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Hold ‘Em for Hunger

Venture name:

Hold ‘Em for Hunger

Chapters:

UNC, UT – Austin

Description:

Hold ‘em for Hunger is a casino night event. Prizes have included TVs, iPods, travel, and tickets to a Kanye West – Jay-Z concert. The event can have live performances too. The Chapter also had a wide array of foods available for attendees. Chapters often pre-sold ticket, had group packages, had an online portal for sales, and sold tickets at the door. They also incorporate awareness like trivia questions, posters describing Nourish and past Projects, etc…

Here’s a news article about one!

Marketing:

Facebook, personal connections, advertisements at the weekly Hunger Lunch, tabling extra days, postering around campus, king/queen cutout photo stand, creative handbills (used playing cards) in addition to cheaper fliers

Revenue, Expenses, and Profit:

UT Austin 2011: Revenues = $676, expenses = $330, profits = $346

Other Benefits of Venture

Increased Nourish’s name recognition on campus, establishing relationships with local businesses, creating a larger network with on-campus organizations, beginning to rent out casino tables to other orgs

Challenges:

Securing prizes is crucial and can be challenging. Marketing is so important because if no one shows up, you will not profit.

Tips:

Try out multiple marketing strategies like chalk boarding, break up into small groups to make posters efficient, dress up in costumes at table, have casino tables out while tabling to draw casino game players among others to table, emphasize big prizes and attractions in big words on posters at table, be creative! To receive donations, assign a group a list of local places. Keep track of places who have donated before, manger names and numbers, and when you should call back. Preferably go in person two at a time at least a month and a half in advance (dress nicely). Afterwards, you can call in person to follow-up. Sometimes you have to bug them until they give you a straightforward answer! Call when you say you’re going to call.

Would you recommend to other chapters?

Definitely! UT says: this was the third casino night we put on and it was also the most successful. Having lots of prizes to give away in the raffle (have at least one grand prize) in addition to having performances made the event fun and all of our members and guests enjoyed it. Have music in the background but don’t forget to incorporate some kind of awareness into the event, like making presentations that are interactive and inspiring.

Contact info:

utaustin@nourishinternational.org, unc@nourish.org

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