Race Night UK - Advice Page
So you have decided to run a race night in the UK and are looking to make as much money
as possible for your organisation.
Where do I start with my fundraising?
Well the programme or race card is the single item that is overlooked as a money
maker and has the ability to raise more money than any other part of the
racenight in the UK. The best part is that all of this can be done well in advance of
your event. You can ensure that you can cover all of your costs before you run
the racenight.
So how do I make the most money at my race night?
First off, let's look at the different aspects of the race card which can be used
for fundraising:-
Sponsor for the overall event
Sponsors for each race
Owners for the horses
Jockeys for the horses
Advertising - Within the race card.
Sponsorship for the event.
You may be able to find an
organisation who will be prepared to pay for the entire event. The costs for our
services is not high and the return on the investment for your organisation can
be very high for a racenight event. The sponsor can have their name on the front
of the programme to get some additional publicity and with some good PR, may be
able to get a mention in the local paper for supporting your organisation.
Here is the page for a list of different request support letters/e-mails and a
suggested script for a telephone calling programme. These are just some of the
things we have used in the past but if you have something that has worked very
well and are prepared to let others use it, please send it in and we will add it
to the website.
Next up - race sponsors
What a race sponsor gets is to name the race.
What they have to provide is a prize for the winning owner. We will look at
owners in a second.
Race sponsorship is ideal for organisations that are not prepared to sponsor
the whole event. What you are looking for is a prize.
Example of prizes that we
have managed to get are
Jug of beer from a pub
Meal for four plus drinks from a restaurant
Meal for four from the chippy
A hair cut and blow dry from the hairdressers
Case of wine from the 'offy'
Photo shoot from a photographer
Free car wash's at local petrol station
Free waxing from beauty shop
Free nail treatment from nail bar
One hour massage from therapist
A cruise from the travel agent
100 pound voucher from a clothing store
Three months' joints of beef from the butcher!!
Free coffees for a month at the coffee shop
Shopping voucher at food store
Weekend at a health spa
Golf lesson with a pro
Four ball at golf club
Personal fitness session
Free fishing kit from tackle shop
This is just a few of the things that we have had but use your imagination about
every organisation that you use or do business with and everyone in your club
does business with.
There are so many things you can get.
Think about trades and getting a tradesman to offer a free days work. The idea
is to get something from everyone that you ask for a a prize. If they
will not offer a prize, ask them if they would like to sponsor a horse. Which we
will come onto now......
If you have an 8 race event that means you have 64 horses to sell! If you sell
each of these horses at £10 each you will make £640
The winning owner is the person who receives the prize donated by the sponsor.
The owner also gets to name the horse in the programme. This a great way to get
some money out of people who can't make your event date. Remember the objective
is to raise as much money as possible for your organisation.
The jockey can be the same as the owner and if you get enough prizes you can
give these to the winning jockey. You can perhaps sell the jockeys at £5 making
you £320. Again a great sale to people who can't attend your event.
The final area is advertising. If you are selling the races, every page you add
to the race card can be sold with full page, half page and quarter page. You may
even want to go down to eight page with pricing going from £10 to £100 depending
on how much you think you can get.
Have a look at the rest of the site for some more fundraising ideas -
Racenight UK!
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