After 10 years of doing fundraisers for schools, clubs and social clubs alike, we thought we’d seen it all when it came to fund raising ideas. And we were right.
Firstly, when wanting to raise funds for your function, keep in mind for your average Bogan Bingo showpeople pay about $25-$35 to go. Throw in a gut full of booze, and you’d be surprised how many times people can get to the bottom of their wallets.
So if you need to raise the cash for that new extension on the pavillion or new set of gym equipment for the school, keep in mind its just as much about manipulating peoples conscience, than it is about spruking another raffle.
Starting from the most obvious, but still important, here is the top ten ways we’ve seen people and clubs raise money for their clubs in the last 5 years.
Note: Live auctions are not on the list. We know they are important and very effective, but they are a mainly tedious event that we try keep away from where possible. The only positive is that most auctioneers try and be funny, fail miserably and then we come back on after them and cant do a thing wrong.
But I digress, so here they are.
10. The door prize.
Selling raffle tickets to people as they walk in is easy. They are sober, you’ve been there setting up since 4pm and you’re on your second glass of Yellow, and there is no where to hide for people when they walk in the door. Our advice, sting ‘em early before they get lost in the crowd.
Tip – The less they drink, the less people spend. So choose your activities accordingly.
9. Beer tasting.
If you have some connections with a local bottle ‘o or brewery, or you may have some leftovers in the fridge, get everyone to enter into a beer tasting contest. Just fill up some cups and get everyone to guess what beer they think it is. Just like heads and tales, whoever guess’s right, stays standing. There’s always bragging rights for this one, so its pretty easy to get the guys involved.
Just make sure there’s some tricky ones in there so you don’t go through all the beer. Then sell whats left over.
8. The coin toss.
Throwing a coin closest to the bottle involves everyone and is the most popular game to be played at half time at Bogan Bingo. Even tearing a small hole in the top of a slab of beer has gets the competitive juices throwing because its just like golf. Closest to the hole wins, but if someone slides their gold coin into the hole its game over! Tip: Anyone going overseas has the opportunity to garb those huge bottles of duty free Bourban that you cant get in the shop, but look great for the man cave.
7. Lucky squares.
The easiest game I’ve seen is the old lucky number. Draw up a board with 100 squares on it, get people to pick a number, write their name in the square, $2 to play, read out the last 2 digits on the note, you take home $100.
Do the math.
6. Silent auction.
Like some clients we have met at these functions after they have had a few glasses of ‘cardonay’, some things are nicer in silence. And silent auctions are right up there. Now we don’t actually know much about these because well, we don’t hear about them being silent and all. But they make the top ten list just on funds raised. They are low on entertainment, but not everyone likes being told to listen for 3 hours straight, so these are great for the quiet types who don’t mind a bargain. And we don’t have to do a thing except announce when they are about to close. Big tick for the silent auction. Tip : Print off out tailor made Silent Auction sheets on our down loads page.
5. Fashion parade.
Having a bogan theme for your event has become part and parcel of a Bogan Bingo night. The costumes are actually putting our staff to shame. So every half time, we go in search of the bogan king and queen of the prom. This was easy to do when numbers were small, but now that some crowds are over 150 people, we had to find a way to let the cream rise to the top.
If you have 15 tables of 10, just get people to pay to enter. Each table can enter the best dressed guy and girl on their table and with a gold coin donation from each person, you’ve just raised $150 to $300.
Remember, this is at the end of the night when everyone is at their most entertaining.
4. Stitching up the boss/principal.
The fashion parade has just finished, you’ve made a killing on some auctions and your Bingo host asks you, “Is the school principal dressed up tonight?”. You point them out and within minutes we have set a minimum $500 limit on daring them to wear their outfit to school on Monday. Works every time.
Yes it is a bit of a guilt trip, but we do a lot of Catholic Schools so we’ve learnt from the best:)
3. Photo Booth.
We saw this recently at a school event and it was not only a good fundraiser, but a great way to enter the event. Elsternwick Primary School set up a photo booth/screen for people to get their photos taken in front of upon arrival. Why stop there, get the red carpet happening and really feel like a rock star. All you need is some closet geek who does’nt really want to join in on the night, you know like the guy you ask to be the bus driver for you hens or bucks night, and he can be the professional photographer and email the photos to everyone the next day. (Maybe just do a police check first)
2. Auctioning kids pictures.
Now ever since the banning of slavery and child labor became fashionable, parents have long since been stumped on how to get the best out of their children. Enter ‘The auctioning off of the kids kindergarden paintings’.
You’d be surprised how much proud parents buy a painting of some clouds and stick figures on canvas, simply because they are too scared to look like they don’t love their children if they don’t bid. Throw in a few dummy bids, and skies the limit!
1. The rubber chicken throw.
Now I thought I had seen it all, the Sandringham Parents Association had put on a cracker. There was 220 people there, all in their finest denims, the auctions had gone well, they charged people to go in the fashion parade, they even brought their own spinning wheel. These guys were a finely tuned money raising machine (this took a team of about 15 people so you know). We were packing up the show and having a few beers and chatting to some wives who seemed to be happy their husbands where out having some fun out on the basketball court.
So my interest and regard for my personal safety got the better of me and as we snuck out under the lights of the local court, there we’re 50 guys all lined up that had each paid five bucks to see how far they could throw a rubber chicken.
I suppose any object would do, but you can’t beat a rubber chicken.
This would clearly not have happened at the start of the night, and it may not have even been planned, though if it was’nt planned I’m not sure who brought the rubber chicken.
But it does prove my theory, there’s no right or wrong way to raise money when it comes to ideas. Its actually more about the timing.
So if you can time it right so that telling someone that rushing out to the basketball court to see who can throw some inanimate object the furthest would be a good idea, then you’ve not only mastered the art of raising money, but there would probably no end to the powers of your cunning ability to manipulate your entire community.
More power to you.
Daz
CeO-Gan of Bogan Bingo Entertainment.