How to start a fundraiser?

Olymom
Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:22:28 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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