The Rusty Ball fundraising event pumps up the volume in its third year, raising $302,000.

January 6th, 2011 / In the Community

We’re proud to be a part of helping the event become one of the largest, single-day philanthropic events in our region. In three short years, just under $600,000 has been raised for charity.

Photo by Stacy Fenner. To see more visit his site.

The Rusty Ball presented by The Rusty Griswolds, in partnership with TradinPaper.com, Shop-a-Dealer, Graeter’s, Skyline Chili, Montgomery Inn Barbecue Sauce, and Openfield Creative took place on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at the Duke Energy Convention Center. 101 Charitable organizations from across our region sold tickets for the event in support of their specific causes. The Rusty Ball featured music by area cover band, The Rusty Griswolds. There were also silent and live auctions, as well as, other activities and surprises. Each year, all proceeds from The Rusty Ball are disbursed to each charitable organization based on their percentage of ticket sales.

How does it work?
The Rusty Ball is a new kind of open collaborative community fundraising platform that provides beneficiary groups the opportunity to sell tickets to an event that is planned and executed on their behalf by a Planning Committee. The group consists of over 20 individuals and representatives from area partner companies. Many people in the group are lifelong friends but many are people who got involved after hearing about the idea and attending previous events. But the common bond is that we are all passionate about working hard to give back to the community (not to mention being mutually committed to having fun in the process).

It takes a village to plan and execute something this special. The Village People make this happen… hmm… scratch that. But there is a cop involved – he heads up security for the event. We call him the Ball Buster. But I digress. Back to the point – this is a story of a growing group of amazing people who have banded together to do something truly significant in their community. We’re honored to have had the opportunity to get to know them.

Openfield’s role in creating the biggest ball of them all:

As the Marketing Chair on the Planning Committee, our role is to provide the vision and execution for the brand experience across all online and offline touchpoints. Yes, a bit buzz-wordy. But there are so many different creative opportunities that it’s hard not to use industry jargon to be efficient. We donate our time to provide the design and copywriting for the marketing and communications platform that includes the website, social media outreach, print ads, event signage, even wine bottles and commemorative guitars.

Why we do it:
To be clear, this is a labor of love for us. But we also tie it to an overall strategy for our business. Our involvement satisfies three main goals for us:

We get to act on our desire to give back to the community in which we’re raising children.
From a creative standpoint, we get to do pretty much whatever we want. This is important because it gives us an outlet to experiment and demonstrate our core capabilities groups with virtually complete creative freedom.
We think it’s fantastic exposure for our business to be part of an event that ignites so many people each year. Rather than just telling people we’re great, it gives us a forum to show what we’re capable of. People see the creative work we’ve produced for the event and they make an emotional connection with it. It’s extremely rewarding to watch it play out the way it has. And it’s the one time we won’t cry if you laugh at our work.

A brief history by the numbers:

2008

56 participating charities
$85,000 in total revenue
$8,000 in sponsorships

2009

91 participating charities
$207,000 total revenue raised
$8,500 in sponsorships

2010

101 participating charities
$302,000 in total revenue
$85,000 in sponsorships (yes, tenfold!)

Sponsorship rose tenfold from $8,500 to $85,000 in 2010.

Along the way, more and more businesses have joined in on the fun as the word has spread. Key sponsors include (but are not limited to):

Shop-a-Dealer Magazine and TradinPaper.com (our first ever title sponsors).
Graeter’s, Skyline and Montgomery Inn Barbecue Sauce (a group that joined together as a title sponsor).
Frost Brown Todd (with us for multiple years now providing support in drumming up interest in table sponsorships among the local business community, as well as, providing advice).
We’d also like to thank Worldwide Graphics for jumping in at the last minute and donating event banners.

To learn more about the Rusty Ball from the people who attended the event, visit the Facebook page and read people’s reactions. It’s truly heart-warming.

You can also visit the website to see a full list of beneficiary groups and sponsoring companies.