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Hi everyone!
So I've been involved in a few charity events now, and organised a couple as well, and I thought I should share my advice on how to go about holding an event at your school! Of course, I am in no way an expert on fundraising, but my passion in life is charity work so I want to share that with you guys! Without further ado, here are my top ten tips on how to organise a charity event.
1. Start planning and preparation at least two months in advance. A lovely thick planner is your best friend. Make lists, jot anything down that you think will be useful later. Leave reminders on your phone for key times. If you're not on top of your organisation, your charity event will be stressful and chaotic - something you don't want to endure during something that's meant to be emitting positive vibes.
2. Make sure you're not doing it by yourself. I recently ran a charity day with a whole group of my friends: people who were also passionate about the cause we were raising money for. The entire team pitched in (and some people who weren't even on the team!), supporting each other and the event very successfully! It's hard to develop that group dynamic, especially when you want everything to go your own way (I'm still learning to let go of this) but you learn to listen to others' advice and also delegate jobs. Which leads me on to my next tip.
3. Enlist as much help as possible! You can never have too many hands - and honestly it takes so much pressure off, knowing things will get done quickly and efficiently. It's also more fun the more people you have on board, so ask all of your friends to give up some time on the day and help out! We had a cake sale on our charity day a few days ago, and plenty of people helped out with putting posters up and carrying cakes to and fro - we sent out an email asking for cake donations and we got quite a few that way!
4. Contact the charity. Most charities have plenty of advice and ideas that you can take inspiration from - I've most certainly used Together for Short Lives' fundraising guide many a time! You can also contact the charity that you're supporting and they will more often that not send you promotional material such as collection boxes and posters, which can really help you out on the financial front!
5. Spread the word! One of the best ways to gain publicity and raise awareness for your event is to spread the message as wide as possible. Use social media. Ask for permission to put up some eye-catching posters. Ask your friends to tell their friends! Maybe you can get your parent/guardian/friend to put a poster up at their workplace? Set up a fundraising page so that people can donate online as well as on the day! The possibilities are endless. The wider the reach you get, the more people that will hear your message and will possibly donate to the cause. Keep in mind that the main goals are to get people involved, have fun (after all, it is FUNdraising) and raise money.
6. Keep on top of your budget. Don't let a single penny go unaccounted for, because that is a penny that could be going towards your charity. In all seriousness, finances are slippery things to deal with (as I've learnt) and it is always good to be in the know of what's going in and out of your budget.
7. Have a timetable, but don't get stressed if you stray from it. Timetables are guidelines - stick to what you know has to be done but also leave some wiggle room for anything unexpected. This way you won't panic massively is something goes wrong or you need more time than expected to do something.
8. When coming up with ideas for the event itself, keep in mind who your target audience are and what appeals to them. For example, having a coffee morning event is not necessarily going to appeal to school children; it might appeal to the staff at your school though. Whatever you decide to do, make sure that it will be fun for those involved - you could perhaps do a small survey or ask around for opinions before going ahead.
9. Document the day! Take lots and lots of photos of people enjoying your memorable event - you can give the photos to the charity you are supporting, who will be very happy to have them! If you're lucky, they might end up publishing your photo in their next fundraising review/guide and ask you to write a short article for them (this happened to my friend Noama and I!)! All of this shows how passionate you are about the cause, and it gives the same idea to more and more people. My lovely friend Zainäb took plenty of beautiful photos on our recent charity day - we'd already decided she was going to be designated photographer! We haven't got the photos yet, so I'm using the ones that I took myself (and some from previous events I've been involved in), but for sure as soon as they arrive I will do a post telling you all about it and featuring her photography! It is such a brilliant way to remember your event.
10. Take some time for yourself! Perhaps the most important point on the list, taking time for yourself while organising a large scale event can be hard, especially when you want to be in charge of every single little detail and keep that lovely thick planner busy. However, you have to remember that it's not just you running the show - so many people want to help you, and you should let them! Sure, it is important to sort out the finer details but doing so free of stress is much easier than having a hundred million things going on in your head at one time. Those lists that you made in your planner? Give each person in your team a bullet point to do so you're not going through that mental checklist. Take breaks. Even on the day, the event doesn't need you to be hovering here and there the entire time. You are allowed to take some me time after all that organisation. Remember, you organised this originally for you to have fun while raising money - that's what it's all about.
So I hope you guys enjoyed this long, wordy post, and that it's helped or given some ideas to some of you! Fundraising is one of my favourite things to do - I've been involved with quite a few events now, and all of them with Noama, a very close friend of mine! We're such veterans now (we like to think so) and I don't think we'll ever stop doing amazing things like skydiving for charity and campaigning for human rights together!
Love,
SS xx