Pancake Breakfast
Fundraising Event
What's not to like about a pancake breakfast fundraising event - buttered pancakes smothered in warm
maple syrup, hot sausage, orange juice, and coffee. With plenty of volunteers and some enthusiasm, it's a
fairly easy event to pull off.
Organize Your Team
Depending on the size of your team, some of your volunteers will probably wear several different hats. Here
are the basic roles you'll need filled to pull off a successful pancake breakfast fundraiser:
 Advertising/Promotions
 Event location team (securing/set up/clean up)
 Donations (food, drink, utensils)
 Cooking
 Serving
 Busing tables/clean up
 Emcee/speaker
 Sales
Brainstorm with Your Team
Discuss fundraising goals, promotion ideas, dates, locations, menu items, and any other aspect of your event.
Somebody will have connections in one of these areas. Maybe they know the manager of a community
center who could donate the space, or someone who works at a grocery store and donate food.
While you are brainstorming with your team about your fundraising goal, think about how many people are
on your “mailing list” and how many tickets you think each person will sell.
Mailing List =
Contacts on Facebook
Pinterest Followers
Contacts in your phone
Church Directory
Neighborhood Assoc. List
Twitter Followers
LinkedIn Contacts
Your email address book
Community Group Directory
Fundraising
The main component of your fundraising will be ticket sales, but don’t forget to think outside of the box!
If you are using paper placemats for your pancake breakfast, then you can sell advertising space on them to
local businesses. This works especially well when your event is an annual affair and draws a substantial
crowd. Or offer premium parking right up in front of the building for a $5 donation. Have a silent auction or
raffle at the breakfast. You get the idea!
Date
Pick a Saturday about eight weeks out. Check calendars in your local newspaper to see what other events
may be going on. You don't want to conflict with a big event if possible. Plan for about three hours, e.g. 8:00
am to 11:00 am.
SMCI – TeamSolve
www.SolveCFS.org/Fundraising
[email protected] | 704.364.0016
Location
Find a community center, school, church hall or any other place that might donate their cafeteria. It will need
to have adequate seating and a kitchen. You may need (or want to) to pay a small fee to use the space or
donate a percentage of your profits back to them. Also, ask local or chain restaurants if they'll host the
event. Applebee's is known for this.
Menu
First, contact your local health department to determine the food-serving requirements or talk with the
people who own/manage the hall you are using, they will know the food service rules.
Pancakes, sausages, OJ, coffee, and tea, keeps it simple. Also, consider eggs, fruit and rolls. Other supplies
you'll need are plates, utensils (forks, knives, spoons), cups (that can hold hot drinks), napkins, syrup, butter,
milk, coffee stirrers, creamer, sugar. Set up buffet style to make it easy and use your volunteers to serve.
Ask local restaurants, grocery stores and wholesale warehouses (Costco, Sam's) for donations.
Once you know your costs, you can set a ticket price. Estimate the number of people you'll get. This number
comes from your team brainstorming session – how many people can you all reach? Estimate a response rate
of about 20-30%. Then set the price based on your estimate, costs, and fundraising goal.
Consider having separate pricing for adults, kids under 10, and seniors. Keep prices for adults between $5 and
$10.
Advertise.
Use the social media—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and email to get the word out. Post about it early, often
and creatively. Make sure to always include a link to your Crowdrise page so people can easily click and
donate.
Ask local radio, TV, and newspapers to advertise the event. Radio stations can provide free PSAs (public
service announcements). Newspapers may run a free small ad if it's for a charity.
Design and print a flyer that can be distributed. List the Who? What? When? Why? Where? and How? of your
event. Have your sales team post these around town in coffee shops, community centers, schools, public
buildings, and anywhere there are bulletin boards.
Put together a press release featuring the most newsworthy aspect of your pancake breakfast. Usually, that
would be the human interest story describing why you are raising the funds and specifically how they will
help the person or group the fundraiser is benefiting.
Tickets
You can design and print tickets to sell in advance. If you can't find a local printer to donate the printing, use
your computer and some cardboard paper stock. Be sure to list the date, time and location.
You can also use a service such as brownpaperticket.com or eventbright.com. These services do come with a
cost that you can pay out of the profit, or pass on to the ticket buyer. It is nice to use a service like this so you
can take credit cards.
Be sure and follow the branding and other guidelines in the DIY Handbook!
SMCI – TeamSolve
www.SolveCFS.org/Fundraising
[email protected] | 704.364.0016