Has anyone held a car show for a fund raiser? The church I attend needs money to send the kids to N Carolina for a contest. I thought about having a car show at the church for them to sell drinks and food to help raise money. Not sure if this would make much money at all. The kids already sell roasted corn on the cob at the local fairs and town get togethers.
NE1 Hold a car show for fundraiser?
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TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
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Used to do it all the time. Had a 1966 Chevelle back in the 80's and couldn't join the local car club because my car was too new. (sound familiar?) Started my own club that catered to muscle cars and had no restriction on the year of cars that could be in the club. I lived in the town next to Moroso Performance in CT. We approached them about doing a show as it was the perfect place to have one and it benefited both our club and their business. Our show grew to be one of the most popular show around during the 80's thru the late 90's and we even ended up switch the location to Echlins facility in Branford CT. (they were the company that made Accel Ignition products) We even had Steve Reyes, who was a well known photographer for Super Chevy and Popular Hot Rodding at our show one year and he was shooting magazine features. That was pretty cool.
Key to a successful show is advertising. Got to get the word out about it. Some car magazines let you list shows as well as local cars for sale rags. Print up flyers and pass them out at other car shows and cruise nights.
When planning the date for the show, make sure it isn't scheduled on the same date as any other local shows if possible.
Having a judged show with classes is a huge pain in the butt. Might want to think about just having a Top 25 awards program. We started by having classes and it requires having all the same types of cars parking together and we always ended up having space problems. With a top 25 or whatever amount of trophies you give out, cars can be parked anywhere and participants usually like this too as they can park with friends who have different cars from their own.
You can also add some special awards too like best engine, paint etc. We had a group of our members go around and pick their favorite cars and then argued with each other until we agreed on the winners. That was always my favorite part of our show.:biggrin:
Having someone else do the food is also the best way to go. We did the food ourselves for a few years but that takes a lot of work AND manpower. Free coffee and donuts in the morning is a good way of giving back to the people who will make your show a success - the car owners. We always had a decent goody bag to give out to the car owners as well. In the early days it was real easy to get the manufacturers out there to give stuff to put in the bag, but probably isn't as easy now. Remember the UPS man must have hated me around show time as I had CASES of Summit catalogs, Hemming Motor News, and tons of other giveaways arriving daily. We used to get so much stuff we would give two bags out to the car owners.
A registration fee is usually necessary for car owners as this will help finance the show. Usually around $10 is reasonable. Charge the specatators an entrance fee as well but let the kids in for free! We would only charge a fee for the car being entered in the show regardless of how many people were actually in the car but that is not always the case these days.
Sell raffle tickets for door prizes, hit up the local speed shops and other businesses for giveaways. You can also do a 50/50 raffle where half the proceeds go to your charity and the other half goes to the winner. Always a good fund raiser. Trophies aren't cheap, sell sponsorship for the awards to help offset the cost.
Make sure you have a rain date for your event if possible. Show car owners aren't going to come out when the weather is inclement. Worst thing for me as president of our club was making the decision to go ahead with the show when the weather was threatening. Had the show for 15 years and quite a few times I made the wrong decision. Tough call to make. Postponed the show when it was raining in the morning and the sun came out right after I pulled the plug. Went ahead with shows and it ended up being over 100 degrees with a threat of a tornado one year near the end of the show.:biggrin:
Since you are just starting out, you might even want to try having a couple of cruise nights first to get a feeling for what is involved. In fact, these days, I would much rather go to a cruise for a couple of hours than tie up a whole day at a show.
Will think of more stuff to add later.
Key to a successful show is advertising. Got to get the word out about it. Some car magazines let you list shows as well as local cars for sale rags. Print up flyers and pass them out at other car shows and cruise nights.
When planning the date for the show, make sure it isn't scheduled on the same date as any other local shows if possible.
Having a judged show with classes is a huge pain in the butt. Might want to think about just having a Top 25 awards program. We started by having classes and it requires having all the same types of cars parking together and we always ended up having space problems. With a top 25 or whatever amount of trophies you give out, cars can be parked anywhere and participants usually like this too as they can park with friends who have different cars from their own.
You can also add some special awards too like best engine, paint etc. We had a group of our members go around and pick their favorite cars and then argued with each other until we agreed on the winners. That was always my favorite part of our show.:biggrin:
Having someone else do the food is also the best way to go. We did the food ourselves for a few years but that takes a lot of work AND manpower. Free coffee and donuts in the morning is a good way of giving back to the people who will make your show a success - the car owners. We always had a decent goody bag to give out to the car owners as well. In the early days it was real easy to get the manufacturers out there to give stuff to put in the bag, but probably isn't as easy now. Remember the UPS man must have hated me around show time as I had CASES of Summit catalogs, Hemming Motor News, and tons of other giveaways arriving daily. We used to get so much stuff we would give two bags out to the car owners.
A registration fee is usually necessary for car owners as this will help finance the show. Usually around $10 is reasonable. Charge the specatators an entrance fee as well but let the kids in for free! We would only charge a fee for the car being entered in the show regardless of how many people were actually in the car but that is not always the case these days.
Sell raffle tickets for door prizes, hit up the local speed shops and other businesses for giveaways. You can also do a 50/50 raffle where half the proceeds go to your charity and the other half goes to the winner. Always a good fund raiser. Trophies aren't cheap, sell sponsorship for the awards to help offset the cost.
Make sure you have a rain date for your event if possible. Show car owners aren't going to come out when the weather is inclement. Worst thing for me as president of our club was making the decision to go ahead with the show when the weather was threatening. Had the show for 15 years and quite a few times I made the wrong decision. Tough call to make. Postponed the show when it was raining in the morning and the sun came out right after I pulled the plug. Went ahead with shows and it ended up being over 100 degrees with a threat of a tornado one year near the end of the show.:biggrin:
Since you are just starting out, you might even want to try having a couple of cruise nights first to get a feeling for what is involved. In fact, these days, I would much rather go to a cruise for a couple of hours than tie up a whole day at a show.
Will think of more stuff to add later.
stack1
Senior Stacker
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
- Messages
- 1,784
I guess this thread can be locked now, what else is there to add?!?! :biggrin:
Junior Samples
Walk Away
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2007
- Messages
- 5,294
LOL last summer i went to the Frankenmuth car show, its about 5k cars strong... left the 61 at home cause i didnt want fight for a spot and be tied down but i wanted to check out the TR's and pick some brains..found out when i got there it was for 78 on down..sheesh
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