Clever ways to raise more money at a charity music night

February 18, 2009 2:52 PM

I'm based in Scotland, and looking for clever ways to raise more money for a charity music show I am putting on. A decent number of people should be coming (100?) but not sure how many of them will donate before the night, I'd like to have a few things on the night to make sure I get around everyone to give them the chance to help, especially as I am not doing something super-challenging like running a marathon or skydiving etc. so am in no physical danger. At the moment the biggest danger is being dressed like a pirate singing backstreet boys songs (crazy voters!)

I've thought about the usual raffle, competition, auction sort of things, but would like to do something fun on the night to make it more of an event.

I saw this post, which mentioned some good ideas:
http://ask.metafilter.com/107064/Dolladollabillz-how-to-get-them-from-you-for-charity I like the idea of raising money through things people would be doing anyway like eating and drinking. Maybe I could get a temporary license to sell alcohol or maybe there are clever ways to get around the selling part?

I've done something similar before where everyone that comes brings something from their house they don't want and then that gets raffled off, and that worked well, but need a new idea! All suggestions are welcome, what's worked well for you?

Details about what I am doing are here: http://www.colinasquith.com/showofhands/ if it helps get more of an idea.

posted by equality7-2521 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Hire a photographer to set up a posing area. Charge $5 for a picture with all the proceeds going to the good cause.
posted by big open mouth at 4:35 PM on February 18, 2009

You've got a good looking design there on the webpage - if you have any good quality show-prints or posters from the night, and a printer might donate running a few extra, you can sell them or raffle them off. Mr. Peagood often designs show posters for bands at a certain club, and the bar owner gets them autographed, then takes bids for them, with the winnings going to charity. There's only ever a certain number of posters, like a limited edition, for each event and it works pretty well.
posted by peagood at 5:14 PM on February 18, 2009

Ruling out raffles, auctions, and competitions cuts out a lot - maybe you could raffle/auction/contest off things that are themselves more fun?

IMO, people will engage more readily with other audience members than with you. Many events here set up an arbitrary division (usually two halves of the seats, but it could be by sex, by shirt color, etc) and split people into teams for cheering and what have you. If you do a little team spirit building throughout the evening, the teams might be willing to compete for top donation amount. You could also be a little sneakier and have them compete in eating some food item that's for sale or playing some little carnival-type game that costs something to play.

Everyone loves to tease and embarrass their friends, so if you can take advantage of that you could probably make a few bucks (euros? i dunno.) Socials (wedding fundraiser parties) here will sometimes have a "jail", where you can pay a couple of dollars to have a friend taken away and locked up until someone pays a couple of dollars to have them released. Probably not for your event, but maybe you could auction the right to request a song poking fun at your buddy? At the end of the auction, that person could be put in the spotlight or brought on stage, and you could perform the song with specifics provided by the requester. Of course, once they get up on stage, they could match the bid to bring the perpetrator up too.
posted by pocams at 5:36 PM on February 18, 2009

Response by poster: I like the ideas so far, the photographer idea is pretty neat, the posters would be good depending on what else happens that night, and I don't want to discount the raffle/auctions etc. I just need a good angle on them, I think you've given me some things to think about pocams, especially about engaging the audience and if I can get the angle right, that's what would make the night work!

So far my latest ideas are: auction off songs in advance, setup a song based raffled or bingo where you buy tickets and if you hear your song you win a prize, or maybe some kind of X-factor style karaoke thing going on! I will let you know what I end up with!
posted by equality7-2521 at 5:45 PM on February 19, 2009