Grassroots effort to raise $40,000 - 5-Days to go.

I have been volunteering for several months for an event called The Pink Party (www.pinkpartysd.com), which is a fundraising event for two, very underfunded breast cancer charities; The Breast Cancer Fund and the Breast Cancer Network of Strength. During this side project, I have been acting as the Project Manager, the Volunteer Coordinator and now, the Food and Beverage Coordinator. What all of this translates into is that I deal with insurance people, city officials, the vice department and the Alcohol Beverage Control people in relation to the needed permitting and licenses. As the Volunteer Coordinator, I help recruit the 50+ volunteers that we have, keep them all organized and adding to the puzzle piece by piece. And finally, I've taken over as F&B and have coordinated the donation of about $20,000 worth of catering, restaurant participation, beer, wine, vodka and non-alcoholic drinks for the 1,500 expected guests.
Well, yesterday was a fun day with only 5 days to go until the big event on November 15. It started out with me visiting the Special Events Office for the City of San Diego - where I live. There, the people are worried about budget cuts and layoffs. I learned this as I tried to throw in some casual banter while dealing with governmental red tape. These people have been great! And as part of my advice in working with a grassroots campaign is to not argue the bureaucratic what's and why's with those who are behind the desk - it is the quickest way to stop everything. When dealing with permits and special event licenses, ask process questions, find out who to talk to next to get them to 'sign-off' on their piece of the red tape.
Well, Monday was a fun exercise in testing that concept because after my 'check-in' with the Special Events office, I was making calls to the event founder to get going on the events insurance (something that we had already researched, vetted, and had quotes ready to act on) while I went to the ABC office to get the 1-Day Special Event Liquor license:
First visit: The IRS Determination Letter for the 501(c)(3) charity that is hosting the event changed their name a few months before and this was causing an issue for them and I was told that I would need a cashiers check for the fee - a whopping $25 instead of the $450 we were normally charged for non-charity events (nice!).
So, I walked back to the office (six blocks each way) while making calls to the hosting charity to try and get a letter from them from a government entity with their name change on it, but what I got was an error message saying the number had been changed - oops! So, I called her office number, left a message on the machine and kept walking. When I got back to the loft, which is also my office which I share with my Muse, Sonya (more on her some other time), and started writing what I call, the pleading letter. A letter written so that it explains your position, what it is you are trying to do/want to accomplish/what you need done. Be polite, don't try to sound too educated as eight syllable words will not impress them, and if you need to distance yourself from an irritant in their office as we have to do on this project, then do so in short, clear sentences - and if you are lucky enough to enjoy a great relationship with your hosting charity, email the finished letter and have them print and sign it on their letterhead. Governments love to know that they are dealing with large groups - and a national charity holding an event in their city looks good for them, so it truly is a Win/Win.
So, as I waited for them to read, edit, print, sign and fax the pleading letter back to us I started putting together the other documents that turns the pleading letter into a packet. Find any and all additional information that gets your point across. This is not the time to be a lawyer - unless you are of course, then I would suggest toning it down a notch - we are asking for something that they don't have to give. Pulling them into the event, making them fans of it and supporters of it goes a lot further than pointing fingers and demanding your rights... It isn't fair... Yeah, that will get you into red tape limbo very quick and you don't want to go there, trust me.
So, Trip two starts off with a nice little packet of information explaining the event, the name change and how it didn't change their status as a 501(c)(3) charity. I went to the bank to get a cashiers check - don't forget, after 9/11 they passed some new laws and that you cannot use cash to buy a cashiers check. This was meant to cut down on those trying to launder money by taking a load of cash and buying a bank check to send to their drug-lord boss. So, with a proper cashiers check in hand, I went back to the California Government Building, moved through security and up to the fifth floor where, as soon as I entered the office, was recognized. Taking car of paperwork that has already been signed off on by three other people in itself is a quick task. They check the form, the check the check and then I had to explain what the other packet was - the pleading letter we had put together. All of this was met with 'Oh, it will not get approved anyway, we're not approving any liquor licenses for 'that' location (the venue which donated their space for our event).
So, I walked back to the office yet again with e heavy heart thinking counter moves. Could we do the event without alcohol? Not nearly as successfully since it is easier to get the guests to open their wallets if properly and socially lubricated, which is what the main function of booze should be. As I walked, I made more phone calls as I was now moving into prepping for my next meeting that evening. When I got back to the office, our contact had called as informed us that they had 'just' received an official letter from the IRS stating the name change - mana from heaven! As soon as the fax machine finished printing the letter, I turned around and started walking out the door and bumped into Sonya. She was at the Special Events office, and gleaned a little inside knowledge - a name to drop! Always a double edged sword, the right name can be good if casually inserted into a conversation instead of 'them,' but very dangerous if it is the wrong name to say! So, use with caution.
Third trip to the ABC Office, about forty minutes before they closed they were a little shocked to see me walk back in. I quickly informed them that the IRS had faxed a letter - so the name change issue of the charity wasn't an issue any longer. During this whole process, the licensing employees had mentioned a person who was 'automatically' denying any requests for our venue. When I decided I had better drop the name of the person our City contact was working with and talking to about the Pink Party I did so as simply an error on my part and deliberately not the name of the person they had mentioned. You see, governmental employees love a little degree of anonymity - these are not politicians who readily crave it like crack. So, when I dropped the name of their boss's boss, their ears instantly perked up and they asked me about her - quickly. I simply said that is who our contact in the city's government was dealing with. They then explained who the person was (and thus, how great a name it was to drop!). They then did something new, instead of simply walking the paperwork into the office to the left, they put all of it into a nice folder and walked it into the office of the right...
While we still have to wait for a decision, our odds are greatly improved. If we had to do anything different, we should have vetted the venue better in the beginning. Instead, we were wrapped up in excitement as we had saved over $10,000 in fee's for similar locations. We are still $10k up, but the stress and hours needed to make this a done-deal make that accomplishment negligible. So, vet the venue just as you would a new employee. One that isn't using your event as a snowplow to clear the its road to getting permits.

More later - today, I'm securing a credit card machine, securing the docking rights for our delivery trucks at the building and reserving freight elevator times, then I'm heading to the venue to drop off a banner, and so on...

Ciao!