Friday, 11. December 2009
Who doesn’t love a good mystery? A murder mystery is a unique fundraiser that will allow every member of your group to participate while bringing in lot of people from the community to support your organization and have a great time doing it.
While there is some investment required, you will make all of your money back in this one night event. All you have to do is host a murder. Murder mystery parties are popular for all ages, so why not use this popular event as a way to raise money for your group?
The murder mystery can be geared toward any age group, from children to adults. Scripts can be purchased online or, if you have a lot of creativity in your group, you can write your own script.
You’ll need a venue in which to host your murder mystery. The options for a venue are endless, and depend largely on what you plan to charge for admittance. Some groups have held a similar fundraiser and charged $100 or more. They held the event in a hotel ballroom, and a wonderful dinner, catered by the hotel, was included.
Other groups have charged far less per ticket and held the event in a church fellowship hall or local Moose lodge and served pizza, chicken or heavy appetizers. You know your audience, so just be sure to be realistic when setting ticket prices and choosing a venue.
You’ll want to send press releases to local media well in advance of your event. The uniqueness of this event makes a perfect news story, and if the local paper runs a story prior to the event, you’re sure to have increased ticket sales as a result. Also, it’s a good way to the name of your group in the public eye.
You will need to set aside rehearsal time with the group members who are participating. Think of the event as an interactive play. The actors in the play will actually mill around with the people who purchased tickets. They will answer questions, offer clues while also trying to throw people off the scent of the “real killer”.
When guests begin to arrive, they should be shown into the event room and told to mingle with other guests. You may make it obvious which people are actors (by having them wear costumes) or you may choose to have the players mix in seamlessly with the guests. Once most of the guests have arrived, it’s time for murder.
There are a couple of ways to carry out this part of the fundraiser. One is to have the murder be carried out in the room where the guests are located. The lights should flicker out, and when they come back on, the body will be in the room. While the lights are out, you can have sound effects, such as a gunshot or a scream, to add to the drama. Another option is to have someone playing a police officer enter the room and inform the crowd that there has been a murder.
Either of these options will work equally well. The back story and clues are the backbone of this event more so than the actual murder.
After the murder, guests will spend time mingling with the actors, trying to extract clues and figure out whodunit. If a sit down dinner is being served, continue to offer clues during the meal, perhaps having the waitress share clues with the guests as she serves them.
At the end of the night, the guests will answer some questions such as who did it? And why did they do it? Offer prizes for the best answers.
Because several different scripts are available for murder mystery dinners, you could hold this event on an annual basis without having to repeat the exact same performance.
What you’ll need:
- A murder mystery script – you can purchase one or write it yourself
- A venue – the options are limitless, and depend on the price of your tickets
- Prizes – they could be token prizes or more substantial. Talk to local vendors and merchants to see if they would be willing to donate items to the fundraiser
- Food – Whether a fancy sit down dinner, or heavy appetizers, you will want to serve food during the event
A murder mystery fundraiser is sure to be remembered by all who participate!
Posted in Fundraising - Event Ideas, Large Group Fundraisers, Medium Group Fundraisers, Small Group Fundraisers by Christopher -
Friday, 11. December 2009
The polar bear plunge fundraiser is where participants volunteer to jump into an iced over lake or other obviously freezing body of water. This type of fundraiser isn’t limited to those near icy lakes or ponds. You can create your own “polar pool” by filling a swimming pool with large quantities of ice.
This event is great because there really is no limit to the number of people that can participate. Having more people participate does not add on to the overall cost of the event. Making this into a competition with different categories also can draw more people to participate.
Once a date is set for th event, start marketing it as soon as you can. Start by sending letters to local businesses, schools and groups. Encourage participants to apply in teams. The more people that they have on their team, the more money they will be able to raise. You should also try to encourage individual participants to enter. To encourage people to raise as much money as they can, have prizes for both the team and the individual who raise the most money.
Each participant of this event should do their best to gather “sponsors”. Typically, once they hear of the cause of the event, and the means of the fundraising (jumping into icy cold water), they would be more inclined to donate. If you want, you can also set rules where participants have to either be submerged neck deep or all the way inside the water in order to “qualify.”
If possible, you should also charge each team or individual an entry fee. You can explain that the proceeds of the fee will go to the fundraiser itself, as well as in buying supplies to make the event possible.
To make extra fundraising money, you can set up mini hot chocolate or coffee carts.
Posted in Fundraising - Event Ideas, Large Group Fundraisers, Medium Group Fundraisers, Small Group Fundraisers by Christopher -
Friday, 11. December 2009
The rubber duck race fundraiser is a really great fundraiser that can be thrown year after year. Participants look forward to events like these year after year, and each year adds on from the year before due to the added publicity and word-of-mouth buzz.
Basics of a Rubber Duck Race Fundraiser:
Rubber ducks are sold to entrants who then write their contact information on each duck they choose to purchase. Make sure that the contact information is written with permanent marker. Test some under running water to be sure that the names/contact information does not rub off.
At the day of the event, the ducks are placed on a river or a pond. With a preset “finish line” in place, the duck that reaches it first is the winner!
Be sure that: 1) You test out to see that the ducks are indeed able to get to the finish line (no branches/logs that obstruct the path completely) and that you obtain the necessary permissions or permits from a city official before the event.
To make the event more interesting, you can try placing “obstacles” that trap some ducks, so that those in front are not always guaranteed to win!
As for prizes, it is a good idea to offer a 2nd place and a 3rd place prize as well, so that there isn’t only one winner. Prizes can be donated from local businesses in exchange for sponsorship.
Making this fundraiser as a community event is crucial to its success. Invite friends and family to the event and make it a city-wide competition. You can use local newspapers, radio stations, school and church bulletin boards to build up anticipation prior to the event. Having nice prizes would also draw more attention from more people.
Having local sponsors sponsor this event monetarily or with supplies should be relatively easy. Simply explain to them the fundraiser as well as the potential reach they have in the community. Invite the local television stations to cover the event to help build a stronger reputation for the following years. The key to the event is also to make it as festive and fun as possible. Helium filled balloons and streamers are cheap but very effective in making any venue look more lively. Having food and beverage carts also help raise the festive mood as well as additional funds.
Posted in Fundraising - Event Ideas, Large Group Fundraisers, Medium Group Fundraisers by Christopher -
Friday, 11. December 2009
Spelling Bees can be great for any sized congregation. As younger kids, everyone dreaded taking spelling bees for dread of embarrassment and a bad grade. However, when you get everyone at the church involved, including parents, the choir, pastor/minister, etc involved, it proves to be a very fun event that anyone and everyone can enjoy.
Planning A Spelling Bee Fundraiser
The planning stages of this type of fundraiser are the most difficult, after that, it’s easy. Finding volunteers and teams to participate in the spelling bee and publicizing your event will likely be the only challenges that you face. There are a few sure-fire ways to get some help!
First, you want to ensure that you advertise your Spelling Bee to whatever group or population that you are striving for. Get some great prizes lined up, things that everybody wants; not cheesy prizes! Prizes that are great incentives are trips, gift cards, money, shopping sprees, and movie theater tickets. Separate your prizes or have two each and offer a drawing for prizes for volunteers as well, that always gets names signed on the dotted line.
How It Works
Now we all understand the basics of a spelling bee, but a fundraiser Bee will be a bit different. In order to raise profits and draw an audience it will have to be put on in such a way that is comical and interesting. You will have teams of three or four participants instead of individual contestants. This heats up the competition and will give everyone a good laugh, because the contestants are not singled out! When a team misses two words they are disqualified from that round! The winning team goes on and the last team standing wins the Spelling Bee.
This fundraiser is profitable at different levels; first, the teams pay an entrance fee, also donations and individual or team sponsorships, or you can sell tickets to the event. Having refreshments can bring in additional funds as well since everyone loves a snack.
You can even make this a competition b/w different churches, with the winner of either church getting a larger percentage of the shared funds (optional)
Posted in Fundraising - Event Ideas, Large Group Fundraisers, Medium Group Fundraisers, Small Group Fundraisers by Christopher -
