Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Fundraising ideas?

Message

   Wow, so much to cover in marketing......... 
We send press releases to 32 different newspapers.  Some are weekly, some daily.  We send P.S.A.'s to 16 radio stations.  (newspapers and radio are in an hour radius of us - go beyond what you think your reach is)Wev'e grown our mailing list from 3000 addresses to 6500 addresses.  We've grown our e-mail list to 1050 e-mail addresses (still a lot of room to grow here).  We've been very creative in the print ads we develop (although we don't spend much money).  We've done many, many trade deals.  (I have an ad in your playbill, you have an ad in mine) with many theatres, university/college programs, professional theatres, radio spot trades, TV spot trades.
develop a facebook page
sign up on twitter
ITUNES - build songs of upcoming shows and publish the link
sign up for Google alerts (alerts you anytime someone is checking you out)
text message (we don't do this yet, but some larger venues started this)
send an e-mail blast on a monthly basis and change it up (we used to do it the old fashioned way but are now going to Constant Contact - google them)
read the book "Don't Just APPLAUD, Send Money"
read the book "Web Sites for Culture" by Eugene Carr
read the book "Arts Marketing Insights" by Joanne Scheff Bernstein (she interviewed large and small venues all around the country and compiled the info)
read the book "How To Run a Theater" by Jim Volz (one of America's leading theater consultants - this is a must read)
do podcasts (we don't do this yet, but many larger venues and symphonies are)
display at off-site places (shopping mall windows/kiosks, art fairs)
Take a re-look at your web site and update it... we just did!  We found out if it's not up to date, people won't come back to it.  www.osterregent.org (in 6 months we've had 6,871 visits and 70,965 page views)
Word of mouth is very important, you do have some control of that - figure out who influencial people are and get them to your shows.

Who's going to replace the season ticket holders and older folks as they age out of our system?  We need the middle group of age range and younger people.  In that sense......

Find out which young people in your area do blogs e-mails, facebook, twitter and are influencial with their peers and invite them to your show, or get them to your invitational dress/preview.  They're the ones that will be all over the internet telling their friends that they need to go see your show!

Later,
John www.osterregent.org

Author	Message
John Luzaich Celebrity Joined: 2/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 174	Posted: 3/04/08 at 11:51am
	Wow, so much to cover in marketing......... We send press releases to 32 different newspapers. Some are weekly, some daily. We send P.S.A.'s to 16 radio stations. (newspapers and radio are in an hour radius of us - go beyond what you think your reach is)Wev'e grown our mailing list from 3000 addresses to 6500 addresses. We've grown our e-mail list to 1050 e-mail addresses (still a lot of room to grow here). We've been very creative in the print ads we develop (although we don't spend much money). We've done many, many trade deals. (I have an ad in your playbill, you have an ad in mine) with many theatres, university/college programs, professional theatres, radio spot trades, TV spot trades. develop a facebook page sign up on twitter ITUNES - build songs of upcoming shows and publish the link sign up for Google alerts (alerts you anytime someone is checking you out) text message (we don't do this yet, but some larger venues started this) send an e-mail blast on a monthly basis and change it up (we used to do it the old fashioned way but are now going to Constant Contact - google them) read the book "Don't Just APPLAUD, Send Money" read the book "Web Sites for Culture" by Eugene Carr read the book "Arts Marketing Insights" by Joanne Scheff Bernstein (she interviewed large and small venues all around the country and compiled the info) read the book "How To Run a Theater" by Jim Volz (one of America's leading theater consultants - this is a must read) do podcasts (we don't do this yet, but many larger venues and symphonies are) display at off-site places (shopping mall windows/kiosks, art fairs) Take a re-look at your web site and update it... we just did! We found out if it's not up to date, people won't come back to it. www.osterregent.org (in 6 months we've had 6,871 visits and 70,965 page views) Word of mouth is very important, you do have some control of that - figure out who influencial people are and get them to your shows. Who's going to replace the season ticket holders and older folks as they age out of our system? We need the middle group of age range and younger people. In that sense...... Find out which young people in your area do blogs e-mails, facebook, twitter and are influencial with their peers and invite them to your show, or get them to your invitational dress/preview. They're the ones that will be all over the internet telling their friends that they need to go see your show! Later, John www.osterregent.org
	John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
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Nanette Celebrity Joined: 8/01/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 399	Posted: 3/13/08 at 11:02am
	We are gearing up (or is it down?) for the upcoming summer and have been brainstorming ideas for fund raisers. The troupe wants to do something during our annual city event. Think "all out street fair" ... beer, parade, beer, food, a few games, beer ... you get the picture. They're thinking "dunk tank". Anyone ever do this before as a fund raiser? How much profit can we expect? They've also considered selling something w/ our logo. Any ideas of that? Any other ideas? (Note: This would be run by the children in the troupe so we can't sell beer. And there are already a lot of food vendors.)
	In a world of margarine, be butter!
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John Luzaich Celebrity Joined: 2/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 174	Posted: 3/13/08 at 11:47am
	I was part of a "dunk tank" event at a annual company party in Minnesota. I don't know what it cost to rent so check it out if you can find one in your area. What I do know is that it's colder than HE_ _. The water used to fill them up is always cold. (who has a big enough hot water tank to fill it with warm water, especially on site outside somewhere). Plus, as water splashes out of the tank during the day, you need to refill it... again, with cold water! So, my first suggestion is: (1) PLACEMENT & TIME. Be sure to run the activity in the afternoon to give the water time to warm up a bit. (as opposed to 8 or 9 in the morning. Also, place it where the sun can get to it to help it warm up. I'm not kidding about this when I say cold. People that are in the tank are just constantly shivering and they don't want to sit outside on the seat of the thing in the wind after they get out of that cold water. (2) Get some "local celebrities" to sit in the dunk tank. People would love to throw a ball to have a chance to dunk the mayor, city council member, superintendant, etc. Find some local celebrities and then use that ahead of time in your press release or advertising. (3) Don't make the ticket price or throwing chance too cheap or you won't raise much money. You don't want to be there all day and only raise $20 bucks. (4) the person in the dunk tank has to lean forward and sit on the end of the seat/platform. Otherwise, when the target is hit and the seat drops down to drop the person in the water, that person hits or scrapes their back on the seat a lot and it hurts! Sit on the end of it and lean forward. Have fun and have a "hawker" out front like in a carnival trying to get people to come in to participate.
	John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
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JoeMc Celebrity Joined: 3/13/06 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 832	Posted: 3/14/08 at 1:55am
	Following on frpm John - think about the health, safety & insurance issues. Also how healthy the water is & the need to have it conditioned &/or filtered, before it gets up thier nose!
	[western] Gondawandaland "Hear the light & see the sound! TOI TOI CHOOKAS {may you always play to a full house!}
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avgsuperheroine Player Joined: 6/04/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 20	Posted: 6/04/08 at 10:04pm
	We do have a year round costume shop, packed to the gills and started selling items too old or delicate to use on online auctions. Since we have a staff, I spend several weeks a year working on them whenever I have time, and we've been able to raise over $5000 extra dollars per year doing that.
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sonshine Lead Joined: 3/23/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 33	Posted: 8/25/08 at 12:16pm
	Can you post a sample of your fundraising letter? I can't fund one on the internet.
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joanna Walk-On Joined: 8/26/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 8/27/08 at 1:02pm
	a question- we are about to send out a sponsorship letter- we have about 800 addresses- do you think we need to get more addresses to really make a proffit? It'll cost about 400$ to send them out....
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John Luzaich Celebrity Joined: 2/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 174	Posted: 4/20/09 at 5:08pm
	In addition to many good ideas that have been seen in here, like golf tourneys and auctions, etc. .... pick up the book "Don't just Applaud, Send Money" by Alvin H. Reiss. It has tons of ideas that the author compiled from different arts organizations, large and small, from all around the country. Some might apply to your situation, some might not, but it's definitely worth buying and having around. We borrowed the "$10. lousy bucks letter" from that book. John www.osterregent.org
	John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
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ArtDiffJunkie Walk-On Joined: 6/06/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 6/06/09 at 1:45pm
	I work for a theatre company in sacramento and we do a lot of "edgy" type shows. Things like HAiR, Tommy, bare, Assassins....basically not childrens theatre. Does anyone have ideas about fundraising for a theatre that doesn't have a big parent base to donate money? How do we go about talking to local business? Who should we talk to/avoid? Thanks for the advice from anyone! Some things that we have done/are doing: for bare: we had a pretty insane amount of publicity for this show just based of the posters...if you have eyecatching photos that people will recognize and then plaster it everywhere (around town, myspace, facebook) everyone will know about it. This was us on the cover of a local GLBT publication in Sacramento http://www.saturdaymatineeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/365_bare_cover.jpg Full Image also to raise money and have low overhead we are doing a series of one night only concerts of Tommy, and a revival of HAiR and bare. You only have to pay for rights for one night and the band, but not worry about sets, costumes, and all that. We just finished Tommy on memorial day and we had 530 people in attendance...i think that is amazing for a small company that has only been in the community for about 2-3 years. We did a lot of grassroots type advertising and also did a type of staging like they have of that video in the train station where everyone starts dancing. We did it at our Sacramento Second Saturday Art Walk. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox6ZKPk8T0U We also did something besides sending out a letter...we made a video! It's called the "Starving Artist Campaign" a series of three videos that we sent out to raise money for the show we were doing at the time "See What I Wanna See" Dancer Video Singer Video Actor Video We thought it was a funny approach to ask for money. Spent about a day recording all three videos, and about a week editing it.
	Home of the Best Musicals You've Never Seen
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sonshine Lead Joined: 3/23/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 33	Posted: 6/06/09 at 2:00pm
	What a fantastic idea.
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