Our carnival is our only fundraiser. The games part of our carnival raises about $13K. We presell our tickets and don't worry about how much each game makes.
Our school has 450 students K-4. Our carnival is a good model for a small rural school. It has become an event that everyone looks forward to. The event you described (nightime cocktail party) would NEVER go over in this area, although I personally would love something like that.
I think you just have to look at your situation and find the best fit.
Thank you for asking this. I have been curious as well having set up a presentation for the "Committee" at school for cost of putting on the Fair and an "estimate" of how much we can make. The issue I have though is that they want to make it a HUGE event for the first year and I don't think it will fly with all the attachments that they want to add. I keep telling them to split it up and do one event a month if that is what they want, but if they make it too long or if they make it too involved there will be more in the line of volunteers working than spending. I look forward to see some of the responses here.
I am wondering how much you can really expect to make with a carnival (not the kind with rides). Anyone who would be willing to post what they have made and what are their big money makers would be greatly appreciated. (If you could say how big your school is, that would help, too.)
Our school is 180 kids, 100+ of them are Toddler - Kindergarten, the rest 1st-6th. We just had our first carnival this past weekend. The Silent Auction made about $9,000. The rest of everything (games, crafts, food, moonbounce) made approx $2500.
This is much less than the $15K-$16K that we have made the last couple of years at the nightime/cocktail party/all-adult auction, but the carnival had much much better participation from more families. I know everyone will want to do this again because it was so much better for the school community, but it was much more work for more people for less money. So as we meet to talk about next year, I am trying to get more ideas for how it could be better.
