RPG fundraising?

[Stumblewyk]

My wife and I do a significant amount of fundraising for the March of Dimes in honor of our son who passed away due to complications resulting from his premature birth back in 2006. We've come up with some creative ways to raise money - we fund raise online, do a Longaberger Basket Bingo, restaurant nights, and we've got a cool thing going on with a minor league baseball club local to us - but despite both of us being big RPG fans and avid players, we have yet to come up with anything we're happy with to combine our love of gaming with our drive to support our favorite charity.

I've heard of game developers running charity tables and the like, but that's obviously not us. We don't have any celebrity pull. Other than asking the FLGSs in the area that we frequent to donate a gift certificate or two (or merch) I don't even really have any ideas on how to start planning any potential event.

I guess what I'm curious about is what kind of gaming event would convince or entice you to possibly spend $10.00+ to attend and participate in? What kind of "prize" would you like to see offered at such an event?

For those of you more "connected" to the business: is it ridiculous to ask someone like WotC or Paizo (or a smaller publisher) directly to donate something, possibly something rare or semi-exclusive as a prize?

Obviously, nothing is planned, and nothing is in the works. I would just love to be able to combine something my wife and I both love with our shared passion of supporting a cause so near and dear to us as the March of Dimes and to date, we're both striking out on any viable ideas. =/

 

[Umbran]

My wife fundraises for breast cancer research, and we looked into such things...


Here's a major point - RPG players are, by some counts, maybe 1% of the population. In any given area, there aren't many of them. That means you have to spend a lot of effort to reach them, and not much return on the effort.

Unless, of course, you ride piggyback on something that draws gamers in. My wife and I intend to do some fund raising at a local science fiction convention, for example. We aren't targeting gamers, specifically, but sci-fi fans in general, and there'll be a few thousand of them in one place at one time. Find your local gaming convention, and see if they'll allow you to do your work there.

By experience, the #1 fund raising effort we've made in the past: raffles. Folks who normally don't gamble or toss away money on a game of chance will drop $20 on raffle tickets for a good cause if there are a couple of interesting prizes.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Thanks [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION]. Like I said, we've put our heads together, and really failed to come up with something - pretty much because of what you mentioned. The number of gamers out there isn't exactly overwhelming, even though there are 3 FLGS in the "region."

The idea of potentially doing a raffle at a nearby con isn't a bad one, and I think it's something we'll look into. My wife has a PR/marketing background, and she's gotten quite good at doing the "ask", so we might be able to compile a raffle package at little to no cost to us, and possibly even get some space at a local con that way as well. I know the one FLGS hosts a board game convention this summer, and another has frequent wargaming events. It's worth looking into.

Thanks!

 

[TanisFrey]

My gaming club asks it members to donate items for a Chinese-style charity auction it runs at its yearly convention.