Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Its was a Wonderful World! Or was it?


Did anyone go to The Morse for that Affordable Housing fund raiser with Its a Wonderful Life movie showing? Never got a reply from the charity. Could kids have gone? The URL was totally silent. To all those at the exalted http://www.rogerspark.com/ and charity please get all the facts from the sponsor. The movie is a cult classic, so we can't assume anything.

We could have brought the kids if they were $25, but at $50 to $100 a head, this becomes more of a Francis Parker, Latin, NCA or Roycemore oriented event. Many neighbors may not have $200 or more for those events where there are families of four. A cut off figure may be $100 to $150, but if the group got the numbers, then that is all that counts.
Some may have something to sell! We don't. Was this a pay to play event? Or a sincere effort? Perhaps, someone just dropped a few balls and thought a few hundred from neighbors with 2.5 kids was not worth the effort. So much for not for profit marketing in tough economic times! Perhaps, next year will bring a better effort.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I went and enjoyed this event - the Lake Side Community Development Corporation holiday fundraiser. They are a credible community and affordable housing advocate here in Rogers Park.

Yes, it definitely was a child/family friendly event, with lots of little bags of popcorn for all! There was only a little bit of "welcome folks" speechifying before the film, projected on a big large screen. Then hot mulled wine, other refreshments, and tasty treats after!

lafew said...

We know that CDC would have had a few more families. Its PSAs failed to specify whether the event was child friendly. The Morse has a bar. Also, it was unclear whether the contribution was per each adult or each individual. This encouraged us to find other activities last weekend.

lafew said...

I realize that I sent an e-mail the day of or morning prior to the event. CDC has yet to respond.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lafew:
Sorry you missed the event. We likely could have done a better job with our promotions. That is always the case, especially with small groups like ours.

I did not get your email over the weekend or even today. Maybe you sent it to someone else inadvertently? We asked people to rsvp to rsvp@lakesidecdc.org, which should have eventually found its way to me. If you want to contact me in the future, simply contact brian@lakesidecdc.org or call me on the phone.

Had I received your email, I would have done my best to contact you and give you responses to whatever questions you had. For example, while our event was not geared to kids, we did not intend to exclude them. We had much debate about whether children would sit through a 2 hour plus film. Some said yes, but most said no. Since the theater has a bar and is not really set up for children, we erred on the side of adults, though we did not charge the parent the full price for their kids. We also had several parents contact us to ask and we said "sure," but those were families with older kids.

In terms of our plans for family-friendly fundraisers, we'd like to do one in early '09 that is specifically for families with kids. I'm thinking bowling or live music. What do you think? In either case, look for another event in late January or early February.

Our phone number is also posted on our website, so feel free to give me a call. It might be faster on a weekend and I am always easier to reach on the phone than through a blog site. I just don't get on the sites as much as I should. I can be reached at (773) 381-5253.

Thanks for mentioning us.

Cheers

lafew said...

I hope the information helps for next year. Many of us are monitoring www.rogerspark.com.