1 4 Easy Fundraisers for any ClubWhat has your club’s historic event performance looked like? If you’ve held annual events in the past, it’s important to look at them as benchmarks. What were some of your successes? How much did you raise? What were some areas for improvement? If you have struggled to meet your fundraising goals in the past, it may be time to try something new! Have your previous events been more about providing entertainment than communicating your mission? While events should be enjoyable for participants, Exchange’s mission needs to clearly shine through to ensure you meet your fundraising goal.

2 Agenda Overview Why Fundraise? 4 Fundraisers: Wine or Beer TastingCornhole Tournament Flags of Honor Cook-offs In this session, we will focus on 4 different fundraisers that a club of any size can do. They can be scaled to work with smaller clubs as well as larger clubs. Most have been around for a while but there are always new twists or angles that can be added to make your event unique. Always look for new events or ways to improve and make your event more exciting. For example a bowling tournament can now be a glow bowling event! A ladies fashion show can now be a men’s fashion show! Look at all of the 5K runs that are now color runs or Santa runs…mix it up and keep it fun & unique to others in the area! Use competitive sports teams to drive up excitement with your event! Let’s say there were too many Golf outings in your area….. Possibly they are back now…… give it a new twist! (seasonal events have limited months) Open up to the group: Restaurant night -- % goes to the club -- Try Multiple clubs in the area coming together for a Chili cook-off – how fun! -- Use competitive sports themes * Note that holding Wine & Beer events in certain areas may be prohibited.

3 Overview Many ways to raise funds Raise funds without “selling”Raffle Tickets Fruits, Nuts and Christmas Trees What’s your budget? It costs money to make money How much are you trying to raise? Sponsors are everything There are many ways to raise money for your club but it’s definitely not one size fits all. A club of 10 or 12 members isn’t likely to put on a big event like Rib fest and a large club likely has needs greater than a $5-$10,000 funder can provide. Match your fundraiser to your own specific needs. Age old methods such as raffles or selling everything from soup to nuts can be effective, but difficult to get your membership to buy into. Raffles take many forms, from 50/50 to sports pools to every item from guns to appliances to vehicles and even homes, but who has the time to go out and sell tickets? There are many items that groups can sell – candy bars, wrapping paper, popcorn, cookies, nuts, wreaths and trees, oranges – you name it and it can probably be sold. Again, though, it’s getting out and selling something then having to deliver it. It’s a time-consuming process that most members just don’t want to do anymore. When determining what kind of fundraiser you want to have, you will also need to know what kind of budget you will need for start-up and operation of the event. Some fundraisers have a lot of upfront costs for entertainment, venues, food guarantees and so on. If you don’t have much money in the kitty to start with, your club will need to start off with something smaller and work your way up. Regardless of what you come up with, there will be some start-up costs to take into consideration. Also, consider your market and pursue getting services donated. Such as halls, music, food etc. One of the most important questions that your club needs to answer before anything else is done is, what are our expectations? The types of funders that you can consider are driven by how much you need to raise and what are the manpower requirements. A small club is going to be limited on what they can do, unless additional volunteers are recruited. A look at the potential net income from the event is also crucial so that you don’t expend a lot of time and energy for very little return. It’s okay to start out small and work your way into something bigger over time, but you also need to know when to cut your losses and move on. Finally – whatever you do, line up sponsors. There is not a highly successful event out there that does not have a sponsorship component. If you are counting on proceeds from the event alone to make you money, you are kidding yourself. Make sure to offer the Pass-through Grant for sponsors to write off their sponsorship. It will be easier to obtain Sponsorship if businesses can write off donations. They may also be more willing to increase their contributions.

4 Why Fundraise? PROMOTES THE CLUB PROGRAMS OF SERVICE FULFILLEDNEW MEMBERS CLUB SUSTAINABILITY Without fundraising, your club has no way to carry out your programs of service. While it is true that you can avoid fundraising by passing the hat with the membership, this can be costly and discerning to it’s members. Also, the club will be limited to the types of projects that can work. Without your programs of service – whatever they are for your club – your ability to make your community a better place to live, work and play is limited. After all, isn’t that our mission? The more funds your club have available, the more good you can do. Your fundraising projects can also be a way to attract interest in your club – a new way to add members. Club sustainability in the community for years to come.

5 Tips for most fundraisersPick a good date Set a reasonable amount of time – usually 3 hours Select a quality venue – make sure you have the right amount of space Promote, promote, promote! Make sure your date has as little conflict as possible – stay away from Wednesday evenings, as many churches have services that could restrict your attendance. Other dates to stay away from include Tuesdays and Fridays during high school basketball season and Fridays during football season. If you are from a college town, look at their schedule to try to stay away from their events. More than likely, there will be some conflict with other events, but by attempting to minimize that as much as possible you give your event the greatest chance for success. Keep your event condensed to a reasonable amount of time. Schedule enough time to complete whatever you have planned for the evening, but remember that it is difficult to keep someone’s attention for more than a few hours unless things are moving right along. When it comes to venue size, think about Goldilocks and the Three bears – Not too big, not too small, but just right. A venue that you can’t fill will appear that you have poor attendance and could hurt you in future years. Too small and your attendees will feel crowded. You are almost always better to have a venue that is slightly too small rather than wat too big. It makes your event look like a success and you can always look for a larger venue in the future. You also want to look for a room that is well lit and convenient to get to. Once you have your details in place, promote the heck out of it. Community calendars, social media, traditional media and posters in business windows should be used as much as possible to get the word out about your event. Be careful about “free” advertising – you usually get what you pay for. When using social media, try to make sure your message gets “shared” as much as possible for better results. There are ways to boost your social media ad by paying for additional hits – just remember that more hits doesn’t necessarily equate to more teams or spectators

6 Four Easy Fundraisers There are many fundraisers out there – just Google the word and you will get page after page of hits. Many of those involve selling items, and are typically designed for schools, churches and youth organizations. Experience has shown that the older we get, the less likely we are to want to go out and sell something. If that is working for your club and you are satisfied with the financial results of your sale – that’s great. This session, however, is going to focus more on events that can be held with minimal upfront costs or, where there is an upfront cost associated with the project, a way to offset those costs through sponsorships.

7 Wine or Beer Tasting EventsPros: Currently an exceptionally popular event Makes finding attendees and sponsors easier Pulls in people outside of your normal base Provides opportunities for additional fundraisers during the event Cons: Dependent upon finding a wine or beer partner Cost/Profit ratio not the greatest The popularity of fundraising events comes and goes – trying to stay relevant and new is a constant struggle. Wine or Craft Beer tasting events are currently very popular, making it easier to find participants willing to contribute to your cause in return for a fun night out. You may also find that this type of event can draw in a larger range of participants, giving you new donors and potential members. You definitely need a good wine or beer partner to assist you in this endeavor. The price you pay for the wine or beer can make or break your event. Charge too little and you will end up barely paying for the drinks. Charge too much and you will limit the population for your participants. Typically, you will find that a good vendor will also have experience with these types of events and will be able to assist you in planning. Making the wine available for purchase at the event can help increase your profit! For those areas that are not able to have Wine or Beer events, consider some alternatives: Fun Raffles, Skeet shoots or wild game dinners.

8 Wine or Beer Tasting Events - OrganizationFind a wine or beer merchant willing to work with you Shop around for the best deal on the best quality wine or beer Pick a good date Select a quality venue Promote, promote, promote Line up sponsors for the event Choose your format for tasting Know your audience! Have a good committee in place to plan the event. People with differing skill sets are the preferred combination for overseeing the tasting. A well-organized wine or beer tasting event makes a fantastic marketing opportunity for merchants. Not only do they have the ability to sell their product during the event, they also get to expose a wide range of new customers to their offerings. Make sure you shop around to get the best value for your buy – as with many products, the cheapest wine or beer isn’t usually the best. Look for a venue that will work for your event. Some restaurants that serve liquor may let you use their banquet room for free if they think they will get enough value for hosting the event. As always, promote your event – if nobody knows about it, you probably won’t have much of a crowd. Use Club logos, banners, press releases, radio, social media, matching shirts, etc….Get the word out with your name on it! Make sure they know who you are, what you do, and how to contact the club for more information. Choose your format – this is where someone experienced with this type of event becomes invaluable. Will the crowd move to the drink or will the drink move to the crowd? The size of your event could dictate this for you. In a small cozy setting, you may want to have the participants sitting at tables and have volunteer waiters serve the beverage. If you are expecting a larger crowd, it will more likely work better if the beverages are on tables and the crowd rotates through them all. Above all, know your audience. If you expect someone that drinks nothing but Bud or Miller Lite, they may not go for some English-style bitter or dark stout. Same with wines – if your audience’s idea of fine wine is Barefoot Moscato, they will probably not like a 20 year Tawny Port or extra dry Merlot. Match your audience to your beverage as much as possible to keep them coming back each year.

9 Cornhole Tournaments Cornhole is a game using an inclined wooden board and bean bags Very popular in the south and becoming more popular everywhere Pros: Very affordable game and Takes up very little room Easy to assemble and break down Anyone can play and Can be held indoors or out Cons: Upfront costs for the materials to hold a tournament This is one of the most scalable events here – you are only limited by the room in your venue. If you are using a sunny Saturday in the park, that could be a very large venue indeed! Clubs in the south have used this project to raise a lot of money. Brackets can be set up for kids of all ages and you won’t have to worry about gender equity either. The tournament can be as fancy or simple as you want – there are custom painted cornhole boards available and many organizations just use simple plywood boards with a hole cut out. Boards are available for rent and some participants like to use their own boards.

10 Cornhole Tournaments - OrganizationDetermine the size of the tournament Select a good date and venue Line up food – consider using a food vendor Plan some entertainment Consider family fun zones for the children Sponsor a hole -- provide booth space, or signage Rent, purchase or build the cornhole boards Finalize the tournament type and rules Promote, promote, promote! The amount of manpower required (and the potential profit from the event) depends on how many entries you have. Fortunately, it isn’t difficult to ramp up the number of brackets if the popularity of the event out grows your forecast. Your venue and date selection follow the same criteria as any other event – the less competition for participants and audience, the better off you will be. Having food and drinks available for purchase can enhance your profit margin and keep your audience at the event, If folks have to go looking for lunch, they probably won’t come back. Live local music is a good way for your audience and participants to spend some time in between matches without breaking your budget. If you have a lot of young adults with children participating, consider some sort of family fun zone – inflatables, petting zoo – those are the types of extras that can keep the kids occupied while mom and dad play. Just like golf, businesses can sponsor a hole, set up a booth or just be a general sponsor with some signage around the area. Single elimination, double elimination, round robin and playoff formats can all be used. You’ll need to settle this early in the process so that the teams will know what to expect when they start signing up. (Hint: a double-elimination tournament lets the participants get the most bang for their entry fee). Determine what kind of prizes – monetary, trophy or something else – that you want to give and get your rules in writing and published so you have fewer arguments. Finally, as always, promote the heck out of your event!

11 Flags of Honor Patriotic series of events that can be scaled to fit any size club Consists of flag subscriptions to local residents Works best in conjunction with a Healing Field/Field of Honor Pros: They sell themselves – as flags go up, neighbors want to know how they can get one The more subscriptions you sell, the more you make Cons: Significant up-front costs Manpower requirements Flags of Honor is a project of the Colonial Flag Foundation. Originally designed for Scouting, it can be used either by itself or in conjunction with a Field of Honor or healing Field event. As more and more people in a neighborhood see the stars and stripes on holidays, they won’t want to be the only home on the block without one. You are limited only by the number of flags you have available and the number of bodies there are to set up and take down the flags. This has the highest upfront costs of any of the five fundraisers here – flag sets run about $20 each. If done in conjunction with a Healing Field – where you use corporate sponsors rather than individual sales – you will have your flags for this subscription program. Other than the significant investment, the hardest part is coming up with the manpower to run the routes in the morning to set up the flags and then again in the evenings to take them down again. The most difficult day seems to be the 4th of July – morning isn’t bad, but everyone wants to get to the picnic and fireworks in the evening.

12 Flags of Honor - OrganizationSecure the flags Print brochures Recruit help from local sports teams or youth civic groups Design routes necessary to get flags up quick Use sponsors to purchase the flag kits Hint: Schedule a Field of Honor or Healing Field to secure the flags needed Use several different forms of promotion Find a busy corner to display some flags with signage showing contact information Use inexpensive realtor boxes to hold extra brochures Once you have secured your flags – either through the use of a field or simply purchasing some for the program, you are ready to begin. Set the dates for which you will offer the service – any day the flag can be flown is a great day, but try to keep it at a reasonable number. 4 dates work well if you also have an annual Field, 5 if you don’t. Set your subscription price. Somewhere around $7.50 to $10 per date is a good ballpark, but use what is best for your community. Once you have those items ironed out, use a printed flyer that can be distributed throughout a neighborhood to sign people up. Schedule a walk-through and leave the brochures on doorsteps. Find a nice busy corner and (with permission) set up 8 or 10 flags with a banner that shows how to subscribe. Your subscription program can be as simple or complex as you want – you can use PayPal to solicit subscriptions online or stick strictly to phone calls and paper. As your number of subscriptions grows, you’ll need to figure out the manpower. Try using a high school sports team or other youth organization (make sure they have driver’s licenses) and share some of the fees with them. Many schools are using pay-to-play in their interscholastic sports programs and this is a way that they can supplement their funds. Design your routes to eliminate as much back tracking and crisscrossing as you can. Google maps is a good tool to use for this task. Keep the number of flags on each route manageable. It may take less time to set up 30 flags in a two block area than to set up 15 in a route that stretches through several subdivisions. How do sponsors fit into this program? Mostly through the purchase of the flag kits themselves. Some clubs use this program and have an annual Field of Honor. The first two years, $1,000 sponsors were solicited to purchase 1,000 flags. In addition to the flags, there are some other costs such as racks to store them and rent on the storage unit. These flags are used throughout the year for the subscription program and a number of spare flags and parts are kept to keep everything looking great. You will find that this type of program, especially in smaller community generates a lot of patriotism and pride. The program sells itself, but promotion is always the key.

13 Cook-offs Takes many different forms – chili, gumbo, bakery items, etc. Pros: Relatively easy to plan Low start-up costs (entrants bring their own supplies) Plenty of organizational information Most people like to eat! Cons: Event can become too large to manage Large event = Large venue Cost of Venue A cook-off can be a fun way to raise money. Whether you use chili, gumbo, hamburgers, BBQ or pastries, just about everyone likes to eat. Many of the requirements are the same – good date, great venue, contest rules and promotion. A good problem to have, but a problem none-the-less is what happens if the event gets too large? You can always put a limit on the number of entries. Remember, the larger your event, the bigger the venue required to accommodate it. This can be a 4 season event - you could use BBQ or burgers in the summer or soups in the winter and bakery items in the fall when the fruits are ripe.

14 Cook-offs - OrganizationSelect a solid committee with various skills A location that suits your needs Determine entry fees and admittance fees Secure sponsors Promote ahead of time to find competitors & attendees Determine prizes Select the right judges – Celebrity Judges can bring in attendance! Determine the rules of the game – and stick to them A good planning committee is vital to the success of your event. Determine the timing, location, contest rules entry fees and cost of admission to get the ball rolling then work on advertising the event. Your rules can help determine what kind of judges you need – whether it’s some celebrity judges or hard core trained individuals. It mostly depends on how serious your competition is. If you are planning a sanctioned event like KCBS BBQ, you’ll need to follow all of their rules. If you are just doing a local contest, pretty much anything goes. Just make sure you have your rules in place and that every participant is aware of them before you start. By sticking to your well-advertised rules, you will have fewer arguments when it comes down to determining a winner. Even in a fun tournament, the competition can get pretty intense. Details on how to organize and run a great cook-off can be found on the internet by searching for chili cook-off (or whatever you decide to judge).

15 Enhancements to Any EventInclude additional fun fundraising activities throughout the night Raffle off chances to win donated prizes or services Conduct prize drawings between rounds Offer food and beverage for sale Hint: Increase the price of admission and include tickets for certain food or drinks Sell mulligans that can be used for incorrect answers 50/50 raffles If your event is large enough, consider “qualifying” rounds Silent Auction Donations With exception of the Flag program, each of the activities we’ve discussed today lend themselves to having other activities during the event. 50/50 raffles, food and beverages, mulligans, silent auctions, live auctions are among the possibilities that can fit your event. It all depends on what you are willing and able to provide. One mistake some event planners make is not directly asking for donations on the big day. Live calls-to-action at fundraising events often provoke an emotional response from attendees, which can make them more motivated to give. Make sure you are set up to take payment quickly for your events with easy to use apps and change for impulse donations.

16 In closing, remember that Location, Promotion and Sponsorships are the keys to almost any successful fundraiser. Once you have those three things figured out, you can make almost any idea profitable!