Non Profit Fund Raising Cruises
Published Monday, July 19th 2010Each cruiseline has their own guidelines and practices but I will describe for you the possibilities. It works best if you promote the cruise at least 9 months to a year in advance of sailing. You can obtain the best pricing and amenities plus have plenty of time to promote it to supporters, friends, family and the general public.
There are various ways to accumulate funds for your organization.
1). Some cruise lines will donate money to you for every room booked in addition to other available methods.
2). Certain sailings and dates may have more amenities that can be converted to cash. Each date and ship with some cruise lines will offer varying degrees of amenities depending on date of sailing and anticipated demand for the cruise. You will receive less generous add on amenities on holiday or busy sail dates. The earlier you hold the space the more favourable the pricing and points available. We can help you choose sailings that will benefit your organization so that you can maximize your fundraising efforts.
3). You can "Add Value" to your cruise by offering either free promotional items or a group gathering/presentation. The cruise line can make rooms available for meetings. You can also use some of your points to have food or drinks available. Some will allow you to add up to $100 per room to the price of the cruise on a 7 night cruise which is then mailed to you later in addition to other cash opportunities.
4). You can also have "free berths" returned to you as cash. For every 8 cabins sailed with a minimum of two persons sailed per cabin, the one cruise fare is returned to us as a bonus and we in turn give that to non-profit groups who book with us.
We have had small groups raise significant amounts of money and large groups make a large amount of money.
Small group example: with only 11 rooms on 7 night cruise on Royal Caribbean's New Oasis of the Seas a non-profit recently made about $4,000.
The factors are length and cost of cruise. The more expensive the cruise the more you make. Large groups on short, inexpensive cruises will do well but not as well if they chosen a longer cruise or a nicer ship.
We can help you decide what is best for you and a phone call to us will work best at some point with the decision maker of the organization. Once we get things in place, we will make a flyer for your group and all you would need to do is share that information and invite everyone to cruise with you. We do the bookings and take care of payments with each individual that books. By doing this for you, we ensure this fundraiser does not become an extra "job" for the organization. We would love to benefit your non-profit group and all it really requires is just taking a terrific cruise together with those who care about your cause!
Leave a Reply
indicates a required field