My family love cooking competitions! Top Chef, Chopped, Junior Master Chef and Cupcake Wars are always Tivo’d at our house. But what do they have to do with school fundraising? I’ll tell you! A couple of years ago, I wanted to bring the idea of a cooking challenge to our school. I feel a little like Barbara Walters saying, “I had an idea for a show” as she described The View, but that’s how it came about. I thought, “how fun would it be to have two dads who like to cook — not professional chefs — compete for the title of Top Chef at our school?” Then, in order to monetize it, we could get parents to pay to be the judges and have a delicious, gourmet meal! It took a lot of planning, but here’s what we did:
We picked our two dads and had our principal choose three key ingredients that they would have to use (one in each round). We found a family with a STUNNING house to co host this spectacular event and then we started marketing this party with guerrilla marketing! We created a video to put online and put signs up all over the school with little teasers about the event. At our school’s Open House, we had parents and teachers wearing stickers with stick figures wearing chefs hats. Team Anthony or Team Toby? It got people talking. What did the stickers mean? What were those signs all about?
By the time our big Auction and Dinner Dance happened, everyone knew about the Top Chef event and wanted to bid on it. The hosts wanted to help the event make even more money, so they offered to host a cocktail party for 30 people before the actual event (which was only for 5 couples plus the principal and his wife). The cocktail party went into the silent auction and the 5 spots became a LIVE auction item. The five couples would eat 2 appetizers, 2 main courses and 2 desserts and without knowing who made what, they would vote for their favorite. There were wine pairings to go along with each course as well. If you paid for this kind of experience at a restaurant, you might pay upwards of $200 per person. Whether it was the buzz of the event or the buzz from libations, the tickets went higher than $200 each.
The Top Chef evening went better than any of us could have imagined. We raised a huge amount of money for the school, and an unforgettable evening was had by all — no matter what side of the kitchen door you were on. It was an experience that was once in a lifetime…and hey, it all went to benefit the school. This event led me to bring the Party Book to our school.
Now I want you to do three things for me. (1) Leave a comment on this blog post letting me know what you would make if you were the chef. (2) If you know someone who could use a little help with their fundraising, send them my way. (3) If you’ve already signed up for my newsletter, tell a few people so they can sign up too! If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? The form is to your right! ———————–>
Thanks!
To your success!
Sarah
Sarah has been fundraising for schools since 2008. She is the author of A Mom’s Guide to School Fundraising and has consulted for several schools and clubs. She has been featured on RetailMeNot.com, Scholastic: Parent & Child and The New York Times. She thinks all kids should be able to have a well-rounded education, team uniforms, instruments and support. Don’t you?