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Hosting a craft show can bring
your church fundraising monies from different areas. One, the crafters pay an
entry fee for their table. Two, you can offer a food area, and a
dessert/bake table, and three, you could have a kids craft area, or face
painting area. Spring and Summer crafts shows DO NOT work as well
as Fall and Christmas shows do.
Having a craft show is a
bigger and more challenging fund raiser than most. You have to keep
in mind how many people you need to make happy that day. Let's take
a look at the crafters first.
From a crafter's point of
view:
When crafters make a decision to buy a table at your craft show, they are
trusting you that you will advertise well, and bring happy people to shop.
That is what crafters expect! With this in mind, you need to advertise
your show VERY WELL. The cost of the table should not be too high. The
average cost for a table at a church craft show is $15.00-$50.00 per
table. If you are charging in the higher range, you should provide a
great location for the show, plenty of parking, and many people
coming to your show. From a crafter's point of view, they
don't really care all that much what you are selling to eat for lunch, or
how nicely the craft show is decorated. They want lots of people, with
lots of sales. At the end of their day, that is what it boils down
to. If you had plenty of people come to the show and not much buying going
on, that can't be helped, but if not many people showed up, and it turned
out to be a "dead" show, that can be disastrous to a crafter who has spent
money in inventory and hours upon hours making crafts.
From a costumers point
of view:
Let's say a group of ladies
from another neighborhood saw one of your advertisements for the craft
show and decided to come and spend some time at your show, and grab a bite
to eat at your food area of the show.
Customers want to see a large selection of
handmade crafts, quilts, and holiday items. Customers also want to see a
variety of crafts. Make sure your show offers a variety of crafts
like, fabric crafts, wood crafts, jewelry
makers, candle makers, clay makers, sign makers, and much more. You will
not have returning costumers the following year if you do not have wide
variety of different crafts. Hopefully most of your crafters offer checks
and credit cards. Statistics show that 70% of all sales are charges.
Make sure you have an
accessible bathroom, plenty of parking area and a specific time and area
for loading and unloading for the crafters. Have 2 different
entrances and exits for the costumers. Offer plenty of different
foods and drinks for both your crafters and your costumers.
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