|
By Craig Causer Games and fast food transforming the familiar into dollars Four years ago the board of directors at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bluegrass (BBBSB) was contemplating the eternal nonprofit question of how to raise additional revenue. With the Lexington, Ky., landscape littered with would-be Tiger Woodes hacking away for every cause from A to Z one thing was certain, the organization's managers were dead set against holding a charity golf event. All it took to change that was a little greasing from the people at Arby's. "We knew the amount of time and effort and work. To put all of that into it, we didn't think we had the means to do it and we thought we'd end up raising maybe $10,000," recalled Joe Gomes, executive director of BBBSB. "Arby's came to us with a proposal and they said they'd guarantee us $25,000 to $30,000 and we said this had to be too good to be true. If you would've told me four years ago that this thing was going to eventually make $75,000 I would have called you a liar." Arby's Charity Tour, a national traveling golf tour, has made a believer out of Gomes. In its first year BBBSB received $32,000 and the reward has steadily climbed to the $75,000 that was raised during the 2001 event. It has become the nonprofit's biggest single-day fundraising activity. The Charity Tour began in 1996 with one event that raised $37,000 for the local Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, according to Mark Stevens, director of public relations for Marketing Event Partners, Inc., the event management company that works with Arby's on the tour. The tour has grown to include 20 cities nationwide and last year raised $2 million for local Big Brother Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs and the Arby's Foundation. Event revenues are divvied up 70-30; 70 percent stays in the local communities and 30 percent goes to the Arby's Foundation Endowment Fund. "What's so unique is that it's kind of like the PGA Tour where we have national sponsors -- this year we have 11 of them -- and they pay a certain amount and they'll have spots at every single tour spot around the country," Stevens explained. "They're able to send their corporate people out and are able to have a network value with the communities." National sponsors include heavyweights such as Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Federated Insurance and McCain Anchor Foods. Those national sponsors immediately bring money to the table, but according to Gomes, making the outing more lucrative comes with finding an individual or organization that is willing to put up $25,000 to become the local presenting sponsor. For BBBSB it was a board member who owns a local Cadillac dealership, who stepped up. The nonprofit saw its revenue jump from $32,000 to $60,000 the first year that a local presenting sponsor was secured. BBBSB doesn't rest just because big sponsorship money has been laid out. Smaller businesses have the more financial-friendly option of sponsoring individual golf holes. For $500 the tour will put a sponsor's signage or logo on a golf hole. Last year, 22 sponsors signed on for individual hole promotions. Each golf hole is also used as an educational and awareness tool. Every tee box features factoids about the agency. For instance, BBBSB has used commentary such as, "Did you know that for a little over an hour a week you can mentor a child in our school mentoring program?" and "Did you know that last year Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bluegrass served over 1,150 children?" It's a complimentary feature that works toward developing new donors and supporters without hitting them over the head, Gomes said. Of course, securing sponsors and players comes only after a fair amount of promotion, which is why the Arby's Charity Tour provides the local nonprofit with the use of its 45-foot tour bus. "We use the bus for 10 days to do nothing but recruiting big brothers and big sisters," explained Gomes. "We cover a big area, 14 counties in central Kentucky. For us, the bus and the exposure gives us more ability to recruit big brothers and big sisters for kids on our waiting list. It's not just the golf tournament or the great money it brings in but it brings more exposure to our cause and what we're doing." Provided along with the bus are the mailings, media arrangements and coordination of activities. All of these efforts are discussed with the local nonprofits. Combine all those benefits and you have the resources to put on a tournament that wouldn't normally be possible for many organizations, Gomes explained. "It's nice for a nonprofit because it's a turnkey operation in that they take care of all the logistics, the pairings, getting the handicaps, dealing with the food and the signage," said Mike Mayse, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland (BBBSGC). "Really, what our committee does is meet and greet and it's a great networking opportunity for us." BBBSGC is approaching its fourth year with the event with more than $200,000 derived from the first three years. Mayse made it a point to add that the boost has been far more than monetary. Last year, with using the bus and through public relations efforts, BBBSGC had 1.7 million impressions that it created during the week that the tournament was in town, he said. The nonprofit participated in everything from TV appearances to educational programs at schools for kids to grand openings of stores. The higher profile has directly benefited the organization in the boardroom. A few years ago, before the golf event was utilized, BBBSGC had nine board members. That number has since grown to 35. "No doubt we have been able to attract higher level companies and higher level individuals to serve on our board," Mayse said. "With that comes the ability to attract other sponsors." Do not pass go Hoarding money is the name of the game when it comes to one successful event run by the Collin County Community College District Foundation (CCCDF) in McKinney, Texas. And while it may be fake money, greed certainly runneth over for the sake of higher education during the foundation's annual fundraiser, An Evening of Monopoly. For the past two years Hasbro, the makers of Monopoly, have helped sponsor the event by donating the board games. CCCDF in turn, sells six-person tables at various levels of sponsorship. This year the levels included $1,000 for those who wished to purchase a table and major sponsors at the Park Place ($5,000) and Mr. Monopoly ($10,000) levels. Major sponsors received a giant framed deed card with its logo imprinted on it. The evening in March raised slighly more than $125,000 in cash and netted $105,000. All told, spending approximately 15 percent of what was brought in at the event is amazing, admitted Paula Roman, executive director at CCCDF. The main fee was the cost of the banquet -- the facilities of the Renaissance Dallas Richardson Hotel, the food and the things provided that first hour, she added. "The evening begins with the people coming in and we have snacks and a cash bar at a nice local hotel," Roman said. "We have a jazz band that performs and it's a real upbeat first hour of socializing. Then we allow them into the ballroom that has been set up for the Monopoly game. Teams of six play a competitive game of Monopoly for one hour. After that the high scorer from the table is identified and from the high scorers from all the tables we identify a grand prize winner." Prizes of note have included a package to New York that included a Broadway show. This year's gem featured a trip to the San Francisco Napa Valley. Throughout the evening the college president served as the emcee and several staff members aided with the raffling off of various other giveaways including hotel stays and a day at the spa. These random drawings interject additional excitement throughout the evening, Roman said. The turnout was robust with more than 400 people rolling the dice to benefit CCCDF. Local businesses purchased most of the tables with the occasional individual appearing through a company affiliation. Roman likes the fact that it is not the typical gala event. The night is compact, beginning at 7 p.m. and concluding three hours later. It's fast-paced, attendees really get into playing the game and Roman quipped "probably having that cash bar available doesn't hurt." It's in the cards Like many conservation organizations the Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Lindsay Wildlife Museum (LWM) is a hot spot for kid-oriented programs featuring live animals and interactive presentations. While an admirable target audience, children are not exactly charmed when it comes to disposable income. As T. Allen Morgan, development manager at LWM aptly put it, "kids don't do the supporting, adults do." As a result, Morgan turned to a fundraising program designed by eScrip, a California-based corporation geared toward building relationships between commerce and community. Under eScrip's Great Grocery Benefit LWM signs up participants and then receives between 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent of each sale every time that person uses one of their participating local grocery club cards. Most of the hard work comes on the front-end with the signing up process. "Another way to get credit is to sign up credit cards or debit cards, which is a little more difficult to get people to do," Morgan explained. "Your most faithful supporters might do that but for the most part we focused on the Great Grocery Benefit and signing up those cards. At this point I've signed up nearly 1,700 people in a year and received checks in the neighborhood of $5,000 and $6,000 a month." Morgan focused on sending a mailing to LWM's membership. Membership forms were passed out at the front desk of the museum and a 10 percent discount at the museum store was given to people who signed up for the program. Forms were also made available at the hospital for people who bring injured animals to the organization. The museum's target of 2,000 sign-ups is well within its grasp. According to Morgan's estimate, approximatley $60 to $70 per family will come in during the course of a year. By those figures, that's between $120,000 and $140,000 of revenue. "The only barrier in people signing up is that there is a $10 enrollment fee," Morgan explained. "It's absurd for organizations involved in this not to pick up that fee. If an organization picks up the fee and the person supports the organization's mission, there's no way in the world that they wouldn't do this because it doesn't cost them a nickel. Once you sign up -- literally your name, address and card number kind of thing -- you're done. Fundraising does not get any easier."
|
