What's your opinion on how I should do prizes for a fundraiser tournament?

[LaurenThePurpleDragon]

Hi everyone,

For the first time, I have been asked if I would be willing to do a fundraiser tournament for a local kids sports team.

I have never done this before.

Traditionally, 100% of my entry fees go back to the top 4 players.

I would still sanction the tournament, and have it be 100% TGP.

I am just not sure how players would feel either only getting some winnings, a prize, or nothing at all (except the cool top 4 photo of course).

If you participate in tournaments, I would really appreciate all of your inputs.

 Thank you.

[pinballcorpse]

It's been my experience that most players are totally supportive of donating to a worthy (Cause)/(Group) with no monetary prize expectations as long as the players know *up front* what their entry fees are going toward.  This has known to be problematic in the past at some events where the prize fund did not match the entries because it was not explained clearly up front what was happening.   

It's not like pinball is super lucrative anyway, but when people have expectations that are not met, even when talking about a little bit of money it can leave a bad taste. 

By stating exactly what you are doing upfront, the players who are not in favor of such distributions can opt to not participate.  Some people really do care about the money that can be earned, and that's fine.  Almost all IFPA tourneys have an entry fee followed by a potential earnings distribution.  Some players are rarely in the money anyway and they feel like donators nonetheless

Again, I feel the key is to simply say up front to all parties what is going on.  Tell the players that the entry fee is X dollars and that N% of the entry fee will be donated to (Group).   

Similarly let (Group) know that they will receive N% of the funds raised.  With a fundraiser, there is no rule how much needs to be donated.  It is free money for them. Obviously it is your/The Pinball Dudes call.

I suspect your typical players will still show up, and some may even kick in a couple more bucks to boot.

Just my opinion of course

[PinballKraken]

Do a portion of proceeds if you think folks need the prize money, or at least make it a cheap entry tourny to entice more people to join in perhaps if money is anyone's object.  But can also just have a donation jar or leave entry as an open donation amount type of deal.  Min entry $5 but donate as much as you like.  Perhaps some kind of prize for first place at least could be found or donated in some sense from someone

[LaurenThePurpleDragon]

It's been my experience that most players are totally supportive of donating to a worthy (Cause)/(Group) with no monetary prize expectations as long as the players know *up front* what their entry fees are going toward.  This has known to be problematic in the past at some events where the prize fund did not match the entries because it was not explained clearly up front what was happening.   

It's not like pinball is super lucrative anyway, but when people have expectations that are not met, even when talking about a little bit of money it can leave a bad taste. 

By stating exactly what you are doing upfront, the players who are not in favor of such distributions can opt to not participate.  Some people really do care about the money that can be earned, and that's fine.  Almost all IFPA tourneys have an entry fee followed by a potential earnings distribution.  Some players are rarely in the money anyway and they feel like donators nonetheless

Again, I feel the key is to simply say up front to all parties what is going on.  Tell the players that the entry fee is X dollars and that N% of the entry fee will be donated to (Group).   

Similarly let (Group) know that they will receive N% of the funds raised.  With a fundraiser, there is no rule how much needs to be donated.  It is free money for them. Obviously it is your/The Pinball Dudes call.

I suspect your typical players will still show up, and some may even kick in a couple more bucks to boot.

Just my opinion of course

Thank you Jeff, I appreciate it!

[k7]

100% donations. people get free lunch and great companionship at a tournament.

just a side note: we're the one, or maybe one of very few, that cover food, roof, machines, entry fees to IFPA, parking, and put 100% of the pot into the tournament payout.

zero for the house. that's not normal.

[VinceSFL]

Some years back, prior to playing Pinball tournaments I did quite a bit of poker tournaments. There was a company whose primary purpose was to host charity poker events where they provided the dealers and tables and promote the events to the poker tournament player community. The main thing was that just like with Pinball you have your usual suspects who would play in most events, but there was a requirement that the entity benefiting from the fundraiser actively promote and participate in the event. Of course that was in the best interest of the fundraiser, that their constituents support the cause but also provided for a fun thing for their group to do as well.

So Lauren, I'm assuming that if there is a kids sports team asking for you to help and run a tournament to provide some funds to them, that they would agree to promote and encourage the parents, kids and other supporters of the team to play in the pinball tournament. Since it's a fundraiser for them, maybe the kids play free or something, that's something to discuss with them but this would expose more people to pinball, more people to the shop, and generate more money for the team as well as they have a fun activity most have never participated in. It seems "fair" to ask them to play, promote & participate vs just you organizing an event only to then drop off an envelope of cash to them where none of them showed up at all.  Just my opinion. I'd likely support and participate either way and it's nice that you are considering helping them.

[getyourselfahotdog]

100% donations. people get free lunch and great companionship at a tournament.

just a side note: we're the one, or maybe one of very few, that cover food, roof, machines, entry fees to IFPA, parking, and put 100% of the pot into the tournament payout.

zero for the house. that's not normal.

Pinball Dudes have always done exactly this. Amazing generosity. So glad to hear the Pinball Dudes are hosting this charity event. I think Vince was right on the money ( no pun intended) about getting the team benefiting from this event to actively promote date and strongly encourage participation. This should bring new faces both young and old to competitive pinball in a fun environment!