Creative Fundraising

My husband and I have a membership at a local park. It’s a 500-acre botanical-garden-type property with a military museum, beautiful gardens, historic house (which has been featured in a movie or two), golf course, education center, and walking trails.¹ Its gardens and grounds are just beautiful and some are very unique like the logarium, a rock garden (and by rocks I mean 5,000 pound slabs of slate half-buried vertically), as well as octagon, green, rose, keyhole, and idea gardens. We go there almost every Saturday during the months they are open. It’s fascinating to see how quickly the foliage changes from week to week. But this is not a gardening blog, this is about events. 

As we were visiting our cherished park recently, as we often do, we stumbled upon an event. Because we don’t pay attention to the website, we have run into several on-site events such as Memorial Day celebrations, dog-day craft fairs, spring, summer, and fall festivals, walks and runs. There are always weddings going on during the warmer months and many photographers taking pictures of families, babies, weddings, and Quinceaneras. This particular week, there was a walk/run to fight ALS which is a debilitating disease also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” This event specifically grabbed my attention because this disease is what my father-in-law recently succumbed to. Naturally as an event planner I had to see what everything looked like. 

I couldn’t believe the number of people who turned out to participate. There was a huge tent for registration and badge number/shirt handout, and inflatables where the runners’ family members could play while they waited for the festivities to begin. Tons of volunteers lined the race trail in bright yellow shirts, directional signage was everywhere, and a “bailout” alternative pathway was already in place and clearly marked for those who got too tired or hot to continue on. The day we were there it was 90 degrees and absolutely oppressive. I was delighted to see that this planner seemed to have thought of everything.  

Except for the occasional “Free Parking Wednesday” this park charges admission per car not by selling tickets in the traditional sense. It is usually a modest $5 per car. You can fit as many people into your car as you want and the cost is still $5. I imagine there is a different price if you plan to drive a school bus onto the property, but if you are the clown car act in the Barnum and Bailey’s circus I think the cost would still be $5. 

On this unique day, however, parking was $15 per car. We’ve been members for years and I can’t recall the last time I have seen parking cost anything other than $5 (or free). I didn’t have a chance to speak with one of the event planners so I am making an assumption here but it would seem that the elevated price was to guarantee the ALS fundraising event made money even before it began. Genius! 

Not only are the participants raising funds by walking or running a certain number of miles and gathering sponsors to pay them when they do, but the foundation is also receiving $10 per car when they drive onto the property to park and participate (I assume the park kept its $5 per car). Having seen the number of cars parked in the event lot that day, I figured the ALS foundation did really well regardless of how many walkers, runners, or pledges they took in. What I have never considered doing in my years of event planning was to monetize the parking. We think of monetizing an event through sponsors by myriad of opportunities like logo swag, hallway banners, product giveaways, main session slide ads, handbook ads, and such, but not parking. The more I thought about it, this is probably why facilities like arenas and large sporting venues charge crazy prices for their parking. It’s “free” money. Everyone needs to park. 

The types of events I usually plan are ones where we wouldn’t charge attendees to park, however, if I encounter an opportunity in the future, unless prohibited by law, ethics, or practicality, I might suggest to the event stakeholders that we consider this option. Especially in a fundraising situation.

Have you encountered a “free money” situation? If so, I’d love to learn from your experience. Email me or leave your story here.

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1. Shout out to Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL.