On Cloud 9
Hello. Well, we had our Cystic Fibrosis (CF) fundraiser Saturday. It was our 7th annual dinner/dance. Every year we've had a sellout, and every year we've made more money than the previous year. Did we continue those trends?
I'm happy to say we did. We sold out again, and raised over $30,000 for CF research. Yahoo! The only way I could be happier is if I was the only person in the world with CF.
What's been our secret? We've been able to adapt to our crowd by listening. Our first year we had just a dance. It was a great way to start, because expenses were minimal. We got a sell-out, and raised $10,000. Both indicated we were onto something good.
The feedback we got back was people wanted more of an evening out. We added the dinner, which ended up cutting the number of people since the tables took up more room, sold out again, and in spite of fewer people raised $12,000.
The third year we kept things the same, sold out again, got more auction items and raised $13,000.
The fourth year we looked at expenses, realized we could cut our entertainment by having live acts donate their performances, and raised $17,000 with another sell out.
More of the same in the fifth year; another sell-out and $21,000.
The 6th year saw a return to an expensive act, better auction items, another sell-out and $26,000.
What some of us realized was in spite of the record, the people were not dancing. They were more interested in mixing in the lounge or going to the auction tables. In fact they found the live act too loud.
This year we got a quieter act for free. The results kept coming.
Now some of us have concluded we don't need a dance at all. This would mean we could get more people in our venue (an extra 4 tables could boost us from 150 to 182), meaning more bidding and ticket money. The people we'rve surveyed the last 2 days say they'd come without a dance portion.
One organizer is against the no-dance movement. Will it kill it? Time will tell. I hope common sense prevails, which is why I've asked a participant who feels strongly about the no dance option to talk to the organizer. Since I'm a man and a husband, I don't get listened to very often. That's why I have been the listener, and not the listenee.
Regards,
Steve
I'm happy to say we did. We sold out again, and raised over $30,000 for CF research. Yahoo! The only way I could be happier is if I was the only person in the world with CF.
What's been our secret? We've been able to adapt to our crowd by listening. Our first year we had just a dance. It was a great way to start, because expenses were minimal. We got a sell-out, and raised $10,000. Both indicated we were onto something good.
The feedback we got back was people wanted more of an evening out. We added the dinner, which ended up cutting the number of people since the tables took up more room, sold out again, and in spite of fewer people raised $12,000.
The third year we kept things the same, sold out again, got more auction items and raised $13,000.
The fourth year we looked at expenses, realized we could cut our entertainment by having live acts donate their performances, and raised $17,000 with another sell out.
More of the same in the fifth year; another sell-out and $21,000.
The 6th year saw a return to an expensive act, better auction items, another sell-out and $26,000.
What some of us realized was in spite of the record, the people were not dancing. They were more interested in mixing in the lounge or going to the auction tables. In fact they found the live act too loud.
This year we got a quieter act for free. The results kept coming.
Now some of us have concluded we don't need a dance at all. This would mean we could get more people in our venue (an extra 4 tables could boost us from 150 to 182), meaning more bidding and ticket money. The people we'rve surveyed the last 2 days say they'd come without a dance portion.
One organizer is against the no-dance movement. Will it kill it? Time will tell. I hope common sense prevails, which is why I've asked a participant who feels strongly about the no dance option to talk to the organizer. Since I'm a man and a husband, I don't get listened to very often. That's why I have been the listener, and not the listenee.
Regards,
Steve
posted by Irrelevant at 2:11 PM
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