Awareness Events!!!!

Im so excited to say we are having 2 events awareness events right off the bat.  We have scheduled an event November 26th @ The Village in Providence, RI and on December 16th @ Indigo in Coventry.

It has taken 8 months for our 501(c)3 (nonprofit status) to go through.  Now we can rock and roll.  Literally

Awareness Event?

 So, in the nonprofit world, fundraisers are somewhat looked down on.  They are considered a lot of work and effort for not a lot of money raised.  However, if you call the same event an awareness event and say you are doing it to find supporters and spread the word on your cause, then you look like a super star.  But its true.... For all of the work done and use of resources the return is not huge.  Im a little strange though because i love putting on an event and getting a bunch of people together to have fun and supporting a good cause :)

I feel like im doing double work in 1/2 the time because im getting 2 events taken care of at once... really i wish i was working on a third at the same time.  I would really like to find a 300ish venue somewhere in the Warwick/ West Warwick area that I could have both bands play plus a little bit... still working on it....

Keeping it local for my homies

Everything i have read and all the advice i have been given is to start close and work out when looking for supporters.  Start with your board and have them all find 20 or so people and their people find people, ect ect ect... working your way from inside out.  

The other thing we keep in mind is our demographic.  RI and local lesbians.  Now RI is so small there are only 4 degrees of separation and everyone knows everyone.  Its all in who you know.

Anywho... ive always wanted our first awareness event to be at the Village.  We went there a couple of years ago after pride and it was so much fun.  I was so nervous to call but the owner Stacy was so nice.  The Village is usually closed on Mondays and Tuesdays but she said she would open just for us.  And speaking of everyone knowing everyone... best friend Anita plays softball for the owner of Indigo.  I called her right up and she was cool.  Just because i work backwards, we actually booked our 2nd event before our first.  

The idea is to also support local and spread the love.  We are using local business for venues and have local performers.  Go RI!!!

Rock & Trivia

You've probably figured out at this point that my family is really into music.  So what better event to throw than a concert.  I know a few people in local bands that i knew would throw me a bone and do a gig for free.  So i sent out a few messages and thought about how the two spaces are little different and found two different bands for the two different events.  Plus... i didnt want to burn out my favors.

Anywho.... my friend Sarah's band, Invincible We, is going to play @ the Village

And... my dad's band, Pearl, is going to play at Indigo

  

Emcee.... Host... Not Me!?!?!?

  So... i have no desire to be an emcee of an event.  Ill get up there and say my thank yous... but I truly believe this is not about me.  I have a couple of friends that do drag and emcee a lot of events but i just didnt feel like a drag queen for a lesbian event was a good fit.  I really thought hard about this and solicited a lot of ideas and thoughts.  Then for whatever reason (probably because i was watching Ellen), i had an aha moment.  We needed a local lesbian comedian.  Boom!  

So, life lesson here... i kept googling on my ipad and not really finding anything.  I mean for at least a solid week i would google random search terms and nothing.  Then for whatever reason, i picked up my phone and googled.  All of these comedians names started raining form the heavens.  Poppy Champlin kept popping up.  Shes kinda a big to do.  But i thought why not try.  So, i emailed her and she got right back to me.  She is so nice.  I am so super excited that we found her.  She is such a huge score and such a relief to have.

Posters, Fb Events, Eventbrite

I started putting together my poster but didn't want to start advertising it until i meet with the owner of the Village, Stacy, thursday to finalize the details.

I think it came out pretty good if you ask me.

Posters are a little old school but I'm a little old and i like being artsy.  The posters will give me a chance to do a little old school promoting and hang some posters in local bars, colleges and im sure I'll think of somewhere else and run out.

The best way to advertise anything around here is through fb events.  I think mainly because RI is such a small world.  I figure ill tag 10 of my favorite friends from different social groups and should reach quite a few people.  Plus i can put the event up on a few social groups pages, like our softball league, and reach even more people.  

Eventbrite is a super good ticket selling tool.  Its kinda like ticketmaster for the poor man.  The nice thing about this is that i can easily get data about how many tickets are sold and demographics.  Eventbrite will do a lot of the work i need for soliciting grants later on.

Raffles

THe next thing i am working on is raffle items... i think i can get quite a bit donated and that will all be gravy... more on that later

Have a good day and spread the love ❤️ 

-tai

 

Sent from my iPad