Hold 'em for Hunger
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Hold 'em for Hunger is Nourish International's charity poker tournament venture.
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[edit] History
The first Hold 'em for Hunger was held at UNC Chapel Hill in the Spring of 2005. Featuring a field of 300 players, Hold 'em for Hunger 2005 was the largest charity poker tournament ever in the state of North Carolina. Empire Poker, World Tavern Poker, Progressive Graphics, Schoolkids Records, and 20 other businesses all sponsored the tournament, which took place in the Great Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The tournament profited over $5,000. Money raised from the first Hold 'em for Hunger helped construct a nutrition center for teenage mothers in Mbale, Uganda.
Since then Hold 'em for Hunger has been an annual tradition at UNC Chapel Hill. With a field of 250 poker players Hold 'em for Hunger 2006 raised over $5700 for summer projects. Apple Computer, Card Player Magazine, World Tavern Poker Tour, STA Travel, and poker legend Phil Gordon were among its sponsors. The tournament winner took home a 42" DLP HDTV worth more than $2,000. HEFH '06 even featured a rock-paper-scissors tournament for the first 52-players to get knocked out, the winner receiving an iPod Nano.
Attendance doubled in 2007 with Hold 'em for Hunger attracting 502 poker players from UNC, Duke, NC State and the surrounding poker community. Over $5200 was raised and prizes included a 42" DLP HDTV, a Sun Drop Vending machine, a Vegas style Slot machine, a Nintendo Wii, and a totally refurbished couch from the Dean Dome.
[edit] Operations
Hold 'em for Hunger is a complex Event Venture with a number of necessary committees. Committees for Hold 'em for Hunger include Sales & Marketing, Sponsorship, Event Day Planning and Finance.
[edit] Sales & Marketing
As for any Event Venture the Sales & Marketing Committee's job is to create buzz and build up interest in anticipation of the day of the event. In order to do this effectively, the committee must first identify a target market and then execute a publicity strategy. Specific markets for Hold 'em for Hunger include:
- Poker players on campus. Go to all the big games around campus and tell them about Hold 'em for Hunger. These people won't just be first to sign up, they'll be the first to sign up their friends, their cousins and their girlfriends as well. They can be your best evangelizers so make friends with them and lose to them in their weekly games.
- Poker players in the community. Part of your publicity strategy should be to reach out to poker players outside of your university. By collaborating with World Tavern Poker to publicize at their bar games and by connecting to the local poker media you can reach a lucrative and avid base of players.
- Fraternities. Visiting fraternity lane can be a very profitable for your tournament. It is a known fact that fraternity brothers love to play poker and the organized structure of these institutions is conducive to bulk purchases. Since fraternities are required donate a certain percentage of their income to charities, Hold 'em for Hunger tickets can count towards this service requirement.
[edit] Sponsorship
The Sponsorship Committee's job is to get the prizes and the food for the tournament. There are a number of ways of going about this but first and foremost the best way to get prizes is get them donated. The less money spent on prizes, the more money for projects. Responsibilities of the Sponsorship Committee include:
- Updating the Sponsorship Documents, including the sponsor page on the website, the sponsorship brochure and other sponsor related materials.
- Designing the Levels of Sponsorship: this entails strategizing about what you will offer sponsors in return for their investment.
- The BIG Sponsors: this task will be the first thing that Sponsorship works on. Sponsorship can call and meet with representatives from the larger organizations that we target for sponsorship.
- General Sponsors: This involves calling and setting up appointments with the managers/directors of local businesses that sell things that college students might like to receive as a prize.
- Food Sponsors: Similar to above, except we need tons of food instead of just prizes
- Campus Sponsors/Partners: there are a lot of on-campus organizations willing to fund other organizations and form strategic alliances. This includes groups like the CAA, CDS and RHA.
- Other Prizes: You can get prizes from non-sponsors, like things from pyramid schemes, sports teams, and other sources. In addition, a great way to get mid level prizes is to Build shit (like beer pong tables, and seats from the Dean Dome for example).
[edit] Event Day Planning
The Event Day Planning Committee is in charge of every single logistical aspect of putting on and running a successful and profitable tournament.
Responsibilities:
- Venue Coordination: The very first thing the Event Day Planning Committee needs to do is reserve a space for the event. This can be done at your university's events planning office and for an event of this size it needs to be done at the very beginning of the school year. This also requires you to decide where the event should be held, on what day and at what time. A good space would be a "Great Hall" setting that can hold over 300 people. Venue Coordination also includes talking with the venue director about the rules and regulations concerning events held at that venue.
- "Essential Equipment": the EP directors are in charge of obtaining the following necessities for the tournament (in the highest-value way possible):
- Card tables - Poker table tops / table covers - Poker chips - Chairs - Projection screens, microphones, speakers and computers.
- World Tavern Poker Communication: EP is in charge of coordinating with WTP on how they will be working with us on the day of the tournament and during the days leading up to the tournament.
- Food planning: Although Sponsorship is in charge of getting food donations, EP is in charge of deciding how much food we need, how we're getting to the tournament, and how and when we distribute it at the tournament. EP will probably work closely with Sponsorship to coordinate.
- In charge of EVERYTHING on the day of the tournament (this is a lot).
- Preparing all the player packages
- Design and management of registration - Coordinating the location of all the food and prizes - Parking - Schedule of Events - Designing and Writing the event program - Finding someone who can manage the electronics and slideshow - Rock, Paper Scissors Tournament!
- Event-Day Strategy: what will happen that day? Who will speak, and when? What will we have on display? When do we serve the food? What other side-events will we feature? How and when will we thank sponsors and participants? These are your tasks
[edit] Finance
The Finance Committee's responsibilities include
- Creating a Budget: The Treasurer will work with the Director and the Executive Committee to design a budget for the venture. Using the Hold 'em for Hunger Accounting Template can plan out the budgets for each committee and the expected profit based on an estimate of ticket returns. The best way to start is to take a look at either the previous years budget or look at what another chapter has spent.
- Prizes: The Finance Committee will also be responsible for keeping track of prize valuations and making sure that they are in line with expected ticket receipts. The primary concern is that you have enough prizes to justify what people are paying for. In a normal poker tournament the prize pool ""is"" everyone's buy-in (minus a rake for the tournament host) so making sure they are comparable isn't necessary. In a charity poker tournament the prize pool shouldn't be worth less than 50% than total ticket receipts and it most certainly shouldn't be worth more than what you are getting in revenue.
- To give you a sense of how a standard HEFH budget should break down take a look at the HEFH budgets & accounting documents from UNC-CH's HEFH 06 & HEFH 07. Links to them are posted below.
[edit] Design
The Design Committee's responsibilities include:
- Updating the Website & Sponsorship Brochure: The Design Committee's first responsibility is to update the Sponsorship Documents used by the Sponsorship Committee.
- Branding HEFH: Working with the Sales & Marketing Committee, the Design Committee should begin creating a portfolio of designs for t-shirts, fliers, hand bills, and any other job commissioned by the Sales and Marketing Committee.
