Last Night's fund raiser

Last night we worked a fund raiser, yes for free.

A very dear friend of ours passed away three days ago, unfortunately they did not have health insurance. So a local bar that they hang out in put together a fund raiser, 50/50, raffles, bar bingo.

We were supposed to do karaoke for 4 hours it was rough. The deal was sing 1 song for 1 dollar or for 5 dollars you can sing until we quit.

Well, it was tough to get these people to cough up any money, if this is any indication, there was a buffet all you could eat for $7.00 a plate so people were going up to the buffet and grabbing food off of it without a plate so they didn't have to pay the $7.00.

So, I was getting fed up to say the least, so I started pulling a Toqer. I made an announcement, if you come up with a 20 dollar bill you skip the line and sing right now! Ok got two 20's right away. Alright finally getting a decent amount of money in the bucket!

So every time we were trying to quit people were asking us to stay. So I said, ok if you want to sing, it is 20 dollars per song, we have already been there for 5 freaking hours at that point and quite frankly I was over their cheapness. Now I made them mad, honestly after their behavior, didn't care though, 2 more 20's hit the bucket.

So to say the least this was the worst fundraiser we have ever been associated with, we made $171.00 off of the karaoke. The raffles and 50/50 only did $400.

Normally, when we run a fundraiser it is usually between $3,000-$3,500. So the attitudes made this one rough. I was hoping to do atleast $1,000.

Well, thank goodness it is over, hopefully the little bit we did raise helped.

Toqer thank you! If it wasn't for me "pulling a Toqer" we would have only made $50.00.

You know I hate to say it but; in hard economic times even for such a good cause, people don't care when it means their own survival. You did the right thing, its just sad that some people can't look past their own situations, and help their fellow man.

I understand what you are saying Jim, but goodness, stealing food off of the buffet? If they can't/won't help that is one thing, stealing from a fund raiser is sickening.

The 50/50 normally, who ever would win that would donate the money back, the guy refused he said I won it and I am keeping it.

That is a sad state anymore. Especially right after the holidays, pockets are tight. But that to is just morally wrong. If you do not plan on paying do not go. Wanna play gotta pay.
I did a fuind raiser for a friend who was very sick. During the after noon. Had Budweiser come in and do the promo thing, drink specials, the whole nine yards. I played (for free) 4 hours and the event made 100.00 bucks or so.
I almost gave up on doing them. But then I realized, as long as I am doing the right thing, then that is all that matters in the end. I understand the frustration with the turds that floated in that night and lack of money earned, but feel good that you did it and I take my hat off to you for stepping up!!!

Hi Carolyn

Sorry to hear about your friend. We used to do alot of these type events at one time and the problem we found was alot of them were turning out to be scams. the last couple of years I have still done a few but most times I charge and donate it back but thats another story

If you do one of thse in the future something I have found that has worked well here is holding an auction. Basically how it works is the people organizing the event go to the local merchants and get donations for items or gift certificates and they are auctioned off during the function. People seem to be a little more free with the cash when there is something tangiable coming back to them

Most times it's a silent auction so there is only 10 to 15 miniutes disturbance in the function. The biggest one I have seen raised about $15,000 for the person in need beteen the function and auction

Jeff the Slime that slithered in was stealing food to keep 7 dollars, not likely going to do the auction thing. I think they were there to sponge and yes your idea is great however this crowd was the bottom of the turd pile from what I've read.Thanks for offering advice though as I will likely use it if doing an event like this in the future.

Thanks, Carolyn.

Yah... I agree. Nabbing from the buffet without paying is in very poor taste to say the least. Where did those bozos think they were ~ in a soup kitchen? Yet, Jim is right... some people care for no one but themselves. I wonder sometimes if they even care about themselves.

With the ever-increasing use of debit cards these days, many people don't carry much cash, if any. It's rare when I carry any cash at all. That may serve to explain. Still, the guests should've made arrangements for a cash-based fundraiser. I'm sure they were aware of the fact.

Look at the bright side. You all raised dough for a good cause. Whether it's five bucks or five million, every dollar is needed and appreciated. :)

Karaoke is a very ego driven market. Some folks like to throw money around, makes them feel like they're a big shot or something.

Carolyn, next time apply a little structure to bribes. My fee is a flat $1 per person you cut in front of. The great thing about this structure is if you have a well organized rotation, a bribers bribe to be next grows exponentially. Here, lemme try and draw it out...

http://shup.com/Shup/18041/10801314578-untitled-Paint.png

Jack is our briber, he's at the end of rotation. He keeps wanting to be next. To bribe his song in round 1 to next, $3

Oh, I just realized my next 2 bribe prices are off by a buck, because Jack doesn't have to cut in front of Round 1 Jack, and Round 3 Jack doesn't have to cut in front of round 2 jack,but anyways, his round 2 bribe would be $6, and his round 3 bribe would be $9.

So $3 + $6 + $9 = $18 on this small rotation.

There's other good ways to raise money with karaoke too. There's the flipside of bribeing to be "in". Bribing to get "out"

I once ran a fundraiser where we did this; I got a list of all the attendees, and working with the CEO who forced his employees to go to this; we picked the lamest, most embarassing songs for EVERYONE. We're talking guys singing Donna Summer, girls singing Frank and so on.

Deal was this... Everyone had to do something with thier turn or be fired. Options were.

$1 - Move up, or down in the list
$20 - Songchange
$50 - Cancel out
$100 - Force anyone to sing a song of your choosing.

I forget what charity we were doing this for, but they ended up making a bundle. Low rung employees gave up what they could to delay the enevitable or change sons. The CEO and other company officers would cancel out, or force someone else to sing thier song. If someone didn't like what they were forced to sing, they could drop $20 and sing what they wanted.

Yah, little more structure and you'll stand to make a little more cash next time around.

BTW toqer

Carolyn just coined a new phrase.... "Pulling a Toqer" .... hahaha that's a riot....:sqlaugh:

Carolyn,

Stealing from the buffet at a fundraiser???? How do people like that sleep at night? My theory is that somewhere along the line...what goes around comes around...

What a terrible night...but rest assured that YOU did the right thing by the family.

Bern

BTW toqer

Carolyn just coined a new phrase.... "Pulling a Toqer" .... hahaha that's a riot....:sqlaugh:

Yah I don't mind being remembered for monetizing karaoke :)

I just want to re-iterate a point or two, then it's off to prep for NAMM.

A lot of folks were like "OMFGBBQ TOQ YOU TAKE BRIBES?" Some forums just out and out let people trash talk me to the point where i'm never returning (ty odjt for being so mature about it), but when you get down to it, it's not a bribe, it's paying more, for quicker service.

There are many many many other service industries we can see examples of this sort of tiered pricing structure for faster service.

First class tickets let you get on/off a plane first.
You can pay a little more at one of those "DMV" registration places, instead of waiting 2 hours in line at the DMV.
Dell and other computer companies charge more for "Priority support"

So applying this to karaoke doesn't make you a sleaze as long as you're open to EVERYONE about it. We explain the bribe system on our site.

http://www.7bamboo.com/cms/?q=node/74

We still call it bribes, but really, it's paying to get serviced sooner. I have several customers that have no problem paying $60@night to cut ahead of other people.

Some cute little princess batted her eyes at me last week, tried rubbin her boobs on me to cut in line. God that annoys me. Just because you have a slim waist, big boobs, and big eyelashes doesn't mean you get freebies. I told her how the bribe system works.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR MR KJ, NOT EVERYONE HAS MONEY!"
Yah, well not everyone has boobs to rub up against a married man.

Perplexed she backed off for a minute, kept ranting.

"So first class on a plane isn't fair? Priority support isn't fair?" I asked her.

She sat her butt back down and patiently watched the screen for her turn to come up.

Bleh, rant. Yah, toqerism rules. JW understands cause he's been at my club. I can't really take credit for doing this this way, that all falls on the 65 year old young Sayokosan. Japanese not only invented karaoke, but they know the best ways to pull $$$ from peoples pockets with it.

Thank you for the kind words, Brother Toqer. They mean a lot, believe me.

ODJT has the best of the best. But there's one thing we lack: Trolls. As the webmeister allows me the privelege to serve the members, there will be no trolling nor harrassement of members permitted here. You have our word on that.

How people manage their businesses and run their shows is no one's business but theirs. If it works for you and your clientele and guests, good deal.

From reading your comments over time, I am impressed by your professionalism, finesse and business savvy. I've gained a great respect for karaoke, thanks to your presence here.

Sincere apologies for the thread hijack. Carry on, my friends. :)

Thanks everyone for the kind words and support, sometimes it just feels good to vent to people that truly understand.

Jeff, thank you for the condolences, yes that is a great idea, normally when we are in charge of a benefit that is exactly what we do, auctions work great with gift certificates and donations.


Toqer, yes I know it wasn't organized the way I did it at all. To be honest I was bothered that these people were lieing to me and claiming that they already donated the 5 dollars or 1 dollar so they could sing, I was trying to come up with a solution to make the family money quickly, because what I was doing clearly wasn't working. Then Toqer popped into my head, so I just went with it and tried to get as much money as I could and make up for the time that we were unable to get contributions. I am sure that it would have been better if I would have been more organized, lesson learned.

Stealing from the buffet at a fundraiser???? How do people like that sleep at night?

I haven't paid for a re-fill at Taco Smell since I got that 'Empire Strikes Back' cup... :sqerr:

jk...Good job Carolyn I did a freebie on NYE myself. Sorry for your loss.

Toqer, yes I know it wasn't organized the way I did it at all.

You might want to volunteer for one more fundraising gig on this in another month. Get a RSVP guestlist, work with the family (same way I did with the CEO) and set people up to sing lame, obscure songs (like a big man singing "Like a Virgin")

Maybe print this post up and explain to the family, bar how this all works. You might have to adjust the pricing structure a bit, but that's OK.

Trick is to keep your monetization rules easy for folks to remember.

Examples: $1 = 1 spot up in line.
$1 = 1 song slip/ticket/request

The song slips/tickets/requests should be sold by whoever is collecting the money. As KJ you're responsible for handling bribes because you're the one with a playlist.

Heh this thread got my head spinning about some bribe action on Friday. I blogged about it on 7b, you can read the entire article (http://www.7bamboo.com/cms/?q=node/258), but i'm take out 3 paragraphs.

1
What i've done to cut down on the madness and randomness of bribes is to monotonize them. It used to be we'd take as little as $5 to bump someone to next in a 20 person rotation. Sometimes it'd be a totally random amount. By setting a price, it keeps things into a check/balance that ensures that everyone is playing by the same rules, and noone is treated with any type of favoritism over anyone else.

2
We publically list our bribe fee's

3
So bribing can be used for good things, as long as there's rules in place that will keep it out of the price range of 90% of participants. The 10/90 rule is about the same on any other service industry (only 10% of the seats are first class, only 10% of people sign up for priority support)

I don't charge people for things like song changes, or switching the rounds of 2 songs. I think it's nice to get a tip for doing those things, but it takes me 1 mouseclick and navigating a popup menu to do that. It's such little effort I just clap my hands like as though I just performed some full metal alchemy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist).

I dunno, it's weird. It really takes what would normally be unfair riddled with unknowns, and applies a stateful, predictable set of rules.

Thank you for the kind words, Brother Toqer. They mean a lot, believe me.

Ah dude, you got my total respect too man. I'll plug you as much as I can to the MMOGroup at NAMM. I got good feelings for 2008.

Carolyn trying it my way took a lot of guts. Real hardcore props to you :)

One last thing...

I want more people to try this. $1@song, $1@person you cut in front of. Do it in your bar venues only.

Remember, karaoke is ego. If people are willing to pay you to feel more important, let them.