I would DEFINITELY postpone the event. I did so a couple years ago when things were also not falling together, and the extra month turned a mediocre event into a GREAT one. Take the time to do advertising, flyers, get your families and classes involved, work on food and a program and giveaways. Mine is also a free event, not a gala, and I want our families to have the best possible time, so that next year can be even better. And I would think that whoever donated to your event would want the best possible turn-out, so they would be happy if you postponed also.
On another note, has anyone actually gotten hotels just by sending a letter? I have sent so many letters over the years, and never get any response, or get a "no" and then start getting advertisements from them. I have gotten hotels, but that's usually only if someone knows someone who knows someone... I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my postage by 'cold calling' hotels.
I love this site, thanks to all of you I've been able to get some donations for our school carnival, some of the places I've gotten donations from are:
I've also pushed a little more with our parents and they are coming back with lots of help. Even if you ask for one dollar, in a school of over 1000 kids it trully makes a difference.
all donations were required to go to the school. We aren't charging admission either. The person who quit had told us she was figuring everything out and honestly hadn't done anything. We only have items. No advertisement has done, no food has been ordered or asked for, or anything like that. I'm hoping to go out this week to local places, I'm wanting to leave it the date it is I figure even if we make $500 it helps our school.
Oh yeah we got some more donations today too, baggallini bags sent us 5 purses and Green River Ordinance (a band) sent us an autographed CD (I am personally a HUGE fan so I am super excited about this!).
a good tip for people looking for donations is to look up celebrities, bands and authors that come from your state. A lot of them leave their roots in their home state and are happy to help people from their communities.
It's not necessary to contact your donors if you change the date unless they have requested an update on what their donation has earned for your event.
It's a difficult decision to decide whether to change the date or not. I probably would not. Since you are behind in your solicitations it may take a 2 week push by your committee to hit the surrounding communities for donations. Changing the date can cause so many problems. Especially if you are selling tickets for admission. There will always be problems surrounding every event but you can get through it with a little help from your friends.
