Venture Name:
Coffee House
Chapter(s):
McGill University
Description:
The Coffee House was an evening event that brought together student performers and other students for a night of live music, hot beverages and baked goods. Baked goods were made by our team and coffee was provided by the venue. We reached out to friends who we knew played instruments, sang, gave comedy acts, knew magic tricks, or wrote poetry and we invited them to perform at our Coffee House. We offered the performers free entry. Our team created physical tickets and sold them prior to the event to friends for $5 which included unlimited food and drinks. On our Facebook event we provided names of the Chapter members who were selling tickets. We also sold tickets at the door. The idea was appealing because it was simple and it reached out to a different demographic. Residents/Dorms had events similar to the coffee house and they were a huge success, but past that not many other groups held events like it.
Marketing:
Marketing was quite simple, we did a Facebook event and a cool digital poster to share through social media. Chapter members were able to create the poster! Then we asked performers to sell tickets to their friends too. Members also paid for their ticket. Here are example DIGITAL posters that McGill used to promote their Venture online!
Revenue and Expenses:
We spent $60 on the venture – $50 for 2hours of the venue and $10 for tea and milk.
We earned $150 in revenue and collected another $25 in donations.
| Ticket sales | +$150 |
| Baked good donations | +$25 |
| Venue | -$50 |
| Tea & Milk | -$10 |
Profits and Other benefits of Venture (Marketing for an upcoming event, advance ticket sales, social value created, etc.):
We profited $115 on this Venture and we were limited by the size of the Venue. It is a great way to make your chapter more widely known on campus. We even got a chance to show our project video so there was an awareness component!
McGill also did a Thrift Sale during their Coffee House Venture. “Clothes and jewelry were donated by members of our chapter a week in advance. During the event it was sorted out in $10, $5, $2 and $1 bins. We advertised this aspect of our event on McGill clothing exchange FB groups. Total revenue from thriftsale: approx. $100. Tips for Thrift Sale: to expand this venture we would’ve placed clothing donations bins in student residences/dorms.”
Challenges:
Finding a venue that can accommodate plenty of people, our venue was very small. Luckily the small space provided an intimate atmosphere. We decided to place a donation box by our baked goods to try and earn a bit more money.
Tips:
- McGill Nourish is all about creating fun and quirky DIGITAL posters that we just share via social media. You save $$ and it’s more environmentally friendly.
- Push selling tickets through the performers. They have friends too and they are likely to want to support them!
- If your venue doesn’t provide coffee, look into getting sponsored by Starbucks!
- BYOK (bring your own kettle). We almost forgot to bring Kettles. Kettles are essential for tea.
- Consider all the possible dietary restrictions. Provide baked goods without nuts, gluten etc.
- Try to get a wide variety of acts. It’s a relief to see magic acts and hear poems!
- The smaller the space the better the atmosphere.
Tips on communicating with a venue (McGill): We found our venue by asking members in our own chapter about possibilities. Our venue which is the Yellow Door turns out to be an organization that was originally the YMCA of McGill and focuses on empowering youth through creativity, music, food, storytelling and community engagement projects. They did similar events like coffee houses and spoken word poetry nights, so it was easy to work with the Yellow Door. These similarities was key to the success of our event. If you find a venue or coffee shop that already does events such as the coffee house with live music it will be easier to work with them. Secondly, the Yellow Door was only a few blocks away from campus, it’s easier to attract an audience if the venue is close.
Would you recommend to other chapters?
I highly recommend it! It’s easy to plan and you only need a few weeks in advance. Make sure you know where to find acts and that there are venues around you that are willing to rent or donate space to your Chapter before planning everything!
Contact info:
Joanna Pineda (McGill) – joanna.pineda@gmail.com
Krislia Cunningham (McGill) – krislia.c@gmail.com
