The NCVB, a Party and More Credibility

I am always in search of ways to give the food drive more credibility, especially to those people who have never heard of me. And to that end, I have no problem dropping a name or two, or associating myself with major players in the Norfolk arena.

So when I decided to add prizes as an incentive, I knew I had to find someone completely non-biased to determine the prize winners. Someone in power. Someone with a name so recognizable there could be no doubt of the authenticity of this food drive. To my absolute delight, Anthony DiFilippo, Director of the Norfolk Conventions and Visitors Bureau, stepped in to take that role. I cannot thank him enough for allowing me to attach his name with the challenge invitations, which may also have attributed to a higher participation rate.

I decided to have a prize drawing at Hell's Kitchen on a Friday night just a few days before Christmas. Tony agreed to come over and pull the names from a hat. I don't know what I really expected; I guess I wanted one or two people from each of the participating restaurants to show up for a little Christmas cheer. As it was, only Tony and I showed up. He pulled the names, we drank a beer and the food drive was over.

Now here's the funny thing about that: having a high profile name is only one part of the credibility issue. When dealing with "rules" and "prizes", you have to be very careful to keep everything transparent and honest. That being said, as Tony announced the winning restaurant names, my heart sank lower and lower. All of the major prizes went to places that had donated the least amount of food, barely even giving the minimum of 10 pounds or $5. My major contributors, places like Doumar's, Tanner's Creek and the Freemason Abbey did not win anything at all.

Lesson learned again.

This year I am raising the minimum donation, as yet TBD. I am also splitting the prizes into tiers, with only the top donors being eligible for the largest prizes. I don't know, is that fair? There is still so much to think about, and I'm running out of time. The first print ad will happen in either September or October, which means I need to have the rules spelled out before this blog actually gets readers!