Bowling Fundraiser

Like all other sporting event fundraisers, the Bowling Fundraiser will raise funds through a few different fundraising streams....

For example through:

Entry fees, food and drink sales, a raffle, sponsors and advertising, fundraising product sales, Apparel sales, and of course donations!

But the best way will be through a Pledge Event! Also known as a Bowl-a-Thon.

Be organized and make it a fun, exciting event and you'll raise some great funds!

After all tenpin bowling is an extremely enjoyable sport and should be loads of fun for your supporters!

Just remember to be prepared to do some hard work. Like all events it will take work to make a bowling fundraiser successful!

Let's do it...

Organizing Your Bowling Fundraiser:

My first bit of advice for you would be to get organized and completely prepared way in advance of the actual day.

Also get as many people to help out as possible.

The more jobs you can hand out to others, the easier it'll be to run for you. You will of course need to check up on those volunteers to make sure that those jobs get done!

Find a Venue:

Before you can actual hold a bowling fundraiser you will need a venue for it.

This should not be hard to do at all.

You can either use an entire bowling venue or just a few lanes, depending on how big you plan your fundraiser to be. Find a Bowling club near you that will let you rent out their venue or a few of their alleys for an evening or afternoon.

But also try get them to rent it to you for FREE. Punt the fact that you are a fundraising cause and that your fundraiser will be good advertising/marketing for their venue!

Tenpin Bowling Fundraiser Balls (Photo by Ginny / Flickr)

The venue should also provide you with all the right equipment like balls etc. If not, you need to make sure that you have all the equipment needed.

Consult with the Bowling Alley that's hosting your event about what equipment you'll need.

Teams / Players:

The next thing you will need to do is to start filling your playing field. Consult once again with your venue hosts about what number of players their venue can hold in a day (Or afternoon or evening).

Also find out how many people they would recommend per team.

Then start finding players months and months in advance of your bowling fundraiser. You have to, have to fill your playing field if you want to make this fundraiser a success. So start early and have it fill with plenty of time to spare.

You don't want to be rushing around last minute trying to find more players!

Fundraisers:

Like I said in the intro you will use a few different ways of raising funds at your bowling fundraiser. And you obviously need to organize those fundraising ideas.

Depending on the venue you may not be able to use all these ideas and will need to consult with your host as to what they will allow you to do.

For example will they allow you to provide food and drinks as an extra fundraiser.

But like I said up above the best way of fundraising will be through a Pledge Bowling event. Also known as a Bowl-a-Thon...

Bowl-a-Thon - Pledge Event:

A Bowl-a-Thon or pledge event is where you will get your participants to fundraise for you through pledges and crowdfunding.

They either get people to pledge a donation amount for every pin they knock over, or they solicit a single sponsorship amount from their supporters (family and friends, etc.).

You can run this in a few different ways...

The most recommended way would be to setup a Pledge Event Fundraising Site for your Bowl-athon.

Click here to find out about this brilliant service and to start up for FREE.

Or you could setup a single Crowdfunding page where all your participants get their supporters to donate on.

Or you can register your Nonprofit and encourage all your participants to setup their own dedicated fundraising pages, with you as the beneficiary.

I'd recommend you also provide some incentive prizes that rewards the participants who fundraise the most. This will create some extra motivation for them to find loads of pledges and sponsorships!

So What Are The Other Fundraising Ideas?

Entry Fees - This is obviously you're first method of fundraising.

Try get team payments done a month before the fundraiser as it saves you chasing people up just before the fundraiser and it also gets a commitment from those teams!

You should also consider having a package that comes with the entry fee. Like tournament memorabilia shirts, sponsored energy drinks, and/or a crate of beers (depending on how lively your teams are).
Food And Drinks - The obvious additional fundraiser. Whether you plan to fundraise with this or not you still need to provide food and refreshments for your teams and spectators.

So if the Bowling Alley will allow you to fundraise with this then make sure you provide drinks and food at the event.
Sponsors And Advertising - Approach local companies/businesses to sponsor and advertise at your event.

This will bring in good funds if you approach the businesses correctly and show them great benefits of advertising at your Bowling Fundraiser.

So be fully prepared when you approach businesses with details of numbers attending and the potential exposure that they'll receive from the event.

For great advice on this I'd recommend you watch the GETTING SPONSORSHIPS DVD from this Shanon Doolittle EVENT FUNDRAISING collection.

Raffle Or Auctions - A raffle is always a great addition to a fundraising event and should definitely be used at your Bowling Fundraiser.

Read the Raffle Fundraising Ideas to get the most out of your Raffle.

You could also consider holding an Auction during the day or at your 'after' tournament dinner/party! Or what about a Silent Auction.
Your Organization Apparel Sales/Promotions - You group should be running an Apparel Fundraising campaign and any event is a great place to sell your Apparel and/or promote your Online SSA Apparel Store!

If you're a group that doesn't have an Online Apparel Store with SSA, you really should....

But please make sure you read the full Online Apparel Fundraising page to ensure you use your Apparel Fundraising store effectively and successfully!!!
Other Fundraising Product Sales - There are loads of other fundraising products that you could sell at your Bowling fundraiser.

I'd suggest you grab a free fundraising product guide and also look through this product page to find a few suitable items to add to your fundraisers!

Promoting Your Fundraiser:

This is usually the most important part of any fundraiser.

The first bit of promoting you will need to do is to find teams. Contact bowling alleys in the area, and friends, family, members, supporters, and use the advertising methods down below.

You should also give your sponsors first choice to enter teams if they may want to take part.

Bowling Fundraiser - A Strike Celebration (Photo by Sarah Traver / Flickr)

It'll be a bit rude to have them sponsor the day and then have you turn around to them and say that you're sorry but they can't enter a team because there's no space!

Here are some ways of promoting your bowling fundraiser...

Contacting people directly. Build word of mouth!
Advertising it on your organization website, Facebook page, and on Twitter.
Announcing it in your newsletters and any other publications or letters you send out.
Put up posters and send flyers/letters to your members and supporters.

The Importance Of Thanking:

Finally you must always remember to thank everyone involved...

The players, the sponsors, the spectators, and the volunteers!

People who are thanked and appreciated are happy people. And people who are happy because of you and your Tenpin bowling fundraiser, will be ready and eager to join in or help out again next time.

So please make sure that you thank everyone effectively on the day and afterwards on your website, your Facebook page, and by contacting them directly.