Look After Yourself
Keep your energy up. Don’t accept excuses from yourself and your team. If you set out to raise funds, then raise funds. If you make an agreement to do something – then do it. Make sure that the fundraising team has bought into the idea early and are willing to give their energy and effort. Too many fundraising efforts are really the work of 1 or 2 human-dynamos and a number of passengers. The more actively useful people you can enrol in your fundraising efforts and the fewer passengers you have on the team to drag down your spirits and dilute efforts, the more successful you’ll be.
Follow Up Interested People
Keep a list of people who have expressed interest but not yet bought tickets and follow them up at least once per week in person or by phone. Be organised. Get your team together next week and talk about successes you’re having and set goals together.
Email may seem like an easy way to communicate, but it is impersonal and easy to ignore. It is better to telephone. Better still to visit in person.
Online Sales Too
Offer tickets on Trademe and Ebay etc. of you can. Make sure the auction finishes early enough (or has a fixed price) so that people don’t hold off buying a ticket until after the auction, and miss out entirely.
Make it Easy to Get Tickets
Make sure that it is really easy to get tickets though – if someone wants to come it should be painless for them to get a ticket. So pop back to places you’ve visited and offer tickets – or ask the company receptionist where you left a brochure to take bookings and money for you and give them a number where they can contact you to have the tickets delivered to the buyer.
Ask Friends and Family to Help
Talk to friends, relatives, parents etc. – will they come, will they organise a group of 10 from their work or club? Could they put up a poster?
Contact Your Community Media
Talk to the local “free” newspaper at least 6 weeks in advance. Talk to the local radio stations – they’ll generally mention your show on a community notices bulletin, and will often support you with additional promotions and adverts.
Ask Local Businesses to Help
Approach some of the local businesses and see if they’ll let you advertise your show on their canteen notice board. Maybe they’ll let you come in at a lunch break and you can sell tickets then and there. Offer them a discount if they organise a group and 10 or more people come.
Drop Flyers in Letterboxes
Enlist some people to help you post flyers into mailboxes of local residents about 3 – 4 weeks before your event. You might not like receiving direct mail yourself, but the reason that there is so much of it is that it works!
Put Up Posters Well In Advance
Put up posters at local stores and shopping precincts. Put up posters at least 4 weeks before hand. People need time to plan ahead and to get organised.
Cheque in Before They Check Out
It’s a sad fact that many people say they’ll come to your event and then don’t show up. I guess it’s not so bad if they paid for their tickets, but often they will have been fobbing you off.
If they’re really coming, then they’ll buy a ticket. If they don’t buy a ticket, then they’re not really coming.
To discourage people from postponing, if they say they are coming, get their money right then, and to make it worthwhile, have the ticket price lower for advance purchase than on the night. That way, if they are really coming, they will buy the ticket in advance because it is cheaper.
It is OK to ask for the money. Yours is a worthy cause (I assume). If you have issues about asking for money – get over them. Without having purchased a ticket, some people will change their minds about coming simply because it may be raining on the night – even though your show is indoors. So advance purchases are the key to the success of your fundraiser.
Entertainment for (click) . . .
Fund Raising Shows
Corporate Functions
Pubs Clubs CabaretsPublic Shows You Can Come To
Click the kiwis for upcoming public shows that you can buy tickets to.
Follow Us!