Compiled notes from 5/13/11 call with Aspen Branch-Moore re: POWER’s Bowlathon

[Nikki]

Repost of Manish's & Nikki's compiled notes from the conference call
with Aspen in regard to Power's Bowlathon. Hopefully some of you will
have time to look them over before tonight's working group meeting.

Thank's,
Manish and Nikki


Income
- last year raised $24,000; netted $20,000
- $6000 from sponsors
- $18,000 from 336 donors to sponsor 110 participants on 22 teams;
almost all donations were small; 200 were new
- $1300 registration fees ($12 per person; covered half of cost of
space)
Cost was ~17% of gross income

- POWER’s fundraising goal: $150 for individuals, $750 for teams
(lower for member-teams)
- Causa Justa::Just Cause’s fundraising goals for individuals: $300
per person

Expenses
- $2400 one-time fee for multi-year use + 5-9% of donations:
Kinterasphere bowlathon software - pricey, but no other software had
as many needed features for the price
- $3,000 space rental: POWER paid per participant, for shoes, pizza
etc. Charged teams a reg fee to help cover overhead
- $200 logo/banner design
- $100 decorations
- $350 very small prize for every person
- total cost $4080 + initial cost of web site
- spent a lot of time soliciting services to donate prizes (for best
and worst scores, best costume, etc.)

Why do a thon?
- cost-effective (if we have the right tools & enough volunteers)
- much easier to do than a gala
- POWER never had a base of supporters who had tons of giving
capacity, so POWER worked with the base they have and raised as much $
as their most successful gala

Things to keep in mind with thons
- the donors that come in tend to be not directly connected to the
org.
- most people give because a friend/family member asked them; it’s a
lot of work to connect with those people and retain them as donors
after the campaign (so it’s not a good strategy if we want to get
donors who are committed to giving over the long-term)
- next year, look at who gave again from the previous year, who gave
more, and who gave to multiple people, and focus donor cultivation on
that; put a check box on each participant’s reg form: if you’re
willing to cultivate your donors after the bowlathon, check this box
- change it up once in a while to bring in major donors (a gala serves
that purpose: allows the org. to showcase its work and to do a really
great program and recognize major donors who want this type of event.
At a gala, everyone who comes is a strong potential repeat donor.)
- every staff member had to lead a team and recruit a few other teams
- Recruit more teams and members than actual goal cuz teams/people
drop off
- recruitment takes 1 month to ID prospects, call them to ask them to
form a team, follow up, follow up again, get people registered
- recruit teams early and encourage them to meet to start their
fundraising asap
- recruit volunteers to help event organizers coordinate the event
itself
- do lots of follow-up
- include a short program at the event
- if it’s fun and people care, people generally are down to do it

Other types of thons
- outdoor/subject to weather: basketball, walk
- indoor: dance-a-thon (Aspen liked this for LM, because it’s easier
for different teams to interact w/ each other)
- At the Crossroads- recruits tons of people to do personal campaigns
where they each set a personal goal for themselves- Jane Kim decided
to cook dinner for friends 1x/month- got ppl to donate so she’d
accomplish her goal – another person: if I reach my fundraising goal
I’ll ask Sarah Silverman out publicly (was really motivating for ppl)-
they raised ton of $ from ton of ppl
- multi-thon? NO- When you have a bunch of different activities, you
need lots of people to coordinate each one and a small group of people
putting the big pieces together. It spreads people too thin. If ppl
had to be in charge of staffing an activity, they wouldn’t be able to
lead a team as well, cuz too much work
- instead of a multi-thon, have one activity with different roles (eg.
bike-a-thon with some people as cheerleaders, others as pit stop
attendants, etc.)

Why they chose to do a bowlathon
- FIERCE (LGBTQ youth of color org. in NY) and SAGE (LA) do successful
bowlathons
- POWER’s members really liked the idea of doing something indoors
that wasn’t dependent on having good weather

What worked
- picking something anyone can do (bowling doesn’t take any real
skill)
- adding in really fun elements: having a live dj, announcements and
playing trivia during event, participants were dressed in costume
- getting prize solicitations so people who raised most $ etc. got
really good prizes)
- refreshing alternative to a gala; multiracial, multigenerational,
families came; crunched allies and friends hard to lead a team
- encouraging captains to meet w/ their team asap, so they could
create team name, create fundraising plan together- many teams do
joint fundraising together; it’s much more successful than individual
fundraising
- doing LOTS of follow-up w/ participants and mostly w/ team captains
- because teams were raising $ ahead of time, they weren’t depending
on depending on people buying tix at the door or donating at the event
(they didn’t do an ask at event)
- doing a really short program so people can get connected to the org.

What was hard for them
- as many skills, tips, support you give, some people just don’t
follow-through with their fundraising
- people need lots of follow-up
- many of their Latin@ members had never bowled before; for their
African American members, it’s been a really hard sell (they pushed
hard for their members to do it)
- is more work for some teams so after a few years, some ally groups
cant do it anymore
- bowling isn’t as popular as it once was
- there isn’t a lot of time for people from different teams to
interact with each other
- staff were so busy leading teams that they didn’t focus on mingling
with the crowd
- their anniversary is next year, so they’ll do something else instead
of a bowlathon