How I learned... to put the FUN in Fundraising.... and channel my inner hillbilly

Sweet Potatoe Sal here... befor I git kot jackin Sally's blog, I wunna tel ya'all bout my Hillbilly Olimpiks yesturdai, wher we razed $600 fer the Salvation Army and C.A.R.E.

See, Sal's ofiss has razed $200K fer char-ty, haff a which kame from soshul partees they throwd. Peeple bot thair tikets last November at a Chili Feed at Lyon Real Estate in Fair Oaks, then she got me, Sweet Potatoe Sal, ta kum up with some gamin and food fer the partee. It wuz at Ancil Hoffman Park in Carmichael - peeple hed ta ware thair Sunday best, as yul see in this muvin pitchur below.

thar seems ta be some problem with this new fangeled movee stuff. Sumtimes it's thare, sometimes not.... jest like my sens a humor with teknacul difikultys. I'm workin on it... be patent, and ya'll kum bek, y'hear?

Awr gamin wuz fun... PBR beer kan relay, toelit trottin, 3 leggit hippity hop, and cherree pit spittin. Downhome Dennis roold on the pit spittin. A Washurs turnamit wuz the hi-lite. Clayster roold thet won. Thay wuz all bedder at pitchin them washurs after drinkin Junebug Julie's Pond Scum Punch, ah'l tell yu.

OK... Sally here. I sent Sweet Potatoe Sal packing. She hi-jacks my blog WAY too often. She's back in the spud patch now.

Here's how we raise so much money for our charities. We've held our lunchtime Chili Feed and Auction in our Lyon office parking lot for over 10 years. All the agents bring chili, salads, desserts and such. We charge $5 to get in, and usually have 250 - 300 people come. Do the math on that. Total, we'll raise $20,000 - $33,000 in that 3 hour period. To date we've raised around $200K!

Our big bucks come from our auction, but half of that comes from our social events. Different agents will volunteer to host an event. We've had poker parties, video scavenger hunts, talent shows, Irish parties, gourmet dinners, pirate parties, and even a Cinco De Silk Road party on May 5th. Everyone came dressed as a gypsy/goat herder/sheik/sultan/belly dancer etc. It was wild. My party this year was my Hillbilly Olympics.

The way it works.... The donor pre-selects the theme, date, time, location and # of attendees. We make a sign up sheet. At the auction, the last table to close is the social event table. You sign up for a ticket to the party (usually $15 - $45 apiece). That way the guest list will be a self-selected group who wants to come to your party. If more people want to come than there are spots for, the price goes up.

We usually make $9,000 - $12,000 on the parties alone. (My pirate party had 40 people pay $45 apiece. That's $1800 on one party alone. Course, then I had to pay to put it on!)

The best part is that our family of agents has a rocking social life throught the upcoming year. Our event is always in November, then the parties start in January usually, contiinuing right up til the following October. Next week I'm attending a Martini party. The Oktoberfest is still a ways off. A day on a houseboat is planned for this summer... with jet skiis and all. Two weeks ago was the Irish Fest.

Whew... how do we have time to sell homes with all that socializing????