College football games are the ideal place for a fraternity fundraiser. Before the game, there are literally thousands of people there tailgating and getting drunk. That combination seems to create more impulse buying – the ideal situation for a fraternity fundraiser.
One great idea is to take advantage of bad weather. If it happens to rain, there are going to be thousands of people not prepared to battle the elements. The fraternity can be the solution to this problem. Have the pledge class go buy a bunch of boxes of large, black trash bags. Buy the cheapies that will cost $3 or $4 for 50. Then, have the pledges sell them for a $1 a piece to the wet fans as they enter the stadium. People will be more than eager to buy them. If the weather is bad enough and you have enough guys selling bags, you should be able to make several hundred bucks in under an hour. Also, be sure you buy more than enough trash bags. The bags you don’t sell you can save to sell at another game.
Also, you can take advantage of cold weather by selling hot hands. Again, there are sure to be hundreds of people who did not come prepared to battle the elements. Hot hands cost about a $1 a piece, but if the fraternity plans ahead and buys them in the summer you can get them for much less. Then the fraternity sell them two for $5 and make a killing. Again, the fraternity will be filling a huge need and cold people will eagerly buy your product.
The fraternity can also make money by selling merchandise of your team. You can make T shirts in your team’s color with simple messages like “Beat XYZ”. Or you can have car magnets made of your team’s football helmet and sell those. Again, because of the crowd and demographics, the possibilities are endless.