A karaoke night is a great option for getting people out of the house and putting a smile on their faces. If you’re stumped on your next fundraising idea, look no further! 

Preparing Your Karaoke Night Fundraiser

Before you start planning your karaoke night fundraiser, there are a few things you need to figure out with your team. Here are some questions to consider:

What are your goals?

A fundraising best practice is to determine your goals ahead of time. These metrics can be the total amount of money you want to raise, your desired participation rate, the overall satisfaction rate or popularity of the fundraiser, and more. Once you clearly outline these goals, you’ll have an easier time gauging the fundraiser’s success.

Where will we hold the event?

If you need some guidance finding a karaoke machine and a venue, look no further than your own downtown. Reach out to local bars and restaurants that have established karaoke events to see if they would be interested in collaborating with you on the fundraiser. You should pitch the popularity of the event and underline how many people are expected to attend. You can even offer to impose a small minimum purchase for food and beverages. When it’s all said and done, they might even pledge a cut of their proceeds for the evening towards your fundraising efforts!

How will we track attendance?

It’s up to you if you want to track attendance/participation in your event. However, we recommend that you do because contact information is a valuable marketing outreach resource. You can implement something as simple as a sign-in sheet, or you could have donations processed through a donation site like Donately.

How will we get the word out?

If you’re collaborating with a venue that has an established karaoke night with loyal attendees, ask if you can advertise the fundraiser to them. They’re already interested in the activity, and they might be more likely to come and donate once they know it’s for a cause.

Also, be sure to advertise your event to the community impacted by the funds and your pre-existing donors. Since they already donated to you, they’re likely to come back and patronize you again. 

As with all events, social media is a great way to advertise your karaoke night. You should heavily publicize your event across multiple platforms. You can engage your followers in the lead-up to the event with daily music-themed challenges, like guess the song. Encourage your followers on social media to spread the word through shares, likes, and comments!

How will we monetize the event?

There are multiple monetization structures for this event. A simple one is a pay-to-play setup, in which participants have to pay in order to sing a song on stage. However, if you want to spruce things up, you can add other tiers. For example, you can offer a discount to teams that sign up to sing to encourage them to participate, or you can sign up someone else to sing and pick the song for them in a higher tier! There are many options, and you should be creative!

Another idea for monetizing the event is to make it a contest. You can create categories such as most expressive singer, silliest song, and best performer overall, and charge people to vote. To really drive up the money, you can have a team-specific karaoke night that costs more to enter. Allowing a peer-to-peer team dynamic always has the potential to increase your donation pot!

A karaoke fundraiser is a great way to help your community let loose and have some fun while supporting a great cause. If you employ these tips, your donors will be singing your praises for many fundraisers to come!