 |  | THE GOOD NEIGHBOR TOOL KIT: FUNDRAISING cont. | | ||
|  Why Volunteer? Getting Started Improving Your Community Improving Yourself as a Volunteer Fundraising Working with Volunteers More Resources Directory: Links to Charitable Organizations | Fund-raiser Event Checklist A successful fundraising event raises money and visibility for your charity. By working ahead to line up volunteers, sponsorship, and donated materials, you can reduce your out-of-pocket costs and leave more for good works. Involving the media early and often helps find volunteers and participants for the event and raises overall community awareness of your organization. To get started you’ll need: · An event committee to coordinate the different aspects of the event—food, invitations, publicity, sponsorships. · Sponsors to provide prizes and donations and to underwrite the cost of the event. · Media partner(s) who will actively promote the event. · A publicity plan with the following: letters to attract participants and sponsors, invitations, waiver forms for liability (for sporting or other events that involve participants in activities), pledge sheets and envelopes, and publicity materials. Four months before: 1. Define your event. What are its goals and who is it targeted toward? Do you have a theme for the event that you want to carry through in decorations, invitations, and so forth? 2. Determine where the event will be held. Reserve the site and, if using city property, be sure that the activities you’ve planned are permitted. 3. Call on businesses in your area. Let them know you’re planning an event for charity, and ask them if they could participate as a sponsor. Promise to have all sponsors featured in all publicity materials. If your event is large, consider creating several sponsorship levels with greater or lesser degrees of recognition. 4. Contact your local newspaper, TV, and radio stations to see if they would like to participate. If they choose not to participate, ask them to at least announce the event. You can get the names and addresses of your media from your local phone book or online. 5. Contact caterers, entertainers, and florists that you'll need to create your event. Two months before: 1. Send press releases to your local media announcing the event and how it works. Follow up with them to see if they will run the story. In your release, make sure that potential participants understand what the event is all about and how they can sign up. 2. Get your office involved. See if sales associates would like to participate or if they have customers who would. 3. Develop a flyer that can be sent to your farm area announcing the work you’re doing. Now’s a good time to call them to see if they would like to participate or attend or if they might like to volunteer (if you need a large number of people to help). If the people you contact don’t want to participate, ask if you can send a donation envelope to them. 4. Develop and send a package of materials--a letter confirming event, date, time, and place with information on what they need to do--to participants of sporting or other events. If participants must get pledges to sponsor them, send a pledge sheet they can use to help them raise money for the event. 5. Send out invitations to the event. If it’s a dinner or other seated event, ask for RSVPs at least one month prior to the event. Personally invite prominent people in your area to participate—the mayor and other politicians, business owners, and sports figures. 6. Consider whether you need insurance for your event. One month before: 1. Send another press release announcing the location, time and sponsors. Follow-up by phone with the media, and see if you can book someone to attend the event. The newspaper should at least send a photographer. 2. Finalize arrangements with service providers. Be sure you have your own photographer lined up. Two weeks before: 1. Remind sponsors and participants that the event is coming up. 2. Contact all volunteers who will help run the event and reconfirm their participation. Send out sheets detailing when they need to arrive, where they should park, and what they need to bring. 3. Review the participant or RSVP list and send out more invitations if you need more people. Make sure your charity and photo are on the flyers. One week before: Make sure everything is in order. Reconfirm one last time with all your vendors. Give the caterer a number guarantee for the amount of food needed. Day of event: 1. Take part, meet people, and have a fun time. Make sure you get a photograph of yourself with participants to use in your newsletter or website. 2. Be sure to introduce yourself and explain why the event was so important. Thank everyone for being there. Introduce all event committee participants and honored guests. One week after the event: 1. Send letters to all sponsors and participants thanking them. 2. Send a press release to your local media telling them how much was raised. Take a photo of yourself with the charity head or supply an event photo. Make sure you follow-up again. By now, the media people will know you. 3. Hold a recap with key volunteers to assess the success of the event and how it could be improved in the future. Tips for Holding Successful Events > | |||