Page 359 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

of money that can be raised from a baby show is limited, it has compensating
advantages from a publicity standpoint. The newspapers will give it a good
play because it offers an opportunity for a human interest story of wide reader
interest.

White Elephant Sales Are Exciting

T

HE idea here is to give everybody interested in a charity an opportunity to
unload “a white elephant.” This is something one owns but does not need,
which he is willing to give to charity to raise money. These donations, which
should be of a gift nature, are then brought to the place where the sale is to be
held, and each “prize” is put in a box or wrapped separately. Tickets are sold
for the sale, usually at 25 cents each. The purchasers of the tickets are
arranged in groups of twenty, and required to sit around in a circle. When
they are so seated each one in the circle is given one of the “blind” packages
containing some one’s “white elephant.” A leader then asks everyone to pass
his package to the person on his left, and to keep passing it until a bell is
rung. When the bell sounds, everybody opens the lid on his package or peeks
into the wrapper to see what it contains. He must not let his neighbors see it
however. Three minutes are allowed for examination. Those who want to
keep their packages drop out of the circle. The bell rings again, and the
packages are started rotating. Another bell, another period of inspection and
decision, and so on until everyone in the circle has a “white elephant.” A time
limit is set and when it is up, those remaining have to take what they hold at
the final bell. This stunt never fails to get a good crowd, and interest runs
high. It is simply the old grab bag idea in a new suit of clothes. It is not
unusual to sell 200 tickets to a single sale, which means ten circles and $50
clear profit. Ten such sales a year will net your charity $500. In some
communities, of course, tickets can be sold for thirty-five or fifty cents which
will make the net amount correspondingly higher. As there is little or no
expense attached to the enterprise, all the money paid for the tickets is clear
gain.