
“Free bounce house rental, Are you out of your mind!?”
Well, not entirely. It may not be ideal to provide free bounce house rentals. After all, it takes time and money for you to deliver, set up, takedown and clean every unit.
However, there may be a few benefits to giving away a free bounce house rental here and there.
At the beginning of every calendar year, my team and I sit down and discuss our strategy for the year. And yes, this includes donating bounce houses for fundraisers and other charitable causes.
There are a few companies/organizations that we donate to every year. We have always donated our services to them for free, and most likely always will. These organizations we hold near and dear to our heart and do not even hesitate to help them out.
There is an important reason we make these decisions at the beginning of the year. We receive calls weekly from various organizations asking us to donate our equipment for their fundraiser. Some of these groups ask us to drive hours away to set up for their event. Sometimes they want us to donate a single bounce house, while other times they want to raffle off a free bounce house rental voucher to one lucky person.
However, because we make our donation decisions at the beginning of the year, it helps to guide our team into explaining this to anyone who calls and asks. We merely let anyone who asks know that we have already set up all of our donations for the year, and that we would be happy to take their information for consideration for the following calendar year. While we try to support our community the best we can, we simply cannot agree to donate our equipment and services to everyone who calls and asks.
At the beginning of each calendar year, we like to keep these questions in mind to help determine if we want to donate services for the upcoming season:
- Is this an organization that goes along with our values as a person and as a company?
o Be sure you ask for information on the organization in which they are raising money for. Make sure they align with your beliefs, both morally and ethically. You should feel good about supporting this organization and everything it stands for.
- Will this be a one-time donation or is this an annual event that will expect your donation every year going forward?
o In the past, we have donated for a good cause, and when we did not do it again the following year, we received complaints. Be sure to communicate with the event planner and make sure there is a good understanding of expectations going forward.
- Where will the event be located?
o Sometimes people will want a free bounce house for their fundraiser; however, they want it delivered hours away. This makes it very difficult logistically to schedule a driver to set up the unit so far away. Many times, we will only provide free services for charities in our local community.
- If they are going to be raffling off a free rental voucher (that you provide them) be sure to include distance restrictions.
o Once we raffled off a free bounce house voucher and the proceeds went to an amazing cause. Unfortunately for us, the winner was located almost two hours away. We did not indicate any distance restrictions on the voucher. We chalked that one up as a lesson learned. Oops...
- How many bounce houses are they requesting?
o Asking for one free bounce house is much different than asking for us to set up an entire carnival. Sometimes, to help cover some of the expenses, we may not set up the event entirely for free but will offer a very heavy discount. We would typically recommend they sell wristbands or tickets to recoup our charge for the event and also raise additional funds for the cause.
- Is this donation going to be in the busy bounce house season, or during your slow season?
o Depending on the time of year, sometimes we just cannot fit another rental into our schedule. There are several weekends when we book out all our equipment, and squeezing in a free rental during this time is just not possible. While we try to accommodate the best we can, we logistically cannot make it work donating items around July 4th and Halloween.
While it does require careful consideration, you should never think of giving away a free bounce house as a complete waste of time and money. This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with your future customers. It’s an amazing marketing opportunity to showcase some of your newest bounce houses and let your community know you are here and ready to provide excellent service.
For example, we do an event every year for our local fire department. We donate one bounce house for them for the day and they do a big cookout for the kids in our community, go fishing, and let them sit in their trucks. They call this event “Fishing with Firefighters”. This event brings in hundreds of kids and their families. It supports a great cause for our community, and I don’t hesitate to participate in this event year after year.
We also set up at our local farmers market from time to time. We always place a sign in front of the bounce house with our name and phone number. We may only be there for an hour or two, but it gives us the opportunity to pass out business cards and talk to our future customers.
Many times, after we set up at a birthday, the customer tells us, “We saw you at this firefighter event, or at the farmers market, and decided to rent a bounce house for our son or daughters birthday”.
Be sure to reference back to these bounce house donation checklist questions the next time you receive a call asking for you to contribute to a cause.
Whether you do or you don’t, remember this quote:
“Give and you shall receive, much more that you ever thought possible. Give and give again. People who give will never be poor” – Anne Frank
Please leave me a comment below!
Also, check out bouncehouse101.com for additional resources.
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