help with happy hour

October 6, 2008 11:06 AM

Does any have advice in regard to holding a small charity event in a bar in the DC or DC-adjacent area of Maryland?

I'm trying to scrape together the minimum fundraising amount for a charity half-marathon. I'm pondering a charity night at a local bar--either a happy hour or a trivia night. I'm in the Bethesda-Rockville area, but I think somewhere in downtown DC would work nicely too.

Before I start with cold calls, I was wondering if anyone had any experience in setting this sort of thing up? Do you know of any bars in the area that are friendly to this sort of thing? What will they be expecting from me on my end of the deal (minimum head counts, purchases)?

posted by divka to Grab Bag (2 answers total)

A friend of mine rented the upper floor of Garrett's in Georgetown for a birthday party and collected money at the door; he kept the cover charge and the bar got the money for all the alcohol purchases. There are an abundance of more upscale bars in DC, but Garrett's is decent and wasn't at all expensive to rent. It is fairly close to the Foggy Bottom Metro and is right in the central Georgetown strip near other bars and restaurants.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:15 AM on October 6, 2008

I have been to multiple fundraising activities at RFD in downtown DC, which is very centrally located, well set-up for this kind of event (there's a big back room with its own bar), and the staff/management is probably used to this kind of request.
posted by kittyprecious at 11:33 AM on October 6, 2008