Craft Bazaar!

[Miguel 4]

So this year I have decided along with my residents to hold a craft Bazaar in an attempt to raise some funds as I love going over budget.. :-D

 

Has anyone ever held something of this nature? If so do you have any tips and information that I may have to really have a great expereince..

 

THank You,

 

-Miguel

[Pennie 26]

Hey Miguel,

 

Several years ago at a facility I worked at I held a "Craft Bazaar" It went really well. I did this for 3 years, learned alot fro year to year. In fact the facility still has these.

I posted information well in advance in my newsletter about this up coming event. Then made flyers up place in every place of bussiness that would let me. I place an ad in the newspaper, called in to radio stations & contact all churches in the area. The ad was for crafters to rent a table & space for set amount of money. All of the money went to activity dept. This also included the PR fo rthis event. Residents were able to get a table for free & kept all of their money. The next year I rented the space, not the tables & vendors would be required to give 10% of total sales to activities. This was the best money maker way for the event. I also ask family members to donate bake goods & set-up a table for the resdients to man & activities got all of the profit from this. As time went on thi swas a hugh event. People started calling me asking when was the next one going to take place! It is a lot of work but you get the hang of it & after a couple of years it gets pretty easy. The key to this is doing it near a pay day for most people (1st or 15th) & maketing the event. Also mak ethis a one day event 2 days is to much for everyone involved.

Bets of luck let us know how it goes. Pennie

[Guest Guest_Miguel]

Thank you Pennie, I am really excited about doing this and look forward to it..

 

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

-Miguel

[bigchris 1]

We have an arts and crafts class each week and a few residents who craft on thier own. We have a craft show at Christmas and several art shows through the year. Rather than concentrate on selling the actual art at the facility, I "commision" the residents to paint theme pictures for our auction. This has been more beneficial for sales, as we take time to describe the artist, show pictures and generate money that would be lost if we just "sold" it.

 

We dote on the resident and make sure that everyone knows that the item sold for mucho money and it generates energy for the entire process.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

BC

[Guest Guest_Jill]

Hey Miguel,

I did a craft fair at a senior center for a couple of years and the biggest thing to do is advertise, advertise, advertise! Ads in the paper, big banners out in front, street signs in the area and in your newsletter, where ever you can put the word out. I also had a sign up sheet with the number of booth spaces available and a chart for the vendors to pick where they wanted to set up in the rooms. You didn't say if this was going to be residents only or you were opening it up to the public to sell things. If it will include the public, they should pay for a booth rental. For the first time it should be pretty low say $20. You should also have things to eat for sale like baked items and warm drinks. We also had soft background music and we had a place for the kids to see Santa(we had one of the seniors dress up). Lots of work, but very rewarding, not to mention you can get some of your own Christmas shopping done! Good Luck!