Informal Feasibility Study!

[featherynscale]

I thought about having this locked down to just the KC folks, but what the hell, some of the rest of you might be interested, too.

Here's the deal: Every year, forever, the Gaia Community has done an arts-and-crafts show (the Winter Bazaar, if you've been following along) as a winter fund-raiser. Every year, we make about $1000 on this event. We have put a lot of work into making it bigger and better, which means that we make more money every year, but it also costs more money (and more time) every year, leaving us with a steady profit of, yep, $1000. Getting volunteers to assist with the thing is difficult, getting someone to manage the thing is nigh impossible. Attendance is generally poor. So I'm thinking, this sucks, let's not do it anymore. If we don't do it, we need to come up with some other fund-raising concept that will make at least $1000 profit for the organization.

zylch and I spent some time this evening kicking around the idea of having a Yule Ball, some sort of reasonably upscale (but not obnoxiously upscale) costume and/or fancy dress party experience instead. There would be music and dancing and probably food, and possibly a silent auction and/or raffle. It would be a holiday party that you could take your significant other(s) to, regardless of gender, number, or preferred lifestyle arrangement. It would have a magical theme (possibly but not necessarily something Harry-Potter-ish). There is every possibility that there would be games and/or some sort of participatory art experience. There would be a door charge, previously mentioned silent auction/raffle, and possibly sales of non-alcoholic beverages (because we probably can't get a liquor license).

The thing is, we've not done an event like this. I have no sense at all of whether there would be enough interest in it to make it work or not. Hence, a preliminary investigation, very unofficial. Feel free to comment further on the concept. (Also, if you really love the Winter Bazaar, feel free to defend its continued existence. Nothing's been decided yet at all.)

[Poll #1241479]

Comments

Strong supporter of Bazaar

[lilia-blackbear.livejournal.com]

If there were a way for GC to hold two big fundraisers a year, I'd be for a Ball as well as a Bazaar. But, I do not think that is plausible. But the Bazaar cannot be judged for the past two years.

1) 2005 -- horrible location (However, my booth did great.)
2) 2006 -- horrible weather (why I love the idea of a Harvest Bazaar)
3) Recently -- the economy sucks (this would not prevent people from buying a ticket to a ball?)

Personally, I love the Bazaar because it is different. How many Pagan organizations have Samhain Balls/Yule Balls? It's almost cliche. With a Bazaar, we are melding Paganism with traditional churchism -- just as we bring Pagans together into a congregation every Sunday.

This is not to say I am against change -- not at all. For the last two years, the Bazaar has been Not Great. Perhaps we need to figure out a better solution for it instead of throwing it overboard.

Re: Strong supporter of Bazaar

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I am open to Better Solutions, particularly the sort that come with suggestions and volunteering. :) The event needs a steady location and strong community involvement, and right now it's got neither. The steady location problem I think we have solved, but we have next to no community involvement anymore. The typical lifespan of a fund-raiser is about 7 years before interest wanes, according to the professionals I've talked to; I suspect the Bazaar may just be past its prime. I'm interested to hear if there are other people out there who really want to still have the thing, though.

Re: Strong supporter of Bazaar

[lilia-blackbear.livejournal.com]

I've seen a few comments here about having a big ball, with vending and the whole lot -- that would be something I would support. It's just, a celebrating night of dancing and costuming does not reach everyone -- but that would be impossible, to find something, especially in our little ecclectic church, to reach everyone.

Last year, adding the live entertainment into the Bazaar was great, I thought, changed things up.

The typical lifespan of a fund-raiser is about 7 years before interest wanes, according to the professionals I've talked to
Just to play the Devil's Advocate here, that's interesting considering the amount of years Girl Scouts have been selling cookies, Boy Scouts selling popcorn, Jerry's Kids telethons, and the countless school and church socials every Fall and Spring. Is the 7 years of an interest waning actually community interest in something, or coordinator burn out, or both?

Re: Strong supporter of Bazaar

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm suspicious of the 7-year figure. Median, mean? What sample set? Many fundraisers crash and burn after 1 year, so that would drag the average right down...

Re: Strong supporter of Bazaar

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I have no data to back it up. I'm working off of conversations with a handful of people who raise money for non-profits for a living. I do know that they're not counting things that totally fail the first few times, they're talking about things that do well for the organizations that the orgs then want to hang on to for far longer than their useful lifespans.

Re: Strong supporter of Bazaar

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

The point of the fund-raiser in question hopefully would not be just to reach the people in our little eclectic church and ask them for money, but to also show off our little church to other people who might be interested in joining us, and getting some funding and support from outside the pool of 40 people who always pay for everything.

I totally support having a Bazaar with live entertainment, if we're going to do a Bazaar. I also totally support having a party with vendors and whatnot, if we're going to do a party.

Usually, the event lifespan seems to be due to boring the donor base (or making them complacent - Oh, I don't have to go to that this year, there will be another one next year). You'll notice that the Girl Scouts in the cookie sales model a) have a very wide donor base that constantly changes and b) switch out their cookie brands (except for a few 'favorites') every few years. Yes, they're still selling cookies, but they're selling different cookies to different people. We have tried to switch up the Bazaar (and, as you mention, some of it has been good) to keep it fresh, but attendance and community interest seems to decline every year.

(I don't totally hate the Bazaar. I, too, make money at the Bazaar, but the last two years, I've only been making it from people that I already see socially and could have sold to without the intermediary of the event.)