How to Maximize Event Income

With a little planning and some effective strategy, you can dramatically increase the total income at your event. The following suggestions include the most effective techniques gathered from many successful events over the years.

Advance Notice: Publish or send out advance notice encouraging people to bring all the coins from home…including the coins collecting in jars, on dressers, and under cushions (children love the adventure of hunting for coins). The average American home has over $50 worth of coins, and many people have more than that just waiting for the encouragement to donate it! Many people have been collecting coins with the plan that "someday" they will cash it in. Encourage them to bring it to the event and donate it...and save all the hassle of counting and wrapping it!!!

Priming: Have someone available to “prime” the Well by dropping in quarters whenever there is a lull in the action. Demonstrating quarters will promote quarters. But don’t make the mistake of handing coins to the kids. Let their parents do that!

Announcements: During the event, encourage the person with the microphone to remind people to have fun tossing coins into the Spiral Wishing Well every few minutes.

Skill: Encourage the “Test Your Skill” game of tossing in coins without using the ramps. A “demonstrator” person can show people how to do it, and then they will experiment with their own coins.

Cup of coins for a dollar: Offer a couple dollars worth of coins for a $1 donation. In other words, scoop out a cup of coins from inside the Well in exchange for a $1 bill dropped into the Well. You just keep recycling the coins while adding dollar bills to the total. We’ve done this at events where we have brought in up to $300 worth of bills in one hour. CAUTION: Do not dump coins into the launch ramps. They are designed to handle 2 or 3 coins at a time. If they get jammed, have a short piece of stiff wire that you can stick up under the slot to dislodge them.

Free Mini-Wells: Give away mini-well Vortx® toy banks for a “$25 or more donation”. People are having fun watching coins in the large Well, and it is a perfect time to offer the toy. As a piggy bank, it encourages saving money, and makes a great birthday or Christmas gift. But it also demonstrates science and makes a great show-and-tell item for school. They retail for $25 plus $10 shipping from the our website, so offering them for a “$25 or more donation” is a great deal for those attending your event. Your cost is $11 or $15, so you can multiply your event income dramatically with this option. Click here to read more about this extraordinary bonus income.

Toy Demo: If you offer the toy banks, be sure to have some children “demonstrating” the toys, especially the “coin limbo” game and high-speed spinning. Let other kids try it. For more information about the toys, go to www.spiralwishingwells.com/toy.

Prizes: Get some prizes donated for “whoever brings the most coins”. One group got someone to put up a bicycle. Another provided a television set. Obviously, if you get those kinds of prizes, you can promote them ahead of time and motivate people to bring even more money. The challenge with this kind of promotion is the ability to count the coins. There are some inexpensive coin counters available. Search Google for "coin counter" or "coin sorter".

Photos: Take some photos, similar to the one shown here, with your staff and members gathered around the Well, as if at a “grand opening” event. If you also ordered toys, have several of the adults or children holding the toys, and the others applauding. If the camera angle is a little above the floor (such as from a ladder, balcony, or a flight of stairs) then it will show more of the funnel itself, and accommodate more people around it.  Pictures like this make great press releases for the local media, and I would love to put it on our website and promote your organization that way. So be sure to send us your photos.

Click here for more promotions...how a church raised over $40,000 in one day, how a school raised $7,352 in one day, how another school raised $248,000 in 45 days, how a family raised $1,000 at a birthday party, and many more ideas that use the Well as a focal point for fund-raising.

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