How to Do a Food Truck Fundraiser

Fundraising is a popular means of raising money for businesses, individuals, and causes in the United States. It might interest you to note that in 2022 alone, Americans gave $499.33 billion to charity.

The largest source of giving came from individuals, who contributed $319.04 billion, representing 64 percent of total giving. Please note that 21 percent of total nonprofit giving came from foundations in 2022, for an estimated total of $105.21 billion.

There are several means an organization can raise funds via fundraising events, and one of such is via a food truck fundraising event.

Trust me, organizing a food truck fundraising event can be an exciting and effective way to raise funds for a cause, person, business, or organization. In this article, we will look at how you can successfully organize a food truck fundraiser event.

Steps to Do a Food Truck Fundraiser

1. Define Your Fundraising Goal

You are expected to determine how much money you want to raise and what the funds will be used for. Trust me, having a clear goal will help you plan your event and also motivate your team to deliver on their assigned task.

2. Select a Charity, Cause, or Organization

The fact that a food truck can be used to organize fundraising does not mean that people will just come out and donate their hard-earned money.

In essence, you must make sure you select a cause, charity, or organization you are raising the money for. Please make sure that the cause you are raising money for aligns with your goals and values.

3. Choose the Food Trucks

If you do not have your own food truck, you have to look for food trucks that you can use to organize the food truck fundraiser event. You are supposed to conduct research on all the available food trucks in your location.

You should reach an agreement with them on the commission you will give them if the food truck fundraiser event is successful.

Please when choosing a food truck to work with, make sure you select a food truck that offers a variety of cuisines. You may want to consider working with a food truck that is popular in the location.

4. Set a Date and Location

Before you settle for a date and time for your food truck fundraiser event, you should consider factors like the weather, local events, and the availability of your chosen food trucks.

Make sure you will be able to secure a suitable location, such as a parking lot, park, or event space for the date and time you settle for.

5. Permits and Regulations

No matter where you intend to host your food truck fundraiser event, you will require certain permits to be able to legally organize the event in the location.

You should make sure you contact your local government or health department to understand the permitting and regulatory requirements for hosting a food truck event in the city or town.

Please make sure that both you and the food trucks you want to use for the event comply with all necessary permits and licenses as required by the local government authority.

6. Create a Budget

You are expected to create a budget that includes; permits, food truck fees, marketing materials, entertainment (if any), and supplies (tables, chairs, trash bins, etc.).

Trust me, without having a budget in place, you are likely going to run at a loss when organizing a food truck fundraiser event.

7. Marketing and Promotion

It is one thing to announce that you are going to be having a food truck fundraiser event in your city, but another thing to get people to attend and give towards the cause.

For that reason, you must make sure you promote your food truck fundraiser event. Interestingly, there are several various channels through which you can promote your food truck fundraiser event. You can leverage social media, local newspapers, flyers, and community organizations.

Just make sure you put out strong reasons why you are organizing a food truck fundraiser event and the reason why you chose the cause.

8. Entertainment and Activities

You may want to consider adding entertainment events such as live music, games, face painting, or a raffle or any related activities to enhance the event’s appeal. The whole idea is to make sure that all proceeds generated from these activities can help contribute to your fundraising goal.

9. Volunteers and Staff

You must recruit volunteers to help with event logistics, such as setup, ticket sales, crowd control, and cleanup. Just make sure that everyone you recruit for the event understands their roles and responsibilities, and overall, what you want to achieve.

10. Ticketing and Payments

You may want to charge attendees a token to attend the event. It might not be a wrong idea to decide whether you will charge an entrance fee or if attendees will pay directly to the food trucks. But, if you choose to sell tickets to attendees of the event, make sure you set up a system for ticket sales and payments.

11. Day-of-Event Logistics

Your event organizing and logistics skills will be needed. On the day of the event, you should coordinate with the food trucks to make sure they arrive on time and have all necessary supplies in place as agreed.

Even if you assign roles to your volunteers and staff, you must make sure you have your eyes on everyone especially those in charge of setting up tables, chairs, signage, and trash bins. Do not forget to create a clear plan for traffic flow and crowd management.

12. Engage with Attendees

The money you want to raise will come from people who are attending the food truck fundraiser event hence you must make sure you engage with the attendees all through the duration of the event.

By engaging with the attendees, we mean you should interact with as many people as possible, share information about your cause, and express gratitude for their support.

Trust me, if the attendees find your engagement interesting, they may want to connect with you and be part of your organization.

13. Track Expenses and Revenue

Trust me, if the food truck fundraiser event is well organized, you will be able to attract loads of people in the community who will give to your cause or organization. For that reason, you must make sure you keep a record of all expenses and revenue throughout the event.

Tracking expenses and revenue for your food truck fundraiser event will help you determine the success of the fundraiser and whether you met your fundraising goal.

14. Thank You and Follow-Up

Appreciating those who came out to support your food truck fundraiser event should be part of your “to-do” list. So, after the food truck fundraiser event, you are expected to thank all the participants, volunteers, food truck owners and operators, and of course, everyone who attended the event.

You should not just stop at thanking and appreciating them, you should also provide updates on the funds raised and how they will be used to support the chosen cause or organization.

15. Evaluate and Plan for the Future

You should not just stop at thanking and appreciating all the participants, but you must proceed to plan for the future. You should assess the success of the food truck fundraiser event by critically looking at what worked well and what could be improved.

You should be able to come up with feedback, and you should make sure you use the feedback to plan future food truck fundraiser events.