The Great Carnival Fundraiser

By Spring Fairchild

Carnival fundraisers are the best of both worlds. They are fantastically fun with a huge profit potential. Carnivals don't however, happen overnight. They take planning, organizing, foresight and creativity. They can easily overwhelm the faint of heart and drive the best of us into a neurotic list making frenzy. Don’t worry! That is what this book is for. Together, we are going to make this a stream lined, easy as pie, bring it on event that they will talk about for years and remember for a lifetime. The beginning of the book smoothly guides you through the fun and necessary decisions that will be made during the first meetings. The second section is organized into printable "committee" chapters. These chapters detail every single part of throwing a carnival fundraiser in the most efficient and profitable way. The third section gives you five fantastic examples of themed carnivals, including ideas for food, entertainment, decorations and games. With this book you don't have to reinvent the big carnival wheel. It is a mix of tried and true methods along with new creative solutions that will bring your carnival over the top.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spring Fairchild
• Release date: Oct 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311577160

Book preview

The Great Carnival Fundraiser

Spring Fairchild

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Spring Fairchild

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial

purposes. You may however, print and copy it to use as noted throughout the book. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own

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Table of Contents

Foreword

How to Use This Book

Section One – First Things First

How to Have a Super Meeting

Let’s Delegate! Choosing Committee Chairs

Decisions, Decisions

The Meeting of the Minds – The First Chair Meeting

Section Two – Who is Doing What, When and How

The Caterers of the Consumables, or the Food Committee

Delectable Decisions

Budget, Quantities and Shopping

Booth Logistics

Preparing the Spread

The Illusionists, or the Decorating Committee

Creating the Illusion

Set Up

The Game Masters or the Games Committee

Fun and Games

Prize Options and Ordering

Creating and Sticking to the Game Budget

Set Up

The Merry Money Makers, or The Fundraiser and Entertainment Committee

Bringing in the Dough

Auction Options

Let’s Do it All! Creating the Schedule

Planning and Set Up

Mr. Wink and a Smile, or The Solicitor

Turning on the Charm

Seeking Sponsors

Auction Donations

The Big Thank You

The Heralding Hypester, or the Advertiser

The Campaign

The Treasure Keeper, or the Ticket Collecting Treasurer

Tracking the Coins

The Final Report

Ticket Sales

The Overlords, or the Carnival Chair and Co-Chair

The Big Picture

Crisis Control

Clean Up

Volunteers

The Big Clean Up

Section Three- Ideas to Get You Rolling

Creative Inspirations

100 Carnival Theme Ideas

Foreword

Imagine…whimsical music floating through colorful bouquets of balloons, passing by sticky cotton candy cheeks, only interrupted by a winner’s whoop of delight! There is magic in the carnival, in the carefree gooey delicious atmosphere that brings people together for food, friends and good old fashioned fun.

Here is a secret, carnivals can be just as fun to create as to go to. Think of it as the best birthday party you will ever throw. How often does the average person get to host a huge celebration for hundreds of people? But where in the world do you start? With this book of course. It is going to be your guide to creating an over the top, extraordinary event!

Along with magical memories, carnivals have the extra benefit of making some serious cash for your school or organization. They are truly a win-win! This book gives you some great ideas on how to optimize each piece of the profit pie to bring in the most cash, without scrimping on the fun.

How to Use This Book

This book is organized into the main components of a carnival. The First Things First section will fill you in on everything you get to discuss and decide during your first and second planning meetings. The second section, Who Is Doing What, When and How is organized into committee chapters. They can be photocopied and given to each committee chair so everyone has a good idea of their responsibilities, job logistics, possible pitfalls, tips, tricks and ideas to make their part of the carnival puzzle even better! The third section, Ideas to Get You Rolling has a list of over 100 carnival themes plus five samples of different carnivals with ideas, suggestions and inspirations. They are there for you to use as a springboard to get your own creative juices flowing.

Section 1

First Things First

This book is a guideline.

Each carnival committee will have its own needs, ideas and methods.

Use what is helpful and make confetti with the rest!

So you have decided to have a carnival! If it is your first time you know there will be games...some snacks... people... probably some balloons...? Or maybe your group has a carnival every year, rotating committees since somehow last year's is nowhere to be found. Or maybe this is old hat. You could organize a carnival in your sleep, and you are just looking for a way to spice up an old party. This book is going to help you no matter what. It will be your guide while giving you tips to improve and ways to refresh your carnival. It all starts with the first meeting.

How to Have a Super Meeting

I love productive meetings. So often, a meeting is held and no one wants to make a decision, or more questions are asked rather than answered, or it is monopolized by that one person who thinks they know everything! A few easy tips can make your meeting into a SUPER meeting.

Publicize the agenda a few days before the meeting. This will let everyone have plenty of time to start thinking of ideas. The content quality of the meeting will improve when folks have time to do some brainstorming on their own. It also lets people talk among themselves which saves time weeding out the easily answered questions that can eat a meeting up.

State the purpose of the meeting at the beginning. Today we are going to assign carnival committees, choose a theme and set the date and time for the carnival. If those goals are met you have had a productive meeting.

Address the most important issues first. By the end of the meeting people start getting antsy, looking at the clock, their phones, and wiggling. Decisions tend to get sloppy towards the end and sloppy decisions will inevitably cause problems later.

Side topics and questions can derail a meeting, spiraling it into the history of lost meetings forever. If a side topic can be quickly discussed, go ahead. If it has gone over three minutes then suggest you discuss it further after your goals have been met.

If someone comes into the meeting late, do not offer to, catch them up. You will essentially be starting your meeting over if you do. Instead, welcome them into the current discussion briefly and move on.

If people start speaking in circles, or having 20 minute conversations on what type of pickles to serve then it is time to put a cap on it. Simply say, We have about three minutes to make this decision. Let's refocus on the big picture and come back to the pickles.

Action Items: Who is doing what by when? When someone volunteers to do something state and write down the action item, Annette is ordering the prizes by this Friday. At the end of the meeting go over your list of action items again. It is surprising what people will forget they volunteered for only moments before.

After the meeting, send out a recap to everyone, including the members that couldn’t make the meeting.

A Few Different Personalities

If your group gets along swimmingly and no one ever seems to step on toes, or become irritated, or whine a lot, then you can skip this next part. If you are like most groups, clubs and committees you are going to have a few fun individuals that can really become stinkers. It is helpful to use their quirks to your advantage. Use the following list of common personality traits to identify and transform their destructive potential. Always be kind.

The Monopolizer: Likes the sound of their own voice and thinks they know everything. Solution: Reiterate what they said, and then quickly ask someone else their opinion. If that doesn't work you can pointedly say, I understand your point of view, let's hear from someone else now. They like attention. They may be good for soliciting donations.

The Distractor: Loves to ask nuanced questions that distract from the big picture. Solution: Acknowledge their question, That is a good question, why don't you look into that more and let us know what you find by the next meeting. They are obviously detail oriented. Keep them in mind for the games committee.

The Skeptic: Is a cannot type of person. They only offer criticism instead of solutions. This person can be valuable for foreseeing problems but they can also be a real buzz kill. Ask them for a solution. Often when forced to think of a better idea they will (and it will be great) or they won't and will let it go. You can also say things like, I see your point, and we will have to look into that more to see if it is something to worry about. This person has excellent foresight, use them to bounce ideas off.

The Whiner: This person doesn't say anything in the meeting and then whines about it later. Call them out on it to nip it in the bud. Amanda, I heard you had some concerns about the ticket sales. Do you have some solutions we could easily tweak to the plan everyone agreed on? Sometimes once these guys feel heard and valued they will become productive committee members. If it continues to be a problem then at the end of the next meeting specifically ask them nicely, Amanda, are you OK with all the choices we have made tonight? This is an old psych trick. When someone says they are good publicly, they have a hard time contradicting themselves later. Amanda will be good.

The Over-Under Achiever: This person volunteers for everything and then flakes out at the last