:
Rented out a roller skating facility for 2 hours (private party). Price was $6.50 per person which included skate rentals. Each player was required to sell a minimum of 10 tickets at $15.00 each. Each family was to bring two prizes for a total of $20. We had games going on such as trivia and best costume. Limbo was fun too and we also had a scavenger hunt. We did a theme of Disco so everyone was encouraged to dress up for the part. Roller Skating facility had skaters on the rink to help teach anyone who wanted to learn. Great event, in/out no cleanup and we made $1200. Kids had a riot too.

Hope this helps? The key is to do the least amount of fundraisers for the biggest bang. The bowling night was a bit of work but it paid off.

[Judd]

Thanks, I asked about the skate night but both are interesting.

Hiw did you get the black jack table in? I think that would be illegal in most areas or am I mistaken?

[daylightkate]

Well I'm not 100% sure if it was legal or not. It is often done in our region for non profit organizations. Because this was a private party, maybe that is why it was allowed. There was never any money on the table at any time. People would pay $25 entry fee to play in the hold'm tournament. Once you paid your fee, you where handed a certain amount of chips to play with. Once you ran out, you where out of the tournament. (I'm not a gambler and would have to ask one of the other parents exactly how the tourney ran) They could then pay to play a second round of tournament if they wished. The top winners would get a fixed prize amount and the team would keep the rest of the entry fee's. Possibly that's what makes the difference. Also, here we have party rental companies that rent tables and crown and anchor wheels.

What kind of fundraisers do you do?