Cancer Research UK Charity Ball - Ticket Selling Help!

vicky_aber

Hi Guys

I have set up an organisation called Blue Skies Ahead which aims to raise £5,000 for Cancer Research UK.

We are holding a Grand Summer Ball on 3 June with an auction & raffle with some amazing prizes, including signed football shirts, rafting experiences, west end tickets etc etc

We have just over 2 months to go and are REALLY struggling to sell tickets.

We have priced them at £42 each so we can make a profit and have put posters up in all the surrounding towns and villages. We have written to local media but they all want to charge unaffordably amounts.

We have also been putting the word about on Twitter and Facebook and on our website.

We have some friends who have bought tickets and will speak to their friends but it isn't guaranteed they'll buy them. We have 200 to sell.

Does anybody anywhere have any ideas to help us sell the tickets?

Thanks

Vicky

Savvy_Sue

You need to go to the local media with a story, not a request for free advertising.

I know this is an old thread, but The Media Trust have suggestions for writing a press release, getting your news out etc and you might find that helpful.

Ianna

I'm really pleased that you've done this mate, it's a great thing to do. Balls can be really hard work but they can have absolutely massive results at the end of it and it spreads the word about the cause as well as making money. Some of these ideas might be old hat and you might be doing them already so apologies if I'm suggesting stuff you've already done!

1) Can you drop the price of the tickets at all? If you say £39 even though that's not much cheaper it can have a great psychological effect on punters. You could also look at offering one free for every X sold. You could offer people a free ticket/prize if they sell a certain amount of tickets.
2) Is there anyway to guarantee a prize per ticket or a certain amount of free drink? People will be more likely to buy if they think that they won't have to spend as much on wine or if there's a certain prize.
3) Have you been putting posters in the right places? My guess is that people with a real interest in cancer will want to go...have you tried local hospitals, hospices, charity shops, nursing students etc?
4) What are your posters like? They tend to be more noticeable if they're done in bright colours or if they look really professional. Do you know someone arty that could help design something swish? If not, could you speak to a local art class and ask them to design one for you? They're likely to do it for free because they're not professionals.
5) Have you thought about doing a stall in town advertising your event and selling tickets? You can ring your local council and see about permission to have a stall and collection buckets, you could advertise your ball and get the charity money at the same time.
6) You could also speak to local supermarkets near where the ball will be held and see if you can sell tickets/collect money outside...my local tesco often has things like this and it seems to be very successful.