We’re hearing more and more about different events aligning themselves with special charities of their choice during the shows. Our organization, Colorado Garden Show, is a 501c3 and our shows are technically our form of fundraising for our grant and scholarship program. Although we raise funds for our own charitable works, we have also started to work with other charities at our show to boost their public profiles and support their causes.

For the past two years, we’ve created a food drive campaign for our shows. If attendees bring a can or box of nonperishable food, they receive $2 off admission (regular or senior admission) for up to two people. The food is donated to the Food Bank of the Rockies here in Denver. Last year, we generated about 8,000 pounds of food and this year, our total jumped to 12,000 pounds. Our title sponsor also donated $5,000 to the cause.

The public is ready, willing and able to support different causes and help people in need.  Although accepting the donation and giving the discount lowered our overall average ticket receipt, we were also able to get a great deal of PR about the donation and helped a lot of people in need during the economic downturn. The goodwill it created for our event, our organization and the general public has assisted us in our community involvement and awareness.