SAE Grilled Cheese with SAEs Promotional Plan

Plan By Drew Howland

1.1 Overview

Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Colorado State University holds an annual

philanthropy event each spring to benefit a national charity or specific cause. Grilled
Cheese with SAE is a fun and beneficial event that brings together CSU Greek Life
and other members of the community to raise these funds. It is a relatively easy event
to plan and execute. Their lodge has a full-sized kitchen and with a great room to host
event attendees. The proceeds benefit Childrens Miracle Network.

1.2 Problem Opportunity Statement

While the fraternity brothers, the greater Greek Life community and others, attend the
event there is the opportunity to raise more money. It is as simple as the more
attendees, the more money that can be raised.

1.3 Promotional Proposal

Since the event is not too elaborate but goes to a good cause, it will important to
convince community members to go. The use of gorilla advertising leading up to the
event will help create top-of-mind recognition. Gaining as many ticket sales the week
of March 20th will help create pre-event hype.

One of the most successful and easiest ways to get attendees to go would be to do
mass advertising and promotion the day of the event. Utilizing the fraternity pledges
who live within the residence halls on campus to tell their friends, hall mates and
others to go will drive traffic to the event immediately before it happens. This will
also lead to more sales of the more expensive same day tickets.

Each member should also do a social media blast with the event poster throughout the
week, especially on the day of. This will refresh the event in the minds of potential
attendees. Posting this pre-made flyer on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat
will only further the awareness of the cause and SAEs philanthropic endeavors.
1.4 Cost Projection

Recipe:
Two slices of bread
Two slices of cheese
1 table spoon of butter

Bulk Item Wholesale Cost Cost Per Ingredient

Loaf of bread (24 slices) $2.60 $0.22
Cheese (160 Slices) $10.98 $0.14
Butter (1 lb.) $8.88 $0.28
Total Cost Per Sandwich $0.64

Cost Per Grilled Cheese

Loaf of
bread (24
slices),
Butter (1 lb.), $0.22
$0.28

Cheese (160
Slices), $0.14

Half cup (4 oz.) serving size

Item Wholesale Cost Cost per bowl

Tomato Soup (12 cans x $9.98 $0.31
10.75 oz.)
Total Cost Per Bowl $0.31

Drinks

Item Wholesale Cost Cost Per Item

Coca-Cola (35 ct., 12 oz. $10.98 $0.31
cans)
Bottle Water (32 ct., 16.9 $3.98 $0.12
oz.)
Total cost (1 each per person) $0.43

Miscellaneous Costs

Item Wholesale Cost Cost Per Item

Paper Bowls (300, 12 oz. $8.86 $0.03
bowls)
Plastic Spoons (600 count) $9.97 $0.02
Napkins (300 count) $10.46 $0.04
Total dining ware cost $0.09

Total Cost Per Attendee (1 item each)

Item Cost
Grilled Cheese Sandwich $0.64
Bowl of tomato soup $0.31
Drinks $0.43
Misc. Paper ware $0.09
Total Cost Per Attendee $1.47

Misc. Paper Total Cost Per Attendee

ware, $0.09

Grilled Cheese
Sandwich, $0.64
Drinks,
$0.43

Bowl of tomato
soup, $0.31
1.5 Fundraising Profit Projection
Tickets are $5 pre-sale and $7 day-of
Profit per person
o $3.53
o $5.53
Fundraising t-shirts cost: TBD
o Profit on t-shirts
Total projected profit (Per 100 attendees)

1.6 Outcomes

1.7 Evaluation

The event went better than expected. There were people out the door from the start.
The first few hours were the busiest with large groups coming together. There was
predominantly intra-Greek Life support for the event.

The cooking was set up in an assembly line fashion to maximize efficiency. Fraternity
brothers would prep the grilled cheese ingredients and send them down the line to me
put on a flattop grill outside. The only real issue that occurred was running out of
ingredients around 5pm. This did not seem to negatively affect the event and its
outcomes too much, but it could have been avoided.

Toward then end of the event, there was a lack of overall participation from the entire
fraternity when it came to cleanup and dissembling folding tables, stacking chairs,
etc. Of the 75+-member fraternity, only three took charge to clean up. This could be
avoided if the chair members of the planning committee for their philanthropy events
assigned specific duties before the event instead of the hey you come help method.

Overall, the SAE fraternity saw more success from this years Grilled Cheese with
SAE philanthropy event. They were able to raise roughly $3,400 for Childrens
Miracle Network to help a sick child in need. They were somewhat perceptive to
outside consulting and can use this success to model future events.