Charity event ideas


 

Ryan Ko

TVWBB Super Fan
I am organizing a BBQ competition charity event and I need money raising ideas. We are having the BBQ comp, a craft show, food vendors and a band. I am not going to charge to get in because I don't think the crowd would do that. I am however going to ask for a donation at the gate. Currently the money for our charity will come from sponsors, % of food sales, % of craft sales and entry fees(if there is anything left after prizes). I just don't think this will be enough. Anyone have any good fund raising ideas for an event like this?
 
We work with a Rescue group for Basset Hounds.

If you are trying to raise money for a charity - make sure that this is clearly posted in your event advertisements, and banners / signs at the event site.

Some ideas:
-50/50 Raffle - get some paired-up ticket rolls, have one or two drawings per day. Winner gets 50% of the take from ticket sales.
(We've even had some winners "donate-back" all or most of their winnings.)

-Prize Raffle - See if any local shops/vendors are willing to donate stuff that you can use as prizes / raffle-off. Then sell tickets at a reasonable price, but enough that your charity actually makes some money.

(NOTE: With any charity raffle - be sure to comply with any state / local policies. In Wisconsin, we have to obtain a "Raffle License" from the state.)

-Decorate some "danation jars" and place them prominently at places where people will sit while they eat / listen to the band. (we use lids with a slot, and silicone the lids on)

We DO charge a reasonable entry fee - this helps to cover the cost of tent rental etc.

Make sure you have a place set-up that is secure, where you periodically bring the cash boxes / change jars, etc.

Be sure to keep Separate Cash Boxes for each event / raffle, etc. and record your results before making any deposit etc.. This way, if this will be an annual event, you can see how well each event / raffle went, and can make intelligent decisions for the next year.
(With a charity - it looks bad to be handling the money out in the open, plus you do not want to be a target for would-be thugs and opportunists.)
 
Ryan,

I am going to do something similar this May for a local volunteer fire station. They just had one this weekend, and used all of the things Ron mentioned. Although the were recording the indivudal event money, they were not keeping the money separate. This made it a large hassle, so definitely follow Ron's advice there.

My wife actually won the 50/50 raffle, and she did donate back her winnings.

Ron,

This will be the first event my family and I have ever setup. We were trying to find a good way to judge the amount of food to have prepared. We won't be having a BBQ comp, just pulled pork plates & sandwiches. Is your event larger than this, or how do you figure out the amount of food to have available ?
 
A lot of comps we do have a Peoples Choice for charity. The teams cook the meat (chicken wings, pulled pork, sausage, things like that) and then the organizers sell tickets to the public so they can vote for their favorites.

-Mike
 
A lot of comps will do the People's Choice like Mike refers to. Most will give out a Pork Butt to the team at no charge on Friday and ask them to cook it up just like their turn-in. Then on Saturday morning usually around 10:00 the team will turn it in pulled/shredded/chopped/etc.

The most succesful ones that I've seen has a large tent set up where the public can pay $5-$10 to sample all the entries and vote on their favorite. The top vote getter team gets a trophy or something at the awards. Lots of events will get a local high school club/group to run the tent and giving out the samples. The club then gets a percentage of the take. It also helps a lot to alleviate the public from asking the teams for samples.

I did see one comp where you could rent a high school kid to work on your team. They would run boxes, cleanup, get ice, run errands, etc. That was pretty cool.

Russ
 

 

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