Banquet Prize Suggestions

Our club will be hosting our first-ever fundraising banquet in April. We are planning the typical banquet activities such as raffles, silent auctions, etc. We are in the process of soliciting prizes from area business, our members, etc. We will likely have to purchase a few prizes as well.

Obviously, many of the banquet attendees will be our own members, however, our goal is to attract other attendees who are not regular members as well. In addition to fly fishing related prizes, we will need to have prizes that might also appeal to the "non-fly fishers" in the crowd.

For the raffle items, the majority of prizes will range in the $5-$20 value range. The silent auction prizes will be in the $25 and up value ranges.

We are starting to accumulate prize donations but thus far most everything has been fly fishing related. What types of prizes do you think we should be looking for to appeal to the non-flyfishers who attend? Thanks.

Maybe artwork of some kind?

Restaurant gift cards

overnight or weekend stays for two at a fancy motel near a good trout stream. Winners should be happy whether they fish or not

Royce,

Anything that your club buys will not pay for itself, you will be lucky to break even.

For non-fly fishing related items, there are many. Do any of the people associated with your group or their significant others sew? Baskets of fat quarters are great (a fat quarter is a piece of fabric that is 18" by 22", folded up neatly into a square. Quilters and other people who sew use them. Place them in a basket and wrap with clear cello wrapping paper. Also, TV or movie related baskets, put in a couple used DVD's and some unpopped popcorn, some munchies, candies and wrap them up in a basket. A beer basket with peanuts, chips, etc goes over well. Wine baskets with crackers, canned goodies, and such go over well. All of these baskets should be able to put together by the members of your group. In our state alcohol can not be in raffles but is ok in silent auctions. Check your state laws.

You can offer a fly rod or very nice reel on a rod board. 50 squares at $10 a square or 25 squares at $10 a square and you should be able to almost double the expense of the item on the board. That is about the only time I would spend club funds on such items. Double your investment.

Take a deck of 52 cards. Cut it in half with a saw. Sell one side of the halves for $10 per card with the understanding that the holder of the card that is picked will get half the pot. Or, an extra $260 in their pocket and $260 for the club.

Offer some HOSTED trips, not guided trips, but one where one of your club members will take one or two people out on a fishing trip with lunch provided. Those often bring in a fair amount of money, but it is best if you sell them just to club members, otherwise who knows who will buy it and what kind of a person they are?

Tie up 5 or 6 books, hardback or paperback, especially if they are in decent shape and follow a similar theme. People who still read books, and yes, there are some out there, will buy them, or bid on them in a silent auction.

In your raffle, you can bundle items together so you have fewer buckets for people to pick from but there will be items in each bundle that they want.

In your silent auction, start off at least at 50% of Fair Market Value, but no more than 60% of FMV and vary the minimum bid based on the FMV of the item. Under $25 in FMV, have it be $1 minimum bump. $25 to $50 FMV have it be a $2 minimum bump. For those rare high priced items, say $75 to $100 FMV then have it
be a $5 bump.

A dozen flies in a fly cup are always good money makers, people like flies.

Fly rods are difficult to sell for a profit, minimize the number of them.

Don't allow the items donated to fall into a garage sale state of being. You want decent items, not broken and dirty items. You can always have a garage sale event in the future where 50% of sales goes to the club and 50% goes to the seller. But, keep the items in your main fund raiser clean and decent.

Hope this helps.

Larry ---sagefisher---

We don't know how big your group is, so it is hard to say how much to spend. We have a large group and members and there guest are invited. We do the rod card ($10 each at 50 squares) with a good rod, and a lesser rod at $5 a playing card (52), guided trips by members. Silent auction includes jewelry, art, books, and wine, etc. . Good luck ad I hope that everyone has a great time.