Recently Students Helping Honduras held its biggest event of year, the annual volleyball tournament! This tournament in the past has generated upwards to 5000 dollars and we had hoped to make this tournament the same. We had 20 teams sign up for this tournament, yet only about 13 teams actually showed up to the tournament. Additionally we had food prepared for about 300 people but we ended up overspending on food. Lastly, we bought wayyy too many t-shirts for this event. Basically we ended up spending a lot of money that we did not have to spend if we had just planned a bit better. This was not one persons fault rather it was a collective error of the exec board, which I am a part of. However, there was a huge upside to the tournament. The positive aspect of the tournament was how much fun everyone had at the actual event.

Despite the costs that dramatically reduced the amount of money we earned through the event everyone had a ton of fun. We had people coming up to us asking if we were going to hold another tournament next year which we plan on doing! In summation, we learned from this fundraising event that we must make a better cost benefit analysis so we can earn more money towards our cause. Coming up with a number of t-shirts and food we needed was quickly done without too much thought. In hindsight this was probably our biggest mistake that ended up costing a lot. However, we also learned that regardless of how much money we make through one event we must also take a look at the large picture. Sure we ordered too many t-shirts, but we can use them next year thereby reducing the costs of the next volleyball tournament. Furthermore we can use the publicity generated to boost money earned through next years tournament. We have to take the good and the bad. That is just the nature of fundraising.

Signing out

James Cruz