Hi All,

I just took over as president and I'm finding lots of issues. One being the management of the yearly overhead. It's about $1,200 a year. There's talk of membership dues, yearly donation mailings, taking from the productions profits (it's the current way), and eliminating more overhead.

I'm pretty new to the running of a company, but dues sound way too demanding of a membership I can't even get numbers for and mailings increase overhead more before any potential revenue comes in. We could ask one of the members to let us build a storage shed for our costumes and props on their property. We could find a web-master to help us maintain a site for less than we're paying now.

Any thoughts on how to raise money outside of the productions? I suppose I should start grant writing, huh?

Thanks in advance,
Terinatum              

Start doing some mystery theatres — whether put on by your group or partnered with a local restaurant. Two of those a year, and your overhead would disappear. They're pretty cheap to put on, too.

Even a small thing like a fifty-fifty raffle at each performance.

If you have refreshments during intermission, try "donations" rather than a set price for the drinks and munchies.  Home baked cookies, etc - and serve coffee, water and punch.  Coffee from a pot, water from pitcher, punch from a punch bowl.  Less overhead than canned or bottled drinks.  Also - glasses of wine if local laws permit.

Have a post-show opening night reception ($10 extra, or something like that) with munchies and drinks donated by local stores or sponsors.

It's not going to be one big thing.  It's going to be a lot of little things.  Make them fun and relatively painless, and your customers won't mind.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."


Edited by edh915 - 1/03/12 at 1:11pm

Originally posted by edh915 If you have refreshments during intermission, try "donations" rather than a set price for the drinks and munchies.  Home baked cookies, etc - and serve coffee, water and punch.  Coffee from a pot, water from pitcher, punch from a punch bowl.  Less overhead than canned or bottled drinks.  Also - glasses of wine if local laws permit.

I agree with the donations, you might even want to 'seed' the donation basket/jar to keep people from being hesitant to be the first to donate and to make them think others have already donated.

One of the groups here gets a local coffee shop to donate a couple of big containers of coffee for each show in return for advertising in the Program and a mention before the show. You might be able to setup a similar arrangement with a local bakery or store.

In my experience, people seem less likely to take water from a pitcher than to take a bottle, the same with an unknown punch versus a known flavor soda. They also seem to often feel they received something of greater value with a bottle of water or a brand name soda. It is a matter of return on investment and not just the investment. You might also want to consider whether you allow food and drink into the performance area, a bottle with a screw on cap is probably less likely to be spilled than an open cup.

Serving alcohol would seem to potentially be both a legal and liability issue, for example liability for serving someone underage or someone intoxicated. You'd probably need to check with local laws and your insurer.