Cactus Game Design Message Boards
Redemption® Collectible Trading Card Game HQ => Playgroup and Tournament Central => Redemption® Official Tournaments => Topic started by: Ken4Christ4ever on May 21, 2013, 09:25:02 PM
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Over the past few years, I've struggled with keeping the tournaments I've hosted affordable without losing money hosting them. It seems that balance is incredibly difficult to find, so I've thought about a lot of ways to combat it. In the end, I've come up with a possibility that I'd like some input on, so any constructive thoughts you have would be appreciated. :)
Idea: Create a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote Redemption through making tournaments affordable and accessible.
What does that mean? Non-profit organizations have access to fundraising opportunities that other people don't. Therefore, once the non-profit was created, everyone would have access to the ability to fundraise to offset the costs of tournaments. In the midwest, for example, Kwik Trip is a gas station that allows non-profit organizations to sell Kwik Trip gift cards and keep 10% of the gift card value. Pizza Hut in WI has coupon booklets that can be sold. Pizza Ranch allows non-profits to serve during a dinnertime and get 10% of the sales plus 100% of the tips. And I'm sure you've seen plenty of other fundraisers!
While we would coordinate everything, we would be open to other options for fundraising events that may make sense for your group. The money would be raised and would have to be sent in to us. Then we would use it to support your playgroup either through helping to pay tournament fees, providing supplies for sealed categories, giving you extra prize support, or starter decks for new players.
A portion of the money raised would go to pay our expenses, but no one would be getting a paycheck for doing the work. I know for sure that there would be ~$400 in upfront costs to create the non-profit through Legal Zoom and ~$200/year ongoing. Another part of the money would be used to help brand new playgroups get started and to promote the game overall. The rest of it (at least half of everything raised) would go right back to your playgroup as mentioned above.
For myself, I know that I spend ~$200/month on gas, so if I did the Kwik Trip gift cards, that would be ~$20/month right there. However, that's just barely enough to cover the ongoing expenses, so I'm not going to start down this road if there isn't interest. Obviously I'd like to help our playgroup, but I think it would help others as well. How many more people would be able to come to tournaments if they were given decks, able to play for free, and maybe even got free food out of it? What if extra prizes were available for most improved, most creative deck, etc? Would that encourage more people to be involved?
So those are my thoughts so far. Please feel free to provide constructive comments, thoughts, and input, as well as letting me know if this is something that you are interested in and how you see it helping your playgroup.
Thank you!
Ken Locklin
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This would help my playgroup to get off the ground because I honestly don't have the money to be a tournament host for the most part.
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Would you (and your playgroup) be willing to do some fund raising to make it work?
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Possibly. Depends on to what extent.
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Basically to whatever extent you'd like it to help you. :)
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This seems like it would a hard sell to convince people to support if they aren't already supporting Redemption through other monetary means.
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I wouldn't be looking for support, except from existing playgroups and groups (like youth groups) interested in starting something, perhaps.
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I think this is a creative idea, but it seems like it would get pretty bogged down in logistical details.
From the numbers you stated, you would save $240 dollars on gas each year with the gas card that you could buy from yourself if you were a non-profit. That pays the yearly fees, like you said, but still leaves you with the $400 start-up costs. To make that back, you'd need to sell $4000 worth of gas cards.
Then once the essential stuff is paid for, you still need to raise more money to actually help with any tournament stuff. I suppose you could farm this out to playgroup leaders. An individual host could sell cards to make money to pay for their tournaments, but this has 2 problems. Many people who like Redemption are not really sales type people, and would have a hard time fundraising. The second problem is that for a lot of people, their time is worth more than the money. It would take longer to sell $200 worth of gas cards, then it would be worth just paying the $20 to host a local tournament.
I guess, my overall feeling is that this would be a useful program for a small number of people who have sales skills and are also interested in hosting Redemption tournaments. So if you think you can get it off the ground without losing your shirt, then it's probably a good idea to have as an available option to people. However, I'd be surprised if there was a lot of participation in the program.
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Thanks for the thoughts, Mark. :) Part of the thought with Kwik Trip, for example, is that if everyone in the playgroup lived near one and could just start using their gas, there wouldn't be sales required to other people. I do enough 'sales' activities that I would not want to sell something new for this, so I completely understand that sentiment!
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I found you can not make money hosting tournament and it is even hard to break even and make it affordable. At our church we have some adults who see it as a ministry and donate money for tournament fees, prizes and food. That has allowed me to keep hosting tournaments and keep our play group going over the last 10 years.
Bill