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SLFF BANQUET & FUND RAISING

Lew Leichter 3/29/22 

INTRODUCTION: Having been involved in all aspects of our fund raising I want to share the following information.  

I’ll talk about our annual banquet including info on the silent auction and its categories and the banquet raffle. 

I’ll also talk about our meeting raffles. 

From time to time there are other fund-raising activities such as garage sales. These usually include members and non-members gear donated to the club. In addition, members are encouraged to bring a table and sell their own gear.  

FUND RAISING SUMMARY: 

 To understand the “big picture” we maintain a historical fund-raising summary. With this we can see both our revenue and expense by category for the last several years. This shows where we are making the most money. Of equal importance it gives us a budget idea of how much we should spend in each category. You can see the 3 most recent years (See Exhibit 1) 

Comments:  

Silent Auction: 

GUIDE TRIPS trips are the largest contributor. The Soaring Eagle donation has made a big difference and as long as we continue to have our annual outing there, they should remain a sponsor. (A LIST OF SPONSORING GUIDES IS INCLUDED exhibit 2). In January I contact our guides via email thanking them for their previous support and asking if they would help us again this year. If so ask if their rates have changed and if there are any restrictions (dates, etc. see prior year posters file for details). I also prepare posters for the silent auction with a picture and all the details about the donated trip. IT’S ALSO IMPORTANT TO ASK OUR MEMBERS IF THEY KNOW OF GUIDES WE COULD CONTACT TO SEE IF THEY WOULD CONSIDER BECOMING ONE OF OUR GUIDE SPONSORS. REMEMBER THEY ARE FEATURED ON OUR WEBSITE AND HAVE A BUSINESS CARD AD IN OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER.  

MEMBER DONATIONS are number two. These are easy and we should continue to ask our members for their support, (non-fishing donations are also very popular). IN THE PAST SOME OF OUR CASTING INSTRUCTORS WOULD DONATE CASTING LESSONS. CONSIDER ASKING THEM. (see sample letter under Banquet Organizing). We are averaging about $1,500 per year.

Gear: While we need to prepurchase some gear for the silent auction it is not a big money maker plus we run the risk of it not selling so consider this before determining what to buy and how much to spend. (A LIST OF GEAR SPONSORS IS INCLUDED exhibit 3). (A SAMPLE LETTER/EMAIL IS INCLUDED exhibit 4). 

Special Orders: NOTE THAT SOME GEAR AND CLOTHING ITEMS ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FROM WITH OUR SPECIAL ORDERS. THIS IS A CATEGORY THAT NEEDS FURTHER EMPHASIS AS THE MEMBER GETS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT AND WE DON’T NEED TO PREPURCHASE.  

Banquet Raffle:  

We do well with the sale of raffle tickets the average for the 3 years was $1,800 and a purchase budget of about half is reasonable. 

Meeting Raffles: 

Average monthly sales for the 3 years were about $130, this based on 10 meetings a year and we would spend about $75 or $750 for the year. If we continue to have mixed hybrid zoom/in person meetings this will have an impact on these amounts which needs to be considered. Also we get donated items throughout the year some of which are used as fillers at meeting raffles. 

DETERMINING WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE HAVE AND WHAT WE NEED TO BUY BY IS THE NEXT STEP: (exhibit 5)  

(See Exhibit 5) Here we start with a list of items we want to buy for the silent auction, banquet & meeting raffles. As you can see, we don’t spend a lot on higher priced items (usually 2 complete outfits for the silent auction & 1 for the banquet raffle). Other mid-price and lower price items are added for the different events. 

In addition to quantities, we also include info on source, price and cost. 

Next steps are to inventory any remaining quantities of these items in the storage locker resulting in quantities we need to buy. The quantities are extended with both price and cost info. This results in the purchase budget to submit to the board for approval. 

Note: be on the lookout for new sources and items to add (i.e. the wading staffs this year. 

WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE AND AFTER THE BANQUET: 

Before the banquet pre numbered bid sheets (exhibit 6) are prepared for the following categories: 

1xx Guide trips, 2xx Gear, 3xx Member donations, 4xx Special orders We do this as different members are responsible for the categories and they can prepare bid sheets for their category with their own series of numbers. The different numbering series of the bid sheets also allows us to recap sale & cost amount by category. In addition, we enter the winning bidder info (exhibit 7). 

Another benefit is we see what items haven’t sold. We can then offer these in an on-line auction after the banquet and generate additional sales to non attendees. 

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