Coordinating a Film Fundraiser

The Cook for Good Foodraiser turned out to be both more complicated and more successful than I'd originally dreamed. When asked by the theater how many people might attend, I estimated a minimum of 100 and a goal of 200. That would have raised between $400 and $800, plus maybe an extra hundred from people who paid above the minimum.

278 people attended the foodraiser. We raised over $2,250!

What went so right?

The following describes the major events that went into holding a very successful fundraiser wrapped around a film. I've done events like this before, so some of the lessons came from previous events. I hope this narrative helps you hold a successful film fundraiser of your own.

The Original Plan

Ask the theater for a special showing
Set the minimum admissions price at $10, with $6 going to the theater as the standard ticket price and $4 going to an anti-hunger organization
Have a speaker before the film to set a local context and call for action for the participants
Say a few words about how eating a healthy diet of largely organic, kindly-raised, local foods is NOT expensive or hard, as shown by Cook for Good.
Have sign-up sheets to gather names and emails
Watch the documentary
Get names on the way out
Donate the proceeds

Getting Permission to Use Copyrighted Images

You'll want to use the compelling images from the film posters and perhaps other publicity, but they are copyrighted. Make everyone happy by asking the theater who will host you if you can contact the distributor for permission. Then contact the distributor. Reassure the distributor up front that you will be paying full ticket price for tall the viewers at your showing. The distributor will almost certainly be glad to know that you will be bringing extra publicity and customers to their film and will give you permission to use the images.

Extra Income & Extra Info: Books for Sale

Quail Ridge Books & Music, our nationally known independent book store, allowed us to sell books that they provided. 20% of the proceeds went to the Food Shuttle. I wrote a page of book reviews that our greeters handed out to the people in line outside the theater, which of course mentioned that every purchase triggered a donation. As an added bonus, we got books into the hands of the participants that should help them act on what they learned at the theater. I hope we also introduced some people to a great independent book store. Independent book stores are essential to keeping free speech alive.

Joining Forces

In turned out that another activist was also starting to put an event together around Food, Inc. We joined forces, with Karen coordinating the Q&A session after the show. She also made arrangements with a local restaurant so that interested participants could meet after the film and continue the discussion. While we knew many of the same food activists and environmentalists, my other contacts tended to be in progressive politics and hers in birding, so we were able to reach a broader range of people.

Rely on Real Experts

Farmer Richard Holcomb led the Q&A session after the film. While he modestly denies it, I think of him as North Carolina's Joel Salatin, the heroic farmer of Food, Inc. Richard is also co-owner of Zely & Ritz, a restaurant devoted to using the best local, organic ingredients, many of which are grown at Coon Rock Farm. As you can imagine, Richard really knows the farm-to-fork cycle. I think Richard drew many extra people to the event. Certainly he wowed the ones who were there. A high-point of the session was when he described his own motivation for becoming a farmer: to provide wholesome food to his four children. Richard became visibly moved talking about them and about young Steve, whose tragic death from eating tainted hamburger was one of the saddest parts of the film.

Involve More Organizations and Get Those Names

I always view events like this as part of the process of building an active community. I contacted kindred organizations and invited them to provide material on our information table. I also created a One Stop Signup Sheet that let people sign up once and check off the organizations that they were interested in hearing from. We had greeters working the line outside the theater asking people to sign up.

Publicity

Getting publicity for this worthy, non-partisan event was a snap, but it still paid to be sensitive to who would and would not benefit from being associated with the event.

Direct participants gave us great help in spreading the word. Whole Foods had posters prominently displayed in area stores. Whole Foods also ran a half-page ad in our local weekly paper. Coon Rock Farm put up posters at its market stands and at the associated restaurant. Quail Ridge Books had a great display of books, topped by a big poster. The Colony Theater put up a poster and sent one to its sister theater, the Rialto.
I sent press releases went to our local media and requested listings on all the announcement boards I could think of, including ones for the Carolina Farm Stewardship, the local Slow Food group, the Vegetarian Society, and various progressive lists.
I also posted in the more general places such as Craig's List and local events calendars.
Posters went up at several area farmers' markets, local coffee houses and used book stores, plus Starbucks. We posted them on bulletin boards at local universities, places of employment, and churches. Near the university and on a popular walking street, we also up posters on light poles.
I put emails on several local lists and wrote about the event in the Cook for Good newsletter and on several forums where I post regular diaries.
Lots of people helped to spread the word. It was great to see it show up on Meetup listings and in emails from other people. At least one church sent an announcement out to its entire congregation.
Don't forget to ask the benefiting organization to spread the word by putting the event on its website, mentioning it in a newsletter or special email announcement, and putting up posters.

Who didn't we ask for help? Organizations associated with Big Food, such as regular grocery stores and restaurants serving questionable food.

Trust Yet Verify

As always for an event like this, it's a good idea to check with any organization that is supposed to know about your event and verify that they are giving out the right information. I called the Food Shuttle itself and checked the listings for on the theater website.

As stories started to appear in the local media, I did fact checks there too. One paper consistently listed the film as showing at the wrong theater. I posted corrections, along with invitations to our special showing.

Get a Sound System and Do a Sound Check

Many theaters have a microphone you can use. If not, get one from another source. Nothing is more boring than an event you can't hear. And just because you can hear yourself shouting, it doesn't mean that the 87-year-old in the next-to-the-last row can hear you.

Before the event starts, do a sound check. Find out what causes feedback and how to prevent it, then share this information with other speakers.

If you will have a Q&A session, make sure the questions will be heard. The best way is to have extra microphones for the crowd and volunteers to hand them out. With just one mic, have people line up in the front row for a turn at the one the speaker is using. As a last resort, make sure the person running the Q&A session repeats questions that were shouted out from the crowd.

Define Responsibilities & Send Out a Schedule For Comments Early

I sent out what one volunteer referred to as "the German Train Schedule" to all the participants a few days before the event. It had a breakdown of all responsibilities by time, with the names shown in bold (unlike in the example below). I asked everyone to read it over and tell me about any possible improvements or problems. I also brought a printed, revised copy to the event for people to refer to there.

Here's the beginning of the schedule :

9:45: Linda & Bruce bring a generic sign-up sheet that will let people sign up for all our organizations at once, plus tables, books to sell, a donation bowl ... We stage material so it's ready to go into the theater.

9:55: Set up crew (all of us) arrives at the theater to meet each other and get remaining material ready to go into theater.

Richard brings a CSA box, plus literature and a sign-up sheet if desired

Teresa of Whole Foods brings literature and a sign-up sheet if desired

Karen brings maps to the restaurant

10:00: Theater doors open to setup crew. We dash in, set up tables, arrange books & literature.

Gina and Erin are in charge of the book table & selling books

Lynn is in charge of the information table and guarding the donation bowl. (We'll encourage people who want to make larger, tax-deductible donations to the Food Shuttle to write a check or toss in money.)

Divide Materials in Advance & Pack Early

The night before the event, I made name tags for all the volunteers and put their materials in separate bags (see picture). That way, everyone could just grab their sign-ups sheets, donation bowls, or whatever at the event and land running.

I also picked up the books and loaded them plus the tables into the car in case of bad weather the day of the event.

Stay Calm! Be Upbeat and Visible!

If you are running the event, everyone involved will be reacting to your attitude. Be cheerful, glad to see everyone, and calm. Also be visible. I wore an apron, which certainly helped me stand out in the crowd. That way, volunteers could easily direct folks towards me.

Use Online Donations to Involve People Who Couldn't Attend

In nearly all of the communications about this event, I included a request for online donations, with directions to help the Food Shuttle identify the source of the donation. Check with the organization to find a number that isn't already being used. Here's the request:

Donate to the Food Shuttle online. Please pick "other amount" and end your donation with 18 cents, so they will know your gift is from a supporter of sustainable agriculture. Examples: $10.18, $25.18, $100.18. Why 18? It was the date of the Food, Inc. event.

Thank People

The event isn't over until you've thanked everyone who participated, including the theater workers who may have worked an extra shift or unusual time for you. Write handwritten thank-you notes to your volunteers and donors, too. Email is too easy and common. Besides, a real thank you note is more likely to get pinned up on a bulletin board or put in a scrapbook.

Go back to the appropriate lists, too, and report how the event went and thank your sponsors again.

Watch for Ripples

A really successful event leads to other connections or events. For example, I learned that an activist in a nearby county had tried to set up a Food, Inc. foodraiser like ours, but the theater wasn't interested. But when she showed them the buzz developing in Raleigh, they agreed to host a foodraiser after all!

Now that makes me happy.