Sticky Fly / Duct Tape Fundraiser

 

Sticky Fly/ Duct Tape Fundraiser

Today’s tip is an awful lot of fun, but requires willing ‘subjects’ with a healthy dose of humour and patience. They might be your principal, head coach, captain, or perhaps a local celebrity. If you can get more than one person to be your sticky fly, all the better!

It can be run as a fete gimmick but also works well as a standalone fundraiser. For this one, a picture tells a thousand words, so here it is:

You will need a lot of duct tape (!). The tape will be cut into strips and sold – a good price is $1 each, or a strip of 6 for $5. Multiple colours work well for visual effect.

Your subjects will need to wear pants and a long sleeve top. Something ‘underloved’ (old/ cheap/ ugly) is best as I can’t imagine it will be in the best shape afterwards.

Safety

The subject/s (let’s get into the spirit and call them our ‘Fly’) will need to stand on a sturdy platform, not too high off the ground. A chair is too high. People need to be able to reach them to apply the tape, and also if there is a system failure, your Fly will only have a very short drop to the ground.

Do not remove – I repeat, do not remove – the supporting structure from underneath your fly until you are certain there is sufficient duct tape to hold them firmly to the wall.

Instruct those applying tape to stay away from the face and skin. It will be very tempting for some to try and stick your Fly’s mouth closed, but this must be resisted at all costs.

If you have more than one Fly, you can run a competition to see who can get enough support to stick to the wall first.

These days, you can get all sorts of colourful duct tape – look at bulk purchases to save money.

Do not leave your Fly stuck to the wall for any great length of time. That is just mean.

Go Public

Get permission to run this Duct Tape Fundraiser in a public area such as a supermarket lobby. Engage passersby to pay to add their strand of duct tape, but also have students/ members with collection tins as many are happy to give a coin but will just want to go on their way. If you have a local celeb, this is a bonus. If you have a couple of local celebs, it’s an even bigger bonus!

Make it a festive atmosphere – students or club members in uniform are always very engaging. Hang up balloons to add colour and effect.

Make it clear what you are raising funds for – people always like to know how their contribution makes a difference. A big sign would be good.

Go Bigger

Run a mini auction (or simply sell off the rights – a group might put a syndicate together and if it’s the local pollie you could make a fortune here) to put a pie in the face of your Fly. It’s very slapstick and predictable, but oh so funny every single time.

A pie, for the purposes of a ‘Pie in the Face’ fundraiser, is simply a disposable pie tin filled with whipped cream from a can.

Happy Fundraising!

Mandy Weidmann

Originally published 7 May 2015

 

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