• seek involvement and support from your local councillor
• get businesses involved as sponsors
• showcase local talent – as part of the entertainment.

To host a Family Fun Day, you need to think about:

• Council permissions




• Place and space – where

You want somewhere easily accessible, preferably flat and near public transport to avoid traffic congestion (and the irritation that causes neighbours).

 
• Timing – when

Will this be a daytime event or something that starts in the afternoon and goes into the evening?  Timing impacts on your choice of entertainment and activities as well as ancillary items like glow products.  Fireworks or simple candle vigils can be a moving conclusion.

 
• Public liability insurance requirements




• Shade

It’s great to be out in the sunshine but some shade is needed. Sponsors could provide marquees.

 
• Entertainment

Think local talent.

 
• Activities

Family Fun Days are usually low-cost. Think of activities that can be done on a shoestring, or seek sponsorship from local businesses to pay for or subsidise the cost of a few favourite sideshow rides.

• Food

Family Fun Days offer an opportunity for community groups to get involved with the Aussie BBQ tradition. If you live in a community with active multicultural groups, invite their participation, sharing culture and tastes. Or seek sponsorship from local food providors and faces.


Case study 1
The Victorian town of Cobram held a Family Fun Day in April 2012, located in the car park of a major supermarket (which sponsored the day). Local SES and CFA volunteers provided demonstrations; local talent provided live entertainment; stalls included a showcase for local produce (including wine and cheese tasting for the adults); and the day included youngsters’ favourites like face painting (free), jumping castles (free) showbags, snowcones and a BBQ.


Case study 2
The News South Wales council of Wingecarribee chose a wet and wild theme for its inaugural family fun day in January 2012, held at a council pool with supervised activities and a sausage sizzle.

1.  Unique exposure to a captive audience;

2.  Positive image as a committed community player;

3.  Profile; and

4.  Publicity.

These all help businesses achieve marketing goals and can add up to a great value for money for the sponsor.

Some things to consider when looking for a sponsor

Smaller organisations and groups are more likely to strike success by looking locally—and thinking about the audience they are likely to attract to the event.


Think demographics: age groups and available income. The Australian Bureau of Statistics captures these statistics; some local councils do too.

You want your sponsor to appeal to your audience and your audience to appeal to your sponsor.

For example, a prestige car salesyard may get plenty of wishful looks at a festival in a lower socio-economic area, but will that translate into potential sales as much as similar exposure at an event attracting DINKS (Dual Income No Kids).


Think about different levels of sponsorship: gold, silver, bronze.

Gold is the premium sponsor who is putting in big bucks to back your event and gets maximum signage, demonstration space, and presence in all media; perhaps even a participatory role—officially opening the event or presenting an award.

Silver sponsorship may buy the title rights to a component of the event such as the main stage or the farmers’ market section. The café zone may logically be sponsored by a local coffee supplier or teahouse. It then carries the supplier’s name and signage.

Bronze sponsorship is within grasp of many small businesses and puts their name in front of the audience by being included as a supporter on collateral like the event program and having a sign strategically located near the entrance.

All sponsors, no matter what level, will want—and deserve—recognition.

How much you ask for in sponsorship depends on your budget? Be realistic.

Learn how outgoings can be contained by obtaining in-kind sponsorship.

• The café decides to use takeaway cups—regular and large—for its coffee. It also uses paper plates for the sandwiches and slices, paper napkins and wooden stirrers for the sugar.
• The BBQ serves up its sausages with on a paper napkin, its burgers on a paper plates with a napkin. Both, most likely, with tomato sauce.
• Tomato sauce is needed for the hotdogs.
• Kids (and adults) love to cover their hot chips in tomato sauce.
• The drinks stall sells cans of drink.
• A kids’ activity game offers a can of drinks as one of its minor prizes.
• Another kids’ activity station requires wooden paddlepop sticks for an activity

Each of these stalls has a different coordinator. They could go off individually and buy what they think they need (or know—based on the Handover Report, and the fete treasurer will receive a ream of receipts).

But there’s a better way: a buying power way.

Use our Bulk Supplies Order Form. Every stall holder indicates what supplies they need for their stall. You’ll be surprised how many needs they have in common. Total them up. Now, with substantial buying needs you have also been elevated to the status of having buying power!


Where to buy
To the uninitiated, the most likely place to go for paper plates, napkins and disposable cups, selling in quantities of 20 or 50 is the supermarket. That’s backyard entertainment quantities, not a successful fete!

Source your local packaging, party and catering suppliers, for example. Some have online ordering but a visit is worth the time: the stock now carried is amazing. Just remember to stick to the list!!

Buying in bulk means the more you want, the smaller the unit price.

For perishables, like bread, ask your local baker for the ‘best deal’ for your quantity. Likewise, your local butcher. Or go to a bulk meat outlet.

If your group or a committee member has an ABN, you can access wholesalers for non-perishable goods (including drinks) at significant savings.


Tip
To accumulate the soft drink cans for ‘prizes’, run a couple of ‘spot’ days in the lead-up to fete day. Children donate ‘a can of soft drink’ (invariably some will bring a six-pack at least!). For each can, they receive a numbered spot. At the beginning of lunch, a ‘lucky spot number’ is called and the winner gets a free ice cream or treat.

But a Committee After Party goes that bit further. Your P&C should factor a wrap-up party of some sort in your budget. This is not one for volunteers to be paying for.


Some fete organisers host their After Parties straight away, when the clean-ups done and when most people want to simply go home and flop, soak in the bath and sleep. If straight after is your group’s preferred timing, keep it simple: something like a spit roast and drinks.


Others let the volunteers get their breath back just a bit and schedule a fun activity—like a karaoke night—a week or so later when the event is still fresh in everyone’s memory but the army’s not quite so footsore!


Holding a Committee After Party that little bit later has the added advantage of being able to share firm financial results with the core supporters—before going public. And remember, it is important to share news of your fundraising success with the wider community so that they can see the value in supporting your cause.


And amid the afterglow of the Committee After Party, don’t forget…your event’s really not over until the Handover Report is done!

We spoke to Michelle Gilmore, 2011 Fete Convenor for Success Primary School, and received the inside goss on what they did and how they did it. Read on to learn more…..

Name of school or group: Success Primary School, WA

Date and start/end time: 13 November 2011 10am – 4pm

Theme or title: Success Primary School Family Fun Day

Any ‘drawcard’?: No. We did make sure there was something for everyone and made it big enough to appeal to a wide range of people. We had stalls, rides, plus entertainment from the local community. We invited students from other schools to showcase their talents.

Number of students at the school: 580

Estimated number in attendance: 5000 people

Profit from the day: ~$25 000

How many did you have on your committee and what were their roles?
6/7 people. Someone was in charge of collecting donations and raffle prizes, someone else was in charge of booking the entertainment and scheduling them on the day and I was the Fete Co-ordinator in charge of booking market stalls, budget, fete layout, liaising with our local Council and general overview to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Number and type of rides: 9 – bouncy castle (Shrek), bucking bull, inflatable slide, bungy run, velcro wall, zorb ball, Chopperville (for under 3′s), dunk tank & an animal farm.

Number of stalls/activities: 50


Five highlights from the event

1. Seeing all the kids and families enjoying themselves and watching all the hard work from the committee come together.
2. Realising we would reach our goal (raising enough to finish air conditioning the entire school).
3. By pre-selling all day ride tickets, the kids were able to start the fun as soon as they arrived (the line for ride passes was LONG!).
4. Watching the school families, local community and local government come together on the day to ensure it was a success.
5. Watching groups from the community entertaining families all day (we invited a local karate club, dance groups, cheerleaders etc) to perform in front of the food area for all day entertainment (this also bought their families into the fete to watch).

Five ‘lessons learned’

1. Volunteers are a crucial part of the day but just because they say they will turn up, doesn’t mean they will! Also, have a number of roving volunteers to help with issues that crop up throughout the day (emptying bins, helping busy stalls etc).
2. Keep the committee to a small, select group of people – especially with meetings. It will stop things going off track too often.
3. The co-ordinator needs to be strong and say no when needed (and stick to it).
4. Be ready early on the day – quite a few people turned up before the start time!
5. Use the school community – find out what you need and ask school parents. Some may not want to donate time on the day but may donate goods from their business to raffle. Other parents made crafts to sell. There are a number of ways to get parents involved.

My #1 Top tip for:

Promotion: Use social media – Facebook was fantastic at getting the word out.

Engaging volunteers: We offered a special raffle just for those who helped out on the day. I also made a point of going around and thanking volunteers on the day for their hard work.

Sponsorship: Get sponsors early and ask for what you need. From our major sponsor, we received more than just cash. Keep them happy and they will be happy to sponsor you again!

Making it fun: Put yourself in the kids’ shoes (not the parents) – what would they want to do? I asked quite a few kids if I wasn’t sure which ride to book for example to check what they would want to see!

This paper craft idea is extremely cost effective and very easy to make. You don’t have to have previous craft knowledge in order to make them.





Materials

• plain spiral notebooks (I used Spirax no. 561 which has 96 pages – approx 14.8cm deep x 8.8cm wide). You can use a bigger one if you wish.
• patterned scrapbooking paper
• assorted embellishments to coordinate with paper. I used rhinestones, paper butterflies, paper flowers and pearls.
• mini hole punch or eyelet setter
• pencil
• ruler
• double sided tape
• scissors and/or paper trimmer
• skewer (optional)
• dimensional foam tape

Before the notebook was covered:

Instructions

1. Measure the cover of your notebook and cut a piece of patterned paper the same size.
2. Measure how far from the edge the spirals are and rule a line on the paper at this distance. On the notebooks I used it was 0.4cm
3. Place the paper up against the spirals and mark where they are.
4. Punch holes on these marks with a hole punch or eyelet setter.
5. Using double side tape, tape the edges of the paper, making sure that you place tape on either side of the holes. Do not cover the holes otherwise you have to punch them again. You may have to cut the double sided tape in half to fit along the spiral edge.
6. Peel the backing paper off the tape on the spiral edge.
7. Cut slits in line with the middle of the holes all the way along the paper.
8. Peel off the rest of the backing paper on the double sided tape and line up the paper with the cover and stick it down.
9. Using scissors or a skewer, stick down each of the slits.
10. Trim off the edges and corners if necessary.
11. Decorate with embellishments as desired.

Examples:

First Name:

Last Name:


Email:


Business Name:
 

This has been provided to us by The Spotlight Inspiration Room








Materials
• cushion cover with a grid pattern – white or colour of choice
• small clear beads or colour to match cover
• thread to match cover
• beading needle
• scissors

1. If this is a school fundraiser, you are bound to have crafty and arty types within the parent and teacher population. Invite them to participate.
2. Post a flyer seeking expressions of interest from local crafters in your community’s churches and shopping centres. If the budget allows, place a small advertisement in your community newspaper.
3. Talk to people who work in stores in your area that sell crafting supplies (don’t forget hardware stores). They’re likely to know the names of potential exhibitors. They’re also a source of promotion for the event closer to the time.

Tips on exhibitors

1. Seek to mix professionals with amateurs and a mix of crafts (including a ‘name’ or two: they’ll serve as drawcards)
2. Tip: Always view examples of work before agreeing to inclusion in the exhibition. If you want ‘class’, you don’t want tat. Letting anyone sell anything will not help build your event’s reputation.
3. School events can include a children’s art exhibition section.
4. Have a waiting list for vendors in case of last minute cancellations.
5. Charge exhibitors for their space. For a first up event, set a conservative price for a booth. Once established, you can review the arrangement: consider either a flat fee or percentage of takings.

How to make money from a craft exhibition

1. Do ask for a small booking fee as a commitment from the crafter to show up; non-refundable for a no-show. Consider a sliding scale for exhibitors. The materials and time that go into creating crafts varies wildly—as does the amount that can be charged for an item. Being a part of your exhibition needs to be financially worthwhile for your crafter as well.
2. Host a wine and cheese official opening with a cover charge. (Seek local business donations/sponsorship for the wine and the cheese!)
3. Gold coin entry for the rest of the exhibition
4. Raffle at the door
5. Silent auction
6. Set up a café style area to sell refreshments (donated cakes/slices)

Added extras

1. Crafters may be keen to run short DIY workshops (e.g. make your own card or bracelet).
2. Patrons may be interested to see craft being created (e.g. spinning wool, word turning).

1. Keep your runners hydrated. Provide plenty of bottled water.
2. Think relay. Delegate in turns so they’re not worn out too soon.
3. Have a list of suppliers for emergency stock. Better still, supply a map for easy identification.
4. If a runner needs to go offsite to pick up emergency stock, pre-arrange priority parking. The time – and steps – saved will be worth it.