How to plan and manage a fundraising event

Fundraising events are how organisations or communities come together to raise money for a cause, charity, small business or nonprofit organisation (NPO).

The idea is to create a cause or build awareness towards an existing one and provide the people with an event to attend and take part in as a show of support.

As the call for fundraising events is usually important, the event itself needs to be well planned, organised and run well.

You can’t expect to ask for money or donations and provide little to no quality entertainment. If you are on the board or head of fundraising for your organisation, here are a few tips to keep in mind when planning and managing a fundraising event.

Get qualified

You might be volunteering your time and skills for event planning but if you really want to make a difference in your organisation’s fundraising schemes, you’re going to need to be qualified. Fundraisers are events and therefore require event management. Consider signing up for an event management course that will cover the essentials and provide you with an overview of what needs to be involved in a fundraising event.

As the event manager, you will be in charge of the project management of the fundraiser as well, something that will also be covered in your event management course. Even if you’re only a part-time volunteer, it always pays to have a qualification (or a few) behind your name. And the end results will be far better than your previous fundraising efforts, which means your organisation and cause can benefit from it too.

Find a creative idea

The first thing you need to do when starting to plan a fundraiser is to come up with a creative event idea. You must never lose sight of what you’re fundraising for and you need to do your best to relate the event to the cause for your supporters to feel more comfortable about why they’re attending.

The standard movie nights and athletic events are popular, but there is so much more you can do with it. For example, you could host an outdoor movie night instead of an indoor one or set up an obstacle course event that accommodates for all fitness levels. You need to get creative and create an event that’s intriguing and exciting for prospective attendees. The best way to do this is by creating a target audience and catering the event to them.

Then you need to be realistic about what your budget will allow for and remember that the idea is to raise money at the end of all the expenses.

Negotiate with vendors

You wouldn’t be an event manager if you didn’t negotiate with vendors. And as a fundraising event planner, it’s even more necessary. Once you have your event idea, you need to start sourcing materials and vendors that will be used to make the event a reality.

Most NPOs will have a list of vendors and sponsors who are willing to provide their services free of charge or at a discounted rate. Those are the first people you turn to and once your list of contacts runs out, you start negotiating.

And when you’ve reached your budget for the event, you need to start appealing to more sponsors or your project team and start undertaking DIY tasks to put towards the event. Event managers need to be creative, quick thinking and resourceful, especially in terms of fundraising where the budgets are already tight.

Use social media marketing

With everything booked and planning falling into place, you need to start a social media marketing campaign. Event management courses will reiterate the importance of marketing as we are about to.

Depending on your target audience, you will be able to decide on the best channels for your marketing campaigns. Social media, however, provides a broad, free (or tight-budget friendly) option. You can create an event on Facebook that can be followed, open to the public (for everyone to invite their friends) and shared to expand its reach. Here you can post updates, event details and create a hype surrounding the event.

Running this type of social media campaign for a few months (with consistent content) can easily get the public excited for the event and you can track the number of people who are attending or are interested in attending.

Stick to the schedule

As for the event itself, if you’ve done the planning extensively, it should basically operate on its own. The most you can do is ensure the necessary people are where they’re meant to be and that everything is running on schedule.

During your planning, you should have come up with backup plans in the event something goes wrong. If that should happen on the day, you need to be ready to implement the steps to swiftly move the event into “Plan B” if necessary. There can’t be any second guessing or anything to significantly delay the event’s schedule.

Then it’s just a matter of enjoying the event with everyone who came out to support the cause. And that’s the best part.