Hi everyone! I hope you don’t mind this post and please ignore me if so!! Approximately 8 years ago I did a charity event for breast cancer and a number of folksy sellers kindly donated a lot of small items/samples with business cards to put in the gift bags.
I have since set up a children’s clothes bank to provide free children’s and baby’s clothes, shoes, school uniform and toys to children living in poverty in Cornwall or in temporary homelessness hostels/domestic violence support projects and other supported housing. We are doing a craft fair on the 20th August to raise funds for the clothes bank and need to find 40 small giveaways to promote the event and get people through the doors! I know it’s a big ask for free items but I would be super grateful and because the attendees are clearly attending a craft fair they have interest in handmade items and, by including your card with each item, you may get new customers as a result!
If anyone can help, or if you need further information, please let me know. With thanks Karen X
Have you more details on the event, where it is etc…have you a Facebook page set up or anything for the fair that we can check. Is it you as an individual running it or an organisation.
Are you interested in taking on anymore stall holders, as well as free gifts.
Sorry if all the questions but with so many scams operating these days some details we can check for ourselves would be good.
Craft fairs ask those taking a stall for a small donation for the raffle/fundraising.
Your attendees " have an interest in handmade items" because they’re attending a craft fair? Fabulous.
Those with a table selling at your amazing craft fair (and therefore benefitting from it) can provide your freebies.
Make it a condition of them taking a table. That’s how everyone else does it.
I think we all need further information, such as who are you, what is the charity you’re working for, when is this craft fair, can we have a stall, how much is it, where is it, etc, etc…
Our local primary school has donations as part of the stall deal, we are told in advance and I think it works really well
Hi all, thanks so much for replying. So… the community group we have set up is called Little Wrens Wardrobe (childrens clothes bank). In our first month of having a Facebook group we attracted over 1000 members which we were thrilled with! Anyone that helps our fundraising/events gets plugged on our site too with a company link. You can view and join the group here (hopefully links are allowed) https://www.facebook.com/groups/522593511259267/
We are just a group of mums, teachers, aunties and grandmothers who wanted to do something practical and positive to help local families in poverty in Cornwall.
Our first fundraiser is a craft fair on Sat Aug 20th at 1000-1430 in Bodmin where we have invited a small range of local crafters to have a stall. We have gone for quality not quantity and it’s held at a local craft warehouse. We have 4 stalls left, three are reserved for food and drink producers and one craft stall that is still remaining to book. We are only charging £10 for a 4ft stall plus an item for our raffle or tombola. We are trying to find 40 small soap samples, mini bath bombs really anything small and inexpensive that we can use as an ‘incentive’ to get more people there (ie the first 40 people through door get a quality craft gift and we will of course encourage on the door donations too) we are a bit tucked out the way with little passing footfall but are working hard on advertising/signage and incentives so expect a good turn out.
We are having our leaflets designed at the moment but you can read some details on our group page. Think this answers everything but let me know if any other questions and thanks again x
As this is a very locally focused event and charity, I expect your request will mainly appeal to those in your own local area.
I don’t know if Folksy will approve of you contacting Folksy artists who are based in Cornwall. I suspect that it would be frowned upon as it would be seen as spam (I could be wrong), but I genuinely don’t think it’s very likely you will get donations from anywhere else, I’m afraid.
What about local retailers, cafes, restaurants, etc? Have you approached them? If they donate something small (a free coffee, a bottle of nail polish, a ball of yarn) and the “winner” knows who donated their prize, there’s at least some return for the donor.