Ten Pin Bowling Fundraiser

Ten Pin Bowling Fundraiser Basics

If you’re tired of the same old fundraisers every year and you’re looking to try something a little different, holding a ten pin bowling fundraiser is a fun way to get your community together and raise some money.

Most of your local bowling venues would be more than happy to work with you in planning your event and they will usually offer you reduced rates which means you can increase your profit!

As always, planning early is important and having a good support team around you is just as important. A ten pin bowling event is not something that you can just throw together at the last minute. Break down the list of jobs that need doing and allocate them.

Here’s a list to get you started:

1. Finding a venue
2. Researching an appropriate booking system
3. Finding sponsors for lanes
4. Creating promotional materials – flyers, tickets, merchandise etc…
5. Advertising your event
6. Sourcing prizes for raffles or auctions
7. Buying or making awards
8. Liaising with venue about numbers, food and drink

Because this will be a team event, you’ll need to work out with your venue what their availability is, how many people per team and how many people in total they can accommodate ie. whether you’ll book the whole venue out or just a number of lanes. If you’re just booking a few lanes, ask whether you’ll be able to increase the number of lanes if you get more people wanting to attend.

Have some prize categories to be awarded at the end of the day: Highest score, Most gutter balls, Most strikes, lowest score. If you’re theming your ten pin bowling fundraiser, include a best dressed award.

Maximising your event revenue

Obviously, you’ll have your entry fee which will be based on what your venue is going to charge you and then you add your own mark up to get your final price. Work out whether you will charge per person or per team or both if you have people that want to play but can’t get a whole team together. We’ve also put together a list of some other ideas to make sure you get the most out of your event:

• Approach local businesses and ask them to sponsor a lane or advertise at your event. Work out a sponsorship package for your ten pin bowling fundraiser that will suit and spell out what exposure they will get for their money.

• Have a package deal that includes team/tournament shirts be included and maybe a hot dog and drink.

• Raise extra funds through food and drink sales. Talk to your venue about whether they can donate a percentage of the takings on the day.

• Raffles and auctions – if you’ve got some great prizes on offer, these are always reliable ways to boost your profits. Sell raffle tickets ahead of the event so that those who can’t attend can still be part of the raffle. Ask your venue if they can donate some bowling vouchers that you can use as raffle prizes.

• Promoting your event is most important to ensure you get a good attendance. Use social media, newsletters, posters and flyers to get the word out.

• Sell your tickets ahead of time so you have accurate numbers on how many people will be attending and whether you need to increase the number of lanes booked. Offering an ‘early bird’ rate is a good way to encourage people to book early and give you a good indication of numbers. An online ticketing facility or booking system will make it easy for you to keep track of numbers.

• Turn your event into a ‘bowl-a-thon’. This is where players are sponsored per pin that they knock down during the event. See if you can set up an online sponsor facility to increase the number of people that can sponsor.

• Have a donation facility available for those that cannot attend but still want to be able to contribute to your cause.

• Sell your groups merchandise if you have some – T-shirts, hats, key rings etc.

• Talk to your venue about setting up a bowling bake sale with bowling themed treats. You’ve got a captive audience, so make the most of it!

• You’ll find that some members of your community may want to come to your event, but not necessarily take part in the bowling, so offer a spectator entry price as well.

Follow Up

Don’t forget to thank everybody at the ten pin bowling fundraiser afterwards on social media and in newsletters, especially your sponsors and your volunteers. Sponsors also love to hear how your event went and what you have been able to achieve following it. Contact them directly to keep them updated or send photos or a thank you card or certificate of appreciation.

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You might also be interested in:

• Position Vacant: ‘Thank You Sergeant’
• Thanking your Sponsors
• Disco Theme Ideas
• 25 All-Time Best Fundraising Ideas
• Unique Ideas for FUNdraising