People are generous by nature, especially if they have a personal interest in where their money is going.
But how do you get people to part with their hard-earned cash?
Having been chair of his village school’s PTA for the past three years, Magic Peter knows how difficult it can be to part parents from their money. Some events can be a lot of effort for very little return.
A No-Risk Evening of Magic and Fun GUARANTEED to Raise Funds for Your School
The event runs for two hours, consisting of two 45-minute family magic acts separated by a 30-minute interval. It’s during this interval that you can double or even treble the money you raise on the night.
Friday nights can be most profitable. Friday is not a school night, so parents are more inclined to allow their children a later bedtime, and parents may be able to finish work earlier on a Friday.
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Having run this event ‘from inside the PTA’, he saw the mistakes that were made, and so knows what you need to avoid and how you can maximise your profits.
The Acts
The two-act show is designed to appeal to five-year-olds to ten-year-olds, parents and grandparents. This means you can attract three generations of local families, and more people means more funds raised.
As well as magic, the show includes a couple of game-show-type games (photo below) involving children and their parents, adding variety to the entertainment.
The Materials
As well as the magical entertainment, you will receive:
FREE magic wands – 72 for you to sell to the children
FREE raffle prize – an amazing Marvin’s Magic Set to be raffled during the interval
FREE printed posters for advertising the event in the local area
FREE digital posters for advertising the event on the school’s website, in the school’s newsletter and on appropriate Facebook pages
FREE digital tickets for you to print and sell
This gives you four means by which to raise funds for your school:
1. Ticket sales
2. Magic wand sales
3. Magic set raffle
4. Refreshment sales
Your Potential Profit
The more effort your PTA team puts in, the more profit you will make.
It’s not difficult, but you’ll need to advertise the event; sell tickets; put out the chairs; and sell raffle tickets, magic wands and refreshments on the night.
You’ll need to decide the price you want to charge for the event.
Tickets at £4 will definitely sell – in fact, you’ll probably sell out. You may feel your audience will pay £5 for the show. You’ll know from your experience how generous your audience will be.
The good news is that even if you don’t sell out, you won’t lose money. That’s GUARANTEED.
The Cost
This is a NO-RISK fundraiser. There is no deposit to pay and the fee is just £200 … OR … half the ticket sales … whichever is THE LOWER FIGURE.
If you sell £100 of tickets, you pay Magic Peter just £50. If you sell 60 tickets at £4 each, you pay £120 – half the money taken on ticket sales. But if you sell £500 of tickets, you only pay Peter £200; the remaining £300 is yours … PLUS the sale of the magic wands, the raffle of the magic set, and the sale of refreshments.
But it goes without saying that the more tickets you sell, the more money you’ll raise, so sell as many as you possibly can.
Your Potential Profit
A School with 200 Pupils
You need to ensure that all children must be accompanied by an adult – it’s the adults who’ll spend the money on the night. Of course, one adult can bring more than one child.
Based on a school of 200 pupils, if you sell tickets at £4 to a quarter of the pupils and if there are two adults for every three children, that’s 84 ticket sales – a total of £336. Half the tickets sales is less than £200, so you pay Magic Peter just £168.
You’ve already made a profit of £168.
Add to that the sale of magic wands – say, £60 – and raffle tickets – another £60, say.
Now you have made £288.
Then there are refreshments. You’ll know that you can put a significant mark-up on refreshments you offer at your events. Open the doors and start selling refreshments 30 minutes before showtime and again during the interval, and you can easily make £150 from your audience.
Making a total potential profit of £438 or more.
And that’s if you sell tickets to only a quarter of the pupils. Get half the school attending, and that increases the audience around 150 and the potential profit of £700 or more.
And you may feel you can sell tickets at more than £4. If so, you can raise even more money.
Of course you’re not limited to selling tickets to the pupils and their families; advertise the show more widely around the locality and you can attract many more people and increase the size of your audience – and your income – significantly.
A School with 100 Pupils
You don’t need to be a large school to make a decent profit from this event.
Based on a school of 100 pupils, if you sell tickets at £4 to a quarter of the pupils and if there are two adults for every three children, that’s 41 ticket sales – a total of £164.
You only pay Magic Peter half the ticket sales, leaving you £82 profit from ticket sales.
Add to that the sale of magic wands – say, £25 (you can keep the remainder for prizes at the summer fete or Christmas fair) – and raffle tickets – another £40, say.
That’s a potential profit of roughly £150.
You can easily make £100, selling drinks, crisps, sweets and popcorn, making a total profit of £250 or more.
Advertise the show more widely around the locality and you can attract many more people and increase the size of your audience – and your income – significantly.
The Venue
The size of the venue is important.
You may feel you can sell 200 tickets, but if your school hall can only seat 100 … well, that will be a problem.
But there’s no reason you can’t stage the event in another venue – in a village hall, say. It may cost £50 to hire the hall for the evening, but if that means you’re able to seat an extra 20 people, that’s at least £30 more profit you’ll raise.
An additional 50 people would raise an additional £150 or more. Think big for bigger results.
To Summarise …
What You Do Before the Event
Book Magic Peter – no deposit to pay, so no risk
Book the venue – preferably from 5.00pm to 9.00pm on a Friday evening at least one month in advance (in order to have enough time to advertise the event and sell the tickets)
Advertise the event
Sell the tickets
Do more advertising
Sell more tickets
Buy the refreshments
What Magic Peter Does Before the Event
Supplies pre-printed posters so you can advertise the event in the local area
Supplies digital posters to advertise the event in the school newsletter, the school website, and on relevant local Facebook groups
Supplies digital tickets for you to print and sell
Advertises your event on Magic Peter’s Facebook and website pages
What You Do on the Night
Set up the venue (chairs and staging, if available)
Greet the audience
Sell refreshments
Sell magic wands
Sell raffle tickets
Enjoy the show
Pay Magic Peter – either half the ticket sales or £200, whichever is the LOWER figure
Count your profits
What Magic Peter Does on the Night
Provides 72 magic wands free of charge for you to sell on the night
Donates an amazing Marvin’s Magic Set to be raffled during the interval
Meets and greets the audience as it arrives
Generates anticipation and excitement, and encourages people to buy magic wands, buy raffle tickets and buy refreshments
Performs a 45-minute family magic act
Provides a 30-minute interval for you to increase sales and income from refreshments, and during which the winning raffle ticket is drawn
Performs a second 45-minute family magic act
Finishes by thanking everyone present – but especially the PTA team – for their support and work in raising funds to support the education of your children
The Next Step
So that’s the deal.
The bottom line is that you cannot lose money on this event.
You are GUARANTEED to make a profit – from the sale of tickets, from the sale of the free magic wands, from the sale of raffle tickets for free the magic set, and from the sale of refreshments.
Even selling just 50 tickets can raise £200, and you’ll all enjoy a great evening’s entertainment into the bargain. Sell more than 50 tickets and your profits can be much higher, and Magic Peter will do all he can to help.
If this sounds like the kind of event that you’d like to organise, or if you have any questions not answered here, please contact Magic Peter and he’ll be happy to have a chat.
Whether or not you book a Magic Peter show, good luck in raising funds for your school.