Ideas for Making your Fundraiser Fun
As one of the chairs of the fundraising committee – the committee that puts on the New York Junior League Fall Fete each year – I can tell you that there is much more to putting on a major fundraiser than just garnering some auction items and letting people lose. Our committee looks for ways each year to make the annual fundraiser fun! And it should be. People should have fun while supporting the community and giving back. Nothing in this event needs to be stuffy or overly complicated.
Here are a few things we did this year that you can incorporate into your next charitable event.
1) Step and Repeat: The name comes from the red carpet events celebrities attend such as movie premiers. The sign in the background is called a step and repeat and celebrities step then smile for the next photographer then repeat. They are also fun for guests at fundraisers and charitable events. Many companies can do them for you and usually you can pay extra to get the stand (which you can use again another time). The logos on the step and repeat should be the logo for your cause as well as one or two of your biggest donors or sponsors. As far as thing being fun…everyone lines up all night long for this. They love it! Here are some examples of a step and repeat at an event.
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- New York Junior League Fall Fete Photo Booth
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- New York Junior League Fall Fete Step and Repeat
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- Allison Greenberg, Andrew Loughlin
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- Cynthia Greenberg, Leticia Frazao, Casey Cammatte, Julie Voll
2) Photo booth: The event space this year had a glass enclosed room with red velvet curtains. The room was in the main room where we were holding our live auction and dance floor. It might have been dead space – and unusable, but we decided to make it into a photo booth. Another fun activity for guests to take part in throughout the night!
Nicole DiOrio and Chelsea Vukelic
New York Junior League Fall Fete Photo Booth
3) Raffles/Door Prizes: As a way to keep guest entertained in between the end of the silent auction and when they could check out (as it takes about 20-30 minutes to pack up all the silent auction items, run the credit cards, and get the items so people can pick them up) we decided on doing door prizes. Everyone loves a chance to win a prize! We took a few of the items we were going to put in the silent auction and used them for the raffle instead.
What are some things you’ve done at your charitable event to make it more fun and exciting for guests?
