Tips For a Successful Fundraising Event

We want to make your fundraiser a huge success. To achieve maximum results we recommend the following:

• Planning! This is the most important aspect of a successful fundraiser. Fundraisers tend to fail most when they are put together at the last minute. We recommend allowing at least 3 months planning to achieve the results that you want.
  
  
• Pre-Sale, Pre-Sale, Pre-Sale! This cannot be stressed enough. The biggest failure for a fundraiser is expecting a large door sale; door sales usually only account for 5% of your total income.
  
  
• Wet their whistle! Give your guests just enough play money to get started. We usually suggest $100 in play money. This way you can sell more play money to those that run out. Typically you would sell another $100 in play money for $10-$20 in real money. The key to making sure you have a large re-sale is to have people floating around the casino re-selling play money. This works much better than having one central location to buy all of the script. Boost the sale of play money by offering discounts throughout the night. For instance: every hour make an announcement that for the next 5 minutes your guests will receive $200 in play money for the same $10-$20 dollar donation. Make sure your guests understand that they will be able to use this play money to purchase raffle tickets at the end of the night.
  
  
• Host a Cash Bar! You can sell drink tickets up front for drinks. Make this simple: typically soda, beer, wine and maybe one specialty drink. You don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of different alcohol at the end of the night. This is a very big draw.
  
  
• Drawing! Another way of generating money is to have a 50/50 drawing. Yes this even works at casino nights. You should have 2 or 3 of them throughout the night to keep people donating.
  
  
• Silent Auction! You should also have some sort of a silent auction with donated gift baskets and prizes. You don’t need a whole bunch of prizes for the casino. Approximately 5-10 prizes should be more than enough. Use any other prizes as silent auction prizes. You can get prizes donated by calling local business and parents.
  
  
• Sponsors! Last but not least get local businesses to sponsor tables. Local businesses are always looking for ways to increase their visibility and what better way than to put a sponsor flyer and possibly some business cards at a table. We’ve found that the best people to ask for donations are real estate agencies and local restaurants.
  
  

We hope this information will help you make sure your party is a success! Remember, your pit-boss the night of the party will help you generate as much as possible so don’t be afraid to ask for advice. We will be available to you anytime a question should arise.