For questions/comments, please email jberigan@everybodyhatesfundraising.com
Would You Like to Make
More Money at Your Next School Carnival?
Did you know that some people (school administrators & parent-teacher group leaders) don’t see the carnival as a real money making machine? (I couldn’t believe it, but it’s true!)
Did you know that many schools regularly leave hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on the table each time they hold a carnival?
Did you know that from the minute a family walks into your school carnival, everything they see and experience must be tweaked to maximize profit? Are you doing this?
Do you know how to respond to the mom who says “$15 to play some silly little games is ridiculous! Why can’t I just buy individual tickets? Come on, son, we’re going home.” (This is an actual quote I came across in an anti-school carnival blog post.)
The planning of a school carnival is absolutely filled with critical questions, just like these.
If you want to make sure you are doing everything you can to make as much money as possible for your school, you must be armed with knowledge and conviction. The conviction will come from your own heart. The knowledge, however, you can get from our
*This is an e-book, not a printed product.2009-2010 School Carnival
Money Making Guide
With 186 pages, this e-book is laid out in easy-to-read and easy to cross-reference chapters, you will find dozens of tips and strategies on the following topics:
Within these chapters, you will discover that each topic has been written about from a perspective of “How to make money”. For example, in the Volunteer chapter, I highlight all of the ways that Volunteers can actually produce income for your school and not just save it. (Active earners, instead of just passive earners!)
In the Prizes chapter, I break down all the various methods that a school can award prizes for midway games. Some methods are preferred by the kids, but are a nightmare for adults. Other methods save you time and money, while still being popular with the students. You need to get the prizes issue right, or else you’ll hear about it!
Inside our e-book you’ll find incredibly useful information, such as:
- 34 excellent ideas for basket auctions
- Instructions on how to run a successful gourmet dessert auction and a hilarious fishing vest auction.
- A frank discussion on the earning power of picking the right theme for your carnival. There are a lot more options than just "Pirates" or "A day at the beach"
- A not-so-obvious debate on the value of holding a raffle at your carnival. Pros and cons are discussed in depth.
- 38 pages of midway game and participant activity suggestions, with descriptions, explanations.
- An advanced money-making strategy from our friends at VolunteerSpot.com, which will definitely ramp up your bottom line by thousands of dollars, if done right.
- A handful of “rationale statements” that you can copy/edit/paste into your own communication with parents that make the case for why you need them to actively participate in the carnival.
- An exposition on the extraordinary power of “school spirit” and how there is a direct correlation from the amount of school spirit you, as a school, possess and the amount of money you are able to raise.
- A seven page marketing timeline that starts 8 months before the carnival is to be held and runs right up to just a few days before the event. This timeline will tell you exactly when you should be accomplishing each promotional and advertising task.
- Several specific recommendations on how to use social networking to increase your carnival attendance.
- An in-depth discussion on how to price your admission tickets and passes. I actually tell you how I would do it, right down to the nitty-gritty policies I would enforce.
- And much, much more- remember this book is 186 pages long! There’s gotta be some really good stuff in there!
Questions to ask during the planning process
The planning process is perhaps the most critical time of your entire carnival campaign. Whether you make a lot or just a little (or actually lose money!) is determined by how wise you are in your planning. Here is a list of 11 questions that you must answer in detail before you get very far along in your planning process. In the e-book, I go into great detail on each one of these below topics.
Here are the 11 questions I pose to you:
- What are your priorities, in order of importance, for this carnival?
- Should you use a theme?
- When will you hold your carnival?
- Where will you hold it?
- Do you have a large enough volunteer pool to pull from?
- Do you have the support of the school's administration and staff/faculty?
- Should you hire a carnival company to run your event and provide your supplies or should you do it yourself?
- Should you buy carnival games from a supplier, or should you ask volunteers to build approximations of the games?
- Should you have a combination carnival with another school to cut down on expenses?
- Should you serve beer and wine for adults?
- Should you also consider raising money for other causes at your carnival?
Did you know that…
- Most parents HATE having to hit up their friends and family to sell items like cookie dough, wrapping paper, and microwave popcorn?
- A school carnival is a great alternative for families that don’t want their children turned into little salesmen for fundraising companies that take half of the school’s profits, or more?
- If you plan your carnival correctly and maximize all your earning opportunities, you may be able to eliminate all the other small fundraisers your school is currently undertaking. Imagine… no more cookie dough. No more wrapping paper. No more catalogs with useless trinkets that quickly wind up in the trash.
If you’re ready...
If you are ready to get serious about earning real money for your school in a way that families can gladly support, then you absolutely need to read our school carnival money making guide.
At only $20, this comprehensive e-book will pay for itself dozens of times over. Go ahead, try it out!
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