Fundraisers can be an incredible opportunity to raise awareness of an issue, and make a change by getting people involved.
It’s hardly a novel idea, and you likely hear about many of these kinds of situations in various forms, from smaller local affairs to grand charity events that are televised in the name of a specific issue.
If you’re looking to host one of these yourself, though, you’ll want to know exactly what you should be aiming for – how you’ll get people involved, what kind of form the event will take, and how you’ll raise awareness.
Goals and Budgets
It’s easy for plans to spiral out of control in the early stages of mapping out a fundraiser. Adding more and more seems easy and natural for attracting a wider audience. Still, when it comes to putting these plans into action, this can become more of a burden and a hurdle to actually getting anything done.
This isn’t to say that you don’t want to be at all ambitious, but it does mean that you might want to limit your scope to something achievable.
Giving yourself a budget is a good way to establish a limitation that gives you boundaries to work within – with this potentially being a case of a restriction allowing you to get more realistically creative.
Establishing a goal for your fundraiser can help you think logistically about how you’ll get there, laying the groundwork for something concrete.
Cause and Form
Obviously, your cause is going to be something that’s intrinsically tied to your charity and the work that you do – but it’s easy to think of the form of this upcoming fundraiser as being somehow distinct from that.
Still, you might find that certain events better suit certain causes. Environmental fundraisers might look to take positive action in areas that are particularly at risk or damaged, for instance.
Similarly, if you find yourself in a position where you’re looking to raise money for cancer charities, you might look to Macmillan fundraising ideas to discover what kind of event best suits them.
It can be difficult to think outside of your own ideas and perspectives when planning a fundraiser, so having these fresh insights can bring new life into the event.
Location, Marketing, Partners and Schedule
Establishing a location is often tied to what kind of event you’re hoping to run, but that doesn’t mean your options will be immediately whittled down to one obvious candidate. Making sure you have a setting in mind and arranged is vital groundwork to put into place before the rest can proceed.
From this point on, you’ll need to think about marketing – something that might well take place digitally but can also be done around that area as to draw in support from local people who might not have heard otherwise.
It’s also important to get partners involved, other names, and sponsors in the industry that can help support the cause, either by being there physically, making a donation, or contributing their name to the marketing.
After all of this is done, you can think about putting a schedule into place to make the day itself run as smoothly as possible.
Adam S
Adam S has experience in raising valuable funds for a range of different charities and is passionate about helping others hit their target.