OMG! We've used Oriental for YEARS and I did not know they took their items back. Oh well we usually use left overs for other events.
Robin- in addition to our Cake/Prize Walk we did a basket auction for the first time. I wondered if a raffle would be better, have you did this by auction also?
Another popular game I forgot to mention is the quarter drop. My son usually hits it! But the kids like to try and they get a consellation prize. We stopped our ring toss because it lost money. We used 20 oz bottles we got at a discount (sometimes donated) and sold them to staff/parents afterwards.
We had a Spring Fling Luau and put out a Guess How Many Seashells game, but because of the location we didn't have much luck with that. I like those kinds of games. We usually do .25 per guess and it is so funny to see what the little ones guess.
I did our school carnival. Lots of good ideas here. We had families donate 2-liter pops for the ring toss and also donate junk food for the junk food walk. Kids got tired of the cake-walk. We get most of the food we sell donated or at least good deals on it. This year Outback donated grilled chicken sandwiches. We ask for donations--BIG TIME--from the community. A lot of those are used at Bingo prizes. Each classroom does a theme basket and we do a raffle for those. The company we use for out catalog fundraiser lets us use all of their carnival games for free!!! We shop Oriental Trading, etc. for prizes and kids always win a prize not mater what. Prizes are no more than 1/2 the cost of the game. If it costs .50 to play the game, grand prize is .25, med prize is .10 and small prize is .05. We made about $7,000 on our carnival this year and it takes MANY hours and MANY volunteers (the hardest part is getting them). We send out about 100 donation letters to big corporations in our city and then go door-to-door in the communitee. Good Luck!
I just spoke to Oriental Trading Company. There' a special nonprofit 800 number to help with carnivals (1-800-527-7400). I was told that I could use any special code when I order through that line. So if I get another 20% off code, I can use it through them. Otherwise the discount system is 5% of orders over $599, 10% off $1000 and 15% off $1499. I tell them the date of my event. Then we have 30 days after the event date to return unused items. We pay return shipping and have to return whole sets (ie all 12 of toys sold by the dozen). They said it helps groups order with more confidence knowing that they aren't stuck with it all if no one liked or used the items.
I think we charged something like $3.00 on the haunted house this year. Last year we charged $1.00. At first I was about to freak out but then I figured if a kid was willing to pay that much for it they were serious about going through with it and less likely to have a major panic attack. All of our booth games are $.25, but perhaps the laser room and the crafts are a little higher(mostly $1.00). We sell R.C and popcorn after the supper (I'd forgot about that) and we up the prices during the evening .25 for that.
I'll send you the info I fixed up on our KQPP. It's a penny a vote, but there's a little more to it than that.
Can you tell me how much you charge to play at your booths and a little more about the king and queen contest. Our school goes from pre-k to 5th grade. We do a carnival every year and the most we have made is 7,000. How much are you charging for the haunted house? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
