“Fun-Raising” Events

I not only assist brides in making their day perfect, but I actively give my time to causes that have a great payback for me-total satisfaction and a warm fuzzy feeling.  Here are some helpful hints for having a great fundraising event.

Wounded Warrior Gala-it isn't all about raising money, but about giving a special evening for very special people.

Events are also frequently used to raise funds for a charity, organization, person, or a multitude of other reasons.  These are different from Sponsorships because the monies you collect at a fundraiser are donated to a pre-selected cause.

Ways to raise funds include designating that a portion of the ticket sales will go to the cause, staging a silent auction, selling raffle tickets, auctioning off donated items, you name it.  Brainstorm.  Anything (legal, that is) that people will pay for can be used to raise money.

Your target audience are those who hold your cause du jour near and dear to their hearts.  Match the right audience with the right cause and half the battle is won-resulting in high attendance, great exposure for your sponsors, and money raised for the cause.

A good resource for fundraising questions is the Association of Fundraising Professionals.  They are a professional association of individuals responsible for generating philanthropic support for a wide variety of nonprofit, charitable organizations.  The AFP has a resource center available to members (for free) and non-members (a fee applies) to answer questions and will send information to you regarding your topic of interest.  They can be reached at 703-684-0410 or on the web at www.nsfre.org.

You will need to solicit giveaways or prizes if you sell raffle tickets (don’t forget a raffle license) or if you hold a silent auction.  Giveaways are solicited the same way as sponsors.  Decide who can benefit from an affiliation with the event and ask for a donation.  Give them what they need in return, such as recognition or access to your participants in some way.

Silent Auctions-raise funds through the sale of donated items displayed for bid.  The participants wander through the display area, indicating what they will pay for an item on a bid sheet in front of the item.  Minimum bids usually start at below market value to entice bidding.  At the end of a specified time period, the person with the highest bid buys the item.  All proceeds go to your cause.  Make all of the displays interesting; grouping things in baskets is a unique way for displaying.  Don’t close all of the tables at the same time; identify them with a certain color or balloons and close tables down in intervals.  This will give your volunteers plenty of time to organize checkout.  Pre-registering guests and taking their credit card number prior to them entering the event will help to expedite the checkout process.  Issuing them a number and paddle at this time will make bidding for oral auction items easier.