 |  | 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 | 15 Tips for Holding Successful Events Events are often the fundraising lifeblood of a charitable organization, but can be time-consuming and expensive to hold. Consider these tips to get the most out of your events: 1. Match the event to your resources; don’t select an event that requires 100 volunteers if your core volunteer group is 20 people. 2. Don’t try to start soliciting donations to early. We hold a holiday silent auction, and we’ve found that if we call in August, no one is interested. But if we wait until about six to eight weeks before the event, donors respond.--Martha Dent, RE/MAX Associates of Arlington, Arlington, Texas 3. Start small and grow. You’ll find ways to run the event more efficiently, and more people will learn of it by word of mouth if it’s successful.--Rachel Garton, Director, Children’s Miracle Network 4. Pick an event that appeals to the demographics of your donors. Don’t gear fundraising events to primarily the constituents your group serves. 5. Get the maximum exposure for your event by getting the media involved early and giving them regular updates until the event. 6. Limit the number of events. Unless you have a large staff, numerous events will take too much time away from other fundraising and volunteer activities.--Betty Stallings and Donna McMillion, How to Produce Fabulous Fundraising Events,Building Better Skills, 1999 7. Evaluate events after they’re over to decide how they could be improved and whether they should be repeated. 8. Contact any new hotels and restaurants. They’re eager for publicity and may be willing to donate food or space. 9. Appoint an event chairperson to coordinate the details of the event and manage other volunteers. If the event is large, create a steering committee to handle key functions related to the event. 10. Try to schedule enough volunteers at an event so that each volunteer has some free time to enjoy the activities.--Betty Stallings and Donna McMillion, How to Produce Fabulous Fundraising Events,Building Better Skills, 1999 11. Take an existing client or community event and add a fundraising component. For example, the sales associates at RE/MAX Associates of Arlington, Texas, sponsor an annual holiday open house for clients and allied vendors. A toy for a hospital-bound child is the price of admission. 12. Encourage individual volunteers to organize small-scale events; be sure that a representative of the charity attends to show support. 13. Thank sponsoring organizations privately as well as publicly. Although most sponsors are primarily seeking publicity for their companies, they also appreciate a small personal gift and note of recognition.--Betty Stallings and Donna McMillion, How to Produce Fabulous Fundraising Events,Building Better Skills, 1999 14. Look for events that give you the maximum amount of exposure and fundraising potential for the least amount of effort.--Craig Conant, 2001 Good Neighbor Awards Winner 15. Think outside the box. I organized a marathon across Arizona—811 miles.--Gil Gillenwater, 2000 Good Neighbor Awards Winner For more event planning ideas, see the Building Referrals segment of the Sales and Marketing Tool Kit. 10 Low Cost Wasy to Get Publicity for Your Event > | |||