Spagetti Dinner Fundraiser Tips
A spaghetti dinner fundraiser is a tried and true fundraising event, but many groups overlook additional profit opportunities. Just putting together the spaghetti dinner is not enough.
You need to give people a strong reason to attend and then you have to provide them with multiple ways to help raise the needed funds. Here are some event tips on maximizing turnout and several fundraising activities you can easily add to your event.
Publicity
Many groups overlook the power of publicity and wonder why they didn't get a bigger crowd. Improve your turnout with a press release focusing on the most newsworthy aspect of your event.
A human interest story is always newsworthy, so be sure your summary paragraph details why you are raising funds and how they will benefit the recipient.
Newspapers, radio stations, and television stations all want to offer news stories that have widespread appeal and tug at the heartstrings, so be sure your press release has a newsworthy angle. Include pictures whenever possible because a good picture practically guarantees lots of publicity.
Ticket prices
Once your publicity campaign ensures a good turnout, make sure you price your tickets correctly. Too cheap and you won't raise enough funds. Make them too expensive and you'll price yourself out of the reach of many customers.
It's usually best to keep ticket prices fairly low and offer discounts for families, small children, college students, and senior citizens.
Donations
Place a large jug or bucket right next to the cash register and hang a large sign above it asking for donations. Attach a sheet of paper to the donation container saying something like 'Every Little Bit Helps' or 'Donations Always Welcome' or 'Make Checks Payable To.'
Oftentimes, you can raise as much in donations as you did with ticket sales. The key is prominent placement where wallets and checkbooks are already out. Even if people only donate their change from buying tickets, you are ahead of the game.
Silent auctions
At any fundraising event, silent auction items are a great way to raise money. Ask local business to donate goods or services and then place those items on tables where people wait in line.
Include a full description of each item in large, easy-to-read type. Tape down your bid sheets and pens so that it's easy for an adult to bid while using only one hand.
Raffle tickets
Conducting a raffle is another great way to fundraise at your spaghetti dinner. Take the best item or service that was donated and sell raffle tickets both before and during the event.
If you can't get a good enough prize that will attract more in raffle ticket sales than it will sell for, then consider offering a cash raffle. What you do is offer tickets where the prize winner gets half of the total raffle ticket sales and the other half goes to the cause.
Again, the best place to sell the tickets is right near the cash register where people already have money in hand.
Other fundraising ideas
There are lots of other ways to add fundraising activities to a spaghetti dinner. You can sell advertising space on the placemats. You can use local celebrities as waiters. You can ask local businesses to be sponsors of your event.
In certain cases, you could offer a cash bar or include a wine tasting as part of the event. You could ask a local celebrity chef to participate and cook a special tableside dessert for an extra fee or as a prize of some sort.
The key is to include as many fundraising activities as possible and extend your reach even to people who can't make it to the event through raffle ticket sales, silent auction items, etc.
Summary
You first task is to get as many attendees as possible, so use every form of publicity. A good newsworthy press release is one way to maximize turnout. Another is to promote heavily through newsletters, roadside signs, and word-of-mouth.
Offering raffle tickets and silent auction items are proven ways to raise more funds at any event. Providing an easy way to accept donations is often overlooked, but very worthwhile.
Include as many fundraising activities as possible and your spaghetti dinner fundraiser will be a resounding success!
Kimberly Reynolds writes for national publications about donation request letters, conducting a spagetti dinner fundraiser ,and youth sports fundraisers. Find more ideas for fundraising on her website, FundraiserHelp.com
The Two Best Ways To Make Money Online
Are you tired of hearing the phrase “It's easy to make money online”, but when you actually try to make money online, you have a hard time making any money at all? The fact of the matter is – yes it's quite easy to make money online, but only if you have the KNOWLEDGE and the DETERMINATION to do it. The good news is – if you are reading this, then you are one step ahead of everyone else. Using the information I have outlined here, you should be able to quickly start using the internet to make extra (or full time) income for yourself.
If you go around the internet searching for ways to make money online, chances are that you will run into a lot of scams. These online “gurus” will try to make you believe that their 'new' way to make money online will make you rich before you know it. The truth is – no one will make money online off these bogus methods except for the money they make selling it to you. All of the people who REALLY make money online stick with two tried and true methods.
The first of the two methods is Google Adsense. Google Adsense is a great way to make money online! Using Adsense, you can have Google display small, non-obstructive, targeted ads on your website that will earn you money every time a visitor clicks on it. This is also by far one of the easiest ways to make money online. All you have to do is find information that people want to know, provide this information for free on your website, and have Google display ads on your website so you can make money online from it. Its as simple as that.
Two questions might be running through your mind right now. The first might be, “What if I don't have a website?” Not a problem! You can still make money online through Adsense by going to sites like blogger.com or wordpress.com and setting up a free blog. Blogs are relatively easy to set up and they take little internet knowledge to update. Many people who make money online have blogs, some reaching six figure revenues. The idea is to keep these blogs updated with fresh content that people will want to read. If you have a large amount of people counting on your blog for information, then you can make money online using a blog.
The second question you may be asking is, “What if I don't have anything to write about?” Also not a problem! You can still make money online with free content by going to article sites that allow you to reprint their articles. Simply copy the articles that pertain to the topic of your blog and repost a few every week. Alternatively, you could go to free content sites (do a Google search) that offer free e-books. Search for a book that you would rarely find online, but also something that interests you and pertains to the topic of your blog. Break this book down into little sections (Possibly a chapter each, or less) and post a section every day. After you are done with the whole book in a couple of months, you will have good traffic, and you will be indexed in search engines. If you want to make money online, this is a sure-fire start. However, another crucial part to success is once you have one of these blogs going – REPEAT IT! Create more and more blogs on different subjects. The more times you repeat your successful projects, the more money you make.
The second way you can make money online is through marketing information products. Do you have a special talent? Everyone does! You can make money online through your talents by writing an e-book about something you are passionate about. Make sure, however, that when you are thinking of an idea for an e-book its going to be something that will train others, or solve problems. People will be more likely to purchase your information product online, if they feel like they need it quickly. Say for example that you like to bake cookies. You might write a book about the history of cookies, how many different types of cookies there are, and what ingredients work best in cookies. This might be an interesting book, but no one would feel the need to buy it anytime soon. However, if you instead write an e-book about hundreds of different cookie recipes, people that want to bake cookies right away will download your e-book the same day. This is how a vast majority of people make money online. Even if you are doing adsense, you should strive to have at least one e-book selling online at all times. This is because once you have done the work in setting up the e-book and the website for it, all the income is passive from that point on and you can focus your attention on other methods to make money online.
Alternatively, if you don't know how to write, you can still make money online selling e-books by having some one write the book for you. There are many websites that will allow you to hire freelance writers. It will cost you, but it will take the burden of creating your product off your shoulders and you will be able to focus on marketing the book to make money online. If you are creating the sales pitch for your website, try to look at some successful sites that sell products similar to yours. See the way they sell their products and what makes the way they market it enticing. Try to implement strategies from successful marketers in your website.
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A Personal Loan Can Save Your Finances
If you are one of many consumers who have surpassed their spending limit and are feeling the pressure of debt collectors or have suffered the closing of their credit cards, we can give you some interesting hints as to what can be done in these circumstances. It’s true that it takes some patient negotiation and effort on your part, but it is absolutely repairable.
If You Are A Tenant
Not being a homeowner makes things a little harder for you, but there is always a way. The possibility you have in this case is an unsecured personal loan. There are loan brokers or lending companies that specialize in unsecured personal loans for people with bad credit. We must admit that by now, your credit report will have begun to show each payment that you missed or paid late.
As a first step, you will have to know exactly how much you owe, how much could be written off for a prompt payment and therefore, how much the loan will be for.
Conditions
Unfortunately you are learning the hard way, so this will surely be a one-time-lesson that should get you on track towards a better control of your spending. It is important to give these matters a high priority and look around for the mildest conditions available for your situation. A difference of one per cent or even half a percentage point in the interest rate will mean a lot to you, since you are counting every cent and distributing your scarce cash as best you can.
The Length Of The Loan
This factor is also very important since one year more in length will mean a bunch of dollars more in your hand every month. If things change while the loan is in force, you can always refinance for a shorter period and get over with it faster. Remember that you are trying to get out of bad credit, so it is very important that your payments, whatever they are for, are never late and if possible a day or two in advance.
Getting Prepared
If you feel that you are not decisive enough, get someone to help you out, with an opinion or even going with you to the interview with the loan agent. Doing your “homework” means re-editing those old school techniques of taking note of what is being offered, asking questions about what you don’t know, not giving a definite answer yet and studying the situation at home, if possible with a copy of the contract that you will eventually be signing.
Good Company
The ideal person to study this up with is your spouse, since you are both on the same boat and have to bail out together. However, it is important not to be alone and since a financial advisor also costs money, a good, knowledgeable friend or co-worker will do.
A loan is not just “free” at the moment of closing: It has some fees that have to be paid. Maybe your lender will agree to spread them over your monthly payments, but some of them will have to be paid at closing time.
Things Begin To Happen
Once you have defined who will grant you the loan, start to distribute the payments and stick to your decisions. You are in the process of replacing many debts for just one, with a more manageable amount and the certainty that you are running out of the ditch fast. This behavior will shortly improve your credit rating and will prepare the way for a much more interesting future.
