Wow!!! Lets scale it back a bit..... for a fundraiser for a school of any sort your numbers are going to be much much lower. I've produced/directed and created fashion shows since 2001 and I can say that i've never paid over $4000 per show. All the shows i've done have been for charity so the overhead was my main concern. Here's what my money went to for the fashion show where we raised money for child abuse:
Venue & Food-worked out a deal with a club that had a big arena seperate from the bar that went like this: they keep all the profit from the bar, we keep all the profit from the door. They provided hord'ouerves for the pre-party that took place at their regal martini bar (very upscale) for free
Models-held a model call 3 weeks before the show to scour all the beauties, making them walk a faux catwalk, based their value on the catwalk and their personalities on the runway and chose 30 girls. Later after the first model meeting we narrowed it to 10-15 per set. All the models worked voluntarily (most just wanted the exposure and photos-not provided by us)
Light-very high priority!!! paid $1500 for light and this made the show
Music-we had a musician from phunk junkees and paid much to much for what was done, because of the name $250 all he did was pop in our cd's and let the room go silent between sets (not what we asked for at all) so if you could pretape your music you may get by with just hiring a local dj at much less.
Printing-nothing!!!! we teamed up with a local printer that wanted to donate to our cause and let them put their logo on all the posters, flyers(8x5inch used as both flyers and invitations) & programs.
Entertainment-nothing!!!! we also teamed up with a hair salon and they did 4 sets of hair for the show, put their logo on the flyer and did trade ($50 per performer) with a dance company that supplied 5 sets of dancing entertainment ex. salsa dancers, african dancers etc..
Stage-nothing!!!! the stage was composed of 6 uneven plattforms that we're part of the dancing boxes used in the arena-i staggered them by height and made a snake like shape that went out into the crowd. the height varied from 2 feet to 4 feet high. we practiced walking and turning on the ground for 3 days before the show so the models would be comfortable on the stage.
Clothes-nothing!!!! since our company deviouswigs.com sells to a few local boutiques in the area, and they always welcome publicity- they lent us clothes for free (yup 5 stores lent us clothes for our show at no out of pocket cost) some boutiques had a person there in charge of the clothes and styling them-FREE i designed and had a friend sew my clothes for my set-bought all the fabric at a going out of business sale where all the stuff was $1 a piece.
Make-up-nothing!!!! after posting information about the upcoming show, looking for talent and models a few make-up artists contacted us and volunteered their time for nothing other than getting their name on the program and getting to see the show
Decorations-less than $50 i bought huge black fabric pieces at a scrap place and had someone sew them all together to create a hugh black back drop. we also used the black behind a tarot card reader-she came for free too! and the huge flower arrangements we're donated by a local florist in exchange for being listed on the program. The arena was pretty ornate with huge columns and beautiful big pieces on the walls so we really didn't have to change much.
EmCee-$75 we had a drag queen come out like a renisance girl presenting the show and then after the intro he ripped off the big skirt and started singing "like a virgin" in a body suit. It was the best intro and he did the whole show in drag for the nominal price of $75 (since he is a very prominent make-up artist in the television world he was awesome!!)
For the door people, helpers, security and everyone else we needed to put this thing together we found lots of volunteers and they we're all very happy to be a part of it for nothing.
If your cause is good, your a great networker and you are dedicated to producing a good show you can do it for nearly nothing as long as you put in the neccessary research of finding people who will work with you. In the case of fundraising for a school you can cut out lots of costs just by utilizing your surroundings ex auditorium, lighting, sound and local sponsors of your yearbook are probably more than happy to join in on the fun!!!
Anna Marie