Module 5: Fundraising Events
All funds raised using Unite For Sight’s name must be donated to Unite For Sight.
Movie Night
- Charge admission, or offer free admission with a charge for popcorn
Service Auction
- Ask friends and family to donate talents or a service that can be auctioned for money. (i.e. cooking special meal, babysitting, editing service, grocery shopping, cooking lesson, salsa lesson, ballroom dance lessons, yoga lessons, etc)
Dress Down Day
- Organize a dress down Friday in which employees can wear jeans if they donate $5.
Benefit Concert
- On university campuses, ask one or more of the A Capella groups to perform for a benefit concert, and you can charge $5-$20 for admission.
Party
Narrative By Jaci Theis:
Fundraising can be fun! I organized a Valentine's Day Date party to support Unite for Sight. I rented out a bar that people love to go to and was in the next town over (Bucknell is in a small town in PA). I paid an initial down payment of $500 and was assured that only people coming to the fundraiser would be let into the bar that night. At Bucknell there was some technicalities to get around because the school won't let you use school property unless you are with a student organization, and I am a student Campus Representative at Bucknell and not with a Unite For Sight chapter. So, I partnered with a local fraternity (ALL fraternities nationwide are mandated to fundraise philanthropy dollars so a lot of them would be more than willing to help!). Partnering with a frat was also nice because the pledges and brothers went to the dorms to sell tickets and all years of students were attracted to the event. Together, we were able to arrange for buses to take people from Bucknell to the Bar for the party.
I made a Facebook group to get the word out about the party and EVERYONE knew about it in a matter of days and was excited. I marketed the party as "bring a date or find one there" so people felt comfortable coming on there own. I sold tickets for $20 (which included bus and entry into the bar but not drinks since only 21 year olds were permitted to drink, but under 21 year olds were more than welcome to come...). The night of the party, people came to load the buses and we had a list of everyone that pre-paid and just crossed them off, gave them a wristband so we could identify them at the bar as being associated with the fundraiser, and that was it!
We sold over 300 tickets and fundraised more than $3600! Everyone had a blast and surprisingly had no problems paying $20 (with drinks not included) since it was for such a great cause!
Food Sales
- Bake Sales
- You can bake your own goods, or obtain donated goods from local bakeries, Dunkin Donuts, or Au Bon Pain. Dunkin Donuts and Au Bon Pain frequently donate their leftover goods instead of discarding the food at the end of the business day.
- Pumpkin Pie Sales - See an example at http://www.learnlink.mcmaster.ca/TAs-Talking-To-TAs/FOV1-000542C7/FOV1-00058461/I04F98A9F