School Dance Fundraiser
By Christopher Bruce
Remember your first school dance? For most people it was their first dance with someone of the opposite sex. For some, it was where they fell in love for the first time. I remember loving to go to the dance because it was a great opportunity to strut my stuff for the ladies. The school dance was a great after school activity. Hey! Wait a minute; they were making money off of me.
I have had the joy of DJ’ing hundreds of school dances since the day I paid to get in them. The idea of each one was to raise money for some organization within the school. It really is a great way to earn money. You have very little expenses and can rake in the dough from ticket sales. The best part is, the students love a school dance.
First, you will need a DJ of course. He must have a good lightshow to create the club style atmosphere. Make sure he plays clean radio music. I say clean radio because in today’s hip-hop and top 40 music, there is nothing that is completely clean. Even if there isn’t one cussword in the entire song, there is a big chance it has sexually explicit lyrics. Most DJs (the good ones) subscribe to the same CD service that radio stations use. This gives you the same clean versions that the students already hear on the radio.
Next, make sure you have plenty of drinks and snacks to sell at a concession. This will bring in more money for your organization, plus keep your guests refreshed. If the DJ is doing his job correctly, the students will be plenty thirsty from all the dancing. In fact, a great DJ knows how to rotate the crowd to keep a fresh group of dancers on the dance floor and a group of people at the refreshment counter.
Another money maker is selling party items like glow lights. Glow lights sell out quick and they also enhance the dance floor with glowing effects. You can purchase necklaces, bracelets and even small “mouthpieces.” The best place I have found is EBay. You can buy necklaces for about 25 cents each and they sell for $2 – $3.
Last for expenses are decorations. You need the minimal set of balloons and party stringers. Any party store will work or you can shop online for a bargain. If your event is during daylight hours, like right after school for example, make sure you buy some paper or cardboard to cover all the windows.
You can presale tickets or just have a cover charge. If you use any type of ticket system and you sell glow lights, have a drawing right away to give out free glow lights. If you do this early on, your glow light sales will max out. Why? Because when one person sees a few people wearing them, he or she will have to buy one too. That creates frenzy and soon everyone has one (or two or three).
A roaming photographer will also add some excitement to the evening. The best part is, they are cheap to hire and you can make more money off the photo sales. The photographer can upload the images to an internet site and then give everyone a card to view the photos. When the students log in to see their photo, they have the option of purchasing it. Now, you and the photographer split the photo sales and you paid off your initial photographer fees and made a whole lot more.
There are plenty of other great ideas out there for school dances. These are the ones that I have personally seen work well. Try them out for yourself.
Have you seen these ideas work at your school dance? What are some other ideas you have?