So, I go to a performing arts school and I am on the fundraising committee for 2012.

Each committee member has to execute two fundraising events this year. The profits of which go towards reimbursing us when we go on our unpaid placements next year (most of us go overseas, and each year we get around $500 per student through our combined efforts) .

Each students event or fundraiser is expected to raise at least $300 after costs have been met.

Most people are in bands and run club nights. I'm guessing there is going to be a good handful of club nights this year already. I'm one of the few students on the committee who doesn't really have any links to bands and is epically uncool I wouldnt know how to run a club night. I specialize in dance, which isn't as popular

Bake sales are out, because the design department already has a monopoly on selling baked goods in the foyer at shows

I'm having a mental blank and would love some suggestions from the DDN brains trust.

Aren't you a burlesque dancer?

I think it's pretty obvious what you need to do, here.

Erin.
::righteous babe::

Some sort of learn to dance workshop? Open Mic night?

Bachelor auction?

I went out for drinks with some friends one night and there was one going on at the pub. The girl hosting it was raising money to go to Germany to compete for team Canada in motor-cross (or something like that). You auction off the guys, hang out at the pub a bit longer (or where ever you are) and then she got a limo company to donate a limo for the night and they went around to the different bars until 3am. She raised at least $300 while I was there and they were still auctioning off the guys when we left.

DeStijl wrote:

I'm one of the few students on the committee who doesn't really have any links to bands

Ah but you know me (and co-wrote two of my songs) and I have HEAPS of links to musos.

Helen

At work one of the things they do to raise money for charity is a silent auction, and all of the items to be auctioned off are donated by employees. So maybe that's something? Get students to donate gently used items they're not using, and then open it up for everyone to bid? At our silent auction, the big thing is purses, so if you can get people to donate gently used purses, you're golden.

I rented a small beautiful old local dance studio, had a ton of food (which was donated as the organization I worked for was a 510C3) decorated with sparkling lights and donated flowers and had a ticket-drawing and show. People bought $10 raffle tickets to win donated items that we were donated from local boutiques and shops. Once again, getting items was easy with a nice letter talking about the cause and a tax-deductible number. Then at a certain time during the night, everyone went into a large studio to see some dance performances (by the company I was fundraising for) and a few small acoustic live music performances which were also, 'donated' by friends. At a certain point there was a raffle drawing and people got goodies- everything from gift cards, art pieces, fancy candles, tickets to shows, nice wine, etc.

We also had items that people could bid on, silent auction style. Each item (typically jewelry or services) was displayed on a table with a sheet of paper describing what it was. Below that was a sheet where people could write their name and bid. We asked people to bid at a minimum of $5 increments. So, Joe would write 'Joe, $10' and if someone wanted it more than that, they could write 'Sally, $15' underneath. At the end of the night, winners were informed.

We posted flyers for the 'night of dance and music to support xxx' everywhere: local colleges, bookstores, various dance related places, cafes- anywhere someone into art or dance might go. That night maybe 50 people came, ate, talked, watched and donated! We spent maybe $120, but raised over $7000. And it was a ton of fun. Because you don't need to raise as much, perhaps a smaller event would do the trick.

Madseason, I assume you mean a 501(c)3? Last time I checked, raffles were explicitly against 501(c)3 rules, in my state anyway. It is considered gambling and gambling is illegal here. Tax rules can get complicated, even if they are allowed. So be careful about recommending raffles. Laws vary from state to state and most likely from country to country about raffles.

kk~

I watched to many high school movies so my first thought was the good old "car wash".

What do you thing about a flyer or little video that you could send to larger companies to ask for money?

Do you have performances at your school? to you have little programm-magazines for them? then maybe you could ask companies if they like to put an ad into them and pay for it. We did that for our yearbook, so the costs of it weren't that high.

You could also do an auction on old costumes or outworn dance-shoes, like "buy a shoe of a future famous dancer".

We do a lot of fundraising for my dance club that is a part of my University. There are quite a few bars around here that offer this type of fundraising I am going to explain, so you might want to look around your school's area!

So we have these Bar/Club nights. Basically, we pay nothing and reap all the benefits. The bar gives us tickets to sell for a certain night/event at their location. We get to decide how much we sell them for (we usually do 5$). The tickets get the person priority entrance (no lines) and a free drink once inside. We don't pay the bar a cent for this, and keep all the money we make on ticket sales. It is so easy. We get the money, and the bar gets extra patrons for the night (great advertising for them). We have 25 members and usually make between 500-1000$ for just one night.

Thanks all!

I've decided on my two events at last! The first is going to be a gala dinner and live/silent auction held in our main theatre and the second is going to be twilight lawn bowls & burlesque show.

Erin, I don't really want to perform in front of my peers and teachers - but I'm happy to contract my friends to do so

The committee itself runs an annual raffle so that was out, and the official board of the school deals with the revenue that program advertising brings in so we couldn't touch that either. Its hard when there are about 7 other departments fundraising for their own respective secondments , but I got there in the end.

Thanks for your suggestions!

I wish you good luck with your events! Hope you can raise a good bunch of money

Hey, sorry i'm a bit late to reply! but i would throughly recommend doing a sponsered bike ride or sponsered run. I organise one every year for me and my friends and we give the money to charity! but it's great fun and it's good excercise! we normally raise around £250-£300 easc time!