Fundraiser: Gaming Swag Ideas?

zigx

I'm currently in the middle of fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training and I was thinking about doing either a Rock Band 2 or Street Fighter IV tournament/fundraising event.

The biggest roadblock I came across were incentives on getting people to actually go to it. I had two trains of thoughts, one I could charge a fee to enter and have a % of the entry fee go towards donating. Or two, I could find a way to round up some swag to either raffle off or give away for prizes.

Problem is with the second option I'm not sure how I would go about rounding up swag to give away, gaming based swag at least. I was wondering if anyone here ever ran a similar get together or if anyone had any tips or suggestions on how I could make an event like this successful. Has anyone ever had any luck with getting any kind of press swag from publishers or the like?

Thanks!

Toefoo

A lot of publishers have extra swag in (quite literally) monstrous stacks stored away in cabinets. One thing you can try doing is writing a letter/e-mail or calling them and explain about the fundraiser, then ask if there is anything they can donate. At my last 2 jobs we literally had mounds of t-shirts, lanyards, posters, and other assorted stuff just laying around not doing anything.

You're lucky being in the bay area, because there are a metric ton of developers and publishers there, as well as other places in CA.

tony_important

I'd swing by a local games retailer, sometimes they have piles of swag sitting the back.
This is how I got a Ghostbusters License plate.