How To Organise A PROSTaid Fundraising Event?
Organising a fundraising event for us is much easier than it sounds!
Firstly decide on the sort of event you want to run and what sorts of people are likely to attend your event. Can you persuade them to bring their family and friends? Are they sporty, young, older, sympathetic & aware of PROSTaid and it’s work for local men with prostate cancer? Importantly do you have any contacts that might be able to help you with a certain type of event? Give yourself plenty of time to plan your proposed event. A well-planned event will be more enjoyable, lead to more support, more money. If you haven’t organised an event before, remember the Fundraising Team at PROSTaid are always here to lend a helping hand. It is important to take the following into consideration when organising your own event:
Budgeting When you have decided on your own event idea it’s important to work out a budget for your event, including the following as a guideline: Hire of Venue, (if you can get it free or lower cost that’s great)
- Entertainments (do you have any Musicians or Comedians as friends)
- Printing costs (again know any friendly printer)
- Catering
- Advertising
- First Aid
You should try to cover the above cost with entry fees/ticket sales. Work out how many you expect to attend your event, and the potential income. Don’t worry if you don’t have every thing you need, there are lots of local businesses who will be happy to help with money to sponsor the event or loan of equipment etc., all you need do is offer them free publicity from the event and persuade them! It is amazing how quickly it all adds up, you’ll be surprised at how much you raise for PROSTaid
How Do I Organise The Event? Now you’ve decided on your chosen event and what you need for your event to take place. Hopefully you have a team of people all willing to do their bit. Give yourself plenty of time so that you complete all required tasks. For example, you may need flyers/posters; you need to consider design time, printing time and delivery time. Make sure that you delegate some of the work to others so you are not doing everything yourself.
Publicity A sure way to a successful event is publicity. Research into local newspapers and send out a press release about your event. Things to remember when preparing a press release:
- What is the event
- What is it in aid of
- When is it happening
- Where is it taking place
- Include a contact name and address number for extra details
If you would like a photographer to attend your event, contact your local newspapers well in advance. Post-event publicity is just as useful; so don’t forget your camera. Send your own photo after the event, with a summary of what took place – this is an ideal way to thank participants and to raise charity awareness. If you’ve never done a press release before here are some top tips:
- Make the headline catchy (look at what the papers use)
- In the first paragraph tell the whole story (briefly) make sure you include what, where, when and why.
- Keep it simple, snappy and entertaining
- Write about yourself as though you are in the third person e.g. John Smith Engineering will be holding a Skin-head shaving day for PROSTaid
- At the end of your release include contact details so that the press can call you for further information.
Posters/flyers are another effective form of publicity – local shops, libraries, community Centre’s etc. will display these for you. Please ask for permission if you wish to display posters in a public area. Our Fundraising Department at PROSTaid may be planning a mail-out or e-mail out that could also contain your event, so give us a call!
