1) West Virginia Rivers Coalition Raffle

2) Housatonic Valley Association Auction

3) Amigos Bravos Paint-a-Thon

Case Study:
West Virginia Rivers Coalition Raffle
Elkins, West Virginia, (304) 637-7200

Other Benefits: All purchasers of one or more $20 book of tickets are made members. This is WVRC's largest source of new members, adding almost 500 people to the membership in 1999. While these members do not renew as well as people joining by mail, their renewal rate is adequate.

License:
Under certain conditions, WVRC does not need a license, but every year they call the Secretary of State to make sure they are in compliance.

Prizes: Because the target audience is canoeists and kayakers, the prizes are usually kayaks, backpacks, vests, and the like, (although staff was considering the addition of beanie babies in 2000). They are donated by various national and local manufacturers and businesses. WVRC staff writes a letter to potential prize donors briefly stating who they are, why they want the prize, and what the prize donor will receive in exchange (in this case, exposure to and good will from a lot of outdoor types), then follows up with a phone call or visit. This process requires a good deal of time, since sometimes people cannot be reached right away, letters get lost and have to be resent, etc.

Tickets: WVRC uses a large raffle ticket that allows them to print the names of their prize donors on the back. They use a professional printer, and usually print well over the amount they expect to sell. Tickets are priced at $6/each or a book of 6 for $25.

Volunteers: Recruiting and organizing volunteers to sell the tickets by phone is the most time-consuming part of the raffle. To get 200 volunteers, over 400 people must be called. People are asked to volunteer for one night of calling. People who say "yes" are emailed specific directions and then reminded by phone a day or two before their night.

Selling the tickets: Volunteers man tables at local festivals and heavy traffic locations like Wal-Mart. Board and staff sell tickets. But the great majority of the tickets are sold by phone. Volunteers gather at a downtown office location in DC with numerous phones and call up last year's buyers, and the members of over a dozen local canoe and kayaking clubs in DC, WV, and adjacent states. (with their Club's permission, of course). The phone-a-thon usually lasts ten nights and involves a cadre of 190 volunteers (about 18/night)! In the past, volunteers managed the entire phone-a-thon effort, but in 2000, a staff person took over because of volunteer burn-out! Callers are provided with a script and a little coaching, and rewarded with pizza and free raffle tickets. Ticket buyers are mailed a pledge form, ticket stubs listing the prizes (the part with the buyer's name on it is retained to be entered into the drawing) and a stamped, addressed envelope for use in sending in a check. Very few ticket buyers fail to honor their pledges.

The drawing: The winning tickets are drawn in May at the Cheat River Festival put on by a sister organization, Friends of the Cheat. The festival offers an opportunity for last minute ticket sales and added publicity for prize donors and for WVRC. Prize winners do not have to be present to win.

Case Study:
Housatonic Valley Association Auction
Cornwall Bridge, CT (860) 672-6678

The Housatonic Valley Association holds its Swingtime on the River Benefit Auction every November. The event is typically held on a Sunday afternoon at the Washington Club Hall in Washington, CT. HVA send out over 4,500 invitations to all its members (~4000) and anyone who has attended an HVA event in the past. The event is also open to the general public. In 1999, there were ~200 attendees at the event.

Cost to attendees:
$25/person Friend ticket includes participation in the silent and live auctions, hors d'oeuvres, open bar, and music OR $100/person Patron ticket includes all of the above plus a twilight dinner following the live auction. They typically sell about 100 Patron tickets and about 100 Friend tickets.

Advertising for the event: The event is advertised throughout the community through the use of flyers, radio spots, and word of mouth. The average cost of advertising is $2,700. Diane Von Furstenberg, a fashion designer and board member, and a few other celebrities have helped boost attendance at the event by making personal requests for donations and including a personal letter in the invitations and on the flyers.

The Live and Silent Auctions:
Items for the silent auction (~200-300) are donated from various area businesses, celebrities, artists, and residents, and range in value from $25-$500. Items for the live auction (no more than 40) are typically solicited by staff and board members. Live auction items in the past have included a hand-made canoe, an antique turquoise necklace, a week at Diane Von Furstenberg's Paris apartment, tickets to sporting events and theater performances, a week's vacation at a farmhouse in Provence, a children's book reading with Meryl Streep, studio tours of the Law & Order set with Sam Waterston, and much more. The silent and the live auctions each generate about 50% of the revenue. HVA produces a catalog of all the auctions items for the event.

Expenses include: $7,500 for the facility rental, linens, tables, food, bar, and the patron dinner, $100 for security personnel, $600 for miscellaneous gifts for donors, $600 for the band, $2,700 for advertising, $900 for postage, and $2,500 for printing. Most items are from local businesses and donated or provided at a discounted rate.

Volunteers: Volunteers are recruited through word of mouth. In 1999, about 6 volunteers and 3 staff were involved in organizing and coordinating prior to the event. There were ~20 volunteers and 3 staff persons working at the event. Staff responsibilities at the event include handling auction purchases, coordinating volunteers, monitoring the live auction, and maintaining general organization at the event. The auctioneer volunteers his/her time, but is invited to the patron dinner.

Other: Everyone who attends is added to the HVA mailing list, but the event is not intended to solicit membership. However, some attendees do make a financial contribution at the event.

This event is particularly successful for The Housatonic Valley Association for several reasons. [I]The active participation of several celebrity board members attracts many people to the event and demographically, the Housatonic Valley is a particularly wealthy area. Also, the celebrity board members are able to get more expensive or extravagant auction items which bring in a lot of the money.

Case Study:
Amigos Bravos Paint-a-Thon
Taos, New Mexico, (505) 758-3874

Concept: Amigos Bravos started the Paint-A-Thon event in 1998 "after Executive Director, Brian Shields, saw it done on a trip to his homeland in Spain". The beauty of the event is that it brings people down to the river, it's very dramatic and, for better or worse, it's over in one day! Artists are invited to paint on a designated stretch of the Rio Grande from 9am to 4pm. Painters then bring their work to a local gallery in Taos, the paintings are hung and viewed during a preview and cocktail party, and then sold at a live auction.

Attendance & publicity:
They aim at having at least 150 bidders, including staff members and spouses, and the artists themselves. It is very important to attract enough bidders to generate appropriate bids for the paintings. Otherwise, the artists will not continue to participate year after year. In addition to inviting their own members (1,600), they advertise in newspapers, on the radio, etc. to attract other bidders, and they ask the artists to give them the names of people who should be invited on their behalf to bid on their work.

Artists: Between 35 and 50 artists usually participate. Once a date is set it, is important to begin getting commitments from the artists right away, especially the better known ones, since their names need to go on the invitations and in the advertising for the event in order to attract the participation of bidders and more artists.

Place: Taos has a very supportive art community, and Amigos Bravos has usually been able to get donated gallery space for this event. The first year, a gallery owner ran the event concurrent with another artist's one-man show and donated the combined invitations.

Volunteers: Volunteers are needed to host a refreshment station down on the river for the working artists. They are needed to transport paintings, to check the artists in when they arrive with wet painting in hand, and to hang the paintings. They are needed to pick up food donations from local restaurants, distribute libations at the cocktail party and to keep food looking good. Once the auction has begun, they take down the names and information from winning bidders, keep track of the piece purchased, and let the bidders know where they can pick up their paintings.

They are fortunate to have a very talented and experienced auctioneer who donates his time to them every year.

Fee: They do not charge an entry fee.

Lead time: They usually begin work on the auction with about 8 to 10 weeks lead time

Date: Locking in early on an appropriate date is extremely important, since in a town the size of Taos, two auctions on one night is a disaster. Amigos Bravos checks with the local authorities on other events, starting with the Chamber of Commerce; they try to choose a June night with the least amount of fundraising going on.