Fund Raising Event

Dos and Don’ts of Planning a Fund Raising Event

When planning a fund raising event, some uncontrollable factors may ruin the entire program. For this reason, it is important to list all tasks that need to be done. These include simple tasks as posting flyers to making sure of room reservations, contacting popular speakers and organizing entertainment.

Since there are dozens of tasks to be completed in a short period, make sure you ask for volunteers and divide the tasks within the group. One person can complete some responsibilities, while other tasks need several people to fulfill. Make sure that tasks are equally divided to ensure each important job can be finished within your given deadline.

It is important to foresee possible disasters during your fund raising event. These disruptions may include lack of food, bad weather conditions, delayed flights of guest speakers and other things that could delay or postpone your event. Make sure to list anticipated events and measures that can prevent or resolve each disaster.

Budget Planning and your Fund Raising Event

Before organizing the actual event, make sure to create a budget for your fund raising event and stick to the budget. To do this, you should list all expenses and obtain estimates of each expense. During this process, you can also determine if you can prevent buying some items that can also be donated. Total all your expenses and subtract donations, the remaining funds will be your budget.

Fund raising events that require high investments include concerts, marathons, calendar sale, Christmas tree bazaar and other sale items that only go for a short period.  Avoid these kinds of events if you have limited time, budget and manpower.

When planning your budget, decide on how you can raise your funds by considering factors such as amount of investment and potential risks. Fund raising events that require little investments with high profits include bake sale, auctions, car wash, flea markets and other low-risk programs.

You also need to allot for your volunteers’ food, rentals for the venue, microphones and other equipments used during the event. In addition, remember to prepare small items to give away for donors as thank-you gifts. Even a dollar worth of keychain make your donors feel appreciated.

Depending on your goals and ideas, your fund raising event can range to simple and fun raffles to extensive preparation of a public concert, from traditional benefit meals to modern dance-a-thons. Regardless of what type of event you choose for raising funds, make sure that you enjoy doing it, profit without investing plenty of money and give an enjoyable experience to your donors, performers and all participants of the event.  

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