How to start a fundraiser?

Parents Forum
1

<p>I’m interested in starting a fundraiser for Parkinson’s Disease. The money raised would be donated to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.pdf.org/en/pdf_champion[/url]”>http://www.pdf.org/en/pdf_champion&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>If you click the link you can find out more about it. Basically if I give them all my information, my fundraiser becomes supported by them and they can give me information, etc. </p>

<p>As of now, I’m thinking it would be some sort of formal (auction?) banquet, and as I live in a generally affluent area, I can try to attract some of the more wealthy residents to come. Not quite sure how yet. But I’m sure I can come up with a marketing ploy, contact the local paper, the local news, etc. </p>

<p>Location: There is a local not-for-profit banquet hall that I could contact to hold the event at. I’m not sure how much this would cost, but their largest room holds 450 people. Food would be available to be ordered from the venue. </p>

<p>Auction?: In order to get people in the door, I figure I need some sort of gimmick. There are plenty of local retailers that I could ask to donate auction items. </p>

<p>Volunteers: I can easily recruit high school volunteers from my friends/students at my school. </p>

<p>Entertainment: I could definetely get a few EC musical groups from my school to come perform. If my crowd is going to be more adult then I won’t be able to use any student bands but I should be able to contact a pretty decent cover band and see if they can perform for free?</p>

<p>Sponsors: I don’t have the kind of money to fund this thing so I would have to contact one or more sponsors about funding the event. </p>

<p>MY QUESTIONS: Who do I contact first? The sponsors? The venue? PDF?
What kind of adult involvement is required? I don’t know if I’d be able to have someone supervise. Do I need to find someone?
How would the specifics of an auction go down? Do I need any official forms if they buy something? </p>

<p>:)</p>

2

<p>That’s an awfully big thing to organize on your own. Usually when you do something like this, you have a “poster child” and family an board so that you have a starting point. To pick a cause out of the air and try to singlehandedly fund it that way is not something I would want to do.</p>

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<p>what do you mean by a “poster child”?</p>

4

<p>I doubt I would be doing this alone. If anything I would have support from my mom. Also I’m planning on getting a few friends in on it to help me with the logistics.</p>

5

<p>Seems to me you need to do a lot more research before you blithely move ahead with this, however admirable your intentions may be. Do you have a local chapter of the PDF in your area? Have they done auctions before? Do they agree you can use their name? You’ll need to contact their board and work with their marketing/fundraiser/development office. I’m not sure they would want to sound so casual as this, “But I’m sure I can come up with a marketing ploy”.</p>

<p>If this is the organization you’ve targeted, approach them first. Get this on the calendar, and begin to solicit other sponsors. You’ll need to get a sense of how much $$$ this will cost to put together (location, mailings, food/drinks, entertainment, decoration, etc., etc.) and then decide to get going. Established auctions, if done right, earn loads of money, but it takes years and big names to get it established. It usually takes a full year or two to pull it off. Think of this as a big wedding: invitations, food, music, lists of people. Then: organizing the auction items is another very big job. Again, you can do it right, with nicely packaged items stacked throughout the room, or your tables could look bare and minimal. That depends on many things: you hard work, many connections (big ticket items, vacations houses, tickets to shows and sport games, signed autographs, jewelry) and of course, the marketing of this event to bring in tons of people willing to spend money.</p>

<p>Start with PDF and see how they respond.</p>

6

<p>I just clicked on your PDF site from your first post. They’re not trying to create another event. They’re trying to get you to join their already established event (the NYC marathon, which is a group of runners who participate in the NY marathon. My brothers are running in this for another cause.)</p>

7

<p>" PDF Champions have helped to move the cause forward by organizing bake sales, running marathons, participating in bike rides, walking in walk-a-thons and more! "</p>

<p>Sorry I know it’s kind of a long page to read but this is squished there in the middle. </p>

<p>About Registering:
If you want to join our cause, either send your registration form to PDF or sign up online! For the first option, download our fundraising packet and fill out the fundraiser registration form (the last page of the packet). Fax or mail the form to PDF to PDF at 1359 Broadway, Suite 1509 /New York, NY 10018 / Fax: (212) 923-4778. We will review your registration and contact you to help get you started and to answer any questions.</p>

<p>So I’m guessing I need to have a lot of the details planned out before I even register.</p>

8

<p>Hi There. I have done precisely what you are thinking about doing. I worked for a nonprofit that had an annual banquet/auction. We had me (a full time worker) and a committee of about 5 (who put in tons of hours) and extra volunteers the night of the event. </p>

<p>This is no small undertaking. Take dealing with the caterer. Say you want chicken, salad, roll and a baked potato with a nice slice of cake with fruit for desert. That might be $12 a person. So the caterer will be billing you for 450 X 12 = $5,400 and she will want a check for half of that up front so she can order the food. You only sell 350 tickets? Those extra 100 dinners are your problem, not hers. That is only the beginning. You need to rent the hall, pay for advertising, printing (tickets/programs), get an auctioneer (funny is better) AND arrange for the wonderful goodies to be donated and picked up. It is exhausting. I spent 14 hour days on ours for the 60 days prior. </p>

<p>And, yes, you had better have a really, really cool hook so those “whales” (big spenders) will get out of their Barcoloungers and come with their checkbooks open. </p>

<p>One of our local foundations does an event that I adore. Instead of the broiled chicken dinner, they do a “Duck Dash”. They have hundreds of rubber ducks. Each duck is numbered. You “buy” a duck number for $5. On the day of the event, the ducks are all put in a net, suspended over a local river and whoosh, the net unfolds, dropping the ducks. </p>

<p>The ducks bob down stream and the first ducks across the “finish” line are pulled out and earn prizes. All the ducks are scooped out after that and cleaned and stored for the next year. </p>

<p>No waste! Cute photo opps! No harm to the environment! The organizers do have to focus on getting prizes donated and selling duck “numbers” – but no caterer, no worries about bad weather (the ducks get dumped rain or shine). You can buy a duck chance and don’t have to be present to win . . . lots of positives and lots fewer worries. </p>

<p>Even this is a huge undertaking. Honestly, I would strongly advise you to HELP on a fundraising dinner/auction prior to organizing one your self. You will learn a ton, be a real asset to another group (historical homes, cat fanciers, whatever) and you will learn what is critical to know BEFORE raiding your piggy bank to book the caterer. </p>

<p>Your heart is in the right place – but take some baby steps. In my group, it was typical for a person to work on the committee THREE years before taking over the chairman’s notebook. </p>

<p>Start a LOT smaller. Bake sale. Bingo night (lots less stress and you can get the hang of garnering prizes), used book sale, high tea with a FEW art pieces at silent auction . . . search the internet for innovative fundraising and go with a fun idea. </p>

<p>But a significant banquet/live auction is big league. You can get there, but it is no place to begin IMHO.</p>

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<p>I re read your original post. You write “food would be available to be ordered”. Right there you need a ton of research – so much so that you would end up with a packed binder at the end. How many servers will there be? What price range for the various dinners? ARe there appetizers? liquor? Do you need to buy a liquor license? Hire a bartender? Have insurance for an event with booze? How do people pay? If different people order different dishes, how does that work? Does the waitstaff get tipped by you?</p>

<p>There are few things worse than your big cheese buyer being treated rudely by an overworked waiter ('cuz the venue didn’t hire enough staff) – followed by a lukewarm dinner and a cheap wine served at an expensive price. </p>

<p>Oh, don’t forget, is there a coat check spot? Is there coat check staff or do you need a volunteer? How about parking? Need a valet or a parking lot director? </p>

<p>Details, details.</p>

10

<p>Do you think it would help if I partnered with my local VFW?</p>

11

<p>I think it would help if you had a committee (could be from VFW) and if you started smaller.</p>

<p>I say this not to dash your hopes, but from personal experience.</p>

<p>When I was a college sophomore, I organized a fundraiser for a local women’s shelter. It was a great idea. I did publicity beforehand. Some exciting guests showed up (the mayor, a very famous illustrator, the chief of police, the shelter’s director) and I got many great in-kind donations from local businesses and celebrities. </p>

<p>But almost no one came and while we raised some awareness, we raised no money. Zilch. The best thing that came of it was donating all the leftover refreshments to the shelter, and if my goal had been to get them milk and fruit and muffins I can think of much easier ways to have done it. I was hugely embarrassed. I should have started smaller and gotten more experience, or worked with more people–preferably ones who knew more about organizing such events. </p>

<p>I learned a lot. It wasn’t a total loss. But it could’ve been a lot better.</p>

12

<p>Why are you doing this? Seriously, you need to be able to honestly answer that to yourself.</p>

<p>You just finished your junior year in high school. In a couple of short months you’ll be applying to colleges. That’s precious little time to pull this off effectively.</p>

<p>Based on some of your earlier threads, it appears you suddenly came up with this idea after believing you didn’t have compelling ECs.</p>

<p>If you’re doing it just so you can add it to your list of ECs for college, forget it. It will consume you at the expense of all your other high school activities, and it will very likely come across on your college apps as something you did just to impress.</p>

13

<p>I’m actually just done with Sophomore year.</p>

14

<p>Here are some fundraisers that kids in my area have done. Note that one group has been fundraising for a friend with CS for 5 years so the events at the end were done through an experienced network:
bake sale, car wash, corn hole tournament, PS3 tournament, back to school sale (sold hs logo school supplies), spaghetti dinner, community garage sale/craft fair, improv comedy night.
These require a great deal of organization, but not necessarily a lot of money upfront. The car wash was done by contacting a local business for use of the parking lot and water connection and the cost of soap, buckets and sponges. We made $700 in a few hours.</p>

15

<p>MizzBee thank you very much. I think the best idea is to go through an experienced network, like you said. I’m going to be on the exec. board in Mu Alpha Theta this year so I can introduce the idea there. That way I’ll have extra funding, adult supervisor, and a huge group of people to put to work.</p>

16

<p>Good luck!</p>

17

<p>I organize fund raisers for my humane society and I think if you’ve never done something like this before, it would be better to start smaller and gain some experience so you’ll be better prepared for this. You don’t have to make big bucks for it to make a difference, and a well run smaller fund raiser will be better than a giant disaster-- as someone who has attempted both. :stuck_out_tongue: When you are dealing with sponsors money and donations and things like that, it is VERY important not to screw it up. You’d have a lot riding on this going off without a hitch, and I think you’d enjoy the process more if you worked your way up to this.</p>

18

<p>OP: A formal “auction banquet” is actually 2 large events in one. You have the dinner, and you have the auction/fundraiser.</p>

<p>You need a whole COMMITTEE of people, most of whom should have some experience with these types of events…to find goods/services to auction, to deal with the caterer, rsvps, invitations, publicity, money, decorations… And afterwards you won’t be able to say YOU did it.</p>

<p>Your heart is in the right place, but I would find something much smaller and more compact. Even a series of bake sales, for instance, would be more practical and have a better chance of success.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone! I definitely think I will start more small-scale and organize it with an organization that I’m involved with at school. That is a lot more realistic than sporadically starting a fundraiser all by myself.</p>

20

<p>Whew, good move. There’s an obnoxious saying, “failure is not an option”…This is one of those times. I know you have the good intentions, but we veterans know there’s a tremendous amount of work to do it right.</p>