While looking into possible funding possibilities for this project, I came across many obstacles. Originally, the plan was to have this event to be fully sponsored by different organizations. After going out and trying to talk to a few businesses and banks, I quickly realized that people were hesitant to fund a event regarding drugs. Another thing that was soon brought to my attention was that businesses did not see funding this event as profitable.
Knowing that additional guidance was needed, I decided to get in touch with Dave Teixeira, who we met during a presentation he gave at one of our social innovation classes. Dave Teixeira was very helpful and offered his experience from previous social projects that he headed such as Wresting with Hunger and co-ordinating the Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day. He provided me with a “to do list” and also additional advises and pointers on where and how to start looking for funding. Following his advice, I began all over again and drew out all the costs required to host an event like this. Having a list ready and an approximation of how much money we will be needing, I soon realized that if we were to charge people $20 a ticket, the costs could potentially be covered.
Costs based on $20 per ticket, one third capacity (120 people) and no sponsors and discounts
To estimate these costs, I assumed that we will have no discounts or donors. Also, the area we rent will have a capacity to hold 350 and the assumption is that there will only be 1/3 capacity. If this were to happen, we would have $2400 from the ticket sales and the graph shows how that will be divided up. As seen, there is a bit of of extra proceeds or misc. costs section. This will cover anything that might be extra or if less people show up. Another great pointer by Dave was that by having an estimate of costs ready, once we realize how much funding we can get for this event, we are able to add or cut things from the budget.
However, even if this we were able to cover the costs entirely through ticket sales, having sponsors would still be useful. Apart from reducing our costs, they can be used as another medium to attract people to this event. Also, as Dave pointed out in his e-mail, having a budget to present to potential sponsors is more effective as people may decide to donate things (eg. beverages, food, posters, etc…) rather than give money. In the up coming weeks, I will try to more accurately project the required funding and try to bring in a couple of sponsors to help make this event come to life.
BWiles
sunnyhoshingchan
changmai
mattbaril
Looks like you guys really put a lot of thought into this and it’s great that you guys came up with a way to cover costs without relying on sponsors. We came across the same issue since both drug addiction and prostitution are both quite controversial topics, businesses are reluctant to support initiatives in these areas.
This is not really related to this particular post and I haven’t browsed through other posts yet but have you guys thought of how you will be advertising this event? Will that add to your costs?
Good question, the main way to market this event, since it is staying within SFU, is to go to business classes and speak to the students for a few minutes regarding this. Word of mouth is normally the most effective (and free), but of course, since we can’t really be at all the classes, there will be some costs on advertising such as posters.
I think you should be able to get sponsors. $20 may be too much for students? I know I’m usually kind of broke…other students may be as well.
This is a minor point compared to the rest of your planning, but I was looking at your graph and was wondering if you had considered “goody bags” with a pen, paper, pamphlets, etc. for each of the attendees. Not sure if it would go under “misc.” or “promotional tools”. The contents may help promote the organizations represented at your event as well as any sponsors you get for your event. I’ve been to a couple of conferences and they have always had little take-away bags.
As for the high costs, we realize that it is kind of steep for a student event. After relooking our cost structures and ticket revenues, we have reduced the tickets dramatically. As for the goodie bags, unless there are sponsorships, we will probably not do that. Even with sponsorships, the grab bags are normally to advertise for them and not so much the event that they are sponsoring, so we believe that it may not be essential to have giveaways.