Fundraiser expiratoin date???

[bigsky78]

Need advice ASAP... A local restaurant is offering a fundraiser for our color guard. I am going to donate an ad spot on my 9 X 12 that says: Bring in this coupon and "Restaurant" will donate 10% of your purchase to the Color Guard. Question: should I make the coupon time line for the entire month of March or for every Saturday in March or one particular day, or ??? I am afraid to have the offer out there for every day in March because there is no urgency there. Every Saturday sounds good but am I limiting the amount we could make on this fundraiser???? Any suggestions would be appreciated. The restaurant will go with whatever days I choose or the whole month.

[chy]

May be do it for one week straight, like the week of St. Patrick's Day.

[Bob Ross]

I totally agree with Chy, I think one specific week is perfect. I'm not sure about doing it every saturday, as people will not always have saturday free and they can easily forget about it. One specific week would ensure everyone has at least a day free.

[Mr Subtle]

I'd go for the whole month. Why cut your fundraising time by 75%? People are going to go to the eatery because they like their food or to help your color guard (or both). End of month deadline is fine.

We were going to go out for brunch on Sunday but since we live in the sh*tty NorthEast it snowed and was pretty darn cold. The 50% coupon we have has an expiration for the end of February. We have now planned a trip there for breakfast on the 8th. If sh*tty weather (or something else) prevents that, then we'll go 2 weeks later.

If your coupon was only good for a week and it expired this past Sunday you (and your color guard) would be sh*t outta luck.

[Bob Ross]

MS has a good point about the weather (I think she's in Texas though).

"two weeks only" would probably be fine as well if you're bothered by giving it the whole month.

[ConradDeas]

I like the "everyday in March" offer. My son's school does those a few times a year and it's always just for one particular day. If we can make it, we definitely do, but if we can't we don't. It'd be nice to have at least 2 weeks to use it in case we can't make it that particular night. I think this "offer" is a little different than an actual offer from the restaurant and doesn't require the same type of expiration/deadline you'd do on a regular offer.

If you want to do a deadline offer, maybe set them up on SaveLocal with a "daily deal" type offer, $50 worth of food for $35 with $5 going to the color guard. They still keep $27 after processing which is more than what they would get from a regular daily deal site. And they're actually donating more than 10% of what the customer is spending. Of course I don't know what type of restaurant it is so maybe that's too high of an offer...

But if you do an offer like that, people could have more incentive to buy it and support the color guard by running the deal all month long, but the first week do $30 for $50, second week $35 for $50, third and fourth week $40 for $50... meaning you run the different offer each week, but that doesn't mean the offer has to be used during that week. It can be used until whenever they set the expiration date for, which could be 6 months from March or whenever.

Or you could just run the same $35 for $50 offer all 4 weeks, and the first week they donate $5 per voucher sold, second week $4 per voucher sold, and so forth down to $3 & $2.

So your supporters are encouraged to buy the deal NOW, but are not pressured to going to the restaurant NOW. Color guard gets their donations, restaurant gets new customers and is seen as a supporter of the community, customers get a good deal and feel good by supporting the color guard.

I've never seen this done and have never done it myself, but it sounds like it could work haha.

One more thing about the ad (and I have seen the difference in this personally), instead of just saying "Bring in this coupon and "Restaurant" will donate 10% of your purchase to the Color Guard." I'd tie in what the money is actually being raised for like "$15 in FREE* Food and Help Pizza Hut send the Dalewood High School Color Guard to Sea World" or whatever the money is being raised for. Tie the cause into the coupon.

[Vikuna]

I like the "everyday in March" offer. My son's school does those a few times a year and it's always just for one particular day. If we can make it, we definitely do, but if we can't we don't. It'd be nice to have at least 2 weeks to use it in case we can't make it that particular night. I think this "offer" is a little different than an actual offer from the restaurant and doesn't require the same type of expiration/deadline you'd do on a regular offer.

If you want to do a deadline offer, maybe set them up on SaveLocal with a "daily deal" type offer, $50 worth of food for $35 with $5 going to the color guard. They still keep $27 after processing which is more than what they would get from a regular daily deal site. And they're actually donating more than 10% of what the customer is spending. Of course I don't know what type of restaurant it is so maybe that's too high of an offer...

But if you do an offer like that, people could have more incentive to buy it and support the color guard by running the deal all month long, but the first week do $30 for $50, second week $35 for $50, third and fourth week $40 for $50... meaning you run the different offer each week, but that doesn't mean the offer has to be used during that week. It can be used until whenever they set the expiration date for, which could be 6 months from March or whenever.

Or you could just run the same $35 for $50 offer all 4 weeks, and the first week they donate $5 per voucher sold, second week $4 per voucher sold, and so forth down to $3 & $2.

So your supporters are encouraged to buy the deal NOW, but are not pressured to going to the restaurant NOW. Color guard gets their donations, restaurant gets new customers and is seen as a supporter of the community, customers get a good deal and feel good by supporting the color guard.

I've never seen this done and have never done it myself, but it sounds like it could work haha.

One more thing about the ad (and I have seen the difference in this personally), instead of just saying "Bring in this coupon and "Restaurant" will donate 10% of your purchase to the Color Guard." I'd tie in what the money is actually being raised for like "$15 in FREE* Food and Help Pizza Hut send the Dalewood High School Color Guard to Sea World" or whatever the money is being raised for. Tie the cause into the coupon.


EXCELLENT! Just excellent advise,

Eva