We are trying to market our local community theatre. Does anyone have any ideas?

Question

It's the Dylan Thomas Theatre in South Wales and we need to match-fund a grant for refurbishment of the building. Ideas for fundraisers would be welcome. We are a registered charity in the UK.

Answer 1

I know it sounds crazy but when our local library had to raise funds, a member of our kennel club organized a dog bath and nail trim fund raiser. it was 10 dollars to have your dogs nails trimmed, 20 for a bath (owner brings its own towel) we got a local vet to offer rabies shots and give us 1/2 the money and got a pet supply company to donate the shampoo. You could even ask dog food companies for a donation to set up one of thier booths to give out free samples, remember there are lots of dog owners out there!

Answer 2

Rent out the venue for functions. Offer the space for hire to businesses for training and company meetings.

Organise a series of fundraiser lunchtime recitals. Put out a call for local musicians to offer an hour of their time to support the theatre by giving a performance free of charge. Charge a small entrance fee, perhaps £3 full, £2 concessions.

Also don't forget that the value of any "support in kind" is valid on funding applications when trying to receive matched funding.

Answer 3

I endorse xenobyte's idea - our theatre group did it and got a great response from the public... and a continuing larger audience for our plays.

I don't know how big your refurbishment project is but have you thought about a 'buy a brick' type thing? Take a picture of the part(s) of the building to be refurbished, ideally get someone (from the stage crew perhaps - they're often artistic) to draw a big picture of it then divide it into sections and 'sell' those pieces, be it areas to be repainted, sections of the stage itself or whatever applies to your project. You can even relate the 'price' to the actual cost of refurbishing that section if your treasurer is a bit of a whizz kid!. Take the picture to as many places as you can; your shows, local cinemas, shopping centres and any local agricultural/community type events during the summer (with permission, of course) and hopefully watch the money roll in. You can also invite local businesses etc to sponsor sections.

Afterwards you should mount the drawing complete with names of 'purchasers' and hang it in the foyer, alongside before and after photos perhaps, so people can see who gave...

That was our own best fund-raiser...

Answer 4

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Answer 5

You need a publicity stunt, go to the St David's shopping centre in Cardiff, or some other shopping centre, some time when its really busy. Get permission in advance of course and then put on a show for the shoppers and have people collect charitable donation. While you are at it, pass out fliers for a larger fund raiser show.

You could also put on private shows for birthdays, weddings, bah mitzvahs etc. for a reasonable fee.

Answer 6

There are places that pay for used cell phones to be used for emergencies and places that pay for used printer cartridges. I don't know how this works in the UK but some theatre groups I know of have made quite a bit collecting them.

Answer 7

The best way is to let people know you're around!:

Put up fliers.
Do loads of performances.
Give private classes to kids in the area.
Advertise in websites and in Classified Ads

Answer 8

We have the same problem with our theatre. One thing we did was sell plaques for £25 and these small plaques have their name printed on it and it is permanently fixed to one of the seats (we have nearly 500 seats!).

Answer 9

try this link;
http://www.fundraisers-uk.com/main.php

Failing that, just type in "fundraising ideas in the UK" into your browser and run it, you will come up with loads of sites and some different ideas that perhaps no-one had thought of.