Fund Raisers

When I was in the USAF I had the honor of being elected as our Unit Advisory Club Vice President for 2 years and then the Unit Booster Club (same thing) President for 2 years.  During this time at the 325th ACS I enjoyed a great measure of success in raising funds for our FREE to our Annual Free to All Airmen Christmas party.  The pay grades of E3 and below went for free and the other ranks were reduced.

If you have ever seen a bill for a Christmas Party with 450 people you would know it ranges in the $13,000 to $20,000 just for the room and the food.  We also gave away about $3000 in prizes and $2000 in donated business swag & prizes.

How did we raise so much money?  I will answer this in 3 letters F.U.N.  and no it is not an acronym.  We had fun with everything we did and we did not always focus on the money.  We never worried that we would have a shortage at the end of the year.  So this does you a lot of good trying to find an answer to how you are going to pay for your event. 

Well I can't tell you how your command or your business raises money because I don't know what your boss or commander will think of my idea of fun.  We always had money flowing in to the booster club, we always invested low and sold high.

Here are some of the things we did to raise money.

Car Wash - $300 to $500 on a Saturday - Invest a few dollars in Soap & Rags and have a business donate a parking lot.

Squadron Cook Out -  $300 easy profit with about $50 investment in Burgers, Dogs, etc.

Squadron Coins - Got to have a coin or buy a drink - A tradition but a very small profit margin $2 per coin.

Squadron T-Shirts -  $10 profit per shirt -Read the next one.

Civilian Clothes converted to Squadron T-Shirt Day - A Friday of Camraderie in Blue Jeans and of course the Squadron T-Shirt - if you have one you don't ever have to pay to be in Blue Jeans. If you don't have a T-Shirt you have to pay $5 to wear Civilian Clothes.

Pie in the Face - Raised upwards of $30,000 doing just this.  Whip Cream, Paper Plate, Chocolate Syrup, & Cherries.  NICE!  You take bids for 2 months at .10 cents a vote with a weekly update at the Friday Squadron T-Shirt Picnic in which you sell burgers, dogs, T-Shirts, & Bids.  After 2 months you have a countdown at you guessed it a Squadron Picnic but you lower the bids to 1 cent a vote and then close out the Top 10 Board at 12 O'Clock Noon on the dot while you count down while you have volunteers collect and update the marker board.

Pie - Who ever is Top 10 will be auctioned off to have a pie in their face.  Forget the Trash Bag cover, you are in civilian clothes.  You bring them forward and they can bid on their own pie, IOU's Accepted and must be paid on the 1st or 15th of the month aka military pay day.  Who ever is the winning bidder will throw a pie in the face of the awesome volunteer who is then awarded with a free T-Shirt for participating.

Now we also offered a mystery pie to anyone wanting to bid more than $500, as an individual or group and they could hit anyone they wanted. I got this one slammed in my face more often than not, but at the end of the day we had a lot of great memories and a lot of sticky faces.

Last but not least our SILENT TO OPEN 50/50 Auction - Forget Flea Market and Yard Sale - Never enough money.  We had donations and when all was said and done we split the profit with the person who donated the times.  This resulted in big ticket items.  Each individual item was displayed with a bid card.  Bidders could come by and see the last bid and make a written bid which would always have their contact card number - Pre Register for all bidders.  The bids would be made silent and who ever had the highest bid on any item at 11 PM on Squadron T-Shirt Day got a Ticket for a prize (not an illegal raffle since no money exchanged hands for the ticket), the prize was usually a T-Shirt or a donated item or $100 cash. 

We also took all of the items or pictures (we had a car and a refrigerator once) and we did an open air auction with the starting bid at the last silent bid.  We raised a ton of money like this because we always had the Commanders Parking Spot as well as the Chief and Shirt for a week.  We of course played up the next Pie in the Face with another Mystery Pie. 

As for getting free prizes to give away: one year we did not spend a dime.  We went to the local businesses and they donated free Food, Prizes, and even Airline Tickets just to promote their business.  We had helicopter rides, cruises, dinner for two, weekend stays at local Bed & Breakfast, and even tickets to Disney (MWR).

There are tons of other things we did like Gift Wrap at the BX and the Air Show but we never made as much money at those.  If you need ideas on how to raise money for your Holiday Party or Event for Civilian or Military please call us for a free consultation.

In closing I must say that the one thing we never paid for while I was VP and President was the Disc Jockey because the World's Greatest and Legendary (in his own mind) DJ PorkChop of Panama City Beach was always there to perform the Best Christmas Parties ever.  What he does to make them great is another topic for another day. 

 Visit DJPorkChop.com for more information.  See you at the Party.  DJ PorkChop Out!