Thread: Fun Fund-Raising Ideas?

I have two of my students performing with me at a local big festival in May, and both of them expressed interest in coming out to Gothla, so I thought, hey, we could do that piece at Gothla! Both students are psyched about it, and one just bought her tickets to come out. The other student really wants to do it, but is a college student, working 2 jobs, so finances are tight. So I thought, well, we could do a fund-raiser to help fund her trip. Everyone else in the class is also on board with the idea, cause she's such a sweet girl (including her mom, who also takes classes with me).

So, I'm thinking we could do a performance night at our usual place, but that tends to be more of a hafla setting - it's not generally a paid gig. But I suppose I could ask the guys to charge a $5 cover that night? But I'm trying to think of how else we could generate some cash. We could emphasize the fund-raising part with a big cauldron for folks to put cash in.

Or...
maybe a shimmy-a-thon? I've heard of 'em, and seen them in passing, but how do shimmy-a-thons work?

Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I was thinking we'd do it around Valentine's Day..

We've done a fund-raiser here called "Evening of Decadence". It was basically an evening of activities designed to please women. We planned a number of 20-30 minute activities. Examples: a local massage therapist lead everyone through partner massage (10 minutes with one partner massaging the other, then switch places). Someone else taught partner stretching using some of the partner yoga material. A Mary Kay saleswoman led everyone in a lesson on how to apply eye makeup. A reflexology person led a session on partner foot massage.

Of course, the refreshments for the evening included wine and chocolate as well as other goodies.

The people leading activities were not paid for doing it. Instead, they were offered the opportunity to vend. So, the Mary Kay lady sold cosmetics. The massage therapist brought her table and used a back room of the studio to perform for-fee massages.

We charged $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Attendees knew it was a fund-raiser.

Other activities could include someone teaching a lesson on how to mix and apply henna, and then selling her services throughout the evening doing applications. Or a flower arranging demo. Or using essential oils. And so on.

The good thing about doing this type of event is that even people who have no interest in belly dancing could have fun at it.

That's a very interesting idea Shira, thank you. I think where we are is a little too rural, especially in the off season for it to work, but I'll definitely keep it in mind for New England events :)

Trying to think of something we could incorporate into a performance evening...which why I was wondering about the shimmy-a-thon..

We had a small fundraiser and discovered the money-maker was BellyOke: For $5 you could pick a song out of a hat and pick a dancer out of a hat (this way only dancers who want to participate are involved) to dance to the picked song. For $20 you got to see the song list and you chose the song and dancer.

We had mostly non-"bellydance" songs because people wanted to pay to make someone dance to something silly. Even the other dancers! I had to dance to the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins...

We're doing it again and I'm thinking of adding a super Show-Off Special - $50 to dance to William Shatner songs...

It was a lot of fun for everyone!

Wow, that really is a fun idea! And we do have the infamous "Teri-oke" here in Cape May (folks who listen to NPR would have heard him a while back on the Cape May feature), so we could probably join forces quite easily.

Thanks so much, I'll bring it up the girls tomorrow!

Originally Posted by rosehips

That's a very interesting idea Shira, thank you. I think where we are is a little too rural, especially in the off season for it to work, but I'll definitely keep it in mind for New England events :)

Trying to think of something we could incorporate into a performance evening...which why I was wondering about the shimmy-a-thon..

Hi Tempest! Yeah, you need to be in an urban enough location to have the presenters be available. Our metropolitan area has about 80,000 people, so we have a big enough population of both presenters and attendees to make it work.

We've done this event 3 times so far. The first garnered about $400 income. The two later ones were much smaller, but I think that's because of bad timing. (One was scheduled for the weekend when our largest-in-known-history flood reached its peak, so I think people stayed home to build their arks. The other was between Thanksgiving and Christmas.)

Our school haflas are fundraisers, which is why there is a charge on the door. We also often have raffles, which do require some legal hoop-jumping but which are really popular and do bring in some cash. Teachers are often willing to donate private lessons. The main prize in our last one was a workshop pass donated by one of our teachers, who was sponsoring said workshop with a visiting teacher. And there's the ever-popular bottle of wine, which you generally have to buy - but if you're quite good at promotions you can often blag product from organisations, such as wine companies. It's easiest if you are raising money for a charity but if it's for your school or club, selecting companies who might benefit from your student base, eg local beauty salons, gift shops etc, could be interested. Product is easier to get than money.

my org has tried a shimmython, and we're probably going to try it again... but I think to have that be successful, there has to be some sort of meaningful prize or goal for the entrants to work for. for us, you got a title, mention in a program, discounts off of a future show or workshop we'd produce.

this is just me, but I'd be more inclined to donate money if I was going to get something in return, or if the fundraiser was for a dancer who needed help to cover medical expenses or something. I'd be less inclined to just help somebody get a plane ticket.

I wonder if some sort of hafla or show would work best for your situation. have a great headliner (who maybe will donate her performance since it's a fundraiser?) so people have a good reason to come. charge a cover at the door; pass a hat or have an additional donation jar and have the mc encourage people to contribute; consider having a silent auction; consider a raffle-type drawing (our org is a nonprofit, so we have to be careful how we word things - a raffle is technically gambling, so we could only give the tickets in exchange for a donation if we wanted to do something like that).

good luck!