Key Features for a Successful Fundraising Event

What it takes to throw a Gala, Auction, Fundraiser, or Alumni Event:

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Over the past 20 years, we have developed relationships with many schools and non-profit organizations across New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. We understand how important the yearly fundraising gala is.

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Here’s what you’ll need:


LIGHTING

Lighting can be the simplest, most effective way to create an immersive environment for guests. There are infinite ways to transform a space with light. These are some of your options:

Uplighting

Uplights are powerful lights, with a huge range of color. They are traditionally placed around the perimeter of a room, creating a glowing effect of the entire space. Color choices for these lights can vary from one to many. They are also used to illuminate standing structures, props, entryways, and many other features and focal points in a room.

Auction Lighting

Lighting for auction items is key for a successful evening. You’ve worked hard all year to source these items, and with so much riding on those bids, you cannot let them go unnoticed. Clean, subtle, and effective options like overhead wash lights and pinspots highlight the allure of every prize and prize table. It helps make sure guests find exactly what they’re looking for.

Custom & Specialty Lighting

Creative lighting is a huge wow factor. GOBO projections use a customizable template, shining light through to project images anywhere in the room. These can be thrown on to walls, dance floors, ceilings and more. Choose from stock patterns and effects or design your own. Lighting effects like this, as well as colorful patterns or laser light displays can be continually layered to add more and more drama. Other options range from simple colored washlights to illuminate the band or dancefloor to high end LED light displays. Find what fits your budget. 


DECOR

A unique evening is a memorable evening. Make sure this year stands out from the rest. Choose a cohesive theme and decide where your budget is best spent. Where would you like guests to keep their focus? This may depend on the function of the evening. If this is a sit down sort of symposium, or if there will be presentations, perhaps spend more on centerpieces - a great reason for guest to want to stay seated and still engaged, as well as inspired. If the evening has more of a cocktail/grazing vibe, try sourcing larger decor items, or dividing the space into the direction you’d like guests to take. Decide what your goals are for the evening, and come up with a floor plan that can accomplish this. Maybe the flow of the tables, bars, stage, etc. all lead right back to the auction items. Find your focus and the guests will too.

Centerpieces & Table Top Decor

From elegant and simple to intricate layering, centerpieces keep the theme in mind all throughout the night. They are points of discussion that immerse guests into the evening and always entertaining. Don’t forget accent items for your bars, food stations, and auction tables. These can be informative or decorative, large or small.


Large Props & Installations

Depending on the event space, you may decide to utilize larger decor or props to build your environment. This can be very effective. Things like ceiling treatments and installations are impressive, one-of-a-kind and site specific. Sculptural elements are also great focal points and keep the theme. Will there be a stage set up at the event? How can you draw more attention to it? Even if you do not have a physical stage in the space, you can create the illusion by flanking the area both left and right with something eye catching. Bar rentals are smart, sophisticated and can be custom features at your event as well.

Drape & Dividing a Large Space

Take a good look at your event space. How can it improve? Where will the focus be for the evening? Smart options like temporary drape walls and other structures can reinvent a room, hide unsightly features, and section off areas or create new ones. This is a great idea for behind a stage or podium. Backdrops do this as well and there are many options for drape in all colors, sizes, textures, and heights that can reinforce your theme easily. If you want guests to really hang out, look into renting some simple furniture and coffee tables, positioned correctly, it’s an instant lounge area. 


Don’t forget its called FUNdraising for a reason. The event is not just about supporting your cause, it’s about celebrating you and your team, and those that continue to support the efforts of your organization. Make sure your event is one guests will return to every year, eager for more. With good intentions come great things. Don’t forget that non-profits are about helping others, and ask for help when you need it.

Feel free to reach out about your event to:

info@eggsoticevents.com or call at us (908)735-9870 for more information.

We provide all of the services listed above and are happy to offer donation based discounts to non-profit-organizations

Unique Bar Rentals in New Jersey and New York City

Decorative bar rentals are a great way to reinforce themes, while also providing a functional focal point for your event. Here are some of our favorites from the Eggsotic Events collection:

Our simple, rustic oak barrel bar is popular for tent weddings and vineyard events, and features a wooden top and two classic oak barrels. Special rigging makes it sturdy even in high use. It looks great accompanied by live ferns and other floral/foliage accents.

Bar Rental NJ NYC Eggsotic Events Lightup Bar Glowing Bar with Sports Theme Custom Bar Super Bowl NYC NJ 1.jpg

This high-impact 12' double bar was part of the Club Primesport Super Bowl Pregame Experience. We provided glowing bars and installed custom graphics to reinforce the host company's branding. Behind the bar, we used custom black drape, diamond plate panels, and custom artwork of Bonnie Bernstein, one of the event's celebrity hosts.

Bar Rental NJ NYC Eggsotic Events Nautical Theme Bar Beach Bar Sailor Jerry Rum Bar 1.jpg

This nautical themed bar was for Sailor Jerry Rum's booth at an alcohol industry trade show. We heard it was the highlight of the event and the busiest booth of the whole show. Our captain's wheel, swordfish, foliage, and other nautical accents reinforced the brand's signature look.

Bar Rental NJ NYC Eggsotic Events Tropical Bar Rental Tiki Bar Bamboo Bar  1.jpg

This is actually the same bar as the Sailor Jerry bar shown above, only instead of a nautical surround, it was coupled with an elegant tropical floral arrangement and a personal accent photo.

Bar Rental NJ NYC Eggsotic Events Black Light UV Glow Party Bar with Artwork Voodoo Spirits 2.jpg

This glowing acrylic bar is coupled with one of our hand-painted panel art creations by Egils Matiss. It's our Voodoo Spirits artwork that color changes with a flashing LED light effect and reacts to UV black lights. For more photos from this gorgeous glowing event, visit our black light glow parties page.

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These Asian food stations also double as bars. They're designed to fit perfectly over a standard 8' banquet table. Add a bar height table and you're set! These surrounds include bamboo roofs, authentic decor accents, and our realistic artificial bamboo plants as a background accent.

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This is our glowing acrylic bar in cyan blue, with our unique abstract pattern backdrop. This backdrop is completely modular, so it can be sized to stage backdrops, tent side walls, or hanging decorative accents. This element also makes an appearance at our recent candy theme sweet sixteen.

Bar Rental NJ NYC Eggsotic Events Archie Comics Theme Bar Glowing 50s Diner 1.jpg

This bar was in the kids' area at one of our most memorably unique bar mitzvahs: an Archie Comics theme mitzvah. We created a '50s diner-inspired backdrop and used our jumbo ice cream, ketchup, burger and gum ball machine as accents.

Here's a glowing bar we customized for a technology trade show in NYC. We used our ultra-bright LED lights, so that even in a room with the house lights on, this bar shines. Here's another great perk of glowing bars:

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Glasses and bottles glow on top of the bar, creating a bonus focal point. 

For a more classic look, this wooden bar was the perfect match for the stone barn.

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For winter events, an ice bar with our arctic surround is the perfect focal point.

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One of the most recent additions to our bar collection is this beautiful 3-sided wooden bar with shelves. The frames over each bar can be customized with the event's branding. The real oak barrels underneath are coupled with fall foliage accents, and the shelves are lined with wine bottles and themed images. This bar can be transformed into different styles based on theme and season.

Are you looking for any of these bars, or another style of bar for your next event? Email us at egg@eggsoticevents.com to discuss your customized bar solution.